Large paleo-landslides in the Central Andes (32º - 33º S): new challenges.

MOREIRAS S.M. Y SEPÚLVEDA, S.A.

Congreso; XII Congreso Geológico Chileno; 2009

Paleo-landslides began to be lately identified at the 32-33° S latitude in the Central Andes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] (Fig 1). A Pleistocene age was generally assumed for the large landslides (from 106 m3 up to ~5 km3); however, recent studies, mainly based on radiocarbon and cosmogenic datings, reveal younger ages [7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Traditional hypothesis about triggering mechanisms of these large paleo-landslides have being assumed in its own way in the Chilean and Argentinean Andes. Whereas a seismic cause is proposed for many, if it is not all large landslides in Chile, paleo-climate is assumed as the main conditioning factor for Argentinean landslides. This denotes the lacking of multidisciplinary studies forwarding on the controversy about seismic or climate failure mechanism in the Central Andes.