The age of the Tunas formation in the Sauce Grande basin-Ventana foldbelt (Argentina): Implications for the Permian evolution of the southwestern margin of Gondwana

•A new SHRIMP age from zircons in the tuffs of the Tunas Fm of central Argentina.•The SHRIMP age is 280.9 ± 2.8 Ma (Early Permian, Artinskian).•The new dating is consistent with ages from the Choiyoi volcanics of west Argentina.•The new Tunas age confirms that glaciation ended in west Gondwana by early Permian.

New SHRIMP radiogenic isotope dating on zircons in tuffs (280.8 ± 1.9 Ma) confirms the Early Permian (Artinskian) age of the uppermost section of the Tunas Formation. Tuff-rich levels in the Tunas Formation are exposed in the Ventana foldbelt of central Argentina; they are part of a deltaic to fluvial section corresponding to the late overfilled stage of the Late Paleozoic Sauce Grande foreland basin. Recent SHRIMP dating of zircons from the basal Choiyoi volcanics exposed in western Argentina yielded an age of 281.4 ± 2.5 Ma (Rocha-Campos et al., 2011). The new data for the Tunas tuffs suggest that the volcanism present in the Sauce Grande basin can be considered as the distal equivalent of the earliest episodes of the Choiyoi volcanism of western Argentina. From the palaeoclimatic viewpoint the new Tunas SHRIMP age confirms that by early Artinskian glacial conditions ceased in the Sauce Grande basin and, probably, in adajacent basins in western Gondwana.