Comment on the paper "Puncoviscana folded belt in northwestern Argentina: testimony of Late Proterozoic Rodinia fragmentation and pre-Gondwana collisional episodes" by Omarini et al.

Omarini et al. (1999) presented a petrogenetic model for the tectonic setti ng of the Puncoviscana belt in NW Argentina, based on new data for the Prec ambrian-Eocambrian stratigraphy and for geochemical data of volcanic rocks, intercalated in the Puncoviscana. Formation. The authors interpreted the r ecent gravity field in view of the geological history of the area. In contr ast to their opinion, which is strongly biased towards the terrane concept, we present a different view, which is based on radiometric age data and in vestigations of lithology and pressure temperature (P-T) -data of the high- grade basement in NW Argentina and N Chile. In our concept, the area is bes t described as a mobile belt of Brasiliano age, which is adjacent to the Gr envillian cratonic Arequipa-Uyarani area in the north.