The westward lithospheric drift, its role on the subduction and transform zones surrounding Americas: Andean to cordilleran orogenic types cyclicity

Abstract

We investigate the effect of the westerly rotation of the lithosphere on the active margins that surround the Americas and find good correlations between the inferred easterly-directed mantle counterflow and the main structural grain and kinematics of the Andes and Sandwich arc slabs. In the Andes, the subduction zone is shallow and with low dip, because the mantle flow sustains the slab; the subduction hinge converges relative to the upper plate and generates an uplifting doubly verging orogen. The Sandwich Arc is generated by a westerly-directed SAM (South American) plate subduction where the eastward mantle flow is steepening and retreating the subduction zone. In this context, the slab hinge is retreating relative to the upper plate, generating the backarc basin and a low bathymetry single-verging accretionary prism. In Central America, the Caribbean plate presents a more complex scenario: (a) To the East, the Antilles Arc is generated by westerly directed subduction of the SAM plate, where the eastward mantle flow is steepening and retreating the subduction zone. (b) To the West, the Middle America Trench and Arc are generated by the easterly-directed subduction of the Cocos plate, where the shallow subduction caused by eastward mantle flow in its northern segment gradually steepens to the southern segment as it is infered by the preexisting westerly-directed subduction of the Caribbean Plateau. In the frame of the westerly lithospheric flow, the subduction of a divergent active ridge plays the role of introducing a change in the oceanic/continental plate’s convergence angle, such as in NAM (North American) plate with the collision with the Pacific/Farallon active ridge in the Neogene (Cordilleran orogenic type scenario). The easterly mantle drift sustains strong plate coupling along NAM, showing at Juan de Fuca easterly subducting microplate that the subduction hinge advances relative to the upper plate. This lower/upper plate convergence coupling also applies along strike to the neighbor continental strike slip fault systems where subduction was terminated (San Andreas and Queen Charlotte). The lower/upper plate convergence coupling enables the capture of the continental plate ribbons of Baja California and Yakutat terrane by the Pacific oceanic plate, transporting them along the strike slip fault systems as para-autochthonous terranes. This Cordilleran orogenic type scenario, is also recorded in SAM following the collision with the Aluk/Farallon active ridge in the Paleogene, segmenting SAM margin into the eastwardly subducting Tupac Amaru microplate intercalated between the proto-Liquine-Ofqui and Atacama strike slip fault systems, where subduction was terminated and para-autochthonous terranes transported. In the Neogene, the convergence of Nazca plate with respect to SAM reinstalls subduction and the present Andean orogenic type scenario.