The Oxaya anticline (northern Chile): a buckle enhanced by river incision? |
| |
| Authors: | Gerold Zeilinger Fritz Schlunegger Guy Simpson |
| |
| Institution: | Institute of Geological Science, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1-3, CH 3012 Bern, Switzerland;;Geological Institute, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 CH Zurich, Switzerland |
| |
| Abstract: | A prominent structure in the Western Escarpment of the Andes of northern Chile is the Oxaya anticline, dissected at the culmination by >1500 m deep valleys. The distribution of fault and fold structures indicates that the anticline could represent a simple buckle. Buckling thus appears to have accommodated crustal shortening in the plate overriding the subducting plate, between the trench and the Western Cordillera. Cross-cutting relationships between structures and dated strata indicated that the time interval of enhanced buckling coincides with the period when rates of valley formation were enhanced. We thus propose that the formation of this anticline was enhanced by fluvial incision, which is consistent with the results of published theoretical models. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
