Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259 (2007) 625 – 629

www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl

Discussion
A comment on “Rapid late Miocene rise of the Bolivian Altiplano:
Evidence for removal of mantle lithosphere” by C.N. Garzione et al.
[Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 241 (2006) 543–556]
A.J. Hartley a,⁎, T. Sempere b , G. Wörner c
a
Department of Geology & Petroleum Geology, School of Geoscience, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
b
LMTG, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, OMP, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
c
Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Göttingen, Abt. Geochemie, Goldschmidtstr. 1, Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received 2 August 2006; received in revised form 21 March 2007; accepted 2 April 2007
Available online 11 April 2007
Editor: H. Elderfield

1. Introduction samples spread over a 11.54–5.46 Ma stratigraphic

Garzione et al. (2006) measured oxygen isotope
compositions of Miocene paleosol carbonate nodules
and lacustrine and palustrine limestones deposited in the
northern Bolivian Altiplano. They suggested that these
compositions record an increase in elevation which
indicate that the Altiplano surface was uplifted by 2.5–
3.5 km between ∼10.3 and ∼6.8 Ma. They further
suggested that the rapidity and magnitude of this uplift
could only be accounted for by crustal delamination.
There are, however, alternative ways of interpreting these
data which do not require such rapid uplift and are not at
odds with other geological data from the Central Andes.
2. Oxygen isotope data and paleoelevation estimates
Garzione et al. (2006) sampled the upper part of a
≥ 8 km thick section of continental sediments present in
the Corque Syncline of the northern Altiplano of Bolivia.
They presented oxygen isotope data for 79 carbonate
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1224 273712; fax: +44 1224
272785.
E-mail address: a.hartley@abdn.ac.uk (A.J. Hartley).
0012-821X/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2007.04.012
interval. They assumed that the measured δ18O values
from pedogenic, palustrine and lacustrine limestones
accurately represent the composition of the paleo–
meteoric water from which they precipitated based on
the relationship between δ18O values of meteoric water
and altitude (Gonfiantini et al., 2001). They observed a
3–4‰ change to increasingly negative δ18O values
between 10.3 and 6.8 Ma interpreted to represent a
2500–3500 m increase in altitude during this time
interval. However, seasonal variations in δ18O values
between 10 to 15‰ occur in modern meteoric waters on
the Altiplano and evaporative enrichment can account
for a shift in δ18O values of up to 2‰ (Ghosh et al.,
2006). The possibility therefore that the δ18O values
presented by Garzione et al. do not accurately record
paleo–meteoric water should be considered, particularly
as the likely impact of fractionation on the older samples
is to significantly underestimate paleoelevation.
The δ18O values for specific time intervals reported
by Garzione et al. (2006) are − 9.5‰ to − 13.3‰
between 11.5 and 10.3 Ma, − 8.3‰ to −14.1‰ between
7.6 and 6.8 Ma, and −13.8‰ to − 15.3‰ between 6.8
and 5.3 Ma (excluding outliers). The δ18O values for the
11.5–10.3 Ma and 7.6–6.8 Ma time intervals show
complete overlap (Fig. 1) indicating no significant shift
626 A.J. Hartley et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259 (2007) 625–629
Fig. 1. Redrawn Fig. 4 of Garzione et al. (2006) showing δ18O values
(taken from their Table 1) of carbonate versus stratigraphic level. Open
diamonds are palaesol carbonates, closed diamonds are palustrine
carbonates. Data from the lacustrine interval (10.33 to 7.6 Ma) and
sandstone cements have been excluded in order to simplify the diagram.
These data were interpreted by Garzione et al. (2006) to indicate a 3–
4‰ shift to more negative δ18O values between 10.3 and 6.8 Ma.
to more negative δ18O values and therefore no change in
paleoelevation. Indeed, the abrupt shift to more negative
values at ∼ 6.8 Ma would then suggest that almost
instantaneous uplift occurred at this time.
