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R.W.Allmendinger,1
D.Figueroa,
2D.Snyder,1
J.Beer,
1C.Mpodozis,
3andB.L.Isacks
1
Abstract. Excellent surface exposures,known Valley, located between the Precordillera and the
Benioffzonegeometry,a dynamicmorphology,and the crestof the Andes,accumulatedin a piggy-backbasin.
availability of industry seismic reflection data all Onlap relationson the western side indicate that the
make the Andes at 30øS an excellent transect for High Cordillera was uplifted as a major fault bend
investigatingcrustal-scalebalancedsections. 150-170 fold overa buriedramp. Thrustingin the two western
km of horizontalshorteninghasoccurredin threemajor belts, both in the High Cordillera of Chile, formed
belts located between the trench and the foreland. The during the waning stagesof arc volcanism,11-16Ma.
thin-skinned, east-verging Precordillera of western andaccountfor 2540% of theshortening.Theobserved
Argentinaaccountsfor 60-75%of the total shortening shorteningis probablygreaterthan can be accounted
and formedmostlysincemajorvolcanismceasedat -10 for with reasonable crustalthicknesses,indicatingthe
Ma. Industry seismicreflection data show that the possibilityof continentaltruncationor erosionalong
d(•collement of the Precordillera belt is located ano- the plate margin or an anomalouslythick root held
malouslydeep at -15 km. The belt is dominatedby down by the nearly flat subductedNazca Plate. Our
fault propagationfoldsand containsseveralprominent preferred crustal geometryputs the ramp between
out-of-sequencethrust faults. Seismicstratigraphic upperand lower crustaldeformationwestof the high
analysis shows that Miocene strata in the Iglesia topography, requiringcrustalscaletectonicwedgingto
thicken the crust beneath the crest of the Andes. This
non-uniquemodelprovidesa simpleexplanationof the
first ordermorphologyof the Andesat this latitude.
1Department
of Geological
Sciences,
Cornell
Univer-
INTRODUCTION
sity, Ithaca,New York; Snydernow at BIRPS,Univer-
sity of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.; Beer now at Balancedcross-sectionshave provenvery powerful
PectenInternationalCompany,Houston,Texas. for understandingthat part of orogenicbeltsclosestto
the undeformed craton: foreland thrust belts. More
2yacimientosPetroliferosFiscales,BuenosAires, difficult, however, is the documentation of the kine-
Argentina. maticsof entire orogenicbeltsvia the sameapproach.
3Servicio
Nacional
deGeologia
y Mineria,
Santiago, Commonly, there are two limiting factors: (1)
Chile. magmatic addition to the crust is ;. "ild card" that
can seldom be quantified, and (2) the "boundary
conditions"pertainingto that end of the crosssection
Copyright 1990 which is not pinned to the craton are seldom known
by the AmericanGeophysicalUnion. because of cover, complex multiphase structures,
strike-slipfaulting and/or ductile deformation.
Papernumber89TC03487. In the Andes at 30øSlatitude (Figure 1), thesecon-
0278-7407/90/89TC-03487510.00 straintsare lessseriousthan elsewhere.This segment
790 Allmendingeret al.: Shorteningin the Andesat 30øS
12 ø i i
We presentboth local and orogenicscalebalanced
0 km ]000
cross-sectionsof the Andes at 30øS, showing the
distribution of crustal shortening and the probable
mechanismsof crustalthickening. The mostreasonable
16 ø crustal structural geometry places the ramp, which
links upper crustal deformation with deeper levels,
west of the high topography of the Andes. If so,
crustal thickening must be accomplishedby a lower
crustal thrust which is a mirror image of the upper
20 ø
crustal ramp. This geometry results in crustal scale
tectonicwedging,much as describedby Price [1986].
This model, presented here along with the opposite
end memberof a family of non-uniquesolutions,pro-
24 ø vides the most reasonable framework for understan-
ding the orogen.
