Thierry Sempere

The Role of Tethys in the Evolution of the Northern Andes Between Late Permian and Late Eocene Times

In recent years, many studies have dealt with the reconstruction, development, and evolution of the Tethyan and Caribbean systems (Pindell and Dewey, 1982; Anderson and Schmidt, 1983; Burke et al., 1984; Dercourt et al., 1986; Klitgord and Schouten, 1986; Manspeizer, 1988; Ross and Scotese, 1988; Pindell and Barrett, 1990; Stephan et al., 1990; Dercourt et al., 1993). However, few papers have addressed the relationships between the Tethyan-Caribbean and Andean realms. In a previous work, some of us have emphasized the probable genetic relations between these domains during the late Triassic-earliest Cretaceous period and proposed a simplified, evolutionary model for the northern Andes in relation to the development of the Tethyan realm (Jaillard et al., 1990). Instead of proposing a new, pre-breakup reconstruction of the westernmost part of Tethys, the aim of the present contribution is to present a summary of the relevant sedimentary, tectonic, and magmatic events recorded in the Central and North Andean margin, in order to underline their relationships with Tethyan events, and to discuss to which extent the development of the Tethys Ocean influenced the evolution of the Andean system.