The Colangüil Batholith is a group of

pluton In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

s in western

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

between the latitudes of 29 and 31° S. The plutons of the batholith were emplaced and cooled in the

Late Paleozoic Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

and the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

. Runs in a north-south direction. The plutons of the batholith are intruded into volcanic rocks produced by the same plutons plus some earlier deformed basement. The most common rocks in the batholith are granodiorite,

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

and leucogranite. The batholith contains also a dyke swarm of north-south trending dykes. Compared to other subduction-related batholiths around the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Colangüil Batholith is more

felsic In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, whi ...

. Together with the Chilean Coastal Batholith and the

Elqui-Limarí Batholith The Elqui-Limarí Batholith is a group of plutons in the Andes of Chile and Argentina between the latitudes of 28 and 30° S. The plutons of the batholith were Methods of pluton emplacement, emplaced and cooled in the Paleozoic, Late Paleozoic and t ...

the Colangüil Batholith is a remnant of the

volcanic arc A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc lo ...

s that erupted the volcanic material of the

Choiyoi Group Choiyoi Group ( es, Grupo Choiyoi) is a Permian and Triassic-aged group of volcano-sedimentary formations in Argentina and Chile. The group bears evidence of bimodal-style volcanism related to an ancient subduction zone that existed along the w ...

. The batholith is made up six major units: *Granodiorita Las Piedritas (made up by five plutons) *Granito Los Puentes (made up by three plutons) *Granito Las Opeñas (made up by a single pluton) *Granito Agua Blanca (made up by two plutons) *Granito Los Lavaderos (made up by a single pluton) *Riolita Tres Quebradas (

subvolcanic A subvolcanic rock, also known as a hypabyssal rock, is an intrusive igneous rock that is emplaced at depths less than within the crust, and has intermediate grain size and often porphyritic texture between that of volcanic rocks and plutonic r ...

intrusions) Part of the batholith is though to be covered by thick sedimentary deposits such as those of

Iglesia Basin Iglesia Basin ( es, Cuenca de Iglesia) is a sedimentary basin located in northern San Juan Province, western Argentina. It is thought to be a piggyback basin. Its sedimentary fill is of Neogene to Pleistocene age and has an estimated maximum th ...

References

Geology of San Juan Province, Argentina Batholiths of South America Lithodemic units of Argentina Permian geology of South America {{SanJuanAR-geo-stub