Abstract
Palaeomagnetic studies were performed on the rocks of the Central Andes to test the hypothesis of oroclinal bending of the Andes around the Peru–Chile border. Natural remanent magnetization of Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Peru shows a counterclockwise shift of declination by several tens of degrees relative to the field directions of the same ages in the stable South American craton. Two Mesozoic dyke swarms from Arica region (northernmost Chile) also indicate about 20° of declination shift in a counterclockwise sense. These results suggest a considerable amount of counterclockwise rotation of large area north of Arica, that is, oroclinal bending of the Andes around some hinge near the Peru–Chile border. One Neogene dyke swarm sampled in central Peru also gave declination which deviates counterclockwisely by ∼15°. If this declination shift is a result of the wide-area tectonic rotation as suggested by the Mesozoic rocks, oroclinal bending appears to have continued until relatively recent times.
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Heki, K., Hamano, Y. & Kono, M. Rotation of the Peruvian Block from palaeomagnetic studies of the Central Andes. Nature 305, 514–516 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/305514a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/305514a0
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