Late Paleozoic to Early Jurassic tectonic development of the high Andean Principal Cordillera, El Indio Region, Chile (29–30°S)

Abstract

Regional mapping (1:50,000) and U-Pb and K-Ar geochronology in the El Indio region refines the knowledge of the distribution, lithostratigraphy, and age of the sedimentary, volcanic, and intrusive rocks that comprise the regionally extensive Pastos Blancos Group which is equivalent to the Choiyoi Group of the Argentine Frontal Cordillera. The Pastos Blancos Group (which we elevate to Group status herein) includes at least two diachronous volcanic–sedimentary sequences: an older felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic unit, the Guanaco Sonso sequence, that is Permian in age, and a younger bimodal volcanic and volcaniclastic unit, the Los Tilos sequence that is Middle Triassic to Early Jurassic. Sedimentary rocks of the Los Tilos sequence are transitional upward into the overlying Early to Middle Jurassic shallow marine limestones of the Lautaro Formation. Intrusions that make up the regionally extensive Permian to Early Jurassic plutons of the Chollay and Elqui-Limarı́ batholiths that were previously mapped as a single plutonic association, the Ingaguás Complex, include in the El Indio region at least three discrete intrusive units. These include: Early Permian (280–270 Ma) biotite granites, Early to Middle Triassic (242–238 Ma) silica-rich leucocratic granites and rhyolitic porphyries that made up the bulk of the Chollay Batholith, and a younger Late Triassic–Early Jurassic unit (221–200 Ma) of mainly intrusive rhyolitic porphyries, extrusive domes, and subordinate mafic intrusions and both felsic and mafic dikes, which are coeval with volcanic rocks of the Los Tilos sequence. Our data show that latest Paleozoic to Early Jurassic intrusive, volcanic, and sedimentary rocks in the El Indio region of the High Andes of Chile between 29–30°S likely formed during extension driven processes after the cessation of Carboniferous–Early Permian subduction along the western edge of Gondwana. These processes began by Late Permian time, but instead of recording a single and protracted magmatic event, as has been previously suggested, rocks that belong to the Pastos Blancos Group and the Ingaguás Intrusive Complex record at least three discrete periods of silicic to bimodal magmatism which occurred during the Middle Permian to Early Jurassic interval.