High-pressure/low-temperature metamorphism in the collision zone between the Chilenia and Cuyania microcontinents (western Precordillera, Argentina)

•We present first P-T estimates of southern Argentine Precordillera collisional belt.•Metasedimentary and metabasaltic rocks reached conditions of 345–395 °C, 7.0–9.3 kbar.•Metamorphic gradient (13 °C/km) is comparable with subduction-related gradients.•Sedimentation was not contemporaneous with accretion as occur in accretionary prisms.•The development of a collision zone supports the existence of Chilenia.

In central-western Argentina, an Early Paleozoic belt including mafic-ultramafic bodies, marine metasedimentary rocks and high-pressure rocks occur along the western margin of the Precordillera and in the Frontal Cordillera. First pressure-temperature estimates are presented here for low-grade rocks of the southern sector of this belt based on two metasedimentary and one metabasaltic sample from the Peñasco Formation. Peak metamorphic conditions resulted within the range of 345–395 °C and 7.0–9.3 kbar within the high-pressure greenschist facies. The corresponding low metamorphic gradient of 13 °C/km is comparable with subduction related geothermal gradients. Comparison between these results and data from other localities of the same collision zone (Guarguaraz and Colohuincul complexes) confirms a collision between Chilenia and the composite margin of western Gondwana and suggests a stronger crustal thickening in the south of the belt, causing exhumation of more deeply buried sequences. During the Early Paleozoic a long-lived marine sedimentation coupled with the intrusion of MORB-like basalts occurred along a stable margin before the collision event. This contrasts with the almost contemporaneous sedimentation registered during accretion in accretionary prism settings and additionally proves the development of a collision zone along western Precordillera and the eastern Frontal Cordillera as well as the existence of Chilenia as a separate microcontinent.