28 ø
Four physio-tectonic
provincescomprisethe Andean
orogenat 30øS(from eastto west,Figure2): the Sierras
Pampeanas,Precordillera,High Andes, and Coastal
Cordillera. These belts have been extensively des-
cribed in recent literature [Jordan et al., 1983; Ramos et
32 ø
al., 1986; Herv(• et al., 1987; Mpodozis and Ramos,
1990]and are only briefly describedhere. All of the
provinceswere deformedduring the Andeanorogeny
78 ø 74 ø 70 ø 66 ø 62 ø (Jurassicto Recent). East of the international border
the deformation balanced below is probably mostly
Fig. 1. Regionalmorpho-tectonic map of the Central youngerthan ~16 Ma; to the west it may alsoinclude
Andes [from Isacks,1988],showingthe locationof the Incaic (Eocene) deformation. There are significant
studyarea in (depictedin Figure2). Contoursshow north-southvariations in structureand, except where
depthto the BenioffZone,in km. Grayshadedareain noted, the following discussionapplies only to 30øS
South America is that part of the Andes above3 km latitude.
elevation. Horizontal ruled pattern showsthe extent
of the SierrasPampeanasof westernArgentina.
Sierras Pampeanas
71 ø 70 ø 69 ø 68 ø
....................................................................
h Cordilleras.;-;-;-;-;
Coa st
..Region............. ....... Precordillera
Pacific
' Sierras
OceaFl
Guanto + +
La Serena ..........
.......................
...........................
.i.'1'
.i.'1'
.i.'1'
.i.'1'
.i.'1'
.i.'1'
d
oro•, •, •, •, •, + •, •, •, •::::)
lilt .i..i..i..i..i..i..i..i..i. •:::.-,
Bermejo
++
.•..•. :Argentina :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:.;.:.:..
Basin
High Cordillera
Coastal Iglesia
Region Basin Precordillera
Sierras Pampeanas
Average
raphyi'
•11ement level ........................
5o km
elevations(Figure 4b). Thus the crestof the Andes at interplatezonebut at depthsbelow 75-100km it hasan
this latitude constitute a narrow plateau, approxi- unusuallylow dip (-5ø).
mately -80 km wide. Peaksrise abovethis surfaceto The low dip has two important, related effects: a
elevationsof 6.0 km and the surfaceis alsodissectedby full thicknessof lithosphereis missingbeneathChile
canyons,particularlyon the westside(Figure4b). and westernArgentina,and moreimportantly,thereis
The timing of uplift of the Andeanedificeis a con- little or no asthenosphericwedge between the two
tinuingcontroversy, and no directevidencebearson the plates. The shallowingof the plate between10-15Ma
ageof morphological developmentat 30øS.On a more [Kay et al., 1988] cut off significantmagmatismat
regional scale, the present Andean morphology is about that time and thus removedit as a major factor
thoughtto be largely the result of mid-Mioceneand in subsequentcrustalvolume change. The lack of a
younger uplift [Pascualand Odreman Rivas, 1973]. significant asthenosphericwedge means that the
Since the mid-Miocene, the High Cordillera appears presenttopographyof the region probably does not
to have been regionally uplifted without significant havea strongthermalcomponent[Isacks,1988].
internal shortening, whereas the Precordillera has
experiencedactive shortening. This result matches Crustal Seismicity
well with the unroofing history as recorded in the
upper Cenozoic basins at 30øS [Beer et al., 1990; Although crustal seismicity does not provide a
Damanti, 1989] and with the timing of crustal thick- physicalboundarycondition,it doesshed somelight
ening inferred from geochemicalstudies[Kay et al., on both crustal rheology and depth distribution of
1988]. We use the narrow plateausurfacein our inter- brittle shortening. Crustal earthquakesin the west-
pretation of the structure beneath the High Cordil- ernmostSierrasPampeanasoccurto 40 km depth,only
lera. The model presentedbelow suggests, but doesnot 70 km above the Benioff zone and <300 km from the
prove, beginning of uplift of the High Cordillera at trench [Kadinsky-Cadeet al., 1985; Smalley, 1988;
12-16 Ma. Smalleyet al., 1988]. Theseobservationsindicatethat
the crust exhibits a significantelastic componentto
BenioffZone unusually deep levels and thus could be abnormally
cold or mafic. Given the lack of an asthenospheric
Justas the form of the free surfaceprovidesan upper wedge, we favor the former interpretation,although
boundary condition,the subductedNazca plate must gravity anomaliesin the foreland 200 km to the south
ultimately provide both the lower and the western along strikealsocanbe interpretedin termsof a mafic
limits to a crustal-scalebalancedsection(Figure 3). lowercrust[Introcaso, 1980;Snyder,1988].
