Inner structure of La Pacana Caldera (Central Andes, Chile) using gravimetry data

La Pacana caldera is located in the Altiplano Puna Volcanic Complex in the Chilean Andes and is a 60 by 35 km NS elongated body. It is one of the largest resurgent calderas in the world, comparable to the supervolcanoes of La Garita, Toba and Yellowstone. It has been described as being formed 4 My ago during an eruption with a VEI of 8,7, which makes it the fifth largest eruption ever in the geological record. This eruption was followed by a subsidence of 0,9 up to 2 km according to previous studies. Different models for this caldera formation were proposed but with a lack of sub surface information. We hence carried a gravimetry study to investigate its inner structure and to better off constrains on these proposed models. The residual Bouguer anomaly (figure 1) is asymetric with multiple high and low gravity, with an average amplitude of -14 mGal, which reaches -24 mGal near the resurgent dome, interpreted as the deepest part of the caldera. Based on this, we propose that the main collapse zone is not related to the topographic border, but to resurgent dome edges. This is compatible with a piecemeal collapse geometry. There are several gravity highs below strato-volcanoes and postcaldera domes within La Pacana caldera, which are interpreted as magmatic reservoirs. Our data combined with previous geological studies allowed us to separate La Pacana in two nested calderas and to trace its NNW, N and NNE borders, previously unrecognized features. The 2,5 D forward modelling cross sections constrained with geological data showed that the maximum caldera depth is 1,3 km with a minimum of 0,6 km in its southern part. We finally suggest that caldera rims are surrounded by paleozoic basement uplifted by thrust fault systems. La Pacana's residual Bouguer anomaly is small (1/2) when compared with the ones associated to other supervolcanoes (Toba, Yellowstone). La Pacana caldera constitutes then an anomaly for supervolcanoes internal structure due to its interpreted low subsidence compared with several tens of km width. La Pacana caldera Bouguer residual anomaly (WGS84 UTM 19S). Thick blue lines indicate the caldera rim.