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Famatinian Orogeny
The Famatinian orogeny ( es, Orogenia de Famatina) is an orogeny that predates the rise of the Andes and that took place in what is now western South America during the Paleozoic, leading to the formation of the Famatinian orogen also known as the Famatinian belt. The Famatinian orogeny lasted from the Late Cambrian to at least the Late Devonian and possibly the Early Carboniferous, with orogenic activity peaking about 490 to 460 million years ago. The orogeny involved metamorphism and deformation in the crust and the eruption and intrusion of magma along a Famatinian magmatic arc that formed a chain of volcanoes. The igneous rocks of the Famatinian magmatic arc are of calc-alkaline character and include gabbros, tonalites and granodiorites. The youngest igneous rocks of the arc are granites. The relationship of the orogeny with the Achala and Cerro Aspero batholiths of central Argentina is not fully understood. These Devonian batholiths are possibly of post-orogenic chara ...
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Positions Of Ancient Continents, 550 Million Years Ago
Position often refers to: * Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity * Position, a job or occupation Position may also refer to: Games and recreation * Position (poker), location relative to the dealer * Position (team sports), a player role within a team Human body * Human position, the spatial relation of the human body to itself and the environment ** Position (obstetrics), the orientation of a baby prior to birth ** Positions of the feet in ballet ** Position (music), the location of the hand on a musical instrument ** Proprioception, the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body ** Asana (yoga), the location and posture of the body while practicing yoga ** Sex position, the arrangement of bodies during sexual intercourse Humanities, law, economics and politics * Philosophical theory, a belief or set of beliefs about questions in philosophy * Position (finance), commitments in a financial marketplace * Social po ...
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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 located further from the subducting plate than the trench. The oceanic plate is saturated with water, mostly in the form of hydrous minerals such as micas, amphiboles, and serpentine minerals. As the oceanic plate is subducted, it is subjected to increasing pressure and temperature with increasing depth. The heat and pressure break down the hydrous minerals in the plate, releasing water into the overlying mantle. Volatiles such as water drastically lower the melting point of the mantle, causing some of the mantle to melt and form magma at depth under the overriding plate. The magma ascends to form an arc of volcanoes parallel to the subduction zone. Volcanic arcs are distinct from volcanic chains formed over hotspots in the middle of a te ...
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Sierras Pampeanas
The Sierras Pampeanas (also called Central Sierras or Pampas Sierras) (English: Pampas Mountains) is a geographical region of Argentina. The Sierras Pampeanas are a chain of mountains that rise sharply from the surrounding pampa region of Northwest Argentina. They run parallel to the Andes Mountains and their crest line is some east of the Andes crest line (running from 29° to 35° S latitude at about 65° W longitude). They cross into seven Argentina provinces: San Luis, San Juan, Córdoba, La Rioja, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán. Geography The highest point of the Sierras Pampeanas is Cerro General Belgrano (6250 m above sea level) in La Rioja, in the Sierra de Famatina. Between the mountain ranges are several salt-filled depressions. The Salinas Grandes depression is located in Cordoba, La Rioja, Catamarca and Santiago del Estero. A characteristic of many of these mountain ranges is their morphological asymmetry: the western slopes are usually ...
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Outcrops
An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by soil and vegetation and cannot be seen or examined closely. However, in places where the overlying cover is removed through erosion or tectonic uplift, the rock may be exposed, or ''crop out''. Such exposure will happen most frequently in areas where erosion is rapid and exceeds the weathering rate such as on steep hillsides, mountain ridges and tops, river banks, and tectonically active areas. In Finland, glacial erosion during the last glacial maximum (ca. 11000 BC), followed by scouring by sea waves, followed by isostatic uplift has produced many smooth coastal and littoral outcrops. Bedrock and superficial deposits may also be exposed at the Earth's surface due to human excavations such as quarrying and build ...
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Journal Of South American Earth Sciences
The ''Journal of South American Earth Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It covers the earth sciences, primarily on issues that are relevant to South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Antarctica. The journal was established in 1988 and the editor-in-chief is James Kellogg ( University of South Carolina). According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2012 impact factor of 1.533. See also *''Ameghiniana'' *''Andean Geology'' *''Brazilian Journal of Geology'' *''Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis'' *''Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina The ''Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina'' is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Asociación Geológica Argentina. The journal is released under a CC-BY-NC 2.5 license.
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Batholith
A batholith () is a large mass of intrusive igneous rock (also called plutonic rock), larger than in area, that forms from cooled magma deep in Earth's crust. Batholiths are almost always made mostly of felsic or intermediate rock types, such as granite, quartz monzonite, or diorite (see also ''granite dome''). Formation Although they may appear uniform, batholiths are in fact structures with complex histories and compositions. They are composed of multiple masses, or ''plutons'', bodies of igneous rock of irregular dimensions (typically at least several kilometers) that can be distinguished from adjacent igneous rock by some combination of criteria including age, composition, texture, or mappable structures. Individual plutons are solidified from magma that traveled toward the surface from a zone of partial melting near the base of the Earth's crust. Traditionally, these plutons have been considered to form by ascent of relatively buoyant magma in large masses called ''p ...
