The Central Andean rotation pattern: another look

Abstract

SUMMARY Crustal blocks in the Central Andes have experienced vertical-axis rotations through angles ranging up to 50 ◦ or more. Blocks located north of the abrupt change in tectonic and geographical trends at Arica, northern Chile (the Arica deflection) have been rotated counter-clockwise; blocks south of the deflection rotated clockwise. Rocks ranging in age from Late Miocene to mid-Jurassic are involved. The palaeomagnetic record of this rotation is referred to as the central Andean rotation pattern (CARP). In this paper the CARP is investigated using the techniques of palaeomagnetic shape analysis. From this analysis it appears that rotation began in the early Cenozoic, and probably continues at the present time. Cenozoic rotation appears to have occurred without significant northward or southward displacement. For earlier times, however, evidence of displacement is found; the sense of displacement apparently changed at Arica—northward north of the deflection and southward further south. This Mesozoic displacement of crustal material away from Arica appears to have taken place without accompanying rotation. No existing tectonic model for the CARP explains this two-part history. Several alternative models are suggested, perhaps the least unconvincing of which involve creation of the Arica deflection during the late Mesozoic by subduction of a spreading ridge, or perhaps an island arc or other crustal-thickness anomaly riding on the Nazca (or Phoenix) Plate.