Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:37:38.802Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jurassic hot-spring activity in a fluvial setting at La Marciana, Patagonia, Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

DIEGO M. GUIDO  and
KATHLEEN A. CAMPBELL
DIEGO M. GUIDO
Affiliation:
CONICET-UNLP, Instituto de Recursos Minerales, Calle 64 esquina 120, La Plata (1900), Argentina
KATHLEEN A. CAMPBELL*
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
*
†Author for correspondence: ka.campbell@auckland.ac.nz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Silicified rocks at La Marciana farm, Deseado Massif, Argentinean Patagonia, represent an ancient hot-spring discharging into an active fluvial setting. Their fortuitous burial–erosion history and minimal post-depositional structural modification provide an unparalleled view of a complete, exhumed, late Jurassic geothermal landscape, and thus an opportunity to illuminate hot-spring geological context and palaeoenvironmental gradients. Geological mapping, stratigraphy and petrography revealed hydrothermal eruption events, the spring vent source, structural relationships, dimensions of the discharge apron, and hot-spring facies distributions. Remarkable similarities to Quaternary analogues from the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, and Yellowstone National Park, USA, are apparent with respect to scale, spatial distribution of facies, and types of microbial and other palaeoenvironmentally significant fabrics.

Keywords

Hot-springssiliceous sintermicrobial fossilsJurassicArgentina
Type
Rapid Communication
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 146 , Issue 4 , July 2009 , pp. 617 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibby, H. M., Caldwell, T. G., Davey, F. J. & Webb, T. H. 1995. Geophysical evidence on the structure of the Taupo Volcanic Zone and its hydrothermal circulation. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 68, 29–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, T. D. & Brock, M. L. 1971. Microbial studies of thermal habitats in the central volcanic region, North Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 5, 233–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cady, S. L. & Farmer, J. D. 1996. Fossilization processes in siliceous thermal springs. Trends in preservation along thermal gradients. In Evolution of Hydrothermal Ecosystems on Earth (and Mars?): Proceedings of the CIBA Foundation Symposium No. 202 (eds Bock, G. R. & Goode, J. A.), pp. 150–73. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, K. A., Buddle, T. F. & Browne, P. R. L. 2004. Late Pleistocene silica sinter associated with fluvial, lacustrine, volcaniclastic and landslide deposits at Tahunaatara, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Earth Sciences) 94, 485–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, K. A., Sannazzaro, K., Rodgers, K. A., Herdianita, N. R. & Browne, P. R. L. 2001. Sedimentary facies and mineralogy of the Late Pleistocene Umukuri silica sinter, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Journal of Sedimentary Research 71, 728–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christiansen, R. L. 2001. Geology of Yellowstone Park – The Quaternary and Pliocene Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper no. 729–6, 145 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farmer, J. D. 1999. Taphonomic modes in microbial fossilization. In Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms. Proceedings of a Workshop, Space Studies Board, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Applications, National Research Council, pp. 94–102. Washington: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Farmer, J. D. 2000. Hydrothermal systems: Doorways to early biosphere evolution. GSA Today 10, 1–9.Google Scholar
Fernandez-Turiel, J. L., Garcia-Valles, M., Gimeno-Torrente, D., Saavedrap-Alonso, J. & Martinez-Manent, S. 2005. The hot spring and geyser sinters of El Tatio, northern Chile. Sedimentary Geology 180, 125–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fournier, R. O. 1985. The behavior of silica in hydrothermal solutions. Reviews in Economic Geology 2, 45–60.Google Scholar
Guido, D., de Barrio, R. & Schalumuk, I. 2002. La Marciana Jurassic sinter – implications for exploration for epithermal precious-metal deposits in the Deseado Massif, southern Patagonia, Argentina. Transactions Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Section B: Applied Earth Science) 111, B106–B113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guido, D. & Schalamuk, I. 2003. Genesis and exploration potential of epithermal deposits from the Deseado Massif, Argentinean Patagonia. In Mineral Exploration and Sustainable Development Vol. I (eds Eliopoulos, D. and 44 other editors), pp. 489–92. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar
