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Geology

Mechanisms of continental growth in extensional arcs: An example from the

Andean plate-boundary zone
John Grocott, Michael Brown, R.David Dallmeyer, Graeme K. Taylor and Peter J. Treloar

Geology 1994;22;391-394
doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(1994)022<0391:MOCGIE>2.3.CO;2

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Mechanisms of continental growth in

extensional arcs: An example from the Andean
plate-boundary zone
John Grocott
School of Geological Sciences, Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames KT1 2EE, United Kingdom
Michael Brown
Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
R. David Dallmeyer
Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602
Graeme K. Taylor
Department of Geology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
Peter J. Treloar

School of Geological Sciences, Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames KT1 2EE, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT
During the Late Triassic, Jurassic, and Early Cretaceous, an extensional magmatic arc
was formed in the Andean margin of northern Chile. Plutons emplaced at ramps within a
hinterland-propagating extensional duplex were fed by dikes that transferred magma through
the lower crust from a reservoir in the mantle. Phases of volcanism separated phases of plu-
tonism, and our model demonstrates that plutonism was favored only when upper-plate ex-
tensional fault systems were active. When they were not, dikes cut across inactive faults, and
magma rose directly to the surface during volcanic phases of arc growth.

INTRODUCTION We have studied magmatism associated with a retreating sub-

The structure of convergent plate boundaries depends to a large
extent on relative rates of subduction and convergence (Royden,
1993). For a contractional arc, convergence rate exceeds subduction
rate, the subduction boundary advances, and contractional defor-
mation occurs in the upper plate. For an extensional arc, subduction
rate exceeds convergence rate, the subduction boundary retreats,
and, apart from a fore-arc sliver, the upper plate is characterized by
extension. A direct link should exist between the structural geom-
etry of the upper plate and the emplacement of plutonic complexes,
such that space needs to be created in active fault systems to ac-
commodate pluton emplacement (e.g., Hutton et al., 1990; D'Lemos
et al., 1992; Hutton and Reavy, 1992; Hutton and Ingram, 1992;
Tikoff and Teyssier, 1992). Despite progress in understanding plu-
ton-emplacement mechanisms, limited insight has so far been gained
into (1) how structural and magmatic processes interact during con-
struction of magmatic arcs or (2) what controls whether arc magmas
lodge in the crust to form plutons or reach the surface, thus permit-
ting continental growth by volcanism.
Glazner (1991) argued that whether plutonism or volcanism is
operative is a function of the convergence vector. Plutonism is per-
mitted in the overriding plate only when convergence is oblique and
space is created in arc-parallel, strike-slip fault systems. When con-
vergence is perpendicular to the arc, space cannot be created to
accommodate the intrusions, and continental growth occurs by vol-
canism. Although Glazner's analysis may be valid for contractional
arcs, in extensional arcs, space to accommodate plutons is created
by extensional displacements across ramp-flat geometries in normal
fault systems, or by dilational jogs in transtensional fault systems,
regardless of the orientation of the convergence vector. This differ-
ence implies that extension should favor plutonism over volcanism
as the primary mechanism of continental growth in extensional arcs,
yet volcanism is clearly not restricted to contractional arcs.
duction boundary in the Andean margin of northern Chile. We dem-
onstrate (1) the controls exerted on arc evolution and continental
growth by extensional fault systems, (2) the extent to which the
respective timings of pluton emplacement and volcanism were a
function of extensional fault-system activity, and (3) that changes
from plutonic to volcanic activity can be related to changes in the
rate of subduction and/or convergence.
GEOLOGIC BACKGROUND
In the El Salado district of northern Chile (Fig. 1), upper Pa-
leozoic metasedimentary rocks, intruded by granites of a broad Per-
mian-Triassic magmatic arc, formed the crust into which Early Ju-
rassic, Late Jurassic, and Early Cretaceous arc plutons were
emplaced (Brown, 1988). The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
plutons are elongate parallel to the continental margin and define a
magmatic arc that includes Jurassic and Early Cretaceous volcanic
sequences. These rocks are cut by belts of ductile and brittle defor-
mation that define the arc-parallel Atacama fault system (Colley et
al., 1990; Brown et al., 1993). In the north of the area, plutonic rocks
intrude sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Lower Jurassic shallow-
water limestone of the Pan de Azcar Formation (Naranjo, 1978) is
overlain by coarse conglomerate of the Posada de los Hidalgo For-
mation (Naranjo and Puig, 1984) and thick sequences of lava and
volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks of the La Negra Formation (Gar-
cia, 1967). Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks of the Bandurrias For-
mation (Segerstrom, 1960; Naranjo, 1978) are exposed east of the La
Negra Formation.
The plutonic rocks display characteristicssuch as contact au-
reoles, chilled margins, and oscillatory zoning in plagioclasethat
reflect shallow-crustal levels of magma emplacement and rapid post-
magmatic cooling. Al-in-hornblende barometry has yielded inferred
depths of emplacement of ~7 km (our unpublished data). The Mes-

