The Granada ignimbri
te, an Upper Miocene volcanic uni
t from
the nor
thern Puna, previously has been in
terpre
ted as an ex
tensive ignimbri
te (>2300 km
2) associa
ted wi
th erup
tions from
the Vilama caldera (
trap-door even
t). On
the basis of new da
ta, we revise i
ts correla
tion and redefine
the uni
t as a compound, high aspec
t ra
tio ignimbri
te, erup
ted a
t approxima
tely 9.8 Ma. Calcula
ted volumes (
ttp://www.sciencedirec
t.com/scidirimg/en
ti
ties/223c.gif" al
t="no
t, ver
t, similar"
ti
tle="no
t, ver
t, similar" border="0">100 km
3) are only modera
te in comparison wi
th o
ther large volume (>1000 km
3) ignimbri
tes
tha
t erup
ted approxima
tely 2–6 m.y. la
ter in
the region (e.g. Vilama, Panizos, A
tana). Six new volcanic uni
ts are recognized from sequences previously correla
ted wi
th Granada (only one sourced from
the same cen
ter). Consequen
tly,
the area ascribed
to
the Granada ignimbri
te is subs
tan
tially reduced (630 km
2), and links
to
the Vilama caldera are no
t suppor
ted. Transpor
t direc
tions sugges
t the volcanic source for
the Granada ignimbri
te corresponds
to ven
ts buried under younger (
ttp://www.sciencedirec
t.com/scidirimg/en
ti
ties/2a7e.gif" al
t="grea
ter-or-equal, slan
ted"
ti
tle="grea
ter-or-equal, slan
ted" border="0">7.9–5 Ma) volcanic rocks of
the Abra Granada volcanic complex. Episodes of caldera collapse a
t some s
tage of erup
tion are likely,
though
their na
ture and
timing canno
t be defined from available da
ta. The erup
tion of
the Granada ignimbri
te marks
the onse
t of a phase of large volume (caldera-sourced) volcanism in
the nor
thern Puna.