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Controls on the deformation pattern (shortening mode and tectonic style) of orogenic forelands during lithospheric shortening remain poorly understood. Here, we use high-resolution 2D thermomechanical models to demonstrate that orogenic crustal thickness and foreland lithospheric thickness significantly control the shortening mode in the foreland. Pure-shear shortening occurs when the orogenic crust is not thicker than the foreland crust or thick, but the foreland lithosphere is thin (<70-80 km, as in the Puna foreland case). Conversely, simple-shear shortening, characterized by foreland underthrusting beneath the orogen, arises when the orogenic crust is much thicker. This thickened crust results in high gravitational potential energy in the orogen, which triggers the migration of deformation to the foreland under further shortening. Our models present fully thick-skinned, fully thin-skinned, and intermediate tectonic styles in the foreland. The first tectonics forms in a pure-shear shortening mode whereas the others require a simple-shear mode and the presence of thick (>similar to 4 km) sediments that are mechanically weak (friction coefficient <similar to 0.05) or weakened rapidly during deformation. The formation of fully thin-skinned tectonics in thick and weak foreland sediments, as in the Subandean Ranges, requires the strength of the orogenic upper lithosphere to be less than one-third as strong as that of the foreland upper lithosphere. Our models successfully reproduce foreland deformation patterns in the Central and Southern Andes and the Laramide province.
The Andean Plateau (Altiplano-Puna Plateau) of the southern Central Andes is the second-highest orogenic plateau on our planet after Tibet. The Andean Plateau and its foreland exhibit a pronounced segmentation from north to south regarding the style and magnitude of deformation. In the Altiplano (northern segment), more than 300 km of tectonic shortening has been recorded, which started during the Eocene. A well-developed thin-skinned thrust wedge located at the eastern flank of the plateau (Subandes) indicates a simple-shear shortening mode. In contrast, the Puna (southern segment) records approximately half of the shortening of the Altiplano - and the shortening started later. The tectonic style in the Puna foreland switches to a thick-skinned mode, which is related to pure-shear shortening. In this study, carried out in the framework of the StRATEGy project, high-resolution 2D thermomechanical models were developed to systematically investigate controls of deformation patterns in the orogen-foreland pair. The 2D and 3D models were subsequently applied to study the evolution of foreland deformation and surface topography in the Altiplano-Puna Plateau. The models demonstrate that three principal factors control the foreland-deformation patterns: (i) strength differences in the upper lithosphere between the orogen and its foreland, rather than a strength difference in the entire lithosphere; (ii) gravitational potential energy of the orogen (GPE) controlled by crustal and lithospheric thicknesses, and (iii) the strength and thickness of foreland-basin sediments. The high-resolution 2D models are constrained by observations and successfully reproduce deformation structures and surface topography of different segments of the Altiplano-Puna plateau and its foreland. The developed 3D models confirm these results and suggest that a relatively high shortening rate in the Altiplano foreland (Subandean foreland fold-and-thrust belt) is due to simple-shear shortening facilitated by thick and mechanically weak sediments, a process which requires a much lower driving force than the pure-shear shortening deformation mode in the adjacent broken foreland of the Puna, where these thick sedimentary basin fills are absent. Lower shortening rate in the Puna foreland is likely accommodated in the forearc by the slab retreat.
We present a new three-dimensional density model of the Central Andes characterizing the structure and composition of the lithosphere together with a geodynamic simulation subjected to continental intraplate shortening. The principal aim of this study is to assess the link between heterogeneities in the lithosphere and different deformation patterns and styles along the orogen-foreland system of the Central Andes. First, we performed a 3D integration of new geological and geophysical data with previous models through forward modelling of Bouguer anomalies. Subsequently, a geodynamic model was set-up and parametrized from the previously obtained 3D structure and composition. We do not find a unambigous correlation between the resulting density configuration and terrane boundaries proposed by other authors. Our models reproduce the observed Bouguer anomaly and deformation patterns in the foreland. We find that thin-skinned deformation in the Subandean fold-and thrust belt is controlled by a thick sedimentary layer and coeval underthrusting of thin crust of the foreland beneath the thick crust of the Andean Plateau. In the adjacent thick-skinned deformation province of the inverted Cretaceous extensional Santa Barbara System sedimentary strata are much thinner and crustal thickness transitions from greater values in the Andean to a more reduced thickness in the foreland. Our results show that deformation processes occur where the highest gradients of lithospheric strength are present between the orogen and the foreland, thus suggesting a spatial correlation between deformation and lithospheric strength.
The formation of the Central Andes dates back to similar to 50 Ma, but its most pronounced episode, including the growth of the Altiplano-Puna Plateau and pulsatile tectonic shortening phases, occurred within the last 25 Ma.
The reason for this evolution remains unexplained. Using geodynamic numerical modeling we infer that the primary cause of the pulses of tectonic shortening and growth of the Central Andes is the changing geometry of the subducted Nazca plate, and particularly the steepening of the mid-mantle slab segment which results in a slowing down of the trench retreat and subsequent increase in shortening of the advancing South America plate.
This steepening first happens after the end of the flat slab episode at similar to 25 Ma, and later during the buckling and stagnation of the slab in the mantle transition zone. Processes that mechanically weaken the lithosphere of the South America plate, as suggested in previous studies, enhance the intensity of the shortening events.
These processes include delamination of the mantle lithosphere and weakening of foreland sediments.
Our new modeling results are consistent with the timing and amplitude of the deformation from geological data in the Central Andes at the Altiplano latitude.
Plain Language Summary
The Central Andes is a subduction-type orogeny that formed as a result of the interaction between the Nazca oceanic plate and the South American continental plate over the last 50 million years. Growth of the Andes is primarily the result of crustal shortening. Nevertheless, "geological" data compiled from previous studies have shown that phases of drastic pulsatile shortening occur at 15 and 5 Ma.
In this study, we used high-resolution 2D numerical geodynamic simulations to investigate the link between oceanic and continental plate dynamics and their interaction. We find that when the oceanic plate steepens in the mantle transition zone, the trench retreat is hindered. Coupled with the weakening of the continental plate through the slab flattening and subsequent delamination of the lithospheric mantle, this leads to pulsatile shortening phases of a magnitude equivalent to that suggested by the data.