The accommodation space in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin was filled by volcanic, fluvial and lacustrine deposits in various geologic formations, separated by unconformities related to transtensional and transpressional tectonic forces.

Homovc et al. (1991) and Figari & Courtade (1993) started defining the stratigraphic units in megasequences indicative of the evolution of a rift basin, resulting from the break-up of Pangea and Gondwana in particular.

The Cañadón Asfalto Basin started forming in the earliest Jurassic on top of Permian basement constituted by the igneous-metamorphic Mamil Choique and Cushamen Formations.

The western side of the basin during the Late Cretaceous experienced a marine transgression of the Atlantic Ocean, depositing the fluvial and estuarine Paso del Sapo and Lefipán Formations.

[6] During the Paleogene, in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin the volcaniclastic Laguna del Hunco Formation,[7] and volcanic Sarmiento Group were deposited.

[32] The La Colonia Formation has provided fossils of a mammal; Argentodites coloniensis,[33] and a nearly complete skeleton of the theropod Carnotaurus sastrei.

[34] Fossil flora (pollen, spores, algae and macroflora) have been recovered from the Lonco Trapial Formation (Cupressaceae),[35] and the Cañadón Asfalto Formation and comprise several families of plants, indicative of climatic conditions in the Late Jurassic; Osmundaceae, Caytoniaceae, Araucariaceae, Cheirolepidiaceae, Podocarpaceae, Botryococcaceae, Zygnemataceae, Prasinophyceae, Filicales and Taxodiaceae.

[36] The same formation also provided fossils of two species of the frog Notobatrachus,[37] the turtle Condorchelys antiqua,[38] the pterosaur Allkaruen koi,[39] and several mammals.

[44][45] The Paleocene (Tiupampan) strata of the Lefipán Formation have provided fossils of the mammal Cocatherium lefipanum and fish Hypolophodon patagoniensis.

[51] Along the Chico River in the basin (localities 9 and 10 on the map), fossils of the sparassodont Patagosmilus goini, two new species of Protypotherium,[52] and the rodents Guiomys unica and Microcardiodon williensis were found.