Garzione et al. (2006) estimated paleoelevation from
the δ18O values of paleo–meteoric water from the
carbonates for different time intervals. Using their
uncertainties the 11.5–10.3 Ma samples were deposited
between elevations of −1700 m and +2400 m, the 7.6–
6.8 Ma samples between 700 and 3900 m, and the 6.8–
5.4 Ma samples between 3000 and 4700 m. Given these
error limits uplift between 10.3 and 6.8 Ma can only be
objectively constrained to be somewhere between 600 m
and 6400 m. Garzione et al. (2006) supported their results
by claiming that the uplift rates they determined were
compatible with those based on fossil leaf morphology
[e.g. Gregory-Wodzicki, 2000]. However, in Bolivia and
East Asia, the current leaf morphology method system-
atically underestimates altitudes when these are high (as it
reconstructs mean annual temperatures in error by as
much as 15 °C), because applying equations generated
from forests in North America to unrelated forests is
inaccurate (Kowalski, 2002). Low Miocene paleoaltitudes
estimated by fossil leaf morphology in Andean Bolivia are
therefore likely to be serious underestimations.
3. Evidence for surface uplift
Garzione et al. (2006) used the work of Kennan et al.
(1997) to suggest that widespread incision of 1.5–2.0 km
affected paleosurfaces in the Eastern Cordillera beginning
at 6.5 Ma. The geomorphological evidence suggests that
2.0–2.5 km of uplift relative to the foreland has affected the
Eastern Cordillera since 10 Ma, but only 800 m of
dissection occurred between 10 and 3 Ma. On the western
slope of the Altiplano, the timing of valley incision appears
to be controlled by (1) the eventual “breaking” of the sealed
ignimbrite surfaces at some critical time (Thouret et al.,
2003), (2) increased runoff around 7 Ma, a period when
climatic conditions were distinctly less arid than today
(Gaupp et al., 1999), and (3) the onset of glaciation and
increased runoff from about 3 to 4 Ma (Clapperton, 1993).
In addition, geomorphic evidence suggests that the volcanic
highlands on the western flank of the Altiplano were above
2000 m between 20–17 Ma (Sébrier et al., 1998). In
summary, geomorphological evidence for post 6.5 Ma
incision generated by widespread regional surface uplift at
this time across the Central Andes is at best ambiguous.
It is clear from structural studies that a significant
amount of shortening took place before 10 Ma along the
western flank of the Altiplano (Victor et al., 2004), within
the Altiplano–Puna plateau (Elger et al., 2005), and in the
Eastern Cordillera (McQuarrie et al., 2005). Reconstruction
of the development of the western Altiplano (Victor et al.,
2004) showed that 2600 m of structural uplift took place
between 30 and 7 Ma with maximum shortening between
17 and 10 Ma, and elevation estimates suggest that the
Altiplano was bounded by mountain ranges up to 2000 m-
high by 9 Ma (Hartley, 2003). Evidence for significant
tectonic shortening (and implied uplift) prior to 10 Ma is
overwhelming and supported by paleomagnetic data that
provide ample evidence that large scale rotation and
oroclinal bending of the Andean forearc region occurred
prior to eruption of the plateau forming ignimbrites in
southern Peru and northern Chile, i.e. between 20 and
35 Ma (Roperch et al., 2006). Additional evidence for uplift
of the Altiplano is provided by the presence of up to 2500 m
of conglomerates deposited between 25 and 10 Ma in the
forearc and derived directly from the uplifting western edge
of the Altiplano [e.g. Victor et al., 2004; Wörner et al.,
2002]. In Southern Peru and Northern Chile, this sediment
wedge has been covered by extensive plateau ignimbrites
with volumes exceeding 1000 km3 (Wörner et al., 2000).
The age of these ignimbrites just west of the Garzione et al.
study area shows a narrow range around 19 Ma and
suggests a short period of extensive crustal melting
(Wörner et al., 2002, 2000). This melting is difficult to
envisage in thin continental crust and indicates the
combined thermal effects of advective heat input into the
lower crust and crustal scale convection after crustal
thickening (Wörner et al., 2002, 2000; Babeyko et al.,
2002). The timing of these plateau ignimbrites then argues
 A.J. Hartley et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259 (2007) 625–629
for substantial crustal thicknesses already in place and
resulting isostatic uplift prior to 20 Ma.