GEOLOGY, v. 22, p. 391-394, May 1994 391

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Figure 1. Geologic map of Mesozoic magmatlc arc, El Salado district,
(26S-27S), northern Chile. Atacama fault system Is north-trending sys-
tem of strike-slip faults In eastern part of map. 1 Upper Paleozoic ac-
cretlonary complex; 2Late Trlasslc plutonlc complexes; 3Early Ju-
rassic plutonic complexes; 4Pan de Azcar, Posada de los Hidalgo, and
La Negra Formations (Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks); 5Late
Jurassic plutonic complexes; 6 Bandurrias Formation (lower Lower
Cretaceous volcanic rocks); 7early Early Cretaceous plutonic com-
plexes; 8Early Cretaceous plutonic complexes; 9later Early Creta-
ceous plutonic complexes.
392
w
La Negra Bandurrias
Volcanic formations
(stratigraphie range)
Ductile shear zone
(2)
O (muscovita)
Ductile shear zones
(2)
(hornblende)
Aureole schists
(muscovite)
Dikes
(2) (whole rock)
D 1 I
D 2|>D
Plutonic complexes
(hornblende)
Plutonic complexes
Q (zircon)
iir~ i i i i r ~
200 180 160 140 120 100
Age (Ma)
Figure 2. Summary of age range for ductile shear zones, plutonic com-
plexes, aureole schists, dikes, and volcanic formations, Coastal Range,
northern Chile. Data from Berg and Breltkreuz (1983; four zircon ages on
plutonic rocks shown at bottom of figure) and Dallmeyer et al. (unpub-
lished ao Ar/ 39 Ar ages). Parentheses enclose number, if >1, of individual
age determinations represented by box. Age ranges shown for volcanic
formations are based upon paleontologlcal determinations from Interca-
lated sedimentary rocks close to base and top of each formation.
ozoic arc plutons all have remarkably similar geochemical signa-
tures, implying that the magmas had a similar, possibly a common,
mantle source (Brown, 1991). Geochronologic information for this
region has been reported from a number of laboratories (Berg and
Breitkreuz, 1983; Brook et al., 1986; and references therein). To
avoid scatter resulting from poor precision and/or potential rejuve-
nation, we used only U-Pb isotopic analyses on sized zircons of Berg
and Breitkreuz (1983) and our high-precision ^Ar/^Ar isotopic anal-
yses on magmatic hornblende, aureole muscovite, shear-zone horn-
blende and muscovite, and whole-rock dike samples (Dallmeyer et
al., unpublished). We conclude from Figure 2, which summarizes
these data and incorporates the biostratigraphic age range of sedi-
mentary horizons within the volcanic sequences (Naranjo, 1978),
that (1) both plutonic complexes and volcanic rocks systematically
young from west to east, thus defining an important element of arc
asymmetry, (2) the concordance between the U-Pb zircon ages and
our ^Ar/^Ar hornblende isotope-correlation ages is consistent with
rapid, postmagmatic cooling, and (3) there is only limited overlap
between the times of volcanism and plutonism.
EXTENSIONAL DEFORMATION
The Mesozoic arc plutons show weak, magmatic and/or ciystal-
plastic fabrics near their margins but are substantially unfoliated.
The Flamenco pluton (Fig. 1) was emplaced into Paleozoic metased-
imentary rocks and has an envelope of mylonitic schist. Mylonitic
rocks structurally overlie the pluton and define a system of east-
dipping extensional shear zones with east-plunging stretching line-
ations and east-side-down shear sense. Wall rocks on the western
side of the Las Animas and Las Tazas plutons are deformed by
steeply dipping, ductile, mylonitic shear zones that contain down-
dip stretching lineations and east-side-down S-C fabrics and por-
phyroclast systems. Field relations, including melt-filled shear bands
within the mylonites, and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology (Fig. 2; Dall-
meyer et al., unpublished) show the deformation to be contempo-
GEOLOGY, May 1994
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raneous with emplacement. For the Las Tazas pluton, mylonitic

