Tectonic shortening and crustal thickness in the Central Andes:

How good is the correlation?

Jonas Kley Geologisches Institut, Universität Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 6980, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
César R. Monaldi Universidad Nacional de Salta-Conicet, Buenos Aires 177, 4400 Salta, Argentina

ABSTRACT VARIATIONS IN FORELAND

Exceptional thickening of continental crust beneath the Central Andes is believed to be STRUCTURAL STYLE AND
mainly a result of tectonic shortening of the South American plate in Neogene time. This MAGNITUDE OF SHORTENING
shortening has been estimated to have contributed as much as 70%–80% of the present crustal ALONG STRIKE
volume. A compilation of published shortening values and our own estimates based on balanced In the Andean segment considered here, the
cross sections from the Central Andes between lat 3°S and 40°S suggest that 70%–80% is a foreland structural style is strongly heterogeneous
maximum rather than an average value for this part of the Andes. Tectonic shortening and the (Figure 1A). From 3°S to 12°S, a salt-related, thin-
crustal cross-section area are only loosely correlated. Variations in tectonic shortening are more skinned thrust belt is flanked on its external side by
abrupt than those of crustal areas, particularly near the northern and southern ends of the several basement uplifts. From 12°S to 14°S, the
Altiplano-Puna high plateau, where thick crust is associated with relatively small amounts of foreland belt consists of a narrow band of folds or
shortening. Shortening there may account for no more than about 30% of the present crustal a foreland-dipping monocline (Ingeomin, 1975).
cross-section area. The processes that created the remaining crustal area are not clear, but are South of 14°S, a wide, thin-skinned fold-and-
likely to involve poorly constrained pre-Neogene tectonic shortening, moderate magmatic addi- thrust belt continues around the Arica bend to
tions to the crust, tectonic underplating of material derived from the forearc, and possible flow 22°S, where it is replaced by the thick-skinned
of ductile lower crust along strike. Santa Barbara thrust system, which at 27°S gives
way to the Sierras Pampeanas basement uplifts.
INTRODUCTION graphic data by assuming Airy isostatic equilib- Between 27° and 29°S, the Sierras Pampeanas
The Central Andes are characterized by one rium (Isacks, 1988). border directly the Puna plateau, but from 29° to
of the thickest continental crusts on Earth, 35°S there is a complex pattern of overlapping
reaching a total thickness of as much as 70 km GEOLOGIC FRAMEWORK thin-skinned and thick-skinned structures to the
and possibly more (Wigger et al., 1994; Zandt The Central Andes between lat 3° and 40°S are west of the Sierras Pampeanas (Mpodozis and
et al., 1994). The deep crustal root is reflected in about 4500 km long and as wide as 700 km. In the Ramos, 1989). These include thin-skinned thrust
high topography, particularly in the large Arica bend near 18°S, the mountain belt changes belts in the Argentinian Precordillera and the
Altiplano-Puna plateau, which is about 4 km strike from northwest to north. Figure 1A shows Aconcagua belt, and an intervening basement up-
above sea level. Thickening of the Andean crust the main morphological units east of the mag- lift, the Frontal Cordillera. At 35°S, the Aconcagua
is believed to result mostly from tectonic short- matic arc. The Andean orogen can be subdivided belt merges with the thick-skinned Malargüe and
ening of the South American plate in Neogene into eastern thrust belts and a less-deformed Neuquén fold belts (Ramos et al., 1996).
time (Sempere et al., 1990; Sheffels, 1990). hinterland. The thrust belts consists of topograph- The variations in structural style and width of
Tertiary deformation appears to have migrated ically higher central belts and foreland belts of the deformed zone suggest corresponding varia-
from the west-central parts of the Andes toward varying width. Central belts comprise most of the tions in the magnitude of contraction. Quanti-
the eastern foreland. Late Neogene deformation Eastern Cordillera, parts of the Puna plateau, and tative estimates of the latter, mostly based on
is concentrated in thrust belts along the east the Principal Cordillera. The foreland belts in- cross-section balancing, are available for part of
flank of the Andes. Near-surface shortening clude, from north to south, the Subandean Ranges the region, in particular for the thrust belts; only
may be accommodated at depth by crustal-scale (Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina), the Sierras a few include the hinterland. We have supple-
thrusting (Allmendinger and Zapata, 1996; Pampeanas, the Argentinian Precordillera, the mented the published data with our own esti-
Okaya et al., 1997; Schmitz, 1994). Attempts to Frontal Cordillera, and the Malargüe-Neuquén mates for areas where the coverage is poor, draw-
quantify the contribution of tectonic shortening fold belts. The central belts are predominantly ing on published geological-structural data (Figure
to overall crustal thickening have given reason- composed of Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks 1B, Table 1). From the western or southwestern
ably consistent results, suggesting that the that were deformed in several pre-Cretaceous oro- ends of individual cross sections, lines were pro-
amount of crustal shortening recorded in near- genic events of local to regional extent, which jected perpendicular to the regional strike of
surface structures could account for as much as range in age from mid-Cambrian to post-Permian. structures until they intersected with a line of ref-
70%–80% of the observed crustal volume The foreland belts consist of essentially con- erence running parallel to the trench. In the vicin-
(Roeder, 1988; Schmitz, 1994; Sheffels, 1990). formable early Paleozoic to Neogene successions. ity of the Arica bend, the projected lines were not
These estimates were made for transects across Crystalline basement is only exposed in the Sierras drawn perpendicular to the regional structural
the Central Andes that included well-developed Pampeanas, but has been inferred to be involved trend but parallel to the axis of the bend (about
foreland fold-and-thrust belts. However, the in other Neogene foreland structures. east-northeast) to prevent them from crossing.
Andean foreland shows abrupt variations in The hinterland north of 27°S comprises the From the points of intersection, we constructed a
structural style and magnitude of deformation, Western Cordillera and the Altiplano-Puna high shortening curve that depicts shortening as a
suggesting that upper plate shortening might plateau and parts of the Eastern Cordillera of function of position on the line of reference (Fig-
vary accordingly. In this paper we have com- Bolivia; south of 27°S includes the western parts ure 2). Because shortening values for both the
piled both published and our own shortening of the Principal Cordillera. The structural style in thrust belt and the hinterland are scarce, we show
estimates for the Central Andes between lat 3°S the hinterland is characterized by thick-skinned two curves: a better constrained one for the fore-
and 40°S, as derived from balanced cross- thrusts, some of them with strike-slip compo- land belt alone, and a less well-constrained one
sections. We compare these estimates with vari- nents, that have accommodated much less short- for the entire back arc. The curve of backarc
ations of crustal thickness deduced from topo- ening than the thrust belts. shortening can be taken as a proxy for total upper