4. Delamination model and implications for
lithospheric processes
Tectonic shortening is widely viewed as the primary
cause of crustal thickening in the Central Andes (Isacks,
1988). Garzione et al. (2006) argued that the apparent
uplift suggested by their results was too rapid to have
been generated by shortening-driven thickening, and
therefore favored delamination as its cause. Such a
process can only occur however when the lower part of
the lithosphere – that may include parts of the lower
crust – has become gravitationally unstable due to
lithospheric thickening (Kay and Kay, 1991). Delami-
nation below the Corque Basin should thus have been a
consequence of thickening. However, if the Corque
Basin was indeed at or below sea level at ∼ 11 Ma as
suggested by Garzione et al. the Altiplano crust had
certainly not been thickened by then (it is now ∼ 55 km
Beck et al., 1996 and, because an unthickened crust
implies an unthickened lithosphere, two obvious and
crucial questions arise: 1) why should the lower
lithosphere start to delaminate while the local litho-
sphere is still unthickened? And, 2) when (and how) was
the Altiplano crust thickened? To address these ques-
tions, Eiler et al. (2006) proposed that overthickening
produced by shortening in the Eastern Cordillera (EC)
triggered delamination there, producing uplift of the EC
and eastern Altiplano and simultaneously enabling
crustal flow from the EC into the Altiplano crust. Whilst
the Altiplano crust is likely to have been thickened by
lower crustal flow from the overthickened Eastern and/or
Western Cordilleras (Wörner et al., 2002; Husson and
Sempere, 2003; Yang et al., 2003), evidence for removal
of mantle lithosphere beneath the EC has not been
reported. If thickening of the Altiplano crust started at
10.3 Ma following delamination in the EC and regionally
triggering crustal flow, this implies that overthickening
had reached a critical point in the cordillera(s) to the west
and/or east, and therefore that 1) these areas were already
at a high elevation, and 2) the lithosphere beneath the
Altiplano had behaved as an anomalous region “resist-
ing” thickening. Although the Altiplano behaved
somewhat anomalously during its Mesozoic and Ceno-
zoic evolution (Sempere et al., 2002), it is difficult to
explain why lower crustal flow into the Altiplano crust
was hampered until delamination occurred beneath the
EC. Furthermore, this chain of reasoning paradoxically
implies that significant crustal thickening, and thus high
altitudes, had been acquired in the Central Andes, east
627
and/or west of the Altiplano, before ∼ 11 Ma and
independently of any lithospheric delamination.
In contrast to Eiler et al.'s (2006) suggestion that
delamination was focused beneath the overthickened EC,
Garzione et al. suggested that the eruption of mafic lavas
throughout the northern and central Altiplano between 7.5
and 5.5 Ma reflects removal of mantle lithosphere and
provides a minimum age for the event. However, none of
the erupted products are in fact basaltic, and andesitic
magmatism also occurred at earlier times on the Bolivian
Altiplano (Suarez-Soruco, 2000). In addition, these
“mafic” magmas are typically calc–alkaline, of low vol-
ume and do not carry the geochemical signature of
delamination magmatism (Kay and Kay, 1993). Mahl-
burg-Kay et al. (1994) in fact found intra-plate signatures
in mafic volcanic rocks from the Argentinian Puna, which
are indeed easily linked to delamination. In the Southern
Puna case, however, delamination is concentrated locally
and in fact has caused additional uplift since the average
elevation of this area is even higher than that of the
Bolivian Altiplano. None of these characteristics are
observed on the Bolivian Altiplano. A key point here is
that when delamination related magmatism occurs, it can
be identified. While delamination is thought to have
occurred locally below the Southern Puna, there is no
magmatic geochemical signature for delamination on the
Bolivian Altiplano. Delamination can therefore not be
invoked as the causal mechanism for uplift of the entire
Altiplano.
A significant calculation error should also be noted.
Garzione et al.'s Eq. (2), dh/dt = [(ρm −ρc) /ρc] dH/dt=
[(ρm −ρc) /ρc] uH/W, allegedly links the rate of surface
uplift, dh/dt, to the rate of crustal thickening, dH/dt, as well
to the shortening rate, u, and the width of the deforming
region, W. This equation is however incorrect, as it is the
density of the mantle, ρm, that should be the denominator
of the density ratio, instead of ρc, the density of the crust.
Let's define K as the ratio (uH/W) / (dh/dt), applying the
values chosen for ρm and ρc by Garzione et al. (respectively
3300 and 2800 kg/m3) to their Eq. (2), K should have been
found to be 5.6, and not 5.5 as published by these authors;
applying these values to the correct equation instead
indicates K = 6.6. Fortunately, these errors have minor
consequences: applying the values chosen by Garzione et
al., dh/dt becomes 0.25 mm/yr (instead of 0.3), and 3 km of
uplift is achieved in 12 Myr (instead of 10) when the uplift
process is driven solely by tectonic shortening.
