Arequipa-Antofalla Explained

Arequipa-Antofalla is a basement unit underlying the central Andes in northwestern Argentina, western Bolivia, northern Chile and southern Peru. Geologically, it corresponds to a craton,^[1] terrane or block of continental crust. Arequipa-Antofalla collided and amalgamated with the Amazonian craton about 1000 Ma ago during the Sunsás orogeny.^[2] As a terrane Arequipa-Antofalla was ribbon-shaped during the Paleozoic, a time when it was bounded by the west by the Iapetus Ocean and by the east by the Puncoviscana Ocean.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Casquet . C. . Pankhurst . R.J. . Rapela . C.W. . Galindo . C. . Fanning . C.M. . Chiaradia . M. . Baldo . E. . González-Casado . J.M. . Dahlquist . J.A. . Robert John Pankhurst . 2008 . The Mesoproterozoic Maz terrane in the Western Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina, equivalent to the Arequipa-Antofalla block of southern Peru? Implications for West Gondwana margin evolution . . 13 . 2 . 163–175 . 10.1016/j.gr.2007.04.005. 8 August 2016. 2008GondR..13..163C .
2. Staci L. Loewy, James N. Connelly and Ian W.D. Dalziel . 2003 . An orphaned basement block: The Arequipa-Antofalla Basement of the central Andean margin of South America . 10.1130/B25226.1 . . 116 . 1–2 . 171–187 .
3. Escayola P. . Mónica . van Staal . Cees R. . Davis . William J. . 2011 . The age and tectonic setting of the Puncoviscana Formation in northwestern Argentina: An accretionary complex related to Early Cambrian closure of the Puncoviscana Ocean and accretion of the Arequipa-Antofalla block . . 32 . 4. 438–459 . 10.1016/j.jsames.2011.04.013. 2011JSAES..32..438E . 11336/84857 . free .