Journal article
Geochronological, morphometric and geochemical constraints on the Pampas Onduladas long basaltic flow (Payún Matrú Volcanic Field, Mendoza, Argentina)
VR Espanon, AR Chivas, D Phillips, EL Matchan, A Dosseto
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research | Published : 2014
Abstract
The Pampas Onduladas flow in southern Mendoza, Argentina, is one of the four longest Quaternary basaltic flows on Earth. Such flows (>100km) are relatively rare on Earth as they require special conditions in order to travel long distances and there are no recent analogues. Favourable conditions include: a gentle topographic slope, an insulation process to preserve the melt at high temperature, and a large volume of lava with relatively low viscosity. This study investigates the rheological and geochemical characteristics of the ~170km long Pampas Onduladas flow, assessing conditions that facilitated its exceptional length. The study also reports the first geochronological results for the Pam..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We greatly thank the park rangers at Llancanelo and Payunia Provincial Natural Reserve (Mendoza), Stephanie Kerr, Paul Connolly and Adriana Garcia for their help and assistance during field trips, Jan-Hendrik May for his assistance with spatial analysis and Stan Szczepanski for technical support with <SUP>40</SUP>Ar/<SUP>39</SUP>Ar analysis. We acknowledge the Renewable Natural Resources division of the Province of Mendoza for providing access permits. We are grateful to Dr Karoly Nemeth and an anonymous reviewer for their comments which considerably improved the manuscript. AD acknowledges Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT0990447.