| Summary: | The Jurassic history of southern South America shows a complex geologic evolution which is the result of different processes that began along the western Gondwana margin during the initial stages of Pangea breakup. Andean subduction along the Pacific continental margin began in the Early Jurassic, after a period of continental-scale extension and rifting, which peaked by the end of the Triassic in central and northern Argentina and Chile. Renewal of subduction was the result of an episode of ocean growth along a series of spreading centers between North and South America when the separation of these continents began as a consequence of the activity of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province hotspot. Motion along these spreading centers produced a component of oblique, SE-directed subduction along the western margin of South America and the reactivation of inherited orthogonal structural features as the N70°E trending Huincul ridge in the Neuquén Basin that was uplifted during Jurassic times. Subduction along the north-south trending Argentine-Chilean continental margin acelerated during the break-up between West and East Gondwana soon after the opening of the Indian Ocean, linked to the Karoo hot-spot. Subduction took place under extensional conditions probably associated with a negative trench roll-back, leading to the formation of a magmatic arc along the Coast Ranges from southern Peru to central Chile and, to the east, the Arequipa, Tarapacá and Neuquén extensional back-arc basins. In northern Patagonia, early Jurassic arc related magmatism occurred to the east of the present day Andean Cordillera along the short-lived (190-170 Ma) Subcordilleran Batholith and the associated Liassic intra arc basin. Arc magmatism ceased in northern Patagonia at ca 170 Ma to be replaced by huge volumes of Early to Middle Jurassic rhyolites and dacites of the Chon-Aike Large Igneous province produced as a result of crustal melting in an overheated crust during the initial stages of Gondwana breakup. Early rifting during ...
|
|---|