Diego de Almagro Island was formed by the subduction and accretion of several seafloor-derived tectonic slices with very heterogeneous ages and pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) paths. The highest element of the pile (the Lazaro unit) evidences subduction in the high-P granulite field (∼1.3 GPa, 750 °C) at ca. 163 Ma. Below it, a thin tectonic sliver (the Garnet Amphibolite unit) preserves eclogite-facies remnants (∼570 °C and ∼1.7 GPa) formed at ca. 131 Ma (in situ U-Pb zircon rim ages). Peak assemblages were nearly fully amphibolitized during decompression down to ∼1.2 GPa and ∼600 °C at 125–120 Ma (Rb-Sr multimineral dating). The underlying Blueschist unit has ∼50 m.y. younger metamorphic ages and exhibits slightly cooler peak burial conditions (∼520 °C, 1.7 GPa; ca. 80 Ma, in situ white mica Ar-Ar ages and multimineral Rb-Sr dating) and is devoid of amphibolitization. The mylonites from the sinistral strike-slip Seno Arcabuz shear zone bounding Diego de Almagro Island to the east also exhibit amphibolite-facies (∼620 °C and ∼0.9 GPa) deformation at ca. 117 Ma (multimineral Rb-Sr ages). In situ white mica Ar-Ar dating and multimineral Rb-Sr dating of low-T mylonites (∼450 °C) along the base of the Lazaro unit reveal partial resetting of high-T assemblages during tectonic displacement between 115 and 72 Ma and exhumation of the slice stack. Detrital zircon U-Th-Pb ages indicate that the material accreted on Diego de Almagro Island has been mostly recycled from a Permian–Triassic accretionary wedge (Madre de Dios accretionary complex) exposed along the subduction buttress. Geological and geochronological constraints suggest that the rocks of the Seno Arcabuz shear zone and the Lazaro unit were tectonically eroded from the buttress, while the underlying Garnet Amphibolite and Blueschist units instead derive from the subducted oceanic basin, with increasingly younger maximum depositional ages. The very long residence time of the rocks (∼90 m.y. for the Lazaro unit) along the hanging wall of the subduction interface recorded long-term cooling along the Patagonian subduction zone during the Mesozoic. Diego de Almagro Island therefore represents a unique window onto long-term tectonic processes such as subduction interface down-stepping, tectonic erosion, and episodic underplating near the base of an accretionary wedge (40–50 km).

Previously undated low-grade metamorphic rocks from the Puerto Cisnes-Queulat area (44°30’ S) contain detrital zircons of mid-Oligocene age (ca. 28 Ma). Their outcrops represent the easternmost occurrence of the late Oligocene to early Miocene marine volcano-sedimentary Traiguén Formation; previous correlation with the Paleozoic metamorphic basement of this sector of the North Patagonian Andes is thus refuted. A similar age and provenance were obtained for a paraconglomerate bed of the La Junta Formation ca. 80 km to the north, which is thought to represent a high-energy lateral facies variation of the Traiguén Formation. Miocene plutonic rocks of the North Patagonian Batholith intruded these metasedimentary rocks, generating a contact metamorphic aureole that reaches biotite grade and overprints a previous metamorphic fabric probably formed during closure of the Traiguén Basin. Similar young ages for metamorphic rocks located immediately west of the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone 300 km north, near Ayacara, suggest a regional pattern of earliest Neogene metamorphism and rapid exhumation in this segment of the Patagonian Andes.

Extreme environments, such as hypersaline habitats, hot springs, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, glaciers, and permafrost, provide diverse ecological niches for studying microbial evolution. However, knowledge of microbial communities in extreme environments at high southern latitudes remains limited, aside from Antarctica. Laguna Timone is a hypersaline crater lake located in a Pleistocene maar of the Pali Aike Volcanic Field, southern Patagonia; the lake was formed during basaltic eruptions in a periglacial setting. Here, we report the first integrative characterization of microbial communities from biofilms and microbial mats in this lake using high-throughput 16S rRNA and ITS gene sequencing, along with mineralogical and hydrochemical analyses of water, sediments, and carbonates. Bacterial communities were dominated by the genera Enterobacterales ASV1, Pseudomonas, Oscillatoria, Nodularia, and Belliella, with site-specific assemblages. Fungal communities included Laetinaevia, Ilyonectria, Thelebolus, Plectosphaerella, and Acrostalagmus, each showing distinct distribution patterns. These baseline data contribute to understanding microbial dynamics in hypersaline maar environments and support future investigations. This integrative approach highlights key microbe–mineral relationships and underscores the potential of Laguna Timone as a natural laboratory for exploring biosignature formation and microbial adaptation in chemically extreme environments, both on early Earth and potentially beyond.

During the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous times the western margin of Gondwana in southern Patagonia experienced extreme lithospheric extension and generation of rift and marginal back-arc basins. The ophiolitic complexes of the Rocas Verdes basin comprises incomplete ophiolite pseudostratigraphy lacking ultramafic rocks. The Tortuga Ophiolitic Complex, the southernmost seafloor remnant of the Rocas Verdes basin, record the most advanced evolutionary stage of the back-arc basin evolution in a mid-ocean ridge-type setting. The base of the Tortuga Complex consists of massive and layered gabbros, most of which are two pyroxene and olivine gabbros, leucogabbros, and clinopyroxene troctolites intruded by dikes of basalt and diabase with chilled margins. We present new major and trace element composition of clinopyroxene from the gabbros and sheeted dikes complexes to assess the geochemical affinity of parental basaltic magmas. Clinopyroxene in gabbros is mostly augite and have Al contents of 0.06-0.14 a.p.f.u. and Mg# of 80-92. Clinopyroxene in dolerites in the sheeted dike unit (augite and diopside) have Al content of 0.11-0.12 a.p.f.u. and Mg# of 85-92. Some immobile trace elements (e.g. Zr, Ti, Y) are sensitive to the degree of partial melting and mantle source composition, and can be used as a proxy for distinguishing tectonic environments. The Ti+Cr vs. Ca diagram, coupled with moderate-high TiO2 content of clinopyroxene (0.4-1.4 wt.%) suggests their generation in mid-oceanic ridge-type environment (cf. Beccaluva et al., 1989).  The high Ti/Zr ratios (of ~4-11) coupled with low Zr contents (~0.2-1.1) are expected for higher degrees of partial melting or for melting of more depleted mantle sources. Conversely, low Zr/Y ratios (0.05-0.13) plot between the range of arc basalts. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns in clinopyroxene display a strong depletion of LREE compared to HREE and have an almost flat pattern in the MREE to HREE with a positive Eu (Eu*= 0.9-1.1) anomaly, indicating that clinopyroxene crystallized from a strongly depleted mid-ocean-ridge-type basalt, formed by extensive fractional melting of the mantle source and/or fractional crystallization and accumulation of anhydrous phases. The general trend of the incompatible trace elements patterns exhibit depletion in LILEs, minor HFSEs depletion, positive anomaly of Rb and negative anomalies in Ba, Zr, Ti and Nb, consistent with their generation from a refractory mantle source barely influenced by subduction components derived from the oceanic slab. This agrees with basalt generation in a back-arc basin located far away from the convergent margin. This study was supported by the Fondecyt grant 1161818 and the Anillo Project ACT-105.