Driving processes and recognition criteria for complex subaerial unconformities in a non-marine succession: Implications for basin margin shaping during forced regressions

A regional sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic analysis is presented in this paper to provide new insights into the morphological complexity and sedimentary mechanisms of unconformities giving shape to basin margins. Although the development of unconformities entails significant sediment delivery to be considered when analysing ‘source to sink’ systems, as well as large palaeogeographical changes related to basin reconfiguration episodes, the complexity that unconformities can reveal towards basin margins has been scarcely explored. A sedimentological and architectural analysis combining outcrop and subsurface datasets shows five palaeoenvironmental evolutionary stages and four key stratigraphic surfaces in a constrained ca 2 Ma Valanginian interval on the southern margin of the Neuquén back-arc basin (Argentina). A complex-type subaerial unconformity was identified, composed in turn of two subaerial unconformities exhibiting both single and composite motifs, different morphologies and facies shifts representative of large palaeogeographical changes. In the studied stratigraphic interval, two erosional stages occur linked to combinations of exclusively non-marine-driven processes involved in unconformities developing. The two subaerial unconformities differ in nature and distribution, representing a novel case of complex unconformities and stratigraphic architectures in non-marine lowstand wedges. The Valanginian complex subaerial unconformity entails a high diachroneity along strike and depositional dip, implying that the hiatus created in landward settings occurred during relative sea-level fall and rise stages during a period longer than in basinward areas. Disagreeing with classical sequential models, two third-order sequence components of a complex lowstand wedge are preserved in proximal settings. Subsidence-controlled accommodation and interplay between second-order and third-order cycles were combined, increasing the prospects of sediment storage and preservation potential of composite sequences towards landward areas. This work improves current comprehension about complex subaerial unconformities formation and related lowstand architectures in proximal settings, providing criteria to understand and revaluate lowstand wedge geometries, particularly for more complex examples, such as the case reported in this contribution.