5. Conclusions
We conclude that Garzione et al.'s (2006) model for
large-scale rapid uplift of the Altiplano between 10.3 and
628 A.J. Hartley et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259 (2007) 625–629
6.8 Ma generated by crustal delamination is not supported
by their data. In particular there are problems with the
isotope data due to the likelihood of fractionation resulting
from evaporation, the wide range of modern-day Alti-
plano δ18O values, and the lack of a change in δ18O
values between 10.3 and 6.8 Ma. The paleoelevation
estimates determined by Garzione et al. between 10.3 and
6.8 Ma range between 600 m and 6400 m when un-
certainties are included, and structural, stratigraphic,
sedimentological and geomorphological data from the
central Andes indicate instead that considerable shorten-
ing and likely surface uplift occurred prior to 10 Ma. The
delamination mechanism favoured byGarzione et al.
(2006) is difficult to reconcile with the fact that dela-
mination follows lithospheric thickening and that the local
crust cannot have been thickened prior to 10 Ma because –
in their model – the Altiplano was located at relatively
low elevations; identification of the Eastern Cordillera as
an outlying locus of delamination, as proposed by Eiler
et al. (2006), implicitly leads to the recognition that high
altitudes existed in the Central Andes before 10 Ma. There
is however no geochemical signature for delamination
beneath neither the Bolivian Altiplano nor the EC, but it is
clear that if delamination had taken place the magmatic
signature would be identified. In addition the thin crust
model of Garzione et al. is not supported by the geo-
chemical evidence which suggests a significant crustal
thickness was present prior to 20 Ma.
An alternative explanation of the oxygen isotope data
of Garzione et al. is that the lack of a trend among the
11.5–6.8 Ma dataset suggests that the samples have been
subject to fractionation due to evaporation resulting in an
underestimation of paleoelevation. This means that
either instantaneous uplift occurred at 6.8 Ma, or that
the large-scale uplift between 10.3 and 6.8 advocated by
Garzione et al. (2006) is unwarranted This latter view is
supported by abundant geological data, which point to
significant shortening, uplift and erosion in this region
before 10 Ma.
References
Babeyko, A.Y., Sobolev, S.V., Trumbull, R.B., Oncken, O., Lavier, L.
L., 2002. Numerical models of crustal scale convection and partial
melting beneath the Altiplano–Puna plateau. Earth Planet. Sci.
Lett. 199, 373–388.
Beck, S.L., Zandt, G., Myers, S.C., Wallace, T.C., Silver, P.G., Drake, L.,
1996. Crustal thickness variations in the Central Andes. Geology 25,
407–410.
Clapperton, C.M., 1993. Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology of
South America. Elsevier, Amsterdam, p. 779.
Eiler, J., Garzione, C.N., Ghosh, P., 2006. Response to comment on
“Rapid uplift of the Altiplano revealed through 13C–18O bonds in
paleosol carbonates”. Science 314, 760b.
Elger, K., Oncken, O., Glodny, J., 2005. Plateau-style accumulation of
deformation: Southern Altiplano. Tectonics 24. doi:10.1029/
2004TC001675.
Garzione, C.N., Molnar, P., Libarkin, J.C., 2006. Macfadden, rapid late
Miocene rise of the Bolivian Altiplano: evidence for removal of
mantle lithosphere. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 241, 543–556.
Gaupp, R., Kött, A., Wörner, G., 1999. Paleoclimatic implications of
Mio–Pliocene sedimentation in the high-altitude intra-arc Lauca
Basin of northern Chile. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.
151, 79–100.
Ghosh, P., Garzione, C.N., Eiler, J.M., 2006. Rapid uplift of the
Altiplano revealed in 13C–18O bonds in paleosol carbonates.
Science 311, 511–515.
Gonfiantini, R., Roche, M.-A., Olivry, J.-C., Fontes, J.-C., Zuppi, G.
M., 2001. The altitude effect on the isotopic composition of tropical
rains. Chem. Geol. 181, 147–167.
Gregory-Wodzicki, K.M., 2000. Uplift history of the Central and Northern
Andes; a review. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 112 (7), 1091–1105.
Hartley, A.J., 2003. Andean uplift and climate change. J. Geol. Soc.
(Lond.) 160, 7–10.
