Abstract
Western Ecuador is made up of oceanic allochthonous terranes accreted between the Late Cretaceous and the Late Paleocene. Boulders of calc-alkaline microdiorites are found in a Latest Paleocene-Earliest Eocene conglomerate exposed near Paita. The geochemistry of the microdiorites indicates that they developed in an intra-oceanic arc setting. Their occurrence in the conglomerate demonstrates that oceanic terranes were being eroded ~ 55 Ma ago in northwestern Peru. Since the closest oceanic terranes are presently located in Ecuador, i.e. 250 km farther north, these terranes have migrated NNE-ward along dextral wrench faults, at a minimum rate of 4.5 mm·yr −1.
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