Considerable data from both local and world-wide The spatial distribution of earthquakes shows
networksconstrainthe geometryof the subductedplate little activity within or beneath the Precordillera,
[Barazangiand Isacks, 1976; Bevis and Isacks, 1984; Iglesia Basin, and High Cordillera. Thus, the
Cahill and Isacks, 1985; Smalley and Isacks, 1987; activity has either ceasedin that part of the crust or
Isacks, 1988]. These data clearly show that the the thin-skinned deformation of the Precordillera and
Benioff zone has a normal, 30ø east dip in the its westward extension is aseismic.
794 Allmendinger
et al.: Shortening
in theAndesat 30øS
A. [ [ [ ] [ I [ [ [ [ [ I
200 100 I 100 200 300
- WEST
Area
/km 6'0
i•!•.•?...•....••
Area
/km EAST
-
Cummulative
Area(kin) I Cummulafive
Area(kin2) /
B. maxtopo ½
continental
divide
plateausurface
• •
/
ave
topo\
' Iglesia
•
Inferred Crustal Thickness data are not available. The only gravity surveysthat
cross the orogen are located >250 km to the south
The mostpoorlyconstrained
part of thisanalysisis [Introcaso, 1980] and >500 km to the north. Thus, we
the lack of any directmeasureof crustalthickness.No can make only simple isostatic models which are
crustalscalerefractionsurveysexistanywherein wes- consistentwith the topography(Figure 3). Unfortu-
tern Argentina,and extremelylimited deepreflection nately, even the degree of local versus flexural com-
datado not imagethe baseof thecrust. Evengravity pensationis unknown. The extentto which our crustal
Allmendinger
et al.' Shortening
in theAndesat 30øS 795
E
W
out-of-sequence
thrust Niquivil
thrus
w E
O- Bermejo
Basin
2-
8-
Fig.6. YPFseismic
reflection
datafromtheBermejo
Basin(Figure2),showing thedeformed
thickness
of pre-Mesozoic
strataandtheunusual
depthto thetopof inferredbasement.Pz-
pC(?), deformedPaleozoic(?) and/or Precambrianstrata;CO(?), Cambrian-Ordovician(?)
limestone. Note that the Cenozoicfold is detachedabovethe reflectorat ~7 s (~18 km).
Seismicsection
isabout24km long.
0 • •0 .....
km
Silurian-Devonian Cambro-Ordovician
-'"'"
"-•
'" Mesozoic
strata clastic strata limestone
• coveredJ
faults
0 km 10
hal
Figure 9
Niquivil
...
.......
ß , .-:
....... :'-?:z..•.4..
. '
.:.:i:
':::.,..!(
'-"- - :...,•'*•:
';'.'-
"-:"."
.:
,.,'';'"--"'.
--".
i'.•i•-",.;.-
"•;½•.-.'
'":::•
......
'"".i::':'-":
:'::'
':;•'.:::':
:'.
•,:..--
.-.: :. ....... . --•:•...'..•,:.¾•:• ..
ß ....
(Figure12). The tectonicoriginof this episodeof young of the easternthrusts,becauseof the proximity of the
extensionis not known. It seemsunlikely to be related sectionline to tip line folds. The sectionpredicts95 km
to developmentof the high topography[e.g., Dewey, of shorteningof an original 135 km wide belt, or about
1988; Burchfiel and Royden, 1985] because,though 70% shortening. Stated another way, the structural
oriented perpendicularto the topography,it occursat thickening has resulted in a tripling of the strati-
elevationsas low as 1600m. It appears equally un- graphic section.
