The Palaeozoic geological history of western south america has been the focus of intense international interest in the last few years, as evidenced b the number of the international conferences on the subject. This book brings together multidisciplinary research and review papers on the Lower Palaeozoic geology of the Sierras Pampeanas and the Precordillera of the central west Argentina. It deals with the final stages of assembly of the supercontinent of Gondwana and a period of tectonic interaction with Laurentia (the North american continent of today). The evidence for the growth of this part of the margin of Gondwana from late Neoproterozoic times is presented interms of stratigraphy, palaeontology, igneous petrology, geochemistry and geochronology, and rival tectonic hypotheses are critically compared. At least two episodes of subduction-related marginal basin closure and terrane accretion are documented and re-assessed.
The book will be of interest to a broad audience of Earth Scientists interested in global tectonics, continetal growth processes and reconstructions, as well as those specifically interested in the Lower Palaeozoic, Gondwana and the southern lapetus Ocean.
