The Early Carboniferous of Argentina

Abstract

?The Early Carboniferous of Argentina?. The Earliest Carboniferous sediments of Argentina are found in the western Precordillera and in the Central Patagonia. A nearly 2,000 m thick Tournaisian-Viséan sequence made of terrestrial and of marine sediments has been developed in the Precordillera and the sequence more than 1,000 m thick in the Central Patagonia. A Tournaisian faunal assemblage with paleoequatorial affinities suggests that warm water seas have prevailed in the Pacific embayment in the northern portion of the Precordillera (Río Blanco basin). At the Mid Carboniferous boundary, or perhaps before the end of the Viséan, a global lowering of temperature triggered the Late Paleozoic glacial age. This climatic change has been followed by a dramatic faunal change of the litoral ecosystems, where former ?warm faunas? have died out, being replaced by the faunal assemblages adapted to cold waters.