Zircon U–Pb geochronology of granitic rocks of the Cordón de Lila and Sierra de Almeida ranges, northern Chile: 30 m.y. of Ordovician plutonism on the western border of Gondwana

In this paper we determined the chronology of Lower Paleozoic arc-related granitic rocks in the Cordón de Lila and Sierra de Almeida ranges, northern Chile, based on new U–Pb ages obtained by Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) on single zircons. Plutonism lasted ∼30 m.y., spanning from 490 to 460 Ma (Lower to Mid Ordovician). The obtained ages correspond to the plutonic units' crystallization ages and fit well with the observed contact relationships with their country rocks and mutual intrusion relationships, and also with biostratigraphical data from the sedimentary country rocks. Our geochronological results on the granitic rocks of Cordón de Lila and Sierra de Almeida ranges broadly agree with the known ages of the plutonic rocks in the Argentinian Puna, strengthening the idea that they formed part of the same magmatic arc in the western border of west Gondwana during the Early to Middle Ordovician.