Andean retroarc-basin dune fields and Pampean Sand Sea (Argentina): Provenance and drainage changes driven by tectonics and climate

We here review in terms of tectono-magmatic setting and Quaternary landscape dynamics what is known about the provenance of Argentine dune fields and their fluvial feeder systems draining the Andean Cordillera. The detrital signatures of these eolian sediments were previously investigated based on either framework petrography and heavy minerals or detrital-zircon geochronology, and their peculiar volcaniclastic nature was long recognized. Compositional variability, however, was only broadly evaluated, and quantitative provenance analysis based on a systematic multimethod approach across the entire region was not carried out so far. For this reason, here we integrate original and previously obtained petrographic, heavy-mineral, and detrital-zircon geochronology data to present the first comprehensive provenance study of dune fields stretching for 1000 km across central Argentina from the Andean piedmont to the Atlantic Ocean.