Teresa E. Jordan

Andean tectonics related to geometry of subducted Nazca plate

Seismological and geological data show that tectonic segmentation of the Andes coincides with segmentation of the subducted Nazca plate, which has nearly horizontal segments and 30° east-dipping segments. Andean tectonics above a flat-subducting segment between 28°S to 33°S are characterized by (from west to east): (1) a steady topographic rise from the coast to the crest of the Andes; (2) no significant Quaternary, and possibly Neogene, magmatism; (3) a narrow belt of eastward-migrating, apparently thin-skinned, Neogene to Quaternary shortening of the Andes; and (4) Plio-Pleistocene uplift of the crystalline basement on reverse faults in the Pampeanas Ranges. From about 15° to 24°S, over a 30°-dipping subducted plate, a west to east Andes cross section includes: (1) a longitudinal valley east of coastal mountains; (2) an active Neogene and Holocene andesitic volcanic axis; (3) the Altiplano-Puna high plateau; (4) a high Neogene but inactive thrust belt (Eastern Cordillera); and (5) an active eastward-migrating Subandean thin-skinned thrust belt. Tectonics above a steeply subducting segment south of 33°S are similar west of the volcanic axis, but quite different to the east. Early Cenozoic tectonics of western North America were quite similar to the Neogene Andes. However, duration of segmentation was longer and the width of deformation was greater in the western United States. Patterns of crustal seismicity are systematically related to Plio-Quaternary structural provinces, implying that current deformational processes have persisted since at least the Pliocene. Horizontal compression parallel to the plate convergence direction is indicated to a distance of 800 km from the trench. Above flat-subducting segments, crustal seismicity occurs over a broad region, whereas over steep segments, it is confined to the narrow thrust belt. Strain patterns in the forearc region are complex and perhaps extensional, and a broad region of the Altiplano-Puna and Eastern Cordillera appears to be aseismic.

Thrust Loads and Foreland Basin Evolution, Cretaceous, Western United States

Two-dimensional modeling of loading during the formation of the Idaho-Wyoming thrust belt shows that regional isostatic compensation by flexure of an elastic lithosphere is sufficient to control the formation of a foreland basin. The flexural rigidity of the lithosphere is inferred to have been approximately 1023 Nm (1030 dyne cm), on the basis of palinspastic comparison of predicted downwarping, due to the thrust plate loads, to the shape of the sedimentary wedge on the west side of the Cretaceous Western Interior seaway. Erosion of part of the uplifted thrust plates redistributed the load, depositing it farther to the east, thereby causing subsidence over a much wider area than could have been accomplished only by the loading by thrust plates. Paleotopography after major Cretaceous thrust events was calculated. The resulting mountainous terrain, gentle alluvial plain, and flat sea floor correspond well with the topography of the modern foreland thrust belt and basin system in the Andes of South America and to paleogeographic reconstructions in the western United States thrust belt. Topography is controlled by the subsurface geometry of the thrust faults, particularly the positions of ramp zones, and by isostatic subsidence.

Extension and basin formation in the southern Andes caused by increased convergence rate: A mid‐Cenozoic trigger for the Andes

The southern Andes between 33° and 45°S latitude are characterized by a series of complex basins that spanned the contemporaneous active continental margin, which itself was characterized by volcanic activity. The basins are filled with thick (up to 3000 m) accumulations of interbedded sedimentary and volcanic strata of late Oligocene-early Miocene age. We interpret that these basins developed during a phase of moderate extension within the plate margin system, triggered by an increased rate of convergence of the Farallon (Nazca) and South American plates between 28 and 26 Ma. This history is inconsistent with models of convergence that link high rates of convergence of a continental margin and an oceanic plate to strong compressional coupling. Although extensional basins of this age are only well-described in the southern Andes, the convergence history and volcanic chronology are similar farther north in the central Andes (18°–33°S), leading to the speculation that extension may have characterized the late Oligocene-early Miocene interval regionally. We hypothesize that this extension was a necessary condition to subsequent building of the modern Andes Mountains.

