Uplift of the western margin of the Andean plateau revealed from canyon incision history, Southern Peru

Abstract

We explore canyon incision history of the western margin of the
Andean (Altiplano-Puna) plateau in the central Andes as a proxy for
surface uplift. (U-Th)/He apatite data show rapid cooling beginning
at ca. 9 Ma and continuing to ca. 5.1 Ma in response to incision. A
minimum of 1.0 km of incision took place during that interval. The
youngest apatite date and a volcanic fl ow perched 125 m above the
present valley fl oor dated at 2.261 ± 0.046 Ma (40Ar/39Ar) show that an
additional ~1.4 km of incision occurred between ca. 5.1 and 2.3 Ma.
Thus, we infer that a total of at least 2.4 km, or 75% of the present
canyon depth was incised after ca. 9 Ma. (U-Th)/He zircon data collected
along the same transect imply that the western margin of the
plateau was warped upward into its present monoclinal form, rather
than uplift being accommodated on major surface-breaking faults.

Full text

GEOLOGY, June 2007 523
Geology, June 2007; v. 35; no. 6; p. 523–526; doi: 10.1130/G23532A.1; 5 fi gures; Data Repository item 2007124.
© 2007 The Geological Society of America. For permission to copy, contact Copyright Permissions, GSA, or editing@geosociety.org.
ABSTRACT
We explore canyon incision history of the western margin of the
Andean (Altiplano-Puna) plateau in the central Andes as a proxy for
surface uplift. (U-Th)/He apatite data show rapid cooling beginning
at ca. 9 Ma and continuing to ca. 5.1 Ma in response to incision. A
minimum of 1.0 km of incision took place during that interval. The
youngest apatite date and a volcanic fl ow perched 125 m above the
present valley fl oor dated at 2.261 ± 0.046 Ma (40Ar/39Ar) show that an
additional ~1.4 km of incision occurred between ca. 5.1 and 2.3 Ma.
Thus, we infer that a total of at least 2.4 km, or 75% of the present
canyon depth was incised after ca. 9 Ma. (U-Th)/He zircon data col-
lected along the same transect imply that the western margin of the
plateau was warped upward into its present monoclinal form, rather
than uplift being accommodated on major surface-breaking faults.
Keywords: Altiplano, geochronology, tectonics, Peru, geomorphology,
helium.
INTRODUCTION
Understanding the development of the Central Andean plateau is
crucial to evolutionary models of both Andean geodynamics and regional
climate patterns. (Note: We use “Central Andean plateau” as defi ned by
Allmendinger et al., 1997, to represent the region above the 3 km eleva-
tion contour between 13°S and 27°S. This includes the Altiplano and Puna
plateaus and portions of the Western and Eastern Cordilleras.) Although
episodes of central Andean deformation are constrained in many regions,
it is often diffi cult or impossible to discern the magnitude of plateau uplift
based on deformation history alone. Different approaches for estimating
paleoelevation or the existence of high topography have led to a broad
range of proposed uplift histories, but precise constraints are lacking. Oligo-
cene uplift probably generated less than half of the central Andean relief
seen today (e.g., Gubbels et al., 1993; Kennan, 2000). Numerous lines
of evidence from the plateau and its eastern margin point to additional
surface uplift starting at ca. 10 Ma, with magnitudes ranging from at least
1 km to as much as 3.5 km (e.g., Kennan et al., 1997; Lamb and Hoke,
1997; Barke and Lamb, 2006; Garzione et al., 2006; Ghosh et al., 2006).
In northern Chile, Hoke (2006) and Nestor et al. (2006) estimate 1–1.4 km
of western margin uplift after 10 Ma, and Wörner et al. (2000) argue for
termination of uplift by 2.7 Ma. More recently, interpretations of oxygen
and clumped isotope data have led to estimates that the plateau reached
its present height by ca. 6 Ma (Garzione et al., 2006; Ghosh et al., 2006).
Uncertainties in all these estimates require that independent measures of
surface uplift be made before we can accurately constrain uplift history.