Geology; August 1998; v. 26; no. 8; p. 723–726; 2 figures; 1 table. 723

Figure 1. A: Morphological
and structural subdivi-
sions of Central Andean
backarc area between lat
3°S and 40°S. B: Major
Neogene structures and
locations of cross sec-
tions and of balanced map
(ruled area) used in short-
ening estimates. Numbers
are keyed to Table 1. Bro-
ken lines indicate posi-
tions of Peru-Chile trench
axis and line of reference
referred to in text.

724 GEOLOGY, August 1998

 it difficult to establish an upper limit to the short-
ening in depth-extrapolated cross sections.
In the internal zones of mountain belts, the point
where the basement becomes involved in thrusting
is particularly critical. Filling the same area on a
cross section requires less shortening if thick base-
ment thrust sheets are stacked instead of a thin
sedimentary thrust sheets. Choosing between solu-
tions involving thin-skinned structures or base-
ment wedges has a major impact on the shortening
value derived (e.g., 250 km vs. 140 km for a tran-
sect in southern Bolivia; Kley, 1996). Despite these
uncertainties, the shortening values derived by dif-
ferent workers on the same Andean foreland belt
transects are often relatively close. For example,
the foreland belt of southern Bolivia at 21°S was
inferred to be shortened by 115 km (Dunn et al.,
Figure 2. Variations of shortening along strike of Central Andes. Equivalent shortening curve is de- 1995), 125 km (Baby et al., 1997), and 140 km
rived from crustal cross-section area assuming all crustal thickening is tectonic. Curve is for area (Kley, 1996). This suggests that shortening esti-
elevated above 0.3 km from topography averaged over 100-km-wide swaths (Isacks, 1988); dashed
mates based on balanced cross sections are rela-
part is from conventional topographic profiles. Shortening curves for entire backarc and foreland
thrust belt are derived from geologic shortening estimates (see Table 1). Half-filled dots between tively insensitive to changes of the internal struc-
foreland belt curve and entire backarc curve correspond to cross sections that comprise more tural geometries as long as the assumptions about
than foreland belt, but not entire backarc, or to areas where there is no clear-cut boundary between the general structural style at depth are the same.
foreland and central belts. Note large discrepancies between crustal area and geologic estimate The most critical segments of the Central
curves at northern and southern ends of Altiplano-Puna plateau. For further explanations, see text.
Andean shortening curve are the two minima in
southern Peru and northern Argentina, neither of
plate shortening, because the forearc has suffered The shortening values deduced from balanced which is well constrained. In southern Peru, the
very little contraction in Neogene time (Isacks, cross sections are consistently too low with respect foreland dipping monocline at the mountain front
1988; Schmitz, 1994). The two curves show that to the crustal area curve over the entire Altiplano- may indicate a triangle-zone at depth and thus a
shortening increases toward a maximum at the Puna plateau, but the difference increases drasti- large amount of “hidden” contraction. In fact,
Arica bend, as suggested earlier (Isacks, 1988). cally at the northern and southern ends of the gravity data have been used as evidence for low-
However, there are two marked minima of short- plateau. Interestingly, these are areas of thin litho- density sedimentary rocks underthrust beneath
ening that interrupt this general trend and corre- sphere according to seismic wave attenuation data, metamorphic rocks of the Eastern Cordillera in
spond to the northwestern and southern termina- whereas the remainder of the plateau is underlain that area (Fan et al., 1996). In northern Argentina,
tions of the thin-skinned Subandean foreland by thick, cold lithosphere (Whitman et al. 1996). where a relatively thin cover of Neogene strata