likely that it is related to over steepeningand spread- This unusually large percentageof shortening--
ing of the Precordillerathrustwedge. most thrust belts have -50% -- is a direct result of the
original thicknessof the stratigraphicsectionand the
Amountof Shorteningin the Precordillera depth to the dScollement.The constraintsimposedby
these two features can be investigated by an area
The cross-section
in Figure13wasconstructedusinga balanceof the entire deformedpackagewhich doesnot
combination of line length and area balancing take into account the structures within it. One can
methods. The hanging wall cutoffs are eroded from visualize this change in area as being accommodated
every major thrust plate; the gaps between restored by a seriesof vertical-sidedpolygonsthat get taller
thrust plates have been kept to a minimum. This and thinner during the deformation. This unrealistic
assumptionis probablyacceptable,at leastfor several structural geometry gives the absolute minimum
800 Allmendingeret al.: Shorteningin the Andesat 30øS
W
LINE
5323 E
2 ELEVATION,KM
SP700 500 300 100
I I I ! I I !
45
Fig. 10. A representativeseismicline showing the overall geometryof the Iglesia Basin
(Figure2). Stationspacingis 50 m. Note the out-of-sequence thrustson the east side of the
basin and lack of evidencefor any fault bounding the west side of the basin. The seismic
sequencesin the Tertiary strata onlap a --12ø east-dippingbasementsurface;they are
described in detail in Beer et al. [1990].
•2
'•o
no vertical exaggeration
Tertiary Tertiary
Ordovician
Ordovician
flysch
pillow basalt
Fig. 11. Cross-sectionof the Rio Las Trancasthrust showing the unconformablerelations
documentingits out-of-sequence nature. Detail views show the onlap of Tertiary strata (in
white) on the back of the Rio de Caracolplate and in the Iglesiabasinon the back side of the
Rio las Trancasthrust plate. Seetext for discussion.
Equal Equal
Area Area 2
n3
Fig. 12. Equal area lower hemisphereprojectionsof kinematicanalysesof minor faults from
the Tudcfimregionof the IglesiaValley. All faultscollectedfrom stratayoungerthan •-7 Ma.
Note the dominanceof vertical shorteningand horizontal,east-westextension.Numbers and
black squaresshow the resultsof a uniformly weightedmoment tensorsolutionto the fault
kinematics (1 is the shorteningaxis and 3 is the extensionaxis). Method is describedin
Marrett and Allmendinger[1990].
Iglesia
Basin Precordillera Bermejo
Basin
:•.• Tertiary ß
•.............
Paleozoic
Cambro-Ordovician Area = 420 sq. kin. Area = 420 sq. kin.
Limestone
Width = 86 kin. Width = 37 kin.
0 km 20
==============================
........
::::-.:::::::.-::
...............................
Generic t '"'""::":':':•
........
Area Balance
Fig. 13. Balancedand restored sectionof the Precordillera. Inset shows at generic area
balance of the thrust belt, which is not dependent on the structural geometry within the
deformedpackageand doesnot includeerosion.The scaleof the genericareabalanceis not the
sameas the structuresection.Locationsof the seismiclinesand profilesin Figures5, 10, and 11
are shown for reference.
Allmendingeret al.: Shorteningin the Andesat 30øS 803
o
wall cutoff (12-13øW)of the ramp responsiblefor the
.,Average
uplift of the Andesat 30øS. Thesecalculationsassume
that the rules of fault-bend folding [Suppe, 1983] Bedding:
apply to the rocks of the High Cordillera. These
040 ø,
assumptionsare impossibleto prove but seemsreason-
12 ø E
able in light of the successfulapplicationof the tech-
nique to basementrockselsewhere[e.g.,Namsonand
Davis, 1988].
