Shortening in the Central Andes at the transition to flat slab subduction
Abstract
Shortening in the Central Andes is considered to decrease north and south of the apex of the Bolivian orocline, mainly owing to differences in the pre-existing stratigraphic architecture of the continental margin. Estimates of shortening in the central Andes of northern Argentina remain poorly documented, but are required for assessment of the regional kinematic history of the orogenic system. The problem is acute at the north to south transition from the high elevation Puna plateau to the lower elevation region of the Sierras Pampeanas intra-foreland block uplifts, which corresponds with a transition to a flat segment of the subducting Nazca plate. Although deformation in the Eastern Cordillera appears to have propagated forelandward from west to east, the trend in the Sierras Pampeanas is not clear from existing data. We mapped the structures along a roughly E-W transect at latitude 28°S in the Sierra de Las Planchadas of the northern Sierras Pampeanas to measure finite strain and kinematic indicators, and to develop a regional restorable cross section for measuring total shortening. We also sampled for low-T thermochronology in order to determine the timing of exhumation and inferred thrust propagation. A minimum of 40 km of shortening in the Sierra de Las Planchadas is estimated from our restored cross section. When added to the 20 km shortening documented in ranges to the east by previous studies, this brings the total minimum estimated shortening at this latitude to ~60 km. Apatite fission track ages from the hanging walls of thrusts are ~20 Ma, and apatite helium ages range from 10 Ma west of the range to 2.3 Ma in the Fiambalá basin which borders the range to the east. Cretaceous and Paleogene cooling ages are observed in ranges to the east of the Sierra de Las Planchadas, so the young cooling ages found in this study suggest that exhumation was complex and possibly diachronous at this latitude. To the extent that exhumation occurs simultaneously with uplift, this also suggests that deformation did not propagate systematically forelandward in the flat slab region.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.T11B2330S
- Keywords:
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- 1140 GEOCHRONOLOGY / Thermochronology;
- 8038 STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY / Regional crustal structure