Recognizing Andean Uplift and the Growth of Continuous Topographic Barriers

Abstract:

Although long debated, the timing of Andean uplift and establishment of a continuous topographic barrier along western South America remains critical to biogeographic assessments of the influence of mountain uplift and erosion on Neotropical biodiversity. Recent methodological advances allow independent geologic estimates of barrier uplift and river drainage shifts that can be compared with molecular-clock calculations of genetic divergence times for various Andean and Amazonian populations. Emerging results from U-Pb geochronology and stable-isotope paleoaltimetry suggest a nearly continuous western barrier since the late Eocene-Oligocene and a complex yet decipherable Miocene–Quaternary history of eastward advancing Andean deformation, upper-crustal erosion, and foreland-directed fluvial transport. In the central Andes, U-Pb ages for detrital zircon minerals from multiple sedimentary basins suggest continuous contributions of Cenozoic-age volcanic detritus from the Western Cordillera since late Eocene-Oligocene time. Hydrogen stable isotopic signatures from volcanic glasses further suggest that the long-lived Western Cordillera magmatic arc attained modern elevations by 19-16 Ma in southern Peru. In the northern Andes, major shifts in detrital age signatures, sandstone compositions, and sediment dispersal for hinterland basins of southern Colombia and Ecuador record punctuated 12-6 Ma uplift of the Eastern Cordillera fold-thrust belt. This eastward advance of deformation helped establish the modern Amazon, Magdalena, and Orinoco river drainage systems, terminating any significant west-directed sediment transport and likely explaining late Miocene vicariance events among taxa of the northern Andes, western forearc slope, and Amazonian foreland basin.