Cuyania

ThePrecordillera TerraneorCuyaniawas an ancientmicrocontinentorterranewhose history affected many of the older rocks ofCuyoinArgentina.It was separated byoceanic crustfrom theChileniaterrane which accreted into it at ~420-390 Ma when Cuyania was already amalgamated withGondwana.The hypothesized Mejillonia Terrane in the coast ofnorthern Chileis considered by somegeologiststo be a single block with Cuyania.

TheSan Rafael Blockcrops out 200 km to the south of the other exposures of Cuyania and is the southern extension of the terrane.

The Precordillera has been hypothesised to have been derived fromLaurentia,the core of North America, which was attached to the western margin of South America during the Precambrian when virtually all continents formed a "proto-Gondwana"supercontinent known asPannotia.The Precordillera was then part of a proposed "Texas Plateau", a promontory attached to Laurentia similar to the way theFalkland Plateauis attached to South America today. The Texas Plateau was detached from the Gondwana in a rift around 455 Ma after which it collided with the proto-Andean margin of South America, an event known as theTaconic-Famatinianorogeny, and the Precordillera got left behind at its present location within South America.

See also

• Geological history of the Precordillera terrane

Bibliography

• Cingolani, C.; Heredia, S. (2010)."Field guide on the Ordovician of the Sierra Pintada, San Rafael Block, Mendoza".San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina: Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica.Retrieved10 January2016.
• Dalziel, I. W. (1997). "Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic geography and tectonics: Review, hypothesis, environmental speculation".Geological Society of America Bulletin.109(1): 16–42.Bibcode:1997GSAB..109...16D.doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1997)109<0016:ONPGAT>2.3.CO;2.
• Rapalini, A. E. (2005)."The accretionary history of southern South America from the latest Proterozoic to the Late Palaeozoic: some palaeomagnetic constraints".Geological Society, London, Special Publications.246(1): 305–328.Bibcode:2005GSLSP.246..305R.doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2005.246.01.12.S2CID129963126.Retrieved10 January2016.
• "The Andes — Tectonic Evolution".Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona. August 2002. Archived fromthe originalon 9 November 2015.Retrieved10 January2016.