U.S.-Argentina Cooperative Research: Silicic Magmatism in Northern Patagonia: Constraints from the Somoncura Magmatic Belt, Argentina

North Dakota State University Fargo, Fargo ND

Investigators

Abstract

Saini-Eidukat 0073993 This US-Argentina project funded by the Division of International Programs in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and the Petrology and Geochemistry Program of the Directorate for Geosciences supports Dr. Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat of North Dakota State University, Fargo, to work with Drs. Daniel A. Gregori and Ernesto Bjerg at Universidad Nacional Del Sur in Argentina on a study of silicic magmatism in Northern Patagonia. This project is a geochronological, geochemical and radiogenic isotope study of silicic magmatism in Somoncura region of Northern Patagonia in Argentina. Its primary objective is to place the silicic rocks of Somoncura Magmatic Belt in a modern plate tectonic geologic context. This study of the origin of the silicic rocks in southern South America will help link these rocks with structural and tectonic studies and is important for testing models having a bearing on the break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana. In addition to the PIs, undergraduate students from North Dakota State will be involved as well as a graduate student from Argentina. Facilities used will be those at Fargo State, Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Macalester College in Minnesota. ***