Cuenca Uspallata: an intermontane basin records episodic uplift of the Cordillera Frontal and Precordillera in the late Miocene

MAHONEY, J.B.; KIMBROUGH, D.L.; HOKE, G.D.; MESCUA, J. F.; GIAMBIAGI, L. B.; BUELOW, E.K.; HUTTER, A.; LEIDEL, A.

Vancouver

Congreso; 2014 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting and Exposition; 2014

Geological Society of America

The timing, rate of subsidence and stratigraphic architecture within retroarc and foreland basin successions is strongly controlled by the kinematics of the thrust system and subsequent magnitude and migration of the tectonic load. The record of west-to-east crustal shortening is well-established in the south-central Andes, with a significant decrease in the magnitude of shortening from the flat slab segment to the north (>150 km) to the normal slab segment to the south (5 Ma) than synorogenic deposits in the Cacheuta basin to the east. Sedimentologic and geochronological constraints suggest Cuenca Uspallata developed as an intermontane basin trapped between the uplifting Cordillera Frontal and the Precordillera, and was not part of the main foreland succession.