Cañadón Asfalto Formation
The Cañadón Asfalto Formation is a geological formation from the Lower Jurassic, with doubtful layers of Late Jurassic age previously referred to it. The Cañadón Asfalto Formation is located in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, a rift basin in the Chubut Province of northwestern Patagonia, southern Argentina. The basin started forming in the earliest Jurassic.
Cañadón Asfalto Formation near Cerro Cóndor, Chubut, Argentina
The Cañadón Asfalto Basin is an irregularly shaped sedimentary basin located in north-central Patagonia, Argentina. The basin stretches from and partly covers the North Patagonian Massif in the north, a high forming the boundary of the basin with the Neuquén Basin in the northwest, to the Cotricó High in the south, separating the basin from the Golfo San Jorge Basin. It is located in the southern part of Río Negro Province and northern part of Chubut Province. The eastern boundary of the basin is the North Patagonian Massif separating it from the offshore Valdés Basin and it is bound in the west by the Patagonian Andes, separating it from the small Ñirihuau Basin.
View of Gastre, in the center of the basin
Altar Valley in the southern part of the basin, bounding the Chubut River
Sketch of the paleogeographic situation of South America during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene, roughly 85 to 63 Ma. The Cañadón Asfalto Basin, located south of the North Patagonian Massif in the South Gondwanan Province (grey), is experiencing a marine transgression.
Outcrops of the Collón Curá Formation in the basin (9 & 10)