U-Pb geochronology data for carbonates from the Neuquen Basin, Argentina

U-Pb (Uranium-Lead) geochronology data for carbonates from the Nequen Basin Argentina. Data was collected for a series of Copper (Cu) deposits: Los Chihuidos, Barda González, La Cuprosa, El Porvenir and Tordillos Cu deposits. The Los Chihuidos deposit contains calcite either as individual calcite grains or as sparry, calcite cement in a red calcareous sandstone. The Barda Gonzales samples were recovered from a well sorted sandstone. The calcareous litharenite from the Huincul Formation at El Porvenir is well-sorted, texturally, and compositionally mature. Calcareous sandstones from the Tordillos Deposit contain calcite as fibro-radial calcites amongst a wider, poikilotopic calcite matrix. Context of samples and methods described in; Chapter 6. Kelly, Jamie (2024) Dataset for thesis "Constraining Cu-(Co) mineralisation in sediment-hosted copper deposits using rutile, apatite, and carbonate geochronology". University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D3219 [Dataset]

Date (Creation): 2025-09-15

Identifier: http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608533

Originator

University of Southampton - Professor Stephen Roberts ( Ocean and Earth Science )

National Oceanography Centre, Waterfront Campus, European Way , Southampton , SO14 3ZH ,

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British Geological Survey - Enquiries

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GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Geology

BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences

Geochronology
Lead
NGDC Deposited Data
Uranium
Calcite

dataCentre

NGDC Deposited Data

Keywords

NERC_DDC

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Other constraints: Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"

Metadata language: EnglishEnglish

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Begin date: 2020-09-01 Before

End date: 2023-09-01 Before

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Microsoft Excel (XLSX) ()

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British Geological Survey - Enquiries

OnLine resource: Data ( WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download )

Hierarchy level: nonGeographicDataset Non geographic dataset

Other: non geographic dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2011

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF

Pass: No

Statement: Laser Ablation U-Pb analyses at the NERC Laboratories Keyworth. Polished blocks measuring 25 mm in diameter were made from a total of 6 samples covering the Los Chihuidos, Barda González, La Cuprosa, El Porvenir and Tordillos Cu deposits. These included a grain mount of calcite 3 from Los Chihuidos and 5 sediment blocks. These blocks were selected to cover all the localities and calcite generations available in the sample suite, The polished blocks were carbon coated and analysed using a Zeiss EVO SEM at the NHM, London. Each block was BSE montaged and sites of interest selected before SEM-CL imaging was conducted. The BSE analytical conditions were 20Kv acceleration voltage, 10 mm working distance and 1.5 nA probe current. For SEM-Cl imaging, the conditions were 20 kv acceleration voltage, 1 mm working distance from the CL detector and the probe current increased to 3 nA. Images were processed using Zeiss Digiscan II software. Following BSE and SEM-Cl imaging, each block was sliced to create a polished thick section and thin section. The thin sections were analysed using standard polarising microscope techniques to establish mineralogy and cement textures. Each thick section was BSE scanned using a Leo 1450VP SEM equipped with an Oxford Instruments X-Act 10mm2 detector at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton prior to CL imaging. Analytical conditions were 20 kv acceleration voltage, 2 nA probe current and 19 mm working distance. Cl Imaging was conducted on a Lumin hot-stage Cl microscope at the NHM, London. The acceleration voltage used was 10 kv with a beam current kept at ~0.2 nA. Sites identified on the CL microscope were subsequently overlain onto the BSE scan for sample navigation. After fully imaging and characterising each thick section, the samples were sent to the BGS, Nottingham for in-situ U-Pb calcite geochronology. Laser ablation was performed using a New Wave Research 193UC excimer laser coupled to a Nu Instruments Attom single collector sector field mass spectrometer. A spot size of 50 µm was used. The full analytical setup for the laser and mass spectrometer are provided in Roberts and Walker (2016). Standard sample bracketing utilised the NIST614 glass standard (Jochum et al., 2011) to normalise the 207Pb/206Pb ratio (Pbc) whilst the calcite standard WC-1 (Roberts et al., 2017) was used to correct the 206Pb/238U ratio. Data uncertainty and propagation protocols follow Horstwood et al., (2016). The U-Pb heterogeneity of current carbonate mineral standards are often equal to or larger than the analytical uncertainties, meaning that significant excess variance will be present in the reference material U-Pb measurements (Roberts et al., 2017). If propagated into the sample point uncertainties as a within-session excess variance, as recommended for zircon in Horstwood et al., (2016), the data point uncertainties will be overestimated and will mask any small-scale real geological scatter in the sample and lead to ages with erroneously high precision. As per the recommendations of (Roberts et al., 2020), session-based reproducibility, accuracy and precision was performed on more homogeneous standards such as zircon or NIST glass standard. Accuracy of the method and secondary reference material is provided in thesis, doi:10.5258/SOTON/D3219, section 3.5.2. All results are plotted using a Tera-Wasserburg concordia diagram, taking the lower intercept as the age of the analysis. No common Pb correction was applied to the data.