Early Cenozoic Shortening and Foreland Basin Sedimentation in the Marañon Fold-thrust Belt, Central Peruvian Andes

Abstract:

The Marañon fold-thrust belt in the westernmost Andes of Peru has long been considered a robust signature of early Cenozoic shortening in the Andean orogenic belt. However, the structural details and potential records of coeval synorogenic sedimentation remain elusive. We report results from new geologic mapping (1:50,000), cross-section construction, and U-Pb geochronology for the Matucana-Ticlio region at 11-12°S along the Lima-La Oroya highway. Zircon U-Pb age data from volcanic rocks and clastic basin fill provide a maximum depositional age of ~43 Ma for a middle Eocene syndeformational unit that we identify as the Anta Formation, which overlies the Paleocene Casapalca Formation. Sedimentary lithofacies and unconformable relationships within the volcaniclastic Anta Formation reveal mixed fluvial, alluvial-fan, and volcanic depositional conditions during shortening accommodated by a NE-verging thrust/reverse fault and corresponding backthrust (here named the Chonta fault system). Our cross-section reconstruction and geochronological data indicate that the region is a critical, possibly unique, zone of the broader NE-directed Marañon fold-thrust belt where pre-Neogene synorogenic sediments and their associated structures are preserved. We interpret this combined structural and basin system as an Eocene-age (Incaic) frontal thrust belt and corresponding foredeep to wedge-top depozone in central Peru. As one of the better-constrained segments of the Marañon fold-thrust belt, this zone provides insight into potential linkages with elusive early Cenozoic (Incaic) structures and foreland basin fill of the Western Cordillera and Altiplano farther south in the central Andean plateau.