must await a more accurate measure of crustal mationmustbe accountedfor. Althoughthe structural
thickness. geometriesin this part of the orogen are relatively
two-dimensional,sedimentdispersalpatterns are in-
Generic Area Balance and Tectonic Erosion/Truncation herently three-dimensional.Lackingany other mea-
sure of erosion,we simply use the cross-sectional
area
Presentcross-sectionalarea. The pin line for these of theBermejo
Basin(460km2),whichis welldeter-
calculations is located at the eastern tip of the mined because of the excellent seismic coverage
Niquivil thrust. Thispositioncorresponds to theboun- (Figures2, 6, and 15). Adding this value to that above
dary betweenthe west-dipping,thin-skinnedPrecor- yields
a deformed
cross-sectional
areaof17,580
km2for
dillera thrust belt and the east-dippingthick-skinned the presentwidth of 380 km (Figure15, top). This area
calculation does not take into account the material
faults of the westernmostSierrasPampeanas(Figures
2, 15). Althoughshorteningin the SierrasPampeanas eroded from the Chilean side of the orogenbut may
over-estimate the erosion on the east side because
is importantto the overallcalculation
of crustalshor-
tening,we lack sufficientseismicreflectiondata to drainage patters show longitudinal transport of
definethe fault geometries.Jordanand Allmendinger material and its concentration in the Bermejo Basin
[1986] estimatedshorteningin the provinceat < 5%. [e.g.,Damanti,1989].
However, because most faults in the western Sierras Initial crustal thickness. The upper part of the
Pampeanasdip to the east, they do not thickenthe crustin the Bermejoforelandbasinis composedof ~7
crustbeneaththe orogen,which is the main focusof km of upper Tertiary strata. These rocks were
this paper. depositedmostlycoincidentwith the deformationdes-
The crustal thicknessesare taken to be those pre- cribedhere (with the possibleexceptionof the Vicufia
sentedabove. Basedon gravitydata locatedsouthof fault). Thus, assuming a present 45 km crustal
the transect,it is likely that the presentcrustalthick- thickness and thatthe Mohohasnotchangedposition
ness beneath the foreland east of the thrust belt is ~45 in the last ~15 Ma, crustal thickness in the foreland
km [Introcaso, 1980; Snyder, 1988]. The thickness prior to the onset of deformation was -38 km. The
beneath the crest of the Andes is taken to be 65 km, cor- surfaceat high elevations(Figure4) is suggestive
of,
respondingto nearlycompletelocalcompensation,
and but doesnot require,low reliefpriorto uplift.
that beneath the Coastal Cordilleras 45 km. These No similar reasoningcan be made for the internal
numbers,admittedlypoorlyconstrained,give a cross- parts of the orogen,which experiencedmagmatism
sectional
areaof-17,120kr•2. prior to ~10 Ma. Accordingto Kay et al. [1987],trace
The amount of material eroded from the mountain elementpatternsare compatiblewith the presenceof
belt and depositedeastof the pin line during defor- garnetin the sourceareaof 16.6-11Ma lavas(the Cerro
= 458sq.
0 50 km
0 ••'•'•
50 km
'•• ß ......
o:..-'.:::.'.--'..•.!!•!•.?.x::s:::::.'.:i:.v;i:-:-
•:,•.•!
,v .. v ,, --.':'•!:•t:
•i•'.-•
-:st<:::
• .. .• >:. :-:• '-'--'-:-
.... ....._,,.............
..• ,,.. , .,.....
................
Fig.15. Generic
crustal
scale
balance
of theAndesat 30øS.A specific
crustal
shortening
distri-
butionis not assumed.Thisliberalconstruction
wasdevisedto maximizeshorteningbecauseit
probablyover-estimates
the presentthicknessof thecrustbeneaththeHigh Cordillera,it
may underestimatethe startingthickness
of the the crust,and it neglectsany magmatic
component
priorto ~10Ma. Totalshortening
is 137kmor36%.
Allmendingeret al.: Shorteningin the Andesat 30øS 805
de las Tortolas Formation) indicating that the crust cation seemsunlikely becauseof lack of field evidence
had attained significantthicknessby the time of their for significantNeogenestrike-slipfaulting. The other
eruption. This age range correlateswith shortening possibility is that the crustal root is much thicker
due to reversefaults in the plutonic core and E1Indio than we have predicted, but the topographyis "held
belt of the High Cordillera [Moscosoand Mpodozis, down" by the nearly flat subducted Nazca Plate.
