Nazca–South America interactions and the late Eocene–late Oligocene flat‐slab episode in the central Andes

Abstract

The most prominent features of the Andean range are the Altiplano and Puna plateaus, which were constructed by crustal shortening and uplift over the past ∼45 Myr. The early construction of these plateaus may have controlled subsequent growth of the orogen. Proposed models have suggested that an abrupt acceleration in relative motion between the Nazca plate and the South American plate at ∼30 Ma may have led to compression of the continent. However, the major plate motion change occurred at 25–23 Ma, and paleomagnetic rotations and crustal shortening of the Andean forearc require that the Arica Bend formed prior to about 25 Ma. Inferred history of flat‐slab subduction along the Altiplano section of the Andean margin and the structure of the adjacent South American cratonic shield combine to suggest an alternate scenario, based partly upon geodynamic models of oceanic‐continental plate interactions in subduction zones. We propose that central Andean tectonism may have been controlled by two distinct regimes of subduction: (1) oblique subduction along the central Andean margin during the late Eocene and Oligocene accompanied by downdip alignment with the center of the Amazonian Shield (flat‐slab activity in this phase of orogenesis may have been caused by a combination of cratonic root enhanced tectonics and oceanic plateau subduction) and (2) an abrupt transition to trench‐normal subduction after ∼25 Ma toward the more distal São Francisco Craton was accompanied by a return to normal angle subduction. Similar interactions are hypothesized to have occurred during the Laramide Orogeny in western North America.