Models of deposition of loess and loessoids in the upper quaternary of South America

Climatic changes occurred in South America during the Quaternary provoked deflation and deposition of large masses of silt, which formed loess and loessoid units of regional extension in several areas of the continent. An analysis of the most important Late Pleistocene and Holocene loess and loess-like deposits resulted in the identification of five types of transport and deposition of wind-blown silt. They are: 1. pa type — Winds derived from the Patagonian ice field during the LGM transported to the NE silt and fine sand formed by frost action in the Cordillera, forming a large sand sea and a loess belt behind it. co type — During the LGM, minor temporary streams transported frost-originated silt from the Cordillera to the low-lands in south Bolivia and NW Argentina. Dry tropical north winds deflated the sediment to the south, forming a valley-and-plain loess deposit. ginated in subtropical anticyclones — During the Upper Holocene, a stational anticyclonic center produced semiarid climatic conditions and dry winds in the Argentine plains and surrounding regions, eroding the Pleistocene loess and sedimenting a thin loess carpet and several sand fields over an area of 1,600,000 km2. ginated in trade-winds — In the Llanos del Orinoco (Colombia and Venezuela) the NE trade winds deposited a sand and loess mantle during the dry late Pleistocene. Sediments came from the Guayana Shield and from the coastal plain. canic loessoids — Several loess-like sediment sheets, composed of partially altered volcanic ash, cover the Interandean Valley in north Ecuador.