Dynamic Paleogeography of the Jurassic Andean Basin: pattern of regression and general considerations on main features

Abstract

Following examination of the evolution of the Jurassic Andean retroarc basin at a global scale for the Central Andes, this paper analyses the pattern of the regressive process, and discusses some general features concerning Andean Jurassic Paleogeography. The early Upper Jurassic regression obeys to an exactly reverse pattern as the one evidenced for the Lower Jurassic transgressive process. Sectors with late transgressions become those with early regressions while those with early transgressions show later regressions. This fact may indicate that the Norte Chico Isthmus (29°S to 30°30'S) was a precociously emerged zone from the Bajocian. This carries again a split up between the Tarapacá and Aconcagua-Neuquén basins until their complete drying up in the Late Oxfordian following their restricted circulation. This evaporitic late stage presents great analogy with the Mediterranean «Messinian crisis» and gives evidence of a general tectonic and magmatic control on the straits. The local transgressions observed on the cratonic margin of the central part of these shrinking basins were due to shifting of water masses resulting from the regressive process on the northern and southern margins. Comparison between the main stages of transgression and regression allows some quantification concerning velocities of displacement of coastlines, specifically lengthwise. The permanence of paleogeographic and structural features over the time argues for an indisputable tectonic heritage. In the dynamic framework of this typical barred retroarc basin where arc magmatic activity has contributed considerably to variation on sediment supply and changing bathymetry of the seaways connecting with the Pacific Ocean, evidence for an assumed global eustatic cycle remains questionable or very subordinated.