Cenozoic stratigraphy and basin tectonics of the Andes Mountains, 20 degrees -28 degrees south latitude

Clastic sedimentary basins have evolved during the past 40 m.y. in the central Andes (lat. 20°-28°S) in response to shifting patterns of magmatism and deformation. The distribution of these basins and their genetic relations to uplifted areas are analogous to the basins and mountain belts of the North American Rocky Mountains during the Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic. Petroleum exploration has focused on zones underlying the upper Cenozoic strata along the eastern margin of the Andes mountain belt. Between about 40 and 25 Ma, a nonmarine basin extended across the region that is now the Andes Mountains. Between about 25 and 10 Ma, the western part of the former basin became the site of a volcanic arc; sediment accumulation continued in the east, where marine intercalations demonstrate the low elevation of the basin. After 10 Ma, the volcanic arc remained active and locally widened, and crustal shortening caused regionally important thrust and reverse faulted ranges. During the past 10 m.y., up to 4,000 m of coarse clastic debris accumulated in a foreland basin on the eastern flank of the mountains; meanwhile in the interior of the mountains, over 4,000 m of fine-grained strata and evaporites accumulated in local depocenters.

Large‐scale stratigraphic architecture, eustatic variation, and unsteady tectonism: A theoretical evaluation

We incorporate a process-based depositional model with basin subsidence models to predict stratigraphic records. This allows us to investigate the importance of subsidence geometry on coastal stratigraphy and thus to characterize and compare the stratigraphic architecture of two categories of tectonic basins. The models demonstrate that the correlation of stratigraphic sequences to eustatic cycles is not the same in passive margin basins as in foreland basins and that in a foreland basin, the record of episodic tectonism is distinct from that of eustatic sea level change. In the model, sediment transport is approximated by slope-controlled diffusion; nonmarine transport is treated as more efficient diffusion than marine transport. Three different subsidence and sediment supply models are examined: a simple passive margin basin, a simple foreland basin, and then a foreland basin for which vertical motions are driven by thrust shortening that is compensated flexurally and for which sediment supply is related to relief. Predicted passive margin stratigraphies, for cases of varying eustatic sea level, are similar to those of natural basins and include progradational packages and subaerial unconformities, which are used to define sequence boundaries that form during sea level fall. We explore the timing relationships between stratigraphic features and a sinusoidal sea level history, showing that the phase relationship depends on subsidence, sediment flux, efficiency of sediment transport, and period and amplitude of sea level. When the basic geometry of the basin is inverted, placing the sediment supply on the side with maximum subsidence as is the case in foreland basins, the sequence character changes markedly: subaerial erosion does not generate unconformities. In the models of a dynamic foreland basin, sediment supply and subsidence are linked to the structure of the flanking thrust belt and are not necessarily constant. For steady thrusting and variable sea level, unconformities that define sequence boundaries form only on the distal or forebulge side of the basin, and the ages of the sequence boundaries correlate to limes of rising sea level. In cases of constant sea level but variable thrusting, subaerial unconformities are cut locally on both the proximal margin of the basin and the distal margin of the basin, yet the ages of the proximal margin and distal margin unconformities are out of phase in the tectonic cycle: erosion is most pronounced during quiescence on the proximal side and during thrusting on the distal side.

Stratigraphic modeling of foreland basins: Interpreting thrust deformation and lithosphere rheology

The authors incorporate the processes of erosion and deposition in a numerical model to predict the stratal geometries and facies patterns produced during episodic thrusting in a nonmarine foreland basin. The resultant stratigraphic record is characterized by a stairstepped facies package in which each retrogradation of facies (toward the thrust) marks the onset of a thrusting event. The retrogradation of facies coincides with the migration of the forebulge toward the thrust and the generation of an erosional unconformity. In the past, changes in basin wavelength during basin evolution have been interpreted to record viscoelastic relaxation of the lithosphere. This model suggests that changes in basin wavelength are a natural consequence of the interplay between thrust and sediment loading on an elastic lithosphere.

Chronology of Motion in a Complete Thrust Belt: The Precordillera, 30-31°S, Andes Mountains

In the Precordillera thrust belt of west-central Argentina, faulted, rotated, and onlapping relations of piggyback-basin units and foreland basin-units yield an accurate but imprecise chronology of thrust motion. Addition of data from provenance history, strata accumulation rates and presence of thick conglomerate units in the Bermejo foreland basin results in a thrust chronology that is more precise, but not entirely independent of assumptions about foreland basin dynamics. Seven new radiometric dates allow substantial revision of the interpreted age of first deformation in the Precordillera at about 30° South. Units previously assigned to the Paleozoic and Mesozoic are of Oligocene and Miocene ages. A redbed unit that began before

Development of the Colombian foreland-basin system as a consequence of diachronous exhumation of the northern Andes

21.6 \pm 0.8 Ma