Ann: Suspension from Official Quotation, page-114

Is that width including Mattillas potential basin extensions to the east and west under the collapsed and weathering sides of Candelas Billy ?

As mentioned in that Munk item posted much of this tectonic terrain is characterised by tectonic subsidence and Mattillas idea that this could have originally been a much wider structure that held an older salar that had subsequently been covered by alluvium is one of the likely geomorphology outcomes.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Folkes/publication/225564340_High-temperature_emplacement_of_the_Cerro_Galan_and_Toconquis_Group_ignimbrites_Puna_plateau_NW_Argentina_determined_by_TRM_analyses/links/0912f50ea470ccc7a0000000/High-temperature-emplacement-of-the-Cerro-Galan-and-Toconquis-Group-ignimbrites-Puna-plateau-NW-Argentina-determined-by-TRM-analyses.pdf?origin=publication_detail

Looking to subsurface tectonic structures this item
has an interesting diagram that shows a significant NW to SE trending fault line, the Archibarca Fault Zone, just to the north of Cerro Galan with one of the smaller volcanoes that has emerged on this fault line located at the southern end of Calderas. What is even more interesting is that this fault zone appears to border or go under Hombre Muerto in approx the south western end of the salar !!! I leave that to one’s imagination as we r dealing with Candelas here and it may give reason to think that HM is also fed by hydrothermals on this fault zone and why the bigger players may not be worried at all about GLNs play. UNIQUE GEOLOGY indeed !!!


Geological setting and sedimentological features of the Cerro Galán ignimbritesThe Cerro Galán caldera is one of the largest calderas in the world, with a 35 × 20-km N–S elongated structure, located in the southern margin of the Puna plateau in NW Argentina and ~200 km south of the extensive Altiplano–Puna Volcanic complex (Fig. 1). The caldera Fig. 1 Location of Cerro Galán caldera in the Puna plateau, northwestern Argentina. a Main structural features of central Andes (modified after Riller et al. 2001). APVC Altiplano Puna Volcanic Complex; b Cerro Galáenlargement of red square in a). Color composition of Landsat ETM+ (bands 7, 4, 2). The Cerro Galánignimbrite is contoured in light brown; the black solid lines represent the inferred caldera collapse faults (Folkes et al. 2011a); the dashed line follows the topographic caldera rim. Red star: location of Fig. 2a section

Given the previous Munk item stated that hydrothermals can be closely associated with these fault lines IT APPEARS WE HAVE A MAJOR FAULT LINE DIRECTLY BENEATH THE SOUTHERN END OF CANDELAS THAT MAY FEED LITHIUM RICH HYDROTHERMAL FLUIDS INTO THE SOUTHERN END OF Mattillas basin structure as well as Hombre Muerto if my interpretation of the satellite image with the smaller fault zone diagram is correct.

Gr