Journal of South American Earth Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 71-76, 1992 0895-9811/92 $5.00+.

00
Printed in Great Britain 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd
& Earth Sciences & Resources Institute

T e r r a n e - b o u n d a r y reactivation: A c o n t r o l o n the
e v o l u t i o n of the N o r t h e r n A n d e s
M. LITHERLAND* and J. A. ASPDEN
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, England, UK
(Received March 1991; Revision Accepted July 1991)
Abstract--The Andes of northern Ecuador and southern Colombia comprise two post-Oligocene cordilleras,
each with its Plio-Pleistocene volcanic chain separated by the fault-bounded, inter-Andean depression or
graben. Along the eastern Peltetec-Romeral fault occur Upper Jurassic ophiolitic rocks marking an ancient
suture between the allochthonous Chaucha terrane in the west and the South American plate. Along the
western Pujilf-Cauca fault are Upper Cretaceous-lower Eocene ophiolites marking the accretion of the
Cretaceous-Eocene Western Cordillera. Post-Oligocene reactivation of these terrane boundaries accounts
for the origin of the cordilleras and graben and helps to explain the location of the double chain of Plio-
Pleistocene volcanic centers. A caldera-graben model is suggested.
Resumen--Los Andes del norte del Ecuador y sur de Colombia comprenden dos cordilleras post-Oligocenas,
cada una con su cadena volcfinica Plio-Pleistoc6nia, separadas por la depresiSn o el graben Inter-Andino
controlado por fallas. A lo largo de la falla oriental Peltetec-Romeral se encusntran rocas ofioltticas de edad
Jur~isica tardia marcando una sutura antigua entre el terreno albctono Chaucha al oeste y la placa Sud-
americana. A 1o largo de la falla occidental Pujili-Cauca est4n las ofiolitas de edad CretAcica tardia-
Terciaria temprana marcando la acrecibn de la Cordillera Occidental Cre~cico-Eoc6nica. E1 rejuveneci-
miento post-Oligoceno de estos limites de terrenos explica el origen de las cordilleras y del graben y ayuda a
entender la localizaci6n de una doble cadena de centros volc~inicosPlio-Pleistoc6nicos. Se sugiere un modelo
de caldera-graben para explicar los mismos.

INTRODUCTION POSTULATED TERRANE BOUNDARIES

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANDES since Oligocene time The Peltetec-Romeral Fault

has been related to subduction of the Nazca plate
under the South American continent (Pilger, 1984). The most conspicuous structure visible on satel-
This process has produced uplift, generated a mag- lite imagery of northern Ecuador is the Chambo
matic arc, and created a retro-arc thrust belt along lineament, which follows the course of the Chambo
the sub-Andean zone. Most of the Andean shorten- River and connects southward with the Peltetec
ing in that zone has been accommodated by thrust- fault (Fig. 2). This major structure marks a line of
ing of the Eastern Cordillera over the Amazonian neotectonic normal faulting, indicated by juxtaposi-
craton. In the high Andes, however, extensional tec- tion of metamorphic basement rocks and the upper
tonic activity has generally prevailed (Soler and Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the graben (Fig. 2).
Sebrier, 1990). These same metamorphic rocks along the Pelte-
In northern Ecuador, the two cordilleras that tec fault (Aspden and Litherland, 1987; in press)
comprise the Andes are separated by a fault-bounded form a steeply dipping tectonic m61ange of ophiolitic
inter-Andean depression, or graben, with a physio- affinity (Fig. 2) comprising serpentinites, picrites,
graphic depth of ca. 2000 meters. The detailed gabbros, dolerites, and basalts with fine-grained ar-
evolution of the graben is not clear, but it probably gillites and cherts that contain Jurassic (Oxfordian-
relates to both normal and wrench faulting (Nobler Callovian) palynoflora (Riding, 1988).
and Marocco, 1989; Tibaldi and Ferrari, 1990). Its North of the area shown in Fig. 2, the basement
boundary faults are associated with ophiolitic comp- rocks along the Peltetec fault are covered by upper
lexes in both northern Ecuador and southern Colom- Cenozoic volcanic deposits except for a small outcrop
bia (Fig. 1). Furthermore, these faults and many of of ophiolitic (?) greenstones at Ambuqui, near the
the major Plio-Pleistocene volcanic centers of the Colombian border (Aspden and Litherland, in press).
Northern Andes appear to be spatially related (Kil- Farther north, in Colombia, the ophiolite/blueschist
ian and Pichler, 1989). In this paper, we explore the complexes of Barragan and Jambalo lie along the
possibility that the aforementioned phenomena re- Romeral fault (McCourt et al., 1984), which is the
late to terrane-boundary reactivation. postulated extension of the Peltetec fault (Aspden et
al., 1988; Fig. 1). The Jambalo complex has yielded
metamorphic K-Ar ages of 125-132 Ma (Feininger,
*Address all correspondence and reprint requests to:
Dr. Martin Litherland: telephone [44] (602} 363100;
1982), and the Romeral fault zone has been active
telefax: [44] during the Cenozoic (Alvarez, 1985).

