Ml. Keeley et Mpr. Light, BASIN EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTIVITY OF THE ARGENTINE CONTINENTAL-MARGIN, Journal of petroleum geology, 16(4), 1993, pp. 451-464
Nine Mesozoic-Tertiary basins of different orientations lie along the
Argentine continental margin. over a distance exceeding 2,000 km: thes
e are the Salado, Colorado, Valdes, Rawson, San Jorge offshore, North
Malvinas (San Julian), West Malvinas and Magallanes (Austral) Basins o
n the Continental Shelf, together with the Continental Slope. These ba
sins formed following the latest Jurassic - Early Cretaceous extension
that accompanied the onset of South Atlantic rifting. Strain was modi
fied by earlier basement fabrics, with consequent transtension. The Ca
pe Fold Belt (Permo-Triassic) provided a NW-SE grain to pre-Mesozoic c
over off NE Argentina. In the central-southern sector, several phases
of oblique NEwards Pacific subduction and terrane accretion during the
Permo-Triassic formed back-arc basins and volcanic belts, producing a
more variable fabric orientated close to NNW-SSE. Atlantic basin fill
, of Lower Cretaceous-Tertiary clastics, was deposited as a result of
rift-shoulder erosion and Atlantic flooding following eastward tilting
. Basin fill thickness is typically 2-4 km, but locally exceeds 6km. T
he hydrocarbon potential of these basins hinges as much upon the prese
rvation of source rocks within the pre-rift succession as it does on t
hat of those within the base-rift succession, and subsequent Atlantic
anoxic events.