Role of plate kinematics and plate-slip-vector partitioning in continental magmatic arcs: Evidence from the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

Abstract

New structural and geochronological data from the Cordillera Blanca batholith in the Peruvian Andes, coupled with Nazca–South American plate-slip-vector data, indicate that oblique convergence and associated strike-slip partitioning strongly influenced continental magmatic arc evolution. Both the strain field and mode of magmatism (plutonism vs. volcanism) in the late Miocene Peruvian Andes were controlled by the degree to which the arc-parallel component of the plate slip vector was partitioned into the arc. Strong strike-slip partitioning at ca. 8 Ma produced arc-parallel sinistral shear, strike-slip intercordilleran basins and east-west–oriented tension fractures that facilitated emplacement of the Cordillera Blanca batholith (ca. 8.2 ± 0.2 Ma). Periods during which the strike-slip component was not partitioned into the arc (ca. 10 and ca. 7 Ma) were associated with roughly arc-normal contraction and ignimbrite volcanism. The data thus support the contention that contraction within continental magmatic arcs favors volcanism, whereas transcurrent shear favors plutonism. The tie between oblique convergence and batholith emplacement in late Miocene Peruvian Andes provides a modern analogue for batholiths emplaced as the result of transcurrent shear in ancient arcs.