In southwestern Peru, large rivers cut deep canyons through the west-
ern margin of the Central Andean plateau. Cotahuasi-Ocoña Canyon is
the deepest of these, incising more than 3 km below the plateau surface
(Fig. 1). The western margin of the plateau has been characterized by
a semiarid-hyperarid climate for at least the past 15 m.y. (e.g., Hartley,
2003; Rech et al., 2006). As expected, given the arid climate and gentle
slopes of the region, Kober et al. (2007) found that millennial-scale inter-
fl uve erosion rates are uniformly low, despite a gradual increase in erosion
rate with elevation (<0.001–0.05 mm/yr). As predicted from these studies,
and as seen in the fi eld, little surface erosion has occurred on canyon inter-
fl uves in our study area, making canyon incision an excellent proxy for
surface uplift. Incision depth provides a minimum estimate for the amount
of surface uplift, while the onset of incision provides a minimum age for
the timing of uplift. We use 40Ar/39Ar dates of volcanic fl ows and bedrock
(U-Th)/He thermochronologic data to explore canyon evolution. Detailed
information regarding geochronologic data and their interpretation are
provided in the GSA Data Repository1 (Tables DR1–DR4).
VALLEY-FILLING VOLCANICS
Dates of valley-fi lling volcanic fl ows give a minimum time by which
the canyon had incised to the depth of the sampled fl ow. In the middle
reaches of Cotahuasi-Ocoña Canyon, a whole-rock 40Ar/39Ar date of 2.261
± 0.046 Ma for a basaltic andesite fl ow sampled 125 m above the present
valley fl oor (05TS38, Fig. 1) shows that ~96% of the incision in that sec-
tion of the canyon (3.2 km total local incision) happened before 2.3 Ma.
Farther upvalley, an ignimbrite (05TS25) perched ~400 m above the pres-
ent valley shows that ~75% of the canyon depth (1.6 km total local inci-
sion) was cut before 3.825 ± 0.016 Ma. Thouret et al. (2005) obtained a
40Ar/39Ar date of 3.76 ± 0.14 Ma for the same fl ow and interpreted it as a
maximum age for most of the valley incision.
LOW-TEMPERATURE THERMOCHRONOLOGY
In this setting where background erosion rates are very slow, we
expect thermochronometers to yield very old dates. However, canyons are
sites of localized, potentially rapid exhumation. When a canyon is incised,
perturbations to near-surface isotherms result in rapid cooling of bedrock
below the canyon bottom (Fig. 2). Because the closure temperature iso-
therm for the apatite (U-Th)/He system is only ~2–3 km below the sur-
face (assuming a geothermal gradient of 20–30 °C/km, Farley, 2000), we
expect to fi nd young, rapidly cooled apatites below this level in the deep-
est reaches of Cotahuasi-Ocoña Canyon. Their young ages should refl ect
both downward movement of the closure isotherm and relative upward
advection of rock due to erosion of the surrounding surface, though the
latter component is small in this setting as discussed above. The oldest
date among this young suite of ages should refl ect the initiation of the
thermal response to canyon incision.
We collected most samples for apatite (U-Th)/He dating along a
75 km, canyon-bottom transect, far from the infl uence of volcanic activity
(Figs. 1 and DR1). Additional samples were collected from the upper-
1GSA Data Repository item 2007124, Figure DR1 (map of volcanic units
and generation of paleosurface), Table DR1 (apatite-He data), Table DR2 ( zircon-
He data), Table DR3 (40Ar/39Ar data), Table DR4 (40Ar/39Ar summary), and
Table DR5 (thermal model parameters and results), is available online at www.
geosociety.org/pubs/ft2007.htm, or on request from editing@geosociety.org or
Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
Uplift of the western margin of the Andean plateau revealed
from canyon incision history, southern Peru
Taylor F. Schildgen Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
Kip V. Hodges
Kelin X Whipple School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
Peter W. Reiners Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
Malcolm S. Pringle Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

524 GEOLOGY, June 2007
most catchment where there are abundant volcanic fl ows dated at ca. 1.4–
3.8 Ma (Thouret et al., 2005). We constrained canyon depth by measur-
ing the distance below a paleosurface that is preserved today as bedrock
remnants beneath the regionally blanketing 14–16 Ma Huaylillas Ignim-
brite (Thouret et al., 2005, and dates reported here). Positions of remnants
exposed in valley walls were digitized and a spline surface warped to fi t
the points, giving an approximation for the bedrock surface (Fig. DR1).