ss.
.J.

S .2 X
host rock yields a 40Ar/39Ar hornblende isotope-correlation age of
130 Ma, similar to that of the undeformed pluton. As the plutons I 2*1
were emplaced above the ductile-brittle transition, the heat for duc- E "
tile deformation of the wall rocks at amphibolite-facies temperatures o .3 5
E c I
must have been provided by the magmatic system. Melt-filled con-
jugate shear bands within mylonitic host rocks of the Las Tazas and ac S >UJ a | S
S tn =T- "SO.2 ? o
Las Animas plutons show that a late flattening strain, related to the
emplacement of the adjacent pluton, caused reworking and steep- o l i
ening of the original, extensional mylonitic foliation.
The arc plutons are cut by conjugate sets of basaltic-andesite > g 5 a g S
dikes that occupy dilatant shear fractures and are oriented to imply JI E I S
east-west extension. The pattern of 40Ar/39Ar whole-rock ages from 8 3 l i s
the dikes shows that, like the plutons, they progressively young from i n s i l i
S "tt mt E 1
west to east. In addition, a phase of dike intrusion immediately pre- S 2 fi 2 LSi
cedes, and overlaps with, emplacement of each Late Jurassic and ' I I I ! I * i $=
! I s I 5
Early Cretaceous plutonic complex. Intrusion of swarms of conju-
gate dikes is an indication that horizontal extension occurred in the
arc immediately prior to, and during, pluton emplacement.
The east-side-down, dip-slip ductile shear zones exposed in the '31.
country rocks of the arc plutons were contemporaneous with both
pluton and dike emplacement, and it is probable that they continue
to depth as extensional shear zones. Reconnaisance Al-in-horn-
blende barometiy reveals no evidence for changes in structural level
across the arc, but large vertical displacements are not required if the
shear zones reach a shallow, low-angle detachment beneath the plu- w
tons. A ramp-flat trajectory is thus inferred for the ductile shear
zones in the early Mesozoic arc. We note that late Mesozoic, low-
angle normal faults with a ramp-flat trajectory have also been rec-
ognized in the back-arc to the east of the Atacama fault system
(Mpodozis and Allmendinger, 1993). The sedimentary and volcanic
rocks of the Pan de Azcar and La Negra Formations, and the Late
Jurassic plutonic complexes, are all cut by east-dipping, brittle, lis-
tric-normal faults (Fig. 1). That the Late Jurassic plutons intrude the
La Negra Formation implies that the ductile extensional faults as-
sociated with their emplacement and the brittle extensional faults
that cut the La Negra and Pan de Azcar Formations belong to the
same (linked) fault system.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAGMATIC ARC

The structure of the plutonic arc is interpreted here as the result
of episodic emplacement of magmas at fault ramps in an east-dip-
ping, low-angle, extensional fault system (Fig. 3). In each cycle of
deformation and pluton emplacement, normal-slip ductile deforma-
tion began prior to the arrival of the first magmas. The 190 Ma
plutons were located where a ramp in the active fault system inter-
sected dikes that conveyed magma through the lower crust
(Fig. 3A). At higher structural levels, sedimentary, and possibly vol-
canic, rocks occupy half-grabens. A single feeder dike can fill a
pluton-sized cavity within a matter of -350 yr (Petford et al., 1993),
which implies that fault-displacement rate was the main control on
pluton expansion.
In the next stage, the extensional fault system was breached by
dikes that supplied a subsiding volcanic and sedimentary basin I g
(Fig. 3B). As we have found no evidence of growth faulting in the La a
Negra or the Bandurrias Formations, we conclude that the exten-
sional fault system was dormant when the arc-volcanic rocks accu-
mulated, although some extension must have been accommodated
S!
* m
oI CI1
by emplacement of feeder dikes for the volcanic rocks. Under these
circumstances, magma feeding the volcanic rocks via dikes would
3
have risen directly to the surface, rather than interacting with shear
zones en route, accounting for extrusion of the volcanic rocks to the
east of plutons emplaced during the preceding phase of active ex-

