Title
Peruvian Altiplano Stratigraphy Highlights Along-Strike Variability in Foreland Basin Evolution of the Cenozoic Central Andes
Date Issued
01 June 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
Retroarc foreland basins in the Andean plateau contain critical information on geodynamic processes driving plateau development by providing a record of exhumation and sediment sourcing, as well as the timing, location, and magnitude of basin subsidence. However, this record is incomplete along orogenic strike and particularly limited in southern Peru. We measured ~6,200 m of nonmarine clastic strata in the northern Peruvian Altiplano, documented through lithofacies characterization and paleocurrent analysis, conglomerate clast counts, sandstone petrography, and detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology; for the latter we employ quantitative detrital zircon interpretation methods including multidimensional scaling, mixture modeling, and quantification of zircon roundness. Results show dominant sediment sourcing from the Western Cordillera and/or western Altiplano. Sediment accumulation rates define an upward-convex Paleogene subsidence profile consistent with deposition in a northeastward-migrating flexural foreland basin system, with lithospheric loading from an increasingly proximal Western Cordilleran hinterland. Basin deposition following a 23–9 Ma angular unconformity shows a marked increase in sediment accumulation rates >800 m/Myr, interpreted as a departure from flexural subsidence. Results highlight along-strike variability in Andean foreland basin evolution, as foredeep deposits are thicker, and the onset of rapid sediment accumulation occurs earlier in southern Peru compared to Bolivia and Argentina. Results tentatively support models of orogenic cyclicity and reveal that episodes of high-flux magmatism in southern Peru are slightly out of phase with those documented in northwest Argentina, which may be controlled by preexisting Paleozoic-Mesozoic structural and stratigraphic fabrics and the rate of underthrusting of melt-fertile continental lower crust and mantle lithosphere.
Start page
1876
End page
1904
Volume
37
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geología
Ciencias ambientales
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85050024864
Source
Tectonics
ISSN of the container
02787407
Sponsor(s)
We gratefully acknowledge assistance in southern Peru from Erick Gil and the Gil family. This work benefitted from fruitful discussions with Nadine McQuarrie, Nick Perez, Brian Horton, Margarete Jadamec, Tyson Smith, Nick Bartschi, and Noah Karsky. We thank Yongjun Gao and Minako Righter laboratory assistance. We thank Mauricio Parra, Emilio A. Rojas Vera, and an anonymous referee for detailed reviews that greatly improved the quality and clarity of this manuscript. We also thank Editor Taylor Schildgen and Associate Editor Marcelo Farias for the handling of this manuscript. All the data used can be found in the supporting information and listed in the references; new U-Pb geochronology data are also archived at geochron.org. The mixing model can be downloaded directly at https://www.kurtsundell.com/downloads/ or https://github.com/kurtsun-dell/DZmix. Field work and analytical costs were supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (EAR-1550097), the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration, Geological Society of America Grants-in-Aid, International Association of Sedimentologists, Sigma Xi, and scholarships from the Joe and Lucy Steward Memorial Endowment, the Sam Penn Memorial Endowment, Houston Alumni Association, British Petroleum, and Marathon Oil Corporation.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus