Abstract
Deformation in the orogen-foreland system of the southern Central Andes between 33° and 36° S varies in style, locus, and amount of shortening. The controls that determine these spatially variable characteristics have largely remained unknown, yet both the subduction of the oceanic Nazca plate and the strength of the South American plate have been invoked to play a major role. While the parameters governing the subduction processes are similar between 33° and 36° S, the lithospheric strength of the upper plate is spatially variable due to structures inherited from past geodynamic regimes and associated compositional differences in the South American plate. Regional Mesozoic crustal horizontal extension generated a < 40-km-thick crust with a more mafic composition in the lower crust south of 35°S; north of this latitude, however, a more felsic lower crust is inferred from geophysical data. To assess the influence of different structural and compositional heterogeneities on the style of deformation in the southern Central Andes, we developed a suite of geodynamic models of intraplate lithospheric shortening for two E–W transects (33° 40′ S and 36° S) across the Andes. The models are constrained by local geological and geophysical information. Our results demonstrate a decoupled shortening mode between the brittle upper crust and the ductile lower crust in those areas characterized by a mafic lower crust (36° S transect). In contrast, a more felsic lower crust, such as in the 33° 40′ S transect, results in a coupled shortening mode. Furthermore, we find that differences in lithospheric thickness and the asymmetry of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary may promote the formation of a crustal-scale, west-dipping detachment zone that drives the overall deformation and lateral expansion of the orogen. Our study represents the first geodynamic modeling effort in the southern Central Andes aimed at understanding the roles of heterogeneities (crustal composition and thickness) at the scale of the entire lithosphere as well as the geometry of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary with respect to mountain building.
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Acknowledgments
This manuscript is a result of the PhD dissertation of M. Barrionuevo under a binational PhD program between the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and University of Potsdam (Germany). This research was supported by grants from CONICET (GII StRATEGy to L. Giambiagi), the Agencia de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT-2015-1181 to J.F. Mescua and PICT-2016-0269 to L. Giambiagi), and a grant by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to M. Strecker (STR 373/34-1; StRATEGy). We are grateful to the editor U. Riller and the reviewers D. Whipp and J. Kley for their detailed reviews that significantly improved this manuscript. We thank Ch. Dullo, editor-in-chief, for handling this manuscript. We thank C. Kallich for support with artwork. We are grateful to have been able to use the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (geodynamics.org), which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation under award EAR-0949446 and EAR-1550901, for supporting the development of ASPECT.
Funding
This research was supported by grants from: CONICET (GII StRATEGy to L. Giambiagi) and the Agencia de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT-2015-1181 to J.F. Mescua and PICT-2016-0269 to L. Giambiagi); by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Federal State of Brandenburg under the auspices of the International Research Training Group IGK2018 “SuRfAce processes, TEctonics and Georesources: The Andean foreland basin of Argentina” (StRATEGy; DFG grant STR 373/34-1 to M.R. Strecker).
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Barrionuevo, M., Liu, S., Mescua, J. et al. The influence of variations in crustal composition and lithospheric strength on the evolution of deformation processes in the southern Central Andes: insights from geodynamic models. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 110, 2361–2384 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-021-01982-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-021-01982-5