This paper focuses on one orogenic belt that formed during the Rinconada phase on the final stage of the Famatinian orogeny, between 445 and 410 Ma, which is well exposed at Sierra de Ramaditas and neighbouring ranges in western Argentina. The Ramaditas Complex is formed by metasedimentary and meta-ultrabasic rocks and amphibolites. This complex forms the upper nappe of a thrust stack resulting from westward thrusting. Deformation consists of an early high-temperature S1 foliation (stromatic migmatites), coeval with thrusting and metamorphism. Metamorphism attained peak P–T conditions of 6.0–6.9 kbar and 795–810 °C, at c. 440 Ma, i.e. coincident with the Rinconada orogenic phase. The lower unit and intermediate nappes crop out in the nearby sierras of Maz and Espinal and underwent low- to medium-grade Silurian metamorphism, respectively, together with the upper nappe, defining an inverted Barrovian-type metamorphism with T decreasing and P increasing downwards across the thrust stack (i.e. westward). We argue that the Rinconada orogenic phase developed near the continental margin of SW Gondwana, during a magmatic lull following accretion of the Precordillera terrane to the continental margin at c. 470 Ma. The active margin jumped to the west after accretion, and flat-slab subduction resumed in the early Silurian, provoking thrusting and imbrication of nappe stack under the still hot root (800–900 °C) of the older Famatinian magmatic arc. This ‘hot-iron’ process explains both the inverted Barrovian-type metamorphism and the missing overburden of 21 to 24 km implied by the P estimate.

The Sierra de Pie de Palo, in the Argentinean Sierras Pampeanas (Andean foreland), consists of a Mesoproterozoic basement and an Ediacaran – upper Cambrian sedimentary cover that underwent folding, thrusting and metamorphism during the Ordovician Famatinian orogeny. Mafic rocks and granitoids of the easternmost Sierra de Pie de Palo provide information about the magmatic activity at the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana during late Cambrian – Early Ordovician time. Magmatic activity began in the Sierra de Pie de Palo as dykes, sills and small intrusions of tholeiitic gabbros between 490 and 470 Ma, before shortening and regional metamorphism. Variable mantle sources (Nd depleted mantle age, TDM between 1.7 and 1.3 Ga) were involved in the mafic magmatism. Nd-isotope signatures were probably inherited from a Mesoproterozoic subcontinental mantle. Mafic magmatism was coincident with collapse of a Cambrian carbonate-siliciclastic platform that extended along SW Gondwana, and was probably coeval with the beginning of subduction. After mafic magmatism, peraluminous granitoids were emplaced in the Sierra de Pie de Palo along ductile shear zones during a contractional tectonic phase, coeval with moderate to high P/T metamorphism, and with the Cordilleran-type magmatic arc that resulted from a flare-up at c. 470 Ma. Granitoids resulted mainly from partial melting of metasedimentary rocks, although some hybridization with juvenile magmas and/or rocks cannot be ruled out. The evidence shown here further implies that the Pie de Palo block was part of the continental upper plate during the Famatinian subduction, and not an exotic block that collided with the Gondwana margin.