[2] A small part of the formation crops out in the Mendoza Province of western Argentina.

[3] The sediments accumulated in the Abanico Extensional Basin within a context of the Andean orogeny.

The basin had a north–south elongated shape that spanned the latitudes of 29–38° S. Tectonic inversion from 21 to 16 million years ago made the basin collapse and the sediments to be incorporated to the Andean ranges.

[2] Parts of the formation are known to have experienced Prehnite-pumpellyite facies metamorphism.

The rich faunal assemblage of the paleontological site, located in the La Gloria Member and dated at 33 to 31 Ma, gave name to the Tinguirirican South American land mammal age (SALMA), together with the Friasian named after the Río Frías Formation of the Aysén Region, the only ages defined in Chile.