TY - JOUR A1 - Schildgen, Taylor F. A1 - van der Beek, Peter A. A1 - D'Arcy, Mitch A1 - Roda-Boluda, Duna N. A1 - Orr, Elizabeth N. A1 - Wittmann, Hella T1 - Quantifying drainage-divide migration from orographic rainfall over geologic timescales BT - Sierra de Aconquija, southern Central Andes JF - Earth & planetary science letters N2 - Drainage-divide migration, controlled by rock-uplift and rainfall patterns, may play a major role in the geomorphic evolution of mountain ranges. However, divide-migration rates over geologic timescales have only been estimated by theoretical studies and remain empirically poorly constrained. Geomorphological evidence suggests that the Sierra de Aconquija, on the eastern side of the southern Central Andes, northwest Argentina, is undergoing active westward drainage-divide migration. The mountain range has been subjected to steep rock trajectories and pronounced orographic rainfall for the last several million years, presenting an ideal setting for using low-temperature thermochronometric data to explore its topographic evolution. We perform three-dimensional thermal-kinematic modeling of previously published thermochronometric data spanning the windward and leeward sides of the range to explore the most likely structural and topographic evolution of the range. We find that the data can be explained by scenarios involving drainage-divide migration alone, or by scenarios that also involve changes in the structures that have accommodated deformation through time. By combining new Be-10-derived catchment-average denudation rates with geomorphic constraints on probable fault activity, we conclude that the evolution of the range was likely dominated by west-vergent faulting on a high-angle reverse fault underlying the range, together with westward drainage-divide migration at a rate of several km per million years. Our findings place new constraints on the magnitudes and rates of drainage-divide migration in real landscapes, quantify the effects of orographic rainfall and erosion on the topographic evolution of a mountain range, and highlight the importance of considering drainage-divide migration when interpreting thermochronometer age patterns. KW - drainage-divide migration KW - landscape evolution KW - orographic rainfall KW - thermochronology KW - cosmogenic nuclides KW - Central Andes Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2021.117345 SN - 0012-821X SN - 1385-013X VL - 579 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Noury, M. A1 - Bernet, M. A1 - Schildgen, Taylor F. A1 - Simon-Labric, T. A1 - Philippon, M. A1 - Sempere, T. T1 - Crustal-scale block tilting during Andean trench-parallel extension: Structural and geo-thermochronological insights JF - Tectonics N2 - Despite a long history of plate convergence at the western margin of the South American plate that has been ongoing since at least the Early Paleozoic, the southern Peruvian fore-arc displays little to no evidence of shortening. In the light of this observation, we assess the deformation history of the southern Peruvian fore-arc and its geodynamic implications. To accomplish this, we present a new structural and geo-thermochronological data set (zircon U-Pb, mica Ar-40/Ar-39, apatite and zircon fission-track and zircon (U-Th)/He analyses) for samples collected along a 400km long transect parallel to the trench. Our results show that the Mesoproterozoic gneissic basement was mainly at temperatures 350 degrees C since the Neoproterozoic and was later intruded by Jurassic volcanic arc plutons. Along the coast, a peculiar apatite fission-track age pattern, coupled with field observations and a synthesis of available geological maps, allows us to identify crustal-scale tilted blocks that span the coastal Peruvian fore-arc. These blocks, bounded by normal faults that are orthogonal to the trench, suggest post-60Ma trench-parallel extension that potentially accommodated oroclinal bending in this region. Block tilting is consistent with the observed and previously described switch in the location of sedimentary sources in the fore-arc basin. Our data set allows us to estimate the cumulative slip on these faults to be less than 2km and questions the large amount of trench-parallel extension suggested to have accommodated this bending. KW - Central Andes KW - Peruvian fore arc KW - thermochronology KW - trench-parallel extension KW - oroclinal bending Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2016TC004231 SN - 0278-7407 SN - 1944-9194 VL - 35 SP - 2052 EP - 2069 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER -