7th International Symposium on Andean Geodynamics (ISAG 2008, Nice), Extended Abstracts: 587-591

Timing and causes of the growth of the Ecuadorian cordilleras, as

inferred from their detrital record
Wilfried Winkler1, Cristian Vallejo1,3, Léonard Luzieux1,4, Richard Spikings2, & Nergui Martin-
Gombojav1
1
Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zentrum HAD, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
(wilfried.winkler@erdw.ethz.ch)
2
Department of Mineralogy, University of Geneva, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland (spikings@terre.unige.ch)
3
Present Address: Salazar Resources, 10 de Agosto N37-232 y Villalengua, Quito, Ecuador
(cvallejo@curimining.com)
4
Present Address: Holcim Group Support Ltd. CH-5113 Holderbank, Switzerland (leonard.luzieux@holcim.com)

KEYWORDS : Northern Andes, Carribean plateau, provenance analysis, detrital zircon U/Pb ages, paleotectonics

Introduction
The Andean cordilleras of Ecuador are considered to have formed during multiple, continent-ocean accretion
events since the Early Cretaceous. Thus, these distinct collision events should be documented in the sedimentary
record that evolved in response to the growth of the cordilleras. We review the growth of the Ecuadorian
cordilleras using compositional, geochronological, thermochronological data from the i) Late Cretaceous-Present
retro-arc foreland basin (Oriente and Subandean zone), ii) Late Cretaceous-Paleogene sedimentary basins that
precede, are coeval with and post-date the collision of the Caribbean plateau and arcs with the paleo-margin of
Ecuador (Cordillera Occidental and Costa), and other late post-collisional sedimentary rocks (Neogene) that
crop-out in the flat forearc (Costa).
Provenance has been estimated using standard heavy mineral analyses, which we combine with (1) single
detrital zircon grain U/Pb LA-ICPMS ages (to determine source rock ages and possible multiple recycling), and
(2) detrital zircon fission-track (FT) measurements and calculated lag-times (to determine the exhumation
history of the source regions). Finally, the inferred tectonic history of the Andean chain will be calibrated against
thermochronological results from the cordilleras.

Andean Amazon Basin (retro-arc foreland basin)

The Andean Amazon Basin, located east of the Cordillera Real in Ecuador, has been a depocenter since the
Aptian-Albian. The early heavy mineral assemblage, until the late Campanian-Maastrichtian, is characterized by
a simple stable mineral association (zircon-tourmaline-rutile; ZTR), which implies it was derived from the
erosion of shallow granitic continental crust and/or recycling of older sedimentary rocks. Detrital zircons in the
Hollin and Napo fms. yield a broad U/Pb age distribution, ranging from ~ 2.0-0.5 Ga, with a few ages older than
2.5 Ga, and some minor Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages (Martin-Gombojav and Winkler, 2008). A central
question is whether or not the basin was supplied exclusively from the Amazon craton during the early stage of
evolution, as it is believed according to sedimentological interpretations (e.g. Barragán et al. 2004), or if a
primordial cordillera to the west already existed. A primordial Cordillera Real may have existed because, i)
Proterozoic zircons are also frequently observed in the post-Campanian foreland basin series (Tena, Tiyuyacu,
Chalcana fms.), which were predominantly derived from the Cordillera Real (e.g. Christophoul et al. 2002), ii)
The entire basin fill succession yields a group of ZFT ages that range between 270 and 225 Ma. Most likely,