Handley, K. M., Turner, S. J., Campbell, K. A. & Mountain, B. W. 2008. Silicifying biofilm exopolymers on a hot-spring microstromatolite: Templating nanometer-thick laminae. Astrobiology 8, 747–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, B., Renaut, R. W. & Rosen, M. R. 1998. Microbial biofacies in hot-spring sinters: A model based on Ohaaki Pool, North Island, New Zealand. Journal of Sedimentary Research 68, 413–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, B., Renaut, R. W. & Rosen, M. R. 2001. Taphonomy of silicified filamentous microbes in modern geothermal sinters – implications for identification. Palaios 16, 580–92.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, B., Renaut, R. W., Torfason, H. & Owen, R. B. 2007. The geological history of Geysir, Iceland: A tephrochronological approach to the dating of sinter. Journal of the Geological Society of London 164, 1241–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, D. R., Anderson, K. S. & Braunstein, D. 2001. The zonation and structuring of siliceous sinter around hot springs, Yellowstone National Park, and the role of thermophilic bacteria in its deposition. In Thermophiles: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution (eds Reyensbach, A. M., Voytech, M. & Mancinelli, R.), pp. 143–66. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynne, B. Y. & Campbell, K. A. 2004. Morphologic and mineralogic transitions from opal-A to opal-CT in low-temperature siliceous sinter diagenesis, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Journal of Sedimentary Research 74, 561–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pankhurst, R., Leat, P., Sruoga, P., Rapela, C., Márquez, M., Storey, B. & Riley, T. 1998. The Chon Aike province of Patagonia and related rocks in West Antarctica: A silicic large igneous province. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 81, 113–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pankhurst, R., Riley, T., Fanning, C. Y. & Kelley, S. 2000. Episodic silicic volcanism in Patagonia and the Antarctic Peninsula: Chronology of magmatism associated with the break-up of Gondwana. Journal of Petrology 41, 605–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, C. M., Ashcroft, W. A., Batten, D. J., Boyce, A. J., Caulfield, J. B. D., Fallick, A. E., Hole, M. J., Jones, E., Pearson, M. J., Rogers, G., Saxton, J. M., Stuart, F. M., Trewin, N. H. & Turner, G. 1995. A Devonian auriferous hot spring system, Rhynie, Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 152, 229–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, T., Leat, P., Pankhurst, R. & Harris, C. 2001. Origin of large volume rhyolitic volcanism in Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia by crustal melting. Journal of Petrology 42, 1043–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowland, J. V. & Sibson, R. H. 2004. Structural controls on hydrothermal flow in a segmented rift system, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Geofluids 4, 259–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schinteie, R., Campbell, K. A. & Browne, P. R. L. 2007. Microfacies of stromatolitic sinter from acid-sulphate-chloride springs at Parariki Stream, Rotokawa geothermal field, New Zealand. Palaeontologia Electronica 10(1); 4A, 33 pp.Google Scholar
Sillitoe, R. H. 1993. Epithermal models: Genetic types, geometrical controls and shallow features. In Mineral Deposits Modeling (eds Kirkham, R. V., Sinclair, W. D., Thorpe, R. I. & Duke, J. M.), pp. 403–17. Special Paper of the Geological Association of Canada No. 40.Google Scholar
Walter, M. R. 1976. Hot-spring sediments in Yellowstone National Park. In Stromatolites (ed. Walter, M. R.), pp. 489–98. Amsterdam: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, M. R., Bauld, J. & Brock, T. D. 1976. Microbiology and morphogenesis of columnar stromatolites (Conophyton, Vacerrilla) from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. In Stromatolites (ed Walter, M. R.), pp. 273–310. Amsterdam: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, M. R., Des Marais, D., Farmer, J. D. & Hinman, N. W. 1996. Lithofacies and biofacies of mid-Paleozoic thermal spring deposits in the Drummond Basin, Queensland, Australia. Palaios 11, 497–518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, N. C., Wood, D. G. & Lee, M. C. 1989. Epithermal sinters of Paleozoic age in north Queensland, Australia. Geology 17, 718–22.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Guido supplementary material

Appendix.pdf

Download Guido supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 2.9 MB