T23A-2924
Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic Evolution of the Central Andean Foreland Basin System in the Eastern Cordillera to Subandean Zone, Southern Bolivia
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Amanda Calle1, Brian K Horton1, Ryan Bruce Anderson2 and Sean P Long3, (1)University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geological Sciences and Institute for Geophysics, Austin, TX, United States, (2)University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV, United States, (3)Washington State University, School of the Environment, Pullman, WA, United States
Abstract:
Evaluation of foreland basin deposystems and provenance across southern Bolivia reveals punctuated growth of the central Andean orogenic wedge. New and published sedimentology, provenance data, stratigraphy, subcrop mapping, and apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry along two transects (19.5, 21°S) from the easternmost Eastern Cordillera (EC) to the western Subandean Zone (SAZ) shed light on Late Cretaceous–Miocene thrust belt and foreland basin dynamics. Sediment dispersal patterns are constrained by paleocurrents, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, sandstone petrography, and conglomerate clast compositions. Spatial and temporal changes in the Andean thrust belt are recorded in asymmetric foreland basin thicknesses, facies distributions, and provenance within the EC (Incapampa and Camargo synclines) and SAZ (El Rosal and Entre Rios synclines). The >4 km uppermost Cretaceous–lower Miocene EC succession and ~2.5 km upper Oligocene–Miocene SAZ clastic successions record a shift from fluvial backbulge to pedogenic forebulge deposition. Braided, meandering, and lacustrine foredeep deposition records the most-rapid subsidence, with a later shift to progradational braided and alluvial fan deposition in the wedge-top zone. Growth strata preserved in EC and SAZ wedge-top deposits suggest unsteady eastward advance of the deformation front. Distal foreland deposits show west-directed paleocurrents with >1 Ga detrital zircon populations. Emerging Andean sources are indicated by east-directed paleocurrents, <0.7 Ga detrital zircon populations, and hinterland clast compositions. Time-transgressive patterns of punctuated exhumation in the EC (>36-25 Ma), Interandean Zone (IAZ, ~22-7 Ma) and SAZ (<6 Ma) can be linked to eastward passage of a flexural forebulge, recorded as a 50-200 m thick condensed zone in EC and SAZ basin fill. Integrated assessment of basin architecture, provenance, and exhumation highlights the potential influence of pre-Cenozoic IAZ heterogeneities on orogenic wedge growth.