1988] and is coincident with the onset of Precordillera Given the myriad of unknowns,any attemptsat more
thrusting. Older lavas (the Dofia Ana Formation) precisemodelswould be a fruitlessexercise.
show little geochemicalevidenceof crustalthickening
althoughit is likely that somecrustalroot was present Distributionof Shorteningin the Crust
beneaththis older arc [Kay et al., 1987]. The Dofia
Ana Formationis geochemicallysimilar to the modern The surfaceloci of shorteningare well established:
lavas of the Southern Volcanic Zone south of 36øS and the Precordillera accounts for --60-75% of the total
thus the crustalthicknessduring the early Mioceneat shorteningof the upper crustlocatedbetweenthe plate
30øSmay have been similar to the present, poorly boundary and the Sierras Pampeanas craton. The
known crustal thickness farther south [Kay et al., Precordillera also includes nearly all of the post-
1989]. middle Mioceneshortening.In this section,we explore
To maximizethe amountof crustalshorteningbased two end member geometriesfor the link betweenthis
on the geneticarea balance,we showthe crustprior to upper crustal deformation and the shortening and
--15 Ma with a relatively uniform thicknessacrossthe thickeningin the lower crust. We only considerthe
entireorogen,with the exceptionof a taperededgecor- post 11-16.6 Ma deformation and make no effort to
respondingto the mid-Mioceneplateboundary(Figure accountfor older deformationin the High Cordilleras
15, bottom). The existence of a mid-Miocene crustal or along the Vicufia fault (as would be necessaryin a
root would reduce the difference in area between more completemodel). Only the first explainsthree
initial and final sections and reduce the overall shor- major observations:(1) the inferred westernprojection
tening. Thus our starting assumption is probably of the Precordillera d(•collement, (2) the width of the
unrealistically liberal but it does provide one end "lateau" surfaceon the top of the High Cordillera
member possibility. shown by the hypsometriccurve (Figure 4b), and (3)
Calculationand comparisonof shortening.Given the anglebetweenonlappingupper Tertiary strataand
the geometry shown in the bottom of Figure 15, the the dipping basementsurfaceat the westernmargin of
starting width must have been 520 km to match the the Iglesia basin.
area calculated above. The difference between this
Wedgemodel. The width of the High Cordillera
number and the presentwidth of 383 km suggests137 plateauis about 80 km and the amountof shortening
km of horizontal shortening. This number is, if any- determinedfor the Precordillerais 95+ km (Figures4b
thing, an over-estimatebecausewe have assumeda and 13). Furthermore,we noted abovethat the Iglesia
maximum reasonable value for the present crustal basin onlap geometry resembledsyntectonicsedimen-
thicknessand have neglectedany magmaticinput even tation on the forelimb of a major fault bend anticline.
though the agesof the volcanicrocksoverlap in time Thus,we suggestthat the easternand westernslopesof
with the age rangeof at least30% of the shortening. the plateau define the eroded forelimb and backlimb
The probablevalue of shorteningdeterminedin the kink-bands,respectively,of what amountsto a major
previoussectionof the paperliesbetween130and 170 hanging wall anticline (the uneroded forelimb is
km. If we comparethisobservedstructuralshortening, present only beneath the western Iglesia basin). The
determinedfrom outcroppingstructuresin the Andesat angle of the hanging wall ramp, measuredfrom the
30øS,it is somewhatlarger than what canbe accounted dip of the basementsurfacebeneaththe Iglesia basin
for by a reasonableestimationof the presentcrustal is 12ø, predictingand 11ø footwall ramp. If that ramp
cross-sectional area. However, the observed structural is --23km long and thrustingover the adjacentfootwall
shorteningwas calculatedconservativelyand the crus- flat is 95 km, the resulting flat-crestedanticline will
tal area balance was a liberal estimate (i.e. our as- be 80 km wide and have a structural relief of--5 km,
sumptionswere designedto maximizeshorteningin the preciselywhat is observedin the morphology(Figures
genericarea balance). Thus it is likely that the struc- 4b, 16). In this interpretation,the break in slopealong
tural shorteningis largerthan canbe accountedfor by the westernsideof the High Cordillerais producedby
the predictedcrustalcross-sectional area for the pre- the western kink band arising from the deep footwall
sent. Two explanationsare likely. First,many authors ramp and is unrelated to the Vicufia fault. Thus, a
have suggestedthat the plate margin hasbeeneroded criticalunresolvedproblemis the ageof lastmovement
or truncated,basedon the anomalouslyshortdistance of the fault.