Samples were collected from ~1 km below the paleosurface near the coast,
down to ~3.1 km below in the deepest reaches of the canyon.
The resulting dates are ca. 60 Ma near the coast and rapidly decrease
to ca. 9 Ma in the middle reaches of the canyon. Farther upvalley, there
is a much more gradual change in dates with distance, with the youngest
sample away from the volcanic-dominated upper catchment dated at 5.1 Ma
(Fig. 3). Samples from the uppermost catchment (05TS07 and samples
upstream from there) range from <1 to 3.8 Ma. Because these samples are
as young as the abundant volcanic fl ows in that region, we suspect their ages
have been reset or partially reset by recent volcanism. For this reason, we
focus the remainder of our discussion on samples from the middle and lower
catchment, which we believe have not been affected by reheating.
A plot of canyon depth versus sample cooling age (Fig. 4) can be inter-
preted the way that vertical profi les of thermochronologic data are typically
interpreted: as indicative of how exhumation rates changed over the time
interval represented by the measured ages. Although such an interpretation
of Figure 4 may be compromised by variations in bedrock thermal structure,
there is very little evidence of large lateral variations in upper-crustal tem-
peratures in this region of southern Peru. For example, reported variations
in measured surface heat fl ow range only from 32 to 44 mW/m2 (Henry and
Pollack, 1988; Hamza and Muñoz, 1996; Springer and Förster, 1998).
Figure 1. Location map and sample sites. Topography is shown as a
gray-scale digital elevation model (DEM) draped over shaded relief
from 90-m-resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data.
Inset shows location relative to South American geography. (U-Th)/He
samples are collected from near river level. 40Ar/39Ar samples are from
elevations noted in GSA Data Repository (see footnote 1).
Figure 2. Schematic interpretation of incision history based on (U-Th)/He
apatite data. Gray zones are rapidly cooled due to migration of the
closure temperature isotherm (~70 °C) in response to incision. At least
1.0 km of incision occurred between 9 and 5.1 Ma, since this is the
thickness of the rapidly cooled zone between those ages on the age-
depth plot (Fig. 4). Post–5.1 Ma incision is equal to the depth of the
closure temperature isotherm below the valley bottom at 5.1 Ma.
Figure 3. Zircon and apatite results plotted as distance measured
perpendicular to coastline. Errors in age show 2
σ
uncertainty.
Figure 4. Apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He ages collected along valley at
river level. Mean ages are weighted by the inverse of the variance
of individual crystal ages. Errors in age are plotted as 2
σ
analyti-
cal errors only. Errors in depth below paleosurface are estimated at
±100 m. Inset shows apatite data over the last 25 m.y.

GEOLOGY, June 2007 525
Ignoring the minor infl uences of such variations in heat fl ow, our
apatite data imply slow background erosion of only ~0.7 km from ca. 60 to
9 Ma (0.01 km/m.y.) and a change to rapid incision of at least 1.0 km from
ca. 9 to 5.1 Ma (0.26 km/m.y.). The latter is a minimum estimate because
isotherm movement is damped compared to changes in surface topogra-
phy. Additional incision must have occurred after 5.1 Ma to exhume this
youngest apatite. Because a 2.3 Ma volcanic fl ow is perched 125 m above
the valley fl oor in the middle reaches of the canyon, we know that the
young apatite must have been exhumed from its closure depth to the near
surface between 5.1 and 2.3 Ma. We explored probable erosion rates and
depths to the closure temperature for this scenario using M. Brandon’s
computer code AGE2EDOT (summarized in Ehlers et al., 2005). Assum-
ing typical thermal properties of the crust (Table DR5) and an initially
uncompressed geothermal gradient between 20 and 30 °C/km, exhuma-
tion of the youngest apatite requires incision between 0.7 and 0.5 km/m.y.,
an effective closure temperature of 72 °C, and corresponding depths of
2.0–1.4 km to the closure temperature. Because we expect even greater
compression of isotherms below a canyon compared to the compression
expected from simply increasing erosion rate over fl at topography as
AGE2EDOT assumes, we choose the lower end of this range as an esti-
mate. Thus, we infer that ~1.4 km of material was removed in the middle
reaches of the canyon between 5.1 and 2.3 Ma (average 0.5 mm/yr) to
exhume the youngest apatite.