71
72 M. LITHERLAND and J. A. ASPDEN

I .:.:.:/
;w Barragan
MAJOR ECUADORIAN VOLCANOES
1. Cayambe
2. Reventador
.:::::::::~.:::::
3. Pichincha .i:!:!:i:i'Q::!:i:!
4. Antisana x,~(~ ~:i:i:iQ=i:!:i:i
:::::::::::::::::::::
5. Cotopaxi , ~ ~ c~
6. Chimborazo :q:)?~%~ .::i:i~::i:i:i:
0 ',% ,%,%
~ : ~..:.:.:.';:
7. Tungurahua
8. Altar O/"~--h'/~ c~ i:!:'-..:i:i:i:!~ ::::::::::: ~':::::::
\ / :::::::::::: ~'.::::::"
9. Sangay (( ............~:.:.:..

\
Tambo:i:~
. (
:..%,~
::::::""0.-;.
<3
co
-,..o,,,.,.*.~
o,
%/
t .. .- . * .. ,. ...
,o
Colornb
o ia
'~" N
, *. ,,o

0 ):i:i:!:i:i:!:
,.O.,o,o,,O.,
%/ ,:.:.:.:.:,:.'
,.,o..,.o,~
2
Saloya::~ o
complex:.:,:..~ oAIkaline %/
OVolcanoes

co
'~"

;:::::::::::::::i:i
i!':?",iliSv r~ 0 25 50 75 l OOkm
I I I I I

:::::::::::::::::::::
~" :::::::::::::::::l{, F 0 0 Volcano
0 Ii:i:i:i:i:i:i~'" ( ~ AREA ~ ' Ophiolitic
complex
Pallat rI~FIG. 2 Inter-Andean
complex:: graben fault

Fig. 1. The setting of the Andean cordilleras, inter-Andean graben, ophiolitic rocks, and volcanoes of northern Ecuador and
southern Colombia.

The Pujilt-Cauca Fault
The western boundary fault of the inter-Andean
graben on is marked by the ophiolitic complexes of
Saloya, Pujili, and Pallatanga in Ecuador (Fig. 1),
approximately following the line of the Dolores-
Guayaquil megashear (Juteau et al, 1977; Lebrat et
al., 1986). In Colombia, it coincides with the Bolivar
and E1 Tambo ophiolitic complexes (McCourt et al.,
1984), which are Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary in inter-Andean graben are defined by the Peltetec-
age (De Souza et al., 1984) and lie along the Cauca-
Patia fault. The Ecuadorian and Colombian ophio-
liticrocks are faulted against Cretaceous units (Bal-
dock, 1982; Alvarez, 1985).
POSTULATED T E R R A N E S
As described above, the structural limits of the
 Terrane-boundary reactivation: A control on the evolution of the Northern Andes 73

7845'W Rio
Blanco
COVER ROCKS AGE
MIOCENE-
I Lavas/pyroclast ics RECENT Ivvvv
VVVV
/VVVVV
BASEMENT COMPLEX
~ Ophiolile/melange TUNGU- k~
(Peltetec "suture") -RAHUA
VOLCANO

