Volcanic rocks of intermediate to predominantly mafic composition are exposed in the Cordillera Oriental and Altiplano of southern Peru in two localities: (1) the Ollantaytambo Formation, which crops out near Cusco, and (2) the Umachiri beds in the Departamento de Puno. The most notable unit in the Ollantaytambo Formation is an approximately 100 m thick succession of lapilli tuffs that originated by hydroclastic fragmentation. These volcanic rocks are of calc-alkaline basaltic to andesitic composition. The tuffs are overlain by fine-grained volcaniclastic sandstones and shales, which grade into quartz-rich turbidites. The Umachiri beds consist of monomict lapilli tuffs with varying lapilli abundance and size, formed by hydroclastic fragmentation, and volcaniclastic sandstones. The rocks have a uniform basaltic andesite composition and tholeiitic affinity. Chondrite-normalized element patterns of both volcanigenic units show a moderate enrichment of LREE and a weak negative Eu anomaly. Pronounced negative Nb and Ta anomalies indicate magma evolution in an arc environment. In contrast, the overlying epiclastic sandstones and shales in the Ollantaytambo Formation reflect upper crustal sources. Our data indicate that the deposition of the lapilli tuffs of the Ollantaytambo Formation and Umachiri beds likely was connected to the westward-lying Ordovician magmatic arc on the Arequipa Massif. If the Ordovician active margin in southern Peru had the same east-dipping subduction polarity as the active Gondwana margin in Argentina and Chile, the sedimentary basin in which the Ollantaytambo Formation and Umachiri beds were deposited was in a backarc position. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.