biology

Pisco Basin

Pisco Basin is a biology 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 Pisco Basin rather than just read about it. In short: Pisco Basin (Spanish: Cuenca de Pisco) is a sedimentary basin extending over 300 kilometres (190 mi) in southwestern Peru. The basin has a 2-kilometre (1.25-mile) thick sedimentary fill, which is about half the thickness of more northern foreland basins in Peru.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Pisco Basin (Spanish: Cuenca de Pisco) is a sedimentary basin extending over 300 kilometres (190 mi) in southwestern Peru. The basin has a 2-kilometre (1.25-mile) thick sedimentary fill, which is about half the thickness of more northern foreland basins in Peru. The oldest known sediments are the Eocene sandstones of the Caballas Formation, while the youngest deposits, the fossiliferous Pisco Formation, date to the Early Pleistocene. In relation to present-day, topography the fill of Pisco Basin makes the upper part of the Coastal Cordillera of southern Peru, the coastal plains, the Ica-Nazca Depression and the Andean foothills. The basin is renowned for hosting various highly fossiliferous stratigraphic units; the Pisco Formation has provided a wealth of marine mammals (including sloths), birds, fish and other groups, as have the Chilcatay, Otuma and Paracas Formations.

Stratigraphy

Tectonic and sedimentary evolution The basin developed in a setting of extensional tectonics from Eocene to the Late Miocene with short-lived episode of basin inversion in the Middle Miocene. Late Pliocene and Pleistocene uplift of the basin may be consequence of the subduction of Nazca Ridge. Sedimentary strata of the basin shows evidence for a series of marine transgressions during the last 50 million years. These marine transgressions occurred in a sequence 41-34 Ma, 31-28 Ma, 25-16 Ma, 15-11 Ma, 10-5 Ma, and 4-2 Ma. The end of most of the marine transgressions is thought to be associated either with global sea level falls or compressional events in the Andes.

Oligo-Miocene transgression The marine Oligo-Miocene (25–16 Ma) marine transgression is evidenced by a series of sedimentary strata containing fossils of marine diatoms, Peruchilus snails and Pitar and Cucullaea clams. Oligo-Miocene marine environments in the Pisco Basin range from littoral to shelf. Moquegua Basin southeast of Pisco Basin appear to have been unaffected by the transgression. Within the Andean margin contemporary marine transgressions are also known from southern Chile, Patagonia and Colombia. As such the marine transgression is thought to represent a regional phenomenon with the steadily rising central Andes being an exception.

Paleontology

Pisco Formation

Chilcatay Formation

Otuma Formation

Paracas Formation

See also Arauco Basin, Chile Altiplano Basin, Peru, Chile, Bolivia Caldera Basin, Chile Cocinetas Basin, Colombia Urumaco Formation, Venezuela

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography Stratigraphy DeVries, Thomas J.; Urbina, Mario; Jud, Nathan A. (2017), "The Eocene-Oligocene Otuma Depositional Sequence (East Pisco Basin, Peru): Paleogeographic and Paleoceanographic Implications of New Data" (PDF), Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica del Perú, 112: 014–038, retrieved 2020-03-09 Dunbar, Robert B.; Marty, Richard C.; Baker, Paul A. (1990), "Cenozoic marine sedimentation in the Sechura and Pisco basins, Peru", Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 77 (3–4): 235–261, Bibcode:1990PPP....77..235D, doi:10.1016/0031-0182(90)90179-B

Geology publications León, Walter; Aleman, Antenor; Rosell, Walter; Torres, Víctor; de la Cruz, Orlando (2007), Estratigrafía, sedimentología y evolucón tectónica de la cuenca Pisco Oriental (in Spanish), vol. 27, Estudios Regionales, Serie D, p. 1, retrieved 2020-03-09 Devries, T.J. (1998), "Oligocene deposition and Cenozoic sequence boundaries in the Pisco Basin (Peru)", Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 11 (3): 217–231, Bibcode:1998JSAES..11..217D, doi:10.1016/S0895-9811(98)00014-5 Macharé, José; Devries, Thomas; Barron, John; Fourtanier, Élisabeth (1988), "Oligo-Miocene transgression along the Pacifie margin of South America: new paleontological and geological evidence from the Pisco basin (Peru)" (PDF), Geódynamique, 3 (1–2): 25–37, retrieved 2020-03-09

Paleontology publications Solís Mundaca, Flavio Alejandro (2018), Bioestratigrafía e implicancias paleoceanográficas de las diatomeas de la sección Cerro Caucato, Formación Pisco, Ica, Peru (MSc. thesis) (PDF), Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, pp. 1–158, retrieved 2018-09-10 Lambert, O.; Martínez Cáceres, M.; Bianucci, G.; Di Celma, C.; Salas Gismondi, R.; Steurbaut, E.; Urbina, Mario; de Muizon, C. (2017), "Earliest Mysticete from the Late Eocene of Peru Sheds New Light on the Origin of Baleen Whales", Current Biology, 27 (10): 1–7, Bibcode:2017CBio...27E1535L, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.04.026, hdl:11581/396095, PMID 28502655, retrieved 2019-02-04

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pisco Basin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pisco Basin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Pisco Basin 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 Pisco Basin 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 Pisco Basin

In research: Pisco Basin appears in biology 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 Pisco Basin 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: Pisco Basin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Forearc basins, Geography of the Department of Ica, Neogene Peru, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pisco Basin 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 Pisco Basin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pisco Basin 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 Pisco Basin out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pisco Basin in simple terms?

Why does Pisco Basin matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Pisco Basin?

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 Pisco Basin.