On Restoring Sedimentary Basins for Post-Depositional Deformation – Paleozoic Basins of the Central Andes

Abstract:

The reconstruction and interpretation of sedimentary basins incorporated into folded and thrusted mountain belts is strongly limited by the style and intensity of shortening. This problem is exacerbated if deformation is polyphasic as is the case for the Paleozoic basins in the central Andes. Some of these have been deformed by folding and thrusting during at least 3 events in the Late Ordovician, the Late Paleozoic and Cenozoic. A realistic reconstruction of the original basin dimensions and geometries from outcrops and maps appears to be almost impossible.

We present results of a stepwise reconstruction of the Paleozoic basins of the central Andes by restoring basin areas and fills accounting for crustal shortening. The structurally most prominent feature of the central Andes is the Bolivian Orocline which accomodated shortening in the last 45 Ma on the order of between 300 and 500 km. In a first step basins were restored by accounting for Cenozoic rotation and shortening by deconvolving the basins using an enhanced version of the oroclinal bending model of Ariagada et al. (2008). Results were then restored stepwise for older deformation. Constraints on these subsequent steps are significantly poorer as values of shortening can be derived only from folds and thusts apparent in outcrops. The amount of shortening accomodated on unexposed and therefore unknown thrusts can not be quantified and is a significant source of error very likely leading to an underestimation of the amount of shortening.

Accepting these limitations, basin restoration results in an increase in basin area by ≥100%. The volumes of stratigraphically controlled basin fills can now be redistributed over the wider, restored area, translating into smaller rates of accumulation and hence required subsidence. The restored rates conform to those of equivalent modern basin settings and permit a more realistic and actualistic analysis of subsidence drivers and the respective tectonic framework.