North Patagonian Batholith North Patagonian Batholith The North Patagonian Batholith () is a series of igneous plutons in the Patagonian Andes of Argentina and Chile. The Northern Patagonian Batholith was formed in the Mesozoic Era and Cenozoic Era. It is made up of a collection of individual plutons made up of granodiorite, tonalite and diorite among other rocks. Most plutons of the North Patagonian Batholith are of Cretaceous Period to the Miocene age of the Neogene Period (135 Ma to 25-15 Ma), during the Mesozoic Era. Late Miocene to early Pliocene (10 to 5 Ma) leucogranites were also intruded. The Tertiary intrusions are
Patagonian Ice Sheet of more than 500,000 km³, of which about 4% remains glaciated today in two separated portions known as the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields. The ice-volume reduction contributed to a global sea-level rise of about 1.2 meters. However, during the first glacial period at the beginning of the Pleistocene ice extended to the present-day Argentine coast. With each successive glaciation it is known that the ice has stopped further and further to the west, with aridity always serving as the decisive factor halting glacier spread: it is believed that the east-west precipitation gradients during glacial periods were even steeper