TY  - JOUR
A1  - Cruset, David
A1  - Vergés, Jaume
A1  - Rodrigues, Nuno
A1  - Belenguer, Jorge
A1  - Pascual-Cebrian, Enric
A1  - Almar, Ylènia
A1  - Pérez-Cáceres, Irene
A1  - Macchiavelli, Chiara
A1  - Travé, Anna
A1  - Beranoaguirre, Aratz
A1  - Albert, Richard
A1  - Gerdes, Axel
A1  - Messager, Grégoire
T1  - U–Pb dating of carbonate veins constraining timing of beef growth and oil generation within Vaca Muerta Formation and compression history in the Neuquén Basin along the Andean fold and thrust belt
T2  - Marine and petroleum geology
N2  - We combine structural analysis of fractures with 22 U–Pb dates measured in fracture-filling carbonate cements from bed-parallel fibrous calcite veins (beef), conjugated veins and faults within the Vaca Muerta Formation along the Andean fold and thrust belt in the Neuquén Basin. The measured ages constrain accurately the relationships between overpressures caused by hydrocarbon generation and Andean compression as mechanisms for natural fracturing and vein formation. Two generations of fibres have been identified in beef. The first one, consists of dark fibres from the inner zones, which are perpendicular to bedding and contain abundant cone-in-cone structures and hydrocarbon inclusions. U–Pb dating of these fibres yielded Early to Late Cretaceous ages from 116.7 ± 17.7 to 78.8 ± 10.2 Ma. The second generation of fibres corresponds to the outer zones and consists of white fibres oblique to bedding, indicating growth during layer-parallel shortening. Bed-perpendicular veins cutting beef yielded Late Cretaceous-late Palaeocene dates from 72.8 ± 22.4 to 60.9 ± 10.4 Ma. Eocene ages from 52.0 ± 2.9 to 42.2 ± 18.9 Ma were measured in bed-parallel slip surfaces and reverse and strike-slip faults, whereas Miocene dates from 13.9 ± 2.6 to 6.2 ± 1.1 Ma were measured in E-W calcite veins. U–Pb dating of veins, structural analysis of fractures and subsidence curves, indicate that beef inner zones formed in the oil window during burial of the Neuquén basin, and that tectonic stresses could enhance their formation. Beef outer zones and bed-perpendicular veins formed during E-W Late Cretaceous-late Palaeocene layer-parallel shortening. Contrarily, late Palaeocene-late Eocene bed-parallel slip surfaces and faults and Miocene E-W veins formed during NE-SW and E-W syn-to post-folding deformation, respectively. In both cases, syn-to post-folding compression occurred synchronously with forelandward migration of magmatic activity attributed to flat subduction of the Pacific slab beneath the Andes.
KW  - U-Pb dating
KW  - Calcite and dolomite cements
KW  - Fracture history
KW  - Neuquén basin
KW  - Andean compression
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/64527
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-645270
SN  - 0264-8172
N1  - This research is a contribution of the Group of Dynamics of the Lithosphere (GDL), Geosciences Barcelona (Geo3Bcn), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain. This work was partially funded by Equinor Research Center, Bergen (Norway) and Subtetis project (PIE–CSIC–201830E039). This research is within the framework of the Grups Consolidats de Recerca “Modelització Geodinàmica de la Litosfera” (2017SGR-847) and “Geologia Sedimentària” (2017SGR-824). U–Pb geochronology was accomplished at FIERCE (Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center, Goethe University). This is FIERCE contribution No. 73.
VL  - 132
IS  - art. 105204
SP  - 1
EP  - 24
PB  - Elsevier Science
CY  - Amsterdam [u.a.]
ER  -