belt. In Figure 2, the shortening curves are com- The implication is that tectonic shortening con- overlies crystalline basement, the structural style at
pared with a curve for crustal cross-section areas tributes to overall crustal thickening in different the mountain front is clearly thick-skinned; there is
above 0.3 km elevation (after Isacks, 1988). This segments of the Central Andes in very different de- no evidence for shallow detachment horizons or
curve can be read as a shortening curve if the fol- grees, and/or that uplift in some segments has a passive roof backthrusting (Allmendinger, 1986).
lowing assumptions are made: (1) The crust is in larger contribution from processes other than Thus, the small amount of foreland shortening is
local isostatic eqilibrium (i.e., crustal thickness is crustal thickening. If the curves derived from bal- well constrained here. However, it has been pro-
proportional to topographic elevation); (2) crustal anced sections in Figure 2 are taken at face value, posed that decreased foreland shortening is bal-
thickening is entirely due to tectonic shortening; no more than 30% of the crustal thickness can be anced by more shortening of the hinterland areas,
and (3) original crustal thickness had a constant attributed to tectonic shortening at 27°S, which especially of the Puna plateau (Allmendinger and
value (40 km in Fig. 2). Because erosion of implies that other processes of crustal thicken- Gubbels, 1996: Kley, 1996). In spite of a likely in-
material from the mountain belt is not fully taken ing—or uplift—must be dominant there. In con- crease of hinterland shortening, the abrupt drop in
into account, the cross-section area for the crust trast, there would be an excess of shortening at foreland shortening is probably not fully compen-
yields an underestimate of the tectonic shortening 30°S, suggesting that crustal material was lost dur- sated by internal deformation of the Puna. In order
required to form elevated topography and a sup- ing contraction or was transferred to adjacent areas. to achieve a steady southward decrease in shorten-
porting crustal root. However, the region above ing, the Puna would have to be shortened by about
0.3 km elevation does include a substantial part DISCUSSION 150–170 km, and an estimate of Puna shortening
of the foreland basin and thus a considerable vol- To assess the implications of the shortening of 50 km (Cladouhos et al., 1994) is substantially
ume of eroded and redeposited material. More curves shown in Figure 2, two questions arise. (1) short of that required value. Furthermore, 160 km
importantly, because the main concerns here are How reliable are the balanced cross-section data? of shortening would correspond to more than
variations of shortening rather than absolute (2) If the drastic drops in foreland shortening are 40% contraction of the plateau, a value more typi-
magnitudes, erosion will have no major impact real, are they compensated by increased shorten- cal of thin-skinned thrust belts than of basement-
on our analysis unless there are strong along- ing of the crust in the still incompletely known involved thrust belts. Thus, although their precise
strike variations in the degree of denudation. hinterland areas? amplitudes are not well constrained, we believe
Although the effect of erosion is likely to become The most serious problems for cross-section that the distinct shortening minima and maxima of
more pronounced toward the equator due to in- balancing arise from poorly constrained struc- the shortening curve depict real variations.
creased precipitation (Isacks, 1988), this should tures for which no geophysical data are available.
produce a uniform general trend superimposed In foreland belts, passive roof duplexes or CONCLUSIONS
on the crustal area curve, and not marked triangle-zones can accommodate large amounts Amounts of tectonic shortening as derived
maxima and minima. of shortening on bedding-parallel thrusts, making from both geologic structures and crustal cross-

