Cenozoic climate change as a possible cause for the rise of the Andes

Causal links between the rise of a large mountain range and climate have often been considered to work in one direction, with significant uplift provoking climate change. Here we propose a mechanism by which Cenozoic climate change could have caused the rise of the Andes. Based on considerations of the force balance in the South American lithosphere, we suggest that the height of, and tectonics in, the Andes are strongly controlled both by shear stresses along the plate interface in the subduction zone and by buoyancy stress contrasts between the trench and highlands, and shear stresses in the subduction zone depend on the amount of subducted sediments. We propose that the dynamics of subduction and mountain-building in this region are controlled by the processes of erosion and sediment deposition, and ultimately climate. In central South America, climate-controlled sediment starvation would then cause high shear stress, focusing the plate boundary stresses that support the high Andes.

[1]  Detlef Angermann,et al.  Space-geodetic estimation of the nazca-south america euler vector , 1999 .

[2]  L. Sloan,et al.  Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present , 2001, Science.

[3]  S. T. Crough.  Rifts and Swells: Geophysical Constraints on Causality , 1983 .

[4]  C. Clapperton.  Quaternary geology and geomorphology of South America , 1993 .

[5]  R. Dietmar Müller,et al.  Digital isochrons of the world's ocean floor , 1997 .

[6]  Active deformation in the Bolivian Andes, South America , 2000 .

[7]  Steven N. Ward,et al.  The 1960 Chile earthquake: inversion for slip distribution from surface deformation , 1990 .

[8]  S. Cande,et al.  Episodic development of a convergent margin inferred from structures and processes along the southern Chile margin , 1997 .

[9]  W. Wayne.  Quaternary geology and geomorphology of South America , 1995 .

[10]  P. Molnar,et al.  Temperatures, heat flux, and frictional stress near major thrust faults , 1990 .

[11]  David Hindle,et al.  Consistency of geologic and geodetic displacements during Andean orogenesis , 2002 .

[12]  M. McNutt,et al.  The relationship between plate curvature and elastic plate thickness: A study of the Peru-Chile Trench , 1991 .

[13]  S. Myers,et al.  Crustal-thickness variations in the central Andes , 1996 .

[14]  G. Bebout.  Subduction top to bottom , 1996 .

[15]  P. Molnar,et al.  Relative motion of the Nazca (Farallon) and South American Plates since Late Cretaceous time , 1987 .

[16]  G. Keller,et al.  The Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary event in Ecuador: reduced biotic effects due to eastern boundary current setting , 1997 .

[17]  S. Lamb,et al.  Origin of the high plateau in the central Andes, Bolivia, South America , 1997 .

[18]  S. Lamb.  Vertical axis rotation in the Bolivian orocline, South America: 2. Kinematic and dynamical implications , 2001 .

[19]  David R. Montgomery,et al.  Climate, tectonics, and the morphology of the Andes , 2001 .

[20]  F. Audemard.  Paleoseismicity studies on the Oca-Ancón fault system, northwestern Venezuela , 1996 .

[21]  K. McClay.  Thrust and Nappe Tectonics , 1981 .

[22]  L. Rivera,et al.  The Andean subduction zone between 22 and 25°S (northern Chile): precise geometry and state of stress , 1996 .

[23]  J. Mercier,et al.  Changes in the tectonic regime above a subduction zone of Andean Type: The Andes of Peru and Bolivia during the Pliocene‐Pleistocene , 1992 .

[24]  W. Schwerdtfeger.  Climates of Central and South America , 1976 .

[25]  L. Ruff.  Do trench sediments affect great earthquake occurrence in subduction zones? , 1989 .

[26]  D. Doser.  The Ancash, Peru, earthquake of 1946 November 10: evidence for low-angle normal faulting in the high Andes of northern Peru , 1987 .

[27]  Thomas A. Cahill,et al.  Seismicity and shape of the subducted Nazca Plate , 1992 .

[28]  B. Burchfiel,et al.  Seismicity, fault plane solutions, depth of faulting, and active tectonics of the Andes of Peru, Ecuador, and southern Colombia , 1983 .

[29]  B. Isacks,et al.  High-level surfaces, plateau uplift, and foreland development, Bolivian central Andes , 1993 .

[30]  R. Huene,et al.  OBSERVATIONS AT CONVERGENT MARGINS CONCERNING SEDIMENT SUBDUCTION, SUBDUCTION EROSION, AND THE GROWTH , 1991 .

[31]  D. P. Schwartz.  Paleoseismicity and neotectonics of the Cordillera Blanca Fault Zone, northern Peruvian Andes , 1988 .

[32]  D. Rind.  Latitudinal temperature gradients and climate change , 1998 .

[33]  Kelin Wang,et al.  Thermal constraints on the zone of major thrust earthquake failure: The Cascadia Subduction Zone , 1993 .

[34]  R. Allmendinger,et al.  Late cenozoic deformation in the Central Andes: fault kinematics from the northern Puna, northwestern Argentina and southwestern Bolivia , 1994 .

[35]  K. M. Gregory-Wodzicki,et al.  Uplift history of the Central and Northern Andes: A review , 2000 .

[36]  B. Horton,et al.  Tertiary Provenance History of the Northern and Central Altiplano (Central Andes, Bolivia): A Detrital Record of Plateau-Margin Tectonics , 2002 .

[37]  S. Lamb.  Vertical axis rotation in the Bolivian orocline, South America: 1. Paleomagnetic analysis of Cretaceous and Cenozoic rocks , 2001 .

[38]  R. Somoza.  Updated azca (Farallon)—South America relative motions during the last 40 My: implications for mountain building in the central Andean region , 1998 .

[39]  Kenneth H. Brink,et al.  The global coastal ocean : regional studies and syntheses , 1998 .

[40]  J. Dewey,et al.  Lithospheric flexure and bending of the Central Andes: Earth and Planetary Science Letters , 1995 .

[41]  M. Ford,et al.  Orogeny through time , 1997 .

[42]  A. Förster,et al.  Heat-flow density across the Central Andean subduction zone , 1998 .

[43]  J. Cembrano,et al.  The Liquiñe Ofqui fault zone: a long-lived intra-arc fault system in southern Chile , 1996 .

[44]  C. Ranero,et al.  Subduction erosion and basal friction along the sediment-starved convergent margin off Antofagasta, Chile , 2003 .

[45]  Robert C. Wolpert,et al.  A Review of the , 1985 .

[46]  L. Kulm,et al.  Sedimentation in the Chile Trench: Depositional morphologies, lithofacies, and stratigraphy , 1987 .

[47]  Manik Talwani,et al.  Island arcs, deep sea trenches, and back-arc basins , 1977 .

[48]  S. Kay,et al.  THE EVOLUTION OF THE ALTIPLANO-PUNA PLATEAU OF THE CENTRAL ANDES , 1997 .

[49]  Detlef Angermann,et al.  GPS-derived Deformation of the Central Andes Including the 1995 Antofagasta Mw = 8.0 Earthquake , 1999 .

[50]  M. Gutscher,et al.  Thermal models of flat subduction and the rupture zone of great subduction earthquakes , 2001 .

[51]  A. Hartley.  Andean uplift and climate change , 2003, Journal of the Geological Society.

[52]  Larry J. Ruff,et al.  Depth of seismic coupling along subduction zones , 1993 .