A Comparison of Structures in the Andean Orogen of Northern Chile and Exhumed Midcrustal Structures in Southern California, USA: An Analogy in Tectonic Style?

Abstract

The modern Andean Cordillera has proven to be a good modern analog for the Mesozoic and early Tertiary tectonic evolution of the US Cordillera, particularly for the transition between the Sevier and Laramide orogenies. A detailed version of this analogy, based on the tectonic evolution of the northern Chilean Andes, may explain the tectonic style of intra-arc exhumation and the southward migration of tectonism associated with arc extinction in southern California. Two regionally extensive episodes of deformation and exhumation are identified in southern California; the first occurred in an intra-arc setting in mid-Late Cretaceous time, and the second followed extinction of the magmatic arc and tectonic underplating by a blueschist/greenschist-grade metagraywacke terrane. We develop a model of Laramide oblique subduction of an aseismic oceanic ridge to explain these observations, based on modern subduction of the Juan Fernandez Ridge beneath the northern Chilean Andes. Laramide oblique ridge collision and consequent shallow subduction beneath southern California extinguished the magmatic arc and its intra-arc thrust belt and caused tectonic burial of the forearc beneath the extinct magmatic arc.