Lasting throughout the early to middle Paleozoic, rifting in the region was interrupted in the mid-Devonian when the tectonic scheme switched from an extensional to compressional one, a process that resulted in the collision of the Patagonian terrane with the southwestern Gondwanan margin.
According the the autochthonous theory, the North Patagonian Massif is an autochthonous portion of former Gondwana that has been in its current position since at least the Ordovician[REF].