earth science

La Matilde Formation

La Matilde Formation is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand La Matilde Formation rather than just read about it. In short: La Matilde Formation is a Jurassic geological formation in the Austral Basin of Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina. It is dated to the Middle to Late Jurassic.

Key takeaways

La Matilde Formation belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect La Matilde Formation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of La Matilde Formation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

La Matilde Formation is a Jurassic geological formation in the Austral Basin of Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina. It is dated to the Middle to Late Jurassic. From the Bathonian age (164.7 to 167.7 million years ago) to the Kimmeridgian age (150.8 to 155.7 million years ago) at the latest. The area was once part of the subtropical and temperate regions of the southern supercontinent Gondwana in the Mesozoic era, a more or less continuous landmass consisting of what is now modern South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea.

Description La Matilde consists primarily of sedimentary rocks. It includes claystone, coal beds, conglomerates, siltstones, sandstones, and volcanic tuff. La Matilde overlies but sometimes intersperses with the Middle Jurassic Chon Aike Formation. The two formations are the subunits of the Bahía Laura Group.

Fossil content La Matilde is known for the abundant fossils recovered from it. Notable fossil localities in the formation include the Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest, the Cerro Madre e Hija Petrified Forest, and the remains and trace fossils (including trackways) of dinosaurs in the Laguna Manantiales Farm. Fossil taxa recovered from the La Matilde Formation include:

Flora

Ichnofossils

See also List of stratigraphic units with theropod tracks List of fossil sites

References

Bibliography Channing, Alan; Zamuner, Alba B.; Zúñiga, Adolfo (2007), "A new Middle–Late Jurassic flora and hot spring chert deposit from the Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz province, Argentina", Geological Magazine, 144 (2): 401–411, Bibcode:2007GeoM..144..401C, doi:10.1017/S0016756807003263, retrieved 2019-03-26 Clarke, John T.; Warnock, Rachel C.M.; Donoghue, Philip C.J. (2011), "Establishing a time-scale for plant evolution", New Phytologist, 192 (2011): 266–301, doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03794.x, PMID 21729086, retrieved 2019-03-26 Iglesias, Ari; Artabe, Analia E.; Morel, Eduardo M. (2011), "The evolution of Patagonian climate and vegetation from the Mesozoic to the present", Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 103 (2): 409–422, doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01657.x Leonardi, Giuseppe (1994), Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints (Devonian to Holocene) with an appendix on Mexico and Central America, Ministerio de Minas e Energia - Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais, Geological Service of Brazil, pp. 1–248, retrieved 2019-03-25 Sequiera, Andrea S.; Farrell, Brian D. (2001), "Evolutionary origins of Gondwanan interactions: How old are Araucaria beetle herbivores?", Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 74 (4): 459–474, doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2001.tb01405.x, retrieved 2019-03-26 Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (2004), The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–880, ISBN 0-520-24209-2, retrieved 2019-02-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

Further reading 2009 - Una nueva Equisetaceae fértil de la Formación La Matilde, Jurásico Medio, Argentina

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with La Matilde Formation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what La Matilde Formation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to La Matilde Formation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about La Matilde Formation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of La Matilde Formation

In research: La Matilde Formation appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses La Matilde Formation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: La Matilde Formation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aeolian deposits, Bathonian Stage, Coal formations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for La Matilde Formation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study La Matilde Formation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what La Matilde Formation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain La Matilde Formation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is La Matilde Formation in simple terms?

La Matilde Formation is a Jurassic geological formation in the Austral Basin of Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina. It is dated to the Middle to Late Jurassic.

Why does La Matilde Formation matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study La Matilde Formation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on La Matilde Formation.