Collectively, the data suggest that the middle section of Cotahuasi-
Ocoña Canyon was incised at least 1.0 km between ca. 9 and 5.1 Ma and
~1.4 km between 5.1 and 2.3 Ma. This represents incision of at least 75%
of the total canyon depth since 9 Ma, and 44% since 5.1 Ma.
INTERPRETING SURFACE UPLIFT FROM
THERMOCHRONOLOGIC DATA
Deciphering surface uplift from thermochronologic interpretations
of canyon incision is complicated by several factors. First, incision can
refl ect a transient response to tectonically driven uplift and/or climatically
driven changes in sediment supply and fl uvial discharge, provided prior
surface uplift had produced suffi cient topographic relief. We interpret the
latest phase of incision to be a response to uplift because it is the simplest
explanation, and there is no evidence for a climate change that could induce
a pulse of incision at this time. The interpreted drying of climate starting at
ca. 15 Ma (e.g., Hartley, 2003; Rech et al., 2006) should have the opposite
effect of deterring incision, rather than generating a pulse of incision into
pre-existing topography. Also, our estimate for the onset of incision cor-
relates well with tectonic evidence in northern Chile for surface uplift after
ca. 10 Ma (Nestor et al., 2006). Second, although incision magnitude is
limited by uplift magnitude, incision rates are not necessarily closely tied
to uplift rates. The incision history we interpret from thermochronologic
data is offset from tectonically driven uplift by lag times defi ned by both
the geomorphic response time to uplift and the thermal response time to
incision. Constraining these response times is critical in order to quantita-
tively extract uplift history from canyon incision.
By “geomorphic response time,” we mean the time scale over which
rivers respond to a pulse of uplift. When uplift occurs, a river steepens
at its outlet. Over time, this steep segment migrates upstream at a rate
that depends principally on whether incision is transport- or detachment-
limited (Whipple and Tucker, 2002). In a detachment-limited system, the
pulse of incision will move through the system vertically at a rate that
approximates the new uplift rate (Niemann et al., 2001), which appears
to be ~0.5 mm/yr in Cotahuasi-Ocoña Canyon. In transport-limited sys-
tems, the incision pulse migrates upstream much more rapidly, resulting
in essentially uniform onset of incision throughout the catchment on geo-
logic time scales (Whipple and Tucker, 2002). Because we sampled from
the trunk stream at large drainage area and thus both relatively low in ele-
vation and most likely to approach transport-limited conditions, we expect
incision across the sampled region to have a relatively short response time.
Even if incision were detachment-limited, the highest bedrock sampled
for apatite (852 m) would imply a maximum lag time of 2 m.y..
We investigated the thermal response time to incision using M. Bran-
don’s RESPTIME computer code (summarized in Ehlers et al., 2005).
Although this code was written to evaluate thermal fi eld transients result-
ing from changes in broad-scale erosion rates, it is also useful for exploring
general effects of localized incision. We tested the thermal response time
to a sudden increase in erosion rate from 0.01 mm/yr to 0.5 mm/yr. Using
typical values for thermal properties of the crust (Table DR5), results show
that after an initial slow response, the migration rate of the apatite-He
closure temperature isotherm reaches 75% of the incision rate 0.7 m.y.
after incision starts. Thus, isotherm migration is signifi cantly slower than
incision for the fi rst ~1 m.y.
Response time estimates show two ways in which our thermo-
chronologic data do not directly refl ect uplift. First, the age of the “kink”
in the age-depth profi le (Fig. 4) is likely to lag behind onset of uplift pri-
marily as a result of geomorphic response time, which we expect to be a
maximum of 2 m.y. Second, the damped response of isotherm movement
in response to incision means that we derive only a minimum estimate of
uplift rate and magnitude. Given these limitations, our estimate for the
onset of uplift is likely good to ~2 m.y., and our estimate for uplift magni-
tude should be a robust minimum.
