Constraints on the magnitude of strike-slip displacement along the Fagnano Transform System, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Abstract

New field data, specially the discovery of the contact between Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene rock units in a previously unexplored area in southeast Tierra del Fuego, allowed us to estimate the amount of strike-slip displacement accommodated by the Fagnano Transform System (FTS). This stratigraphic contact is exposed both to the north and south of the FTS and it is deformed by aNW-SE compressive regional structure that forms part of the Fuegian thrust-fold belt, called the Cerro Pirámide-Cerro Malvinera Thrust (PMT). The compressive structure is laterally offset by the FTS. The precise mapping of the PMT and the Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene contact shows a horizontal offset of ca. 48 km along the transform system in the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. A maximum age of ~7 Ma for the beginning of the strike-slip in this sector is estimated by combining the obtained offset with published data on the slip-rate along the FTS in Tierra del Fuego. This Late Miocene age coincides with the creation of the divergent plate boundary between Sandwich and Scotia Plates, which has been proposed as responsible for the beginning of the strike-slip activity between South America and Scotia Plates.