GEOLOGY, August 1998 725

section areas are only loosely correlated along
the Central Andes, in particular along the north-
ern and southern ends of the Altiplano-Puna
plateau in Peru and northern Argentina. There,
very thick crust coincides with areas of very lim-
ited foreland shortening. Compensation by short-
ening within the plateau, although not tightly
constrained, is unlikely to fully balance the small
amount of foreland shortening in the two regions.
The contribution of tectonic shortening to crustal
thickening and uplift in the Central Andes thus
seems to vary along strike. The suggestion that
tectonic shortening is the dominant mechanism
for crustal thickening is valid for those areas that
have a well-developed, thin-skinned foreland
thrust belt, but probably is not valid for areas
where foreland deformation is predominantly
thick skinned. Locally, the contribution of tec-
tonic contraction to crustal thickening may be as
low as 30%. Although surface uplift in those seg-
ments may be due in part to lithospheric thinning
(Whitman et al., 1996), and therefore may re-
quire a thinner crustal root, additional processes
must operate that thicken the crust. These
processes may include a moderate magmatic ad-
dition (Lamb and Hoke, 1997), some pre-Neo-
gene tectonic shortening (Horton and DeCelles,
1997; Lamb and Hoke, 1997), the underplating
of material removed from the forearc by subduc-
tion erosion (Baby et al., 1997; Schmitz, 1994),
and possibly the flow of ductile lower crust from
areas of excess shortening (29°S–33°S) into areas
that have a deficit of shortening (22°S–29°S).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank G. H. Eisbacher for critically reading an
earlier version of the manuscript and making helpful
suggestions. We also benefited from critical reviews by
J. W. Gephart and J. A. Muñoz. This work was funded
by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
through projects Kl 495/1-1 to 1-3.
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Manuscript received December 24, 1997
Revised manuscript received May 15, 1998
Manuscript accepted May 22, 1998
GEOLOGY, August 1998