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these zircons were derived from the Triassic Tres Lagunas granite (Litherland et al., 1994), which is a crustal
anatectite that formed via melting of the older Paleozoic basement and intruded Paleozoic schists of the
Cordillera Real (Litherland et al., 1994). The presence of blue (rutilated) quartz grains in the Hollin Fm., which
frequently occur within the Tres Lagunas Granite, corroborates this interpretation, and iii) Scattered ZFT lag-
times ranging between 60 and 0 Ma, measured in the Hollin and Napo fms., suggest rocks located west of the
basin were being eroded, possibly inherited from exhumation during the Peltetec event (e.g. Litherland et al.,
1994), and Jurassic Misahualli arc may also have been a source region. Independent evidence comes from a
palynologic analysis of the Napo Fm. (Vallejo et al. 2002), which reveals that the basin had no connection with
the paleo-Pacific.
The Turonian-Recent evolution of the Cordillera Real is recorded in the following manner. Since ~ 80 Ma, the
low zircon FT lag-times, combined with a frequent change of source regions, confirm that the cordillera was
exhuming rapidly (± 1 mm/year). Medium metamorphic grade minerals have been reworked since the
Maastrichtian-Paleocene (Tena Fm.), and high grade (kyanite, sillimanite) minerals have been reworked since
the Eocene. This trend documents the exhumation of progressively deep crustal levels in the Cordillera Real.
The appearance of recycled mafic, volcanic minerals (diopsidic augite, hypersthene, olivine and chromian
spinel) from the Late Oligocene on (~ 25 Ma) indicates that the Cordillera Occidental was exhuming. The
importance of this exhumation event is emphasized by subsequent constant lagtimes (± 35 Ma), and the
appearance of a second population of zircons with low lagtimes. This suggests that an important Oligocene event
has brought a large volume of source rocks in the Cordillera Real close to the partial annealing zone and steady
state exhumation prevailed since then.

Cordillera Occidental and Costa (forearc)

Basaltic lavas and hyaloclastites of the Pallatanga and Piñon units form the mafic basement of the Cordillera
Occidental and the coastal blocks, respectively. Radiometric age data (40Ar/39Ar, U/Pb SHRIMP) and
biostratigraphic correlations of overlying sedimentary rocks show the volcanic rocks erupted between ~ 90 and
87 Ma (Luzieux et al. 2006, Vallejo et al. 2006). Age data and geochemical signatures (e.g. Mamberti et al.
2003) indicate a derivation of these Ecuadorian rocks from the Caribbean oceanic plateau, which were shred off
during the collision and NE drift of the plateau with the Ecuadorian and Colombian margin of South America
(Spikings et al., 2001). In the coastal region, (1) paleomagnetic inclinations prove that the mafic basement
extruded at equatorial, low southern latidudes (Fig. 1), and (2) rapid, biostratographically constrained changes in
paleomagnetic declination reveal 20-50o vertical axis clockwise rotations occurring between 73 and 70 Ma.
Several volcanic arcs have been identified (Rio Cala, San Lorenzo and Las Orquideas), which intruded the
plateau sequence. Chronostratigraphic constraints from the Rio Cala Group in the Cordillera Occidental suggest
that initiation of east-facing subduction under the plateau occurred soon after extrusion of the plateau. Arc-
related turbidites solely contain mafic to intermediate volcanic-type heavy minerals, corroborating geochemical
evidence for an intra-oceanic origin (Vallejo et al. 2006), pre-dating the collision of the plateau with the South
America margin. The turbiditic Yunguilla Fm. was deposited along the South American continental margin prior
to, and during the collision of the plateau. Heavy minerals and detrital zircon U/Pb LA-ICPMS data reveal a
dominant component of Proterozoic ages (Vallejo 2007), similar to coeval sedimentary rocks in the Andean

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Amazon Basin (Tena Fm.), implying that the Cordillera Real represented the prominent feature before the
plateau/arc collision.

Figure 1. Proposed model for the formation and collision of the Carribbean plateau and parts of the Greater Antilles Arc with
the northern South America continent during Late Coniacian-Late Campanian (from Luzieux 2007). The large-scale plate
tectonic situation is according to Duncan and Hargraves (1984).

