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Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 95, No. 9 (September 2011), P. 14591474.

Copyright copy2011. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/01271110084

Evidence of precessional and eccentricity orbital cycles in a Tithonian source rock: The mid-outer carbonate ramp of the Vaca Muerta Formation, northern Neuquen Basin, Argentina

Diego A. Kietzmann,1 Javier Martin-Chivelet,2 Ricardo M. Palma,3 Jose Lopez-Gomez,4 Marina Lescano,5 Andrea Concheyro6

1Departamento de Ciencias Geologicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Pab. 2, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; [email protected]
2Departamento de Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geologia Economica-IGEO (CSIC-UCM), Facultad de Ciencias Geologicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; [email protected]
3Departamento de Ciencias Geologicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Pab. 2, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; [email protected]
4Departamento de Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geologia Economica-IGEO (CSIC-UCM), Facultad de Ciencias Geologicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; [email protected]
5Departamento de Ciencias Geologicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Pab. 2, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; [email protected]
6Departamento de Ciencias Geologicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Pab. 2, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Basin to mid-ramp cyclic facies of the Tithonian Vaca Muerta Formation are exposed in the Loncoche Creek section of the Neuquen Basin, Mendoza province, Argentina. This unit is characterized by a decimeter-scale rhythmic alternation of marls, shales and limestones and extends from the lower Tithonian to the upper Berriasian. Cyclostratigraphic studies based on a detailed facies analysis allowed the identification of cyclic patterns with frequencies within the Milankovitch band. According to biostratigraphic data, the dominant cycle in the studied section has a period of 20 k.y., which correlates with the Earth's axis precession element. Spectral analysis based on a series of compacted and decompacted cycle thickness identified a subordinate frequency of about 90 to 120 k.y., which we interpret as the modulation of the precessional cycle caused by the Earth's orbital eccentricity. The strength of the precession signal, together with the absence of a well-defined cyclicity attributable to the obliquity orbital cycle (i.e., sim40 k.y.), is in agreement with previous data from the Northern Hemisphere.

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