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Cerro Aspero Batholith
Cerro Aspero Batholith ( es, batolito de Cerro Aspero) is a group of plutons in southern Sierras Pampeanas in central Argentina. The batholith covers an approximate area of 440 km2 and lies about 50 km south of the larger Achala Batholith. The batholith contains various circular plutons emplaced by stoping at pressures of 2 kbar or less. Alpa Corral, El Talita and Los Cerros are the three largest individual plutons and together they make up the bulk of the batholith. The most common rock type is monzogranite with biotite and an igneous texture that is equigranular but varies from coarse grained to porphyritic. The emplacement of plutons occurred in the Middle to Late Devonian period. Contact aureoles for the batholith are, contrary to other batholiths, largely undeformed. The relation of the magmatic episode represented by the Cerro Aspero Batholith to the Famatinian orogeny is not fully understood. Alternatively it is grouped as a "Achaliano" igneous cycle. Vertical to near-ve ...
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Achala Batholith
The Achala Batholith ( es, batolito de Achala) is a group of plutons in the Sierras de Córdoba in central Argentina. With a mapped surface of over 2500 km2 it constitutes the largest group of intrusions exposed in the Sierras Pampeanas. The oldest reference to the batholith dates to 1932. Host rock and structural setting Plutons intrude into older migmatites, metamorphic rocks of sedimentary and volcanic protoliths. Some specific intruded rock types are: biotite-bearing tonalitic gneisses, amphibolite, marble and quartzite. In the large-scale the intrusion is parallel to the schistosity of the older rocks. However, at smaller scales the intrusion seems to disregard schistisity. Host rocks are altered contact metamorphism and associated fluids. Alteration is seen in the occurrence of marble and minerals such as vesuvianite and humite, both of which are high on fluorine. This alteration is thought to also have affected the batholith itself. Lithology and alteration Most rocks ...
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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 underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in size from dikes only a few centimeters across to batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers. Granite is typical of a larger family of ''granitic rocks'', or ''granitoids'', that are composed mostly of coarse-grained quartz and feldspars in varying proportions. These rocks are classified by the relative percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase (the QAPF classification), with true granite representing granitic rocks rich in quartz and alkali feldspar. Most granitic rocks also contain mica or amphibole minerals, though a few (known as leucogranites) contain almost no dark minerals. Granite is nearly alway ...
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Granodiorite
Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from granite to diorite, including granodiorite. Composition According to the QAPF diagram, granodiorite has a greater than 20% quartz by volume, and between 65% and 90% of the feldspar is plagioclase. A greater amount of plagioclase would designate the rock as tonalite. Granodiorite is felsic to intermediate in composition. It is the intrusive igneous equivalent of the extrusive igneous dacite. It contains a large amount of sodium (Na) and calcium (Ca) rich plagioclase, potassium feldspar, quartz, and minor amounts of muscovite mica as the lighter colored mineral components. Biotite and amphiboles often in the form of hornblende are more abundant in granodiorite than in granite, giving it a more distinct two-toned or overall darker appearan ...
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Tonalite
Tonalite is an igneous, plutonic ( intrusive) rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic (coarse-grained) texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase (typically oligoclase or andesine) with alkali feldspar making up less than 10% of the total feldspar content. Quartz (SiO2) is present as more than 20% of the total quartz-alkali feldspar-plagioclase-feldspathoid ( QAPF) content of the rock. Amphiboles and biotite are common accessory minerals. In older references tonalite is sometimes used as a synonym for quartz diorite. However the current IUGS classification defines tonalite as having greater than 20% quartz, while quartz diorite varies its quartz content from 5 to 20%. The name is derived from the type locality of tonalites, adjacent to the Tonale Line, a major structural lineament and mountain pass, Tonale Pass, in the Italian and Austrian Alps. The name was first applied by Gerhard vom Rath in 1864. The term ''adamellite'' was originally applied by A. Cathrein in 1890 ...
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Gabbro
Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is chemically equivalent to rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt. Much of the Earth's oceanic crust is made of gabbro, formed at mid-ocean ridges. Gabbro is also found as plutons associated with continental volcanism. Due to its variant nature, the term ''gabbro'' may be applied loosely to a wide range of intrusive rocks, many of which are merely "gabbroic". By rough analogy, gabbro is to basalt as granite is to rhyolite. Etymology The term "gabbro" was used in the 1760s to name a set of rock types that were found in the ophiolites of the Apennine Mountains in Italy. It was named after Gabbro, a hamlet near Rosignano Marittimo in Tuscany. Then, in 1809, the German geologist Christian Leopold von Buch used the term more restrictively in his descri ...
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