The Paleocene Saguangal and Saquisilí fms., deposited on the newly created forearc, are post-accretion
formations. Their heavy mineral compositions show a mixture of continental crust and mafic volcanic grains.
Detrital zircon U/Pb ages from the Sanguagal Fm. correlate with source regions within the Cordillera Real. The
Paleocene-Eocene Angamarca Group as a whole (including the basal Saquisilí Fm.), was derived from medium-
grade metamorphic rocks in the Cordillera Real.
Cenozoic siliciclastic sediments covering the Piñon and Santa Elena blocks, as well as the Progreso basin fill,
depict a mixed detrital supply from accreted mafic volcanic basement and arcs, and from continental crust,
including medium- to high-grade metamorphic rocks in the Cordillera Real. However, the coeval distal forearc
(San Lorenzo, Pedernales and Esmeraldas blocks) and the sedimentary rocks of the Neogene Borbon and
Manabi basins were nearly exclusively derived from mafic rocks (Luzieux 2007). This suggests that already in
the Paleocene-Eocene an axial, southward directed drainage system, parallel to the evolving cordilleras,
developed in the forearc, as it prevails today.

Thermochronological calibrations
Numerous multi-phase 40Ar/39Ar, zircon and apatite FT and apatite (U-Th)/He data, which constrain the thermal,
exhumation and growth history of the cordilleras of Ecuador have been published (e.g. Spikings et al. 2001,
2005, Spikings and Crawhurst 2004). The Cordillera Real and Subandean zone were exhuming at high rates at

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73-55 and 43-30 Ma. The source rocks of the Paleocene Saquisilí Fm. presumably situated in the Cordillera
Real, cooled rapidly during 74-65 Ma. The Amotape complex experienced significant cooling during 75-65 and
43-39 Ma (both events possibly associated with clockwise block rotations). Reactivation of fault blocks in the
Cordillera Occidental is inferred for the period 42-32 Ma and later during ca. 13 and 9 Ma. Furthermore, high
exhumation rates (> 1km/my) have been recorded in the northern and central Cordillera Real at 15, 9 and 5-3
Ma. The Cretaceous exhumation events correlate with the collision of the Caribbean plateau with the Ecuadorian
margin during ca. 75-65 Ma as also concluded by Luzieux et al. (2006) and Vallejo et al. (2006), using different
analytical techniques. Eocene exhumation was previously considered to be a response to accretion of the
Macuchi arc in the Eocene. However, Vallejo (2007) has shown that the Macuhi arc is autochthonous, and
enhanced exhumation during the Eocene may be a consequence of a significant change in plate convergence
directions.

The paleotectonic model

In conclusion we present a refined model of the Ecuadrian Andes (Fig. 1), which differs in several points from
earlier ones (e.g. Kerr et al. 2002). Soon after extrusion of the Caribbean plateau westward subduction under its
leading edge gave rise to intra-oceanic arc development (Rio Cala, San Lorenzo, Las Orquideas). The plateau
and overlying arcs drifted eastward and collided with the South America margin during the Campanian. This is
inferred from the termination of arc magmatism in the Early Maastrichtian, and the clockwise rotation of coastal
blocks during ca. 73-70 Ma. New, eastward subduction under the accreted oceanic plateau fragments was
established in the Late Maastrichtian. On the new active margin from the latest Maastrichtian to Eocene the
Silante, and subsequently, the Macuchi arc developed. Volcanism occurred coeval with the Saguangal Fm. and
Angamarca Group forearc basin deposition, which were mainly shed from the emerging Cordillera Real. There
is no positive evidence for an Eocene accretion of the Macuchi block, which would be geometrically
challenging, because the coastal blocks situated to the west (Piñon, San Lorenzo etc.) already collided with the
margin during the Late Cretaceous. Enhanced Eocene-Oligocene uplift in the cordilleras as documented by the
erosion of increasing deeper metamorphic levels in the Cordillera Real may also have involved the Cordillera
Occidental. Since the Late Oligocene, the scree of the Cordillera Occidental also contributes to the detrital flux
into the Andean Amazon Basin.

Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the support by various Swiss National Science Foundation grants, in particular grant no. 2-72058-05.

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