Sand composition changes across key boundaries of siliciclastic and hybrid depositional sequences

U-Pb ages of detrital and volcanic zircons of the Toro Negro Formation, northwestern Argentina: Age, provenance and sedimentation rates

“…Tripaldi et al, 2001;Limarino et al, 2001;Ciccioli, 2008;Ciccioli and Marenssi, 2012;Ciccioli et al, 2011Ciccioli et al, , 2013bCiccioli et al, , 2014aMarenssi et al, 2015).In particular, the modal composition of sandstones and conglomerates has proven an effective means to establish source areas and to explorethe relation between shifts in compositional framework and changes in watershed configuration (Ciccioli, 2008;Ciccioli et al, 2014a). Sandstone composition does not, however, depend exclusively on the source rocks: it may be affected by the physiography and chemical weathering in the source area, by reworking and abrasion of the sediments during transportation and sedimentation, by recycling of older sediments, and by diagenetic effects (Amorosi and Zuffa, 2011;Dickinson and Suczek, 1979;Espejo and Lopez-Gamundi, 1994). Additionally, uncertainty regarding the age of the Toro Negro Formation has prevented sedimentological observations from being interpreted in a well-dated regional framework.…”

Climate as a Stratigraphic Tool for Basin Margin Deposition in Intracontinental Basins

“…Analysis based on climatic variations gives a framework by which to understand the correlation of these deposits, but the controlling factor of climate is not as predictable as sea-level in the marine environments. Additional studies could add to the nature of these correlation surfaces, for example key stratigraphic surfaces can be identified using detrital grain analysis to assess changes in lithological composition (Amorosi & Zuffa, 2011). This is non-peer reviewed EarthArXiv preprint…”

High-resolution compositional analysis of a fluvial-fan succession: The Miocene infill of the Cacheuta Basin (central Argentinian foreland)

“…However, uncertainties remain in deciphering and interpreting compositional changes at higher resolution and in differentiating the effects of allogenic factors from those related to autogenic dynamics on the basis of compositional signatures (Amorosi and Zuffa, 2011). In continental settings, allogenic factors refer to the influence that climate and tectonics might have on sandstone compositional signatures at regional-scale (Miall, 2014, and references therein), as opposed to autogenic processes, which are internally generated by the depositional system itself and act on a local scale (Amorosi and Zuffa, 2011;Ventra and Nichols, 2014), and which might obscure the possible record of allogenic factors as well as complicate trends in compositional signatures. It is difficult to present a general approach regarding compositional analysis because each sedimentary basin and associated source area have their own characteristics and the possible interactions between different forcing factors may vary greatly.…”

“…It is difficult to present a general approach regarding compositional analysis because each sedimentary basin and associated source area have their own characteristics and the possible interactions between different forcing factors may vary greatly. In order to gain information on long-term processes, such as climate and regional tectonics (Dickinson, 1985;Bhatia and Crook, 1986;Etemad-Saeed et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2013;Ballato and Strecker, 2014;Schlunegger and Norton, 2015), the possible role played by autogenic dynamics also needs to be assessed when interpreting changes in sediment composition through the stratigraphic column (Pearce et al, 1999;Allen and Fielding, 2007;Amorosi and Zuffa, 2011).…”