392 GEOLOGY, May 1994

 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on June 20, 2014
tension. Reactivation of the extensional fault system at 150 Ma
involved hanging-wall imbrication and permitted a new episode of
pluton emplacement at a fault ramp with, at higher structural levels,
propagation of brittle extensional faults into the volcanic rocks
(Fig. 3C). Thus, the occurrence of phases of volcanism between
phases of synextensional plutonism requires that extensional defor-
mation on the low-angle fault system ceased periodically, allowing
the transfer of magma directly to the surface. Finally, the cycle
repeated again in the Early Cretaceous when the volcanic deposits
of the Bandurrias Formation accumulated to the east of the La
Negra Formation before reactivation of the fault system allowed
emplacement of Early Cretaceous plutons (Fig. 3, C and D).
The system is, in essence, an extensional duplex in which ex-
tensional faults have propagated toward the hinterland from a break-
away zone (Royden, 1993) that marks the eastern limit of the fore-
arc sliver (Fig. 3E). Progressive imbrication of the hanging wall of
the extensional fault system can account for the systematic eastward
decrease in pluton ages across the arc. Although the mantle source
for the magmas remained stationarythus explaining the geochem-
ical similarity of the successive plutonsonce emplaced, the plu-
tons were displaced away from the magma source, in a series of
increments, as the arc extended asymmetrically (Fig. 3, A-D). We
infer that the control on whether the fault system was active or
dormant was a consequence of short-lived changes in subduction
rate relative to convergence rate (Fig. 3E).
STRIKE-SLIP DISPLACEMENT IN THE ATACAMA
FAULT SYSTEM
The youngest plutonic and volcanic rocks of the arc are cut by
ductile and brittle sinistral strike-slip faults of the Atacama fault
system (Fig. 1) in which a belt of ductile mylonitic rocks up to 1 km
wide accommodated sinistral strike-slip displacement under green-
schist to amphibolite facies conditions. Mylonitic and undeformed
rocks within the Remolino pluton have identical (within error)40Ar/
39
Ar hornblende isotope-correlation ages of 127 Ma, a situation
similar to that to the west, where the heat source for ductile defor-
mation is provided by the intrusion. However, no evidence exists
that ductile strike-slip deformation has affected the pre-130 Ma in-
trusions, and we infer that a change from pluton emplacement within
a dip-slip extensional system to emplacement within a strike-slip
system occurred at 130 Ma.
CONCLUSIONS
The relation described here between the localization of plu-
tonism and volcanism in the Andean plate-boundary zone permits
the following general statements about magmatism in an extensional
arc setting. (1) The crustal structure of extensional arcs is charac-
terized by hinterland-dipping extensional duplexes that are inter-
sected by dikes during extension and permit magma to accumulate
as plutons at dilational jogs. (2) In an extensional arc, changes from
plutonism to volcanism depend on whether displacement on exten-
sional detachments is taking place in the overriding plate. Plutonism
occurs when extensional fault systems are active; volcanism occurs
when they are dormant. (3) Fault activity may depend on relative
changes in subduction and/or convergence rate.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Supported by the Royal Society of London, the National Geographic
Society, Natural Environment Research Council grant GR9/476, and the
Servicio Nacional de Geologa y Minera, Chile. This paper is a contribution
to International Geological Correlation Programme project 345, "Litho-
spheric evolution of the Andean continental margin."
394
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Manuscript received October 21, 1993
Revised manuscript received February 4, 1994
Manuscript accepted February 15, 1994
Printed in U.S.A. GEOLOGY, May 1994