Morphogenetic and paleoenvironmental analysis o f the Balcosna – San Ignacio basin

Acta geológica 23 (1-2): 2011

Abstract

We present a morphogenetic study of t he Balcosna-San Ignacio basin, which in- cludes northwestern La Cocha department, Tucumán pr ovince, and northern Paclín depart- ment, Catamarca province. The basin shows a relief with strong contrasts, where we differ- entiate: mountainous area, high valley, foothills a nd alluvial plain. Thus, different geomorpho- logical units are observed, developed in rocks and sediments of varying grain size. The prin- ciples adopted for the description of these morphog enetic units were taken from Derruau (1966), Viers (1973) and Van Zuidam (1976). We desc ribe the units of structural denuda- tion origin (cumbral flat surfaces, denudation slop es), units of denudation origin (erosion gla- cis, covered dissected glacis, residual hills, fan glacis, flat bottom and V valleys), units of structural origin (erosion and structural scarps), and units of fluvial origin (alluvial fans, fluvial terraces and present channel). Based on the describ ed geoshapes and their sediments a pa- leoenvironmental interpretation of the area is made .