The San Rafael Block or San Rafael Massif (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
: ''Bloque de San Rafael'' or ''Macizo de San Rafael'') is an uplifted area in central
Mendoza Province
Mendoza, officially Province of Mendoza, is a province of Argentina, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders San Juan to the north, La Pampa and Neuquén to the south, San Luis to the east, and the republic ...
, Argentina. The San Rafael Block is both a geographic and a
tectonic
Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...
unit. From a
tectonostratigraphic view, some geologists consider it an exposure of the
Cuyania (
Precordillera
Precordillera is a Spanish geographical term for hills and mountains lying before a greater range, foothills. The term is derived from ''cordillera'' (mountain range)—literally "pre-mountain range"—and applied usually to the Andes.
Some places ...
)
terrane
In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its ow ...
being its southern extension. The San Rafael Block crops out to the south of the other exposures of Cuyania. The San Rafael Block forms the northeastern boundary of the
Neuquén Basin.
CARACTERIZACION GENERAL Y ESTUDIOS TEMATICOS POR PROVINCIA
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See also
* North Patagonian Massif
* Reserva Provincial La Payunia
The Reserva Provincial La Payunia ( es, La Payunia Provincial Reserve) also known as Payún or Payén is a natural reserve located in the Malargüe Department in the southern part of Mendoza Province, Argentina, about 160 km away from Malarg ...
* San Rafael orogeny The San Rafael orogeny was an orogeny that affected parts of western Argentina and Chile during the Late Paleozoic. The resulting orogenic belt has a NW-NNW curved form. The San Rafael orogeny might have been linked with the roughly contemporary Gon ...
References
{{reflist
Geology of Mendoza Province
Geography of Mendoza Province