Push moraines in the upper valley of Santa Cruz river, southwest Argentina. Structural analysis and relationship with Late Pleistocene paleoclimate

• Published in: Journal of South American Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Goyanes, Gabriel Alejandro, Massabie, Armando Carlos
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: ARGENTINA; GLACIAL LANDFORMS; LAST GLACIATION; PUSH MORAINES; SANTA CRUZ RIVER; SOUTHERN PATAGONIA; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.5; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1; Patagonia; Argentino; Argentina; Pablo; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11336/85007

The upper cliff of the Santa Cruz River was used to assess the proglacial environments of the Argentino Glacier outlet of Late Pleistocene age. These cliffs show glaciolacustrine, fluvioglacial and till deposits, where only the first one are deformed. Glacial landforms in the area and these structures suggest that the ice mass advanced, topographically controlled, towards the east from the Patagonian Ice Sheet pushing up the proglacial sediments.The spatial arrangement of thrusts and overturned folds, the drumlins-flutes moraine directions and the end moraines shape, allow inferring the dynamic and the Argentino glacier profile. Detailed analyses of the glaciotectonic structures indicate that these have two origins: load in the north with stress transfer to the southeast, and push from the west. Through the analysis of deformed sediments, their thickness and their sedimentary and structural features, three zones of deformations were recognized. Each of these zones was associated to glacial advances because of changes of the regional climate conditions. Fil: Goyanes, Gabriel Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; Argentina Fil: Massabie, Armando Carlos. Senior Structural Geology Consultant; Argentina