COLLABORATORS

Gabriel Hunger

PhD student

rue des Maraichers 13, office 308

+41 (0)79 265 11 84

 


My Research

I am currently doing a PhD research at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Geneva. The main topic of my research is the study of the Marino Formation, located in the Central Argentinian Foreland near the city of Mendoza.

This formation, dating from ~15.7 to 12.0 Ma and extending over almost 1100 m in stratigraphy, is extensively exposed as the surface expression of folds related to Plio-Pleistocene uplift of the Precordillera. The formation comprises a continuous stratigraphic record of aeolian in the basal part, and the frequent intercalation of aeolian and fluvial deposits, followed vertically by the stacking of fluvial deposits with highly differentiated facies associations and architectures. This stratigraphic picture was developed during the uplift of the Principal Cordillera in an arid to semiarid climate context and suggests the interaction of different allogenic controls in the region, namely climate change and tectonics.

The project aims to provide a detailed reconstruction of paleoenvironmental dynamics and to unravel the relative roles of climate and tectonics through a high-resolution, integrated compositional and sedimentological analysis of the Marino Formation. The main objectives are:

1) to track changes in sediment provenance and relative information on magmatism and exhumation in the uplifting Andes;

2) to recognize the effects of different allogenic drives on sedimentary processes and local environmental change.

Our approach consists of high-resolution mineralogical and petrographical study using both conventional approach and automated QEMSCAN technology, heavy-minerals analysis, geochemistry, radiogenic isotope analysis, U-Pb and fission-track dating of detrital zircons.

The exceptional lateral exposure and the possibility to develop stratigraphic correlations calibrated with quantitative analytical approaches will constrain the relative role of different allogenic processes and offer insights for understanding similar sedimentary complexes in the subsurface.

Exploration and extraction of energy resources is increasingly reliant in the detailed characterization of sedimentary reservoirs. Besides providing an extensive outcrop analogue for the characterization and prediction of subsurface reservoirs, this project represents an important, ground-based test of mineralogical and geochemical methods for reservoir correlation and evaluation.

This study is financed by Fond National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Fluvial sedimentology
  • Provenance
  • Climatic and tectonic forcing
  • Geochemistry applicated to sedimentology
  • Andean Cordillera

Abstracts

-Hunger, G., Martinuzzi V., Ariztegui D., 2012. Modeling lake level changes in Patagonia since the Late Pleistocene. Swiss Sed Meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland

-Martinuzzi V., Hunger, G., Ariztegui D., 2012. Late Pleistocene and Holocene stromatolites in lacustrine closed-basin of northeastern Patagonia (Argentina). Swiss Sed Meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland

-Hunger, G., Martinuzzi V., Ariztegui D., 2011. Modeling lake level changes in Patagonia since the Late Pleistocene. Swiss Geoscience Meeting

-Ariztegui, D., Hunger, G., Martinuzzi, V. and Vasconcelos, C., 2010a. Recent and Late Pleistocene stromatolites in lacustrine closed-basins of northern Patagonian east of the Andes, Eos Trans. AGU, 91(26), Meet. Am. Suppl., Abstract PP42A-07.

-Ariztegui, D., Hunger, G., Martinuzzi, V. and Vasconcelos, C., 2010b. Late Pleistocene and Recent stromatolites in lacustrine closed-basins of northern Patagonia (Argentina). 18th International Sedimentological Congress - Mendoza, Argentina, 121.

-Hunger.G, Ventra D., Moscariello A., Veiga G., 2014. The Miocene MariƱo Formation (Central Argentinian foreland, Mendoza Region): a high-resolution integrated study of sedimentary and paleoenvironmental responses to tectonic and climatic forcing. 18th International Sedimentological Congress, Geneva, Switzerland

-Hunger.G, Ventra D., Moscariello A., Veiga G., 2015. Sedimentary Responses to Tectonic and Climatic Forcing: a High-Resolution, Integrated Sedimentological-Geochemical Study in Terrestrial Foreland Deposits (Mendoza, Argentina). Swiss Sed Meeting, Fribourg, Switzerland

-Hunger.G, Ventra D., Moscariello A., Veiga G., 2015. Sedimentary Responses to Tectonic and Climatic Forcing: a High-Resolution, Integrated Sedimentological-Geochemical Study in Terrestrial Foreland Deposits (Mendoza, Argentina). AAPG 2015 Annual Convention and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, USA

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