betweenthe presentday trenchand the Mesozoicmag- This geometryappearsto fit the observedmorpho-
matic arc along the coastof north-centralChile [e.g., logy and shorteningof the Andesat 30øSexceptionally
Rutland, 1971]. Truncation or erosion of crustal well (Figure16). It does,however,raisea majorprob-
materialduring the Neogenewould reducethe area of lem: the ramp which connectsupper and lower crustal
the presentcrustalcross-section
relative to the amount shorteninglies entirely west of the high topography
predictedby surfaceshortening. A problem with this and,by inference,the zoneof lower crustalthickening.
is the fate of the removedmaterial:if eroded,it might The plate boundary provides the western limit to the
well be underplatedbecauseof its buoyancy,and trun- displacement of upper crustwith respectto lower crust.
806 Allmendingeret al.: Shorteningin the Andesat 30øS
Fig. 16. Crustalwedge model with IglesiaBasinonlap onto forelimbof major anticline. The
plateausurfaceis definedby the profile of maximumelevations(top curve);dotted curve is
the averageelevation(both at 5x vertical exaggeration)Note that the westernslopeof the
Andes, which coincideswith the Vicufia fault, can be explained as a kink band over the
footwall ramp.
%%%%%%%%%%
'duplex' +++++++
0 50 km
0
50 krn
Cordillera. Additional study, especiallydeep seismic are dominating or competingwith frictional mechan-
reflection profiles, would undoubtedly show both isms along the anomalouslydeep d6collement. More
models presentedhere to be incorrect to a greater or importantly, however, it appears that major topo-
lesserdegree. graphic variations can be simply explained by first
order ramps and flats in the basald6collement,a geo-
CONCLUSIONS metry not specificallyaddressedin the critical taper
model. Finally, in the caseof the Andes at 30øS,the
Despitethe remainingunknowns,the Andesat 30øS "snow plow" can be nothing other than the plate
representone of the best opportunitiesto constructa boundary itself.
cross-sectionthroughan entire orogenicbelt. The sur-
facefeaturesare extremelywell exposedand generally Acknowledgments.We are indebted to numerous
adequately(though not completely)documented,the Argentine,Chileanand North Americancolleagues
for
plate geometryis known, and the dynamictopography discussionsof theseissues. Foremostamong them are
probablyreflectsfirst-ordercrustalstructure. Further- the participantsin the JointYPF-Cornellexpeditionto
more, the lack of magmatismduring the main phaseof the Iglesia Basin and Precordillera in June 1988: L.
shorteningreducesthe significance of one of the major Alvarez, R. Gorrofio, A. Gutierrez, J. C. Idiart, T.
unknownscommonto mostorogens.A majorbarrierto a Jordan,E. Kozlowski,and S. Miniti. Further exchanges
completecrustalbalancedcross-section is the lack of with V. A. Ramos,T. Jordan,S. Kay have considerably
crustal thickness information. This should constitute a clarified the ideas presented in this report. S.E.
major targetfor future investigation. Boyer, B.C. Burchfiel, and an anonymousreviewer
The shorteningat the surfacein the Precordilleraof also provided many helpful commentsalthoughthey
westernArgentinaaccountsfor ~60-75%of the total of do not necessarilysupport our conclusions.We are
~130-170km. The 95 km of Precordillerashortening grateful to Yacimientos Petrolfferos Fiscales for
occurredduring the last 10-15 m.y. Even though this permissionto publish the seismicreflectiondata and
magnitude is large, the shortening rate, 0.63 - 0.95 to the Donors to the Petroleum Research Fund of the
cm/yr, is lessthan 10% of the plate convergencerate. American Chemical Societyand the National Science
This ratio is in closeagreementwith other antithetic Foundation(Grant EAR-8607468)for support.
thrust belts [Allmendinger,1989]. It is likely that this
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