STYLE OF TECTONIC DEFORMATION
Compared to apatite, the higher closure temperature to helium dif-
fusion in zircon (~180 °C, Reiners et al., 2004) means that (U-Th)/He
zircon ages are set much deeper in the crust (~7 km) where they are not
signifi cantly affected by localized, near-surface thermal effects of canyon
incision. The pattern of zircon cooling ages should therefore refl ect only
regional exhumation and postclosure bedrock deformation. Zircon dates
of samples collected along the same valley-bottom transect show a regular
but scattered progression from older dates near the coast to younger dates
farther upvalley (Fig. 3).
If the latest pulse of uplift recorded by canyon incision were accom-
modated through localized, surface-breaking fault movement, we would
expect to see a step-change in the pattern of zircon cooling ages (Fig. 5).
Although we see no evidence for a large step, the present data set cannot
rule out the possibility of uplift accommodated on a series of small faults
distributed over a wide region. We have not seen distributed faulting in the
fi eld, but we mapped a focused shear zone at the range front. A 16.12 ±
0.04 Ma (40Ar/39Ar) undeformed ignimbrite crossing what appears to be
the equivalent shear zone 100 km to the southeast of the fi eld area suggests
that signifi cant movement on this structure predates the inferred ca. 9 Ma
uplift. These thermochronologic data lead us to interpret the latest pulse
of uplift as resulting from monoclinal warping of the western margin, con-
sistent with interpretations presented by Isacks (1988).
Surface
topog-
raphy
Figure 5. Predictions for patterns of (U-Th)/He zircon ages for sam-
ples collected along river profi le in various tectonic settings, assum-
ing initially fl at isochrons. The pattern of ages presented in this
study best matches the prediction resulting from a monocline.

526 GEOLOGY, June 2007
GEODYNAMIC IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
One of the most important characteristics of the data presented here
is the evidence they provide for onset of at least 2.4 km of river incision
at ca. 9 Ma, in broad agreement with the magnitude and timing of recent
uplift of the Central Andean plateau estimated by different methods. If,
as we suggest, this incision corresponds to a phase of surface uplift, what
can the age range tell us about plausible causes of uplift? Upper-crustal
thickening from shortening at the plateau margins mostly occurred prior
to 10 Ma (e.g., Gubbels et al., 1993; Victor et al., 2004; Farías et al., 2005;
Elger et al., 2005). The argument for uplift through lithospheric delamina-
tion is well supported at the southern end of the plateau, where thinned
lithosphere and widespread mafi c volcanism point to delamination as a
plausible cause (Kay and Kay, 1993; Schurr et al., 2006). In the north,
however, strong evidence is lacking. Seismic data (Beck and Zandt, 2002)
suggest there may be thinned lithosphere beneath the eastern portion of
the plateau, but not under the western region. There is also no evidence
for a volcanic fl are-up close to the time of uplift (James and Sacks, 1999).
Ignimbrite volcanism in southern Peru from ca. 16 to 14 Ma may be related
to a small delamination event, although we expect canyon incision would
not lag more than 2 m.y. behind signifi cant uplift. Ductile thickening of
the middle to lower crust provides a likely alternative, possibly triggered
by displacement of material due to underthrusting of the Brazilian Shield
beneath the eastern margin, as proposed by Isacks (1988). The ca. 10 Ma
initiation of underthrusting (Gubbels et al., 1993) correlates well with the
latest phase of uplift inferred from our data. For these reasons, although
the data we present on uplift timing and monocline deformation are con-
sistent with either lithospheric delamination or lateral fl ow of lower crust,
we favor the latter hypothesis to explain this latest phase of uplift.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank T. Smith, K. Cornell, and J. Bradley for help with fi eldwork;
S. Nicolescu for help with (U-Th)/He analyses; G. Wörner for discussions; T. Sempere,
O. Oncken, and an anonymous reviewer for constructive reviews. This work is
supported by National Science Foundation Tectonics Division grant EAR-0409359.
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Manuscript received 10 November 2006
Revised manuscript received 18 January 2007
Manuscript accepted 25 January 2007
Printed in USA