A Toarcian retro-arc basin of Central Patagonia (Chubut), Argentina:: Middle Jurassic closure, arc migration and tectonic setting

The Chubut Basin (new name for the 'Liassic Western Chubut Basin' of other authors), developed during the Early Jurassic in the western part of central extra-Andean Patagonia in Argentina (42 degrees 30'S and 44 degrees 30'S), accumulated shallow marine and continental sedimentary beds, with pyroclastic input, of the Osta Arena Formation and equivalent units. To the west it was bounded by a coeval subduction-related magmatic arc (Subcordilleran Plutonic Belt) and a subduction complex of Late Triassic-Early Jurassic age (Chonos Metamorphic Complex). In turn, the eastern basin floor developed over the remnants of a previous Late Triassic-earliest Jurassic magmatic arc (Batholith of Central Patagonia) and over neopaleozoic sedimentary rocks of an accretionary prism. To the east, the basin was limited by a Toarcian volcanic system associated to the Karroo plume. The western magmatic arc continued to the north, where it is represented by the Icalma Member of the Nacientes del Biobio Formation, bounding this time the Neuquen Basin developed to the east. The closure of the Toarcian basin in the Middle Jurassic coincides in time with a migration to the southwest of the Toarcian magmatic arc, from a position in central extra-Andean Patagonia and a NNW orientation, to a location in the Patagonian Cordillera and a north-south orientation. Synchronously, rift-related anatectic silicic volcanism developed east of the basin. Hence, a major change in tectonic setting took place during the Middle Jurassic. It is here proposed that the migration of the arc was related to the growth of a plume under north-eastern Patagonia.