Husson, L., Sempere, T., 2003. Thickening the Altiplano crust by gravity-
driven crustal channel flow. Geophys. Res. Lett. 30, 1243–1246.
Isacks, B.L., 1988. Uplift of the Central Andean Plateau and bending
of the Bolivian Orocline. J. Geophys. Res. 93 (4), 3211–3231.
Kay, R.W., Kay, S.M., 1991. Creation and destruction of lower
continental crust. Geol. Rundsch. 80, 259–278.
Kay, R.W., Kay, S.M., 1993. Delamination and delamination
magmatism. Tectonophysics 219 (1–3), 177–189.
L. Kennan, S.H. Lamb, L. Hoke, High-altitude palaeosurfaces in the
Bolivian Andes; evidence for late Cenozoic surface uplift, in: M.
Widdowson (Ed.), Palaeosurfaces; Recognition, Reconstruction
and Palaeoenvironmental Interpretation, Geological Society Spe-
cial Publication, vol. 120, The Geological Society, London, 1997,
pp. 307–323. Geological Society of London.
Kowalski, E.A., 2002. Mean annual temperature estimation based on
leaf morphology: a test from tropical South America. Palaeogeogr.
Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 188, 141–165.
Mahlburg-Kay, S., Coira, B., Viramonte, J., 1994. Young mafic back-
arc volcanic rocks as indicators of continental lithospheric
delamination beneath the Argentine Puna plateau, central Andes.
J. Geophys. Res. 99, 24323–24339.
McQuarrie, N., Horton, B.K., Zandt, G., Beck, S., DeCelles, P.G.,
2005. Lithospheric evolution of the Andean fold-thrust belt,
Bolivia and the origin of the central Andean plateau. Tectono-
physics 399, 15–37.
Roperch, P.T., Sempere, T., Macedo, O., Arriagada, C., Fornari, M.,
Tapia, C., García, M., Laj, C., 2006. Counterclockwise rotation of
Late Eocene–Oligocene forearc deposits in southern Peru and its
significance for oroclinal bending in the Central Andes. Tectonics 25.
doi:10.1029/2005TC001882.
Sébrier, M., Lavenu, A., Fornari, M., Soulas, J.-P., 1998. Tectonics and
uplift in Central Andes (Peru, Bolivia and northern Chile) from
Eocene to present. Géodynamique 3 (1–2), 85–106.
Sempere, T., Carlier, G., Soler, P., Fornari, M., Carlotto, V., Jacay, J.,
Arispe, O., Néraudeau, D., Cárdenas, J., Rosas, S., Jiménez, N.,
2002. Late Permian–Middle Jurassic lithospheric thinning in Peru
and Bolivia, and its bearing on Andean-age tectonics. Tectono-
physics 345, 153–181.
Suarez-Soruco, R., 2000. Geological Compendium of Bolivia. Rev.
Tec. Yacim. Pet. Fisc. Boliv. 18 (part A), 1–76.
J.-C. Thouret, G. Wörner, B. Singer, A. Finizola, Valley evolution,
uplift, volcanism and related hazards on the western slope of the
 A.J. Hartley et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259 (2007) 625–629 629

central Andes, EGS-AGU-EU Joint Assembly, Nice, abstr. (2003)
EAE03-A-10498 (TS7).
Victor, P., Oncken, O., Glodny, J., 2004. Uplift of the western Altiplano
plateau: evidence from the Precordillera between 20° and 21°S
(northern Chile). Tectonics 23. doi:10.1029/2003TC001519.
Wörner, G., Hammerschmidt, K., Henjes-Kunst, F., Lezaun, J., Wilke,
H., 2000. Geochronology (40Ar–39Ar–, K–Ar, and He-exposure-
ages) of Cenozoic magmatic rocks from Northern Chile (18°–
22°S): implications for magmatism and tectonic evolution of the
central Andes. Rev. Geol. Chile 27, 205–240.
Wörner, G., Uhlig, D., Kohler, I., Seyfried, H., 2002. Evolution of the West
Andean Escarpment at 18°S (N. Chile) during the last 25 Ma: uplift,
erosion and collapse through time. Tectonophysics 345, 183–198.
Yang, Y.Q., Liu, M., Stein, S., 2003. A 3-D geodynamic model of
lateral crustal flow during Andean mountain building. Geophys.
Res. Lett. 30, 2093–2096.