Regional variations in tectonic geomorphology along a segmented convergent plate boundary pacific coast of Costa Rica

Abstract

Pacific coastal mountain/piedmont landforms of Costa Rica extend across the tectonic boundary between the forearc and magnetic arc region of an active convergent margin. This plate boundary became segmented circa 1 million years ago when the aseismic Cocos Ridge impinged upon the Middle America Trench offshore from the southernmost coastal area of Costa Rica. Morphometric analyses of 100 mountain fronts and numerous river long-profiles, radiometric dating, and field studies were conducted in two study areas located arcward from the plate boundary where oceanic lithosphere of the Cocos plate is being subducted beneath the Caribbean plate (region I) and the partially subducted aseismic ridge is uplifting the plate margin by isostatic and collisional processes (region II). Values of tectonic geomorphic parameters [mountain front sinuosity ( S), percent dissected facets ( F fd), river concavity ( K)] are not only different statistically in regions I and II but are also different in the areas experiencing isostatic and collisional responses to the subducting aseismic ridge. In the area experiencing collisional responses, mountain fronts, developed along NE-dipping imbricate thrust and high-angle reverse faults, step upward and inland from the coast; morphometric data along with the divergence of river-terrace profiles from the coast piedmont inland toward the mountains indicates higher uplift rates along interior-range mountain fronts. Isostatic uplift in the outer forearc area in region II produces a distinctly different morphologic and neotectonic style characterized by regional uplift distributed across a number of blocks bounded by normal faults. Geomorphic analyses indicate a general southward trend of increasing tectonic uplift from region I into region II where the highest frequency of mountain fronts with low values of S and F fd, as well as rivers with the highest values of K, occur over the crest of the subducted ridge. Field and historical seismic data for these regional trends include: (1) fault scarps displacing late Quaternary fluvial terraces and colluvial soils in areas of collisional responses; (2) Holocene-latest Pleistocene marine sediments uplifted tens of meters along normal faults in areas of isostatic response of region II; and (3) more frequent shallow, high-magnitude earthquakes in region II. This study indicates that spatial variations in the plate tectonic framework can be detected by regional morphometric analyses using techniques applied in extensional and compressional terranes of arid and semiarid regions but not previously applied to forearc systems along convergent plate boundaries in tropical areas.