- JURASSIC
i30'S ~ Turbidites/volcanics
("to rearc")
I v v v v t Greenstones/phyllite
~,lrilp)~ i
vvv ("island arc")
JURASSIC .)
1"""2"'/;;4 Sch ists/o r t hogneiss
/-'',, (older basement 9) OR OLDER EL A L T A R
VOLCANO
Fault RIOBAMBA
I 0 0 0 8 I a
Buried fault

! VVVVL
VVVV
VVVV

#
VVV~ v
V V V V ~C
/ I~1\
VVVV "z

- - N
I - -
VVVV~
VVVV~j
vvvvvl
VVVVVVl

SANGAY
VOLCANO
.)as

0 5 10 15 Km
t | I I

o"
2.
O"
Alausi []

cO"

Fig. 2. Simplified geologic map of the part of the eastern inter-Andean graben region of Ecuador where basement rocks are exposed
(see Fig. 1 for location).
74 M. LITHERLAND and J. A. ASPDEN

Chaucha Terrane: This terrane is a fragment of

continental crust lying between the two main inter-
Quito
Andean faults and bounded to the south by the Ras-
pas blueschist/ophiolite complex (Feininger, 1980;
Fig. 3). The nature of the basement is revealed by
semipelitic gneisses and schists, amphibolites, and
g S-type granites that occur as scattered basement
J
inliers and river blocks (Aspden et al., 1988; Eguez et
..j al., 1988) or as xenoliths in younger volcanic units
..j
(Bruet, 1987). These lithologies are similar to both
~r
the Paleozoic rocks of the Amatope terrane (Mourier
O et al., 1988; Fig. 3) and the Paleozoic (?) rocks of the
J
Eastern Cordillera. The Eastern Cordillera, Chau-

//
cha, and Amatope terranes may indeed be derived
from the same protocontinent. (Sm-Nd dates on the
Amatepe gneisses yield Late Triassic metamorphic
ages similar to minimum dates from the S-type
granites in the Cordillera Real (Aspden and Lither-
land, in press).) Low-grade quartzites and phyllites
of the metamorphic complex west of the Peltetec
t~
=$~ ....... . fault (Fig. 2), which may represent sediments deri-
.., ved from the Chaucha terrane, are thrust westward
AMOTAPE "' over the Chaucha basement (Aspden and Litherland,
TERRANE in press). In Colombia, the equivalent basement of
i"o~_J the inter-Andean graben is composed of slices of
lower Mesozoic oceanic rocks (Aspden and McCourt,
N
1986).
o Western Cordillera: To the west of the Pujili
fault lie Cretaceous to Eocene oceanic crust and is-
land-arc sequences (Henderson, 1979; Eguez, 1986),
which form the bulk of the Western Cordillera.

Thus in terms of pre-Oligocene history, the

Peltetec-Romeral fault marks the site of the Late
Jurassic-Early Cretaceous suture between the mid-
Jurassic South American paleocontinental margin
(the Eastern Cordillera) and the Chaucha terrane. A
Fig. 3. Provisional terrane/suture map for Ecuador and northern
Peru (after Aspden et a/., 1988; Mourier et aI., 1988). dextral strike-slip component has been noted in the
Eastern Cordillera rocks, and a transpressional Late
Jurassic-Early Cretaceous collision model is favored
(Aspden and Litherland, in press).
Romeral and Pujili-Cauca faults. However, these The Pujili-Cauca fault marks the Late Creta-
faults are also associated with a series of older, ceous-early Tertiary suture between the South
ophiolitic and]or blueschist/eclogite complexes ex- American paleocontinental margin and a colliding
posed in basement inliers, suggesting that the island-arc now represented by the Western Cor-
Northern Andes probably include allochthonous dillera (Lebrat et al., 1986).
material and that the Peltetec-Romeral and Pujili- In Colombia north of the area shown in Fig. 1,
Cauca faults originally represented sutures that cor- the inter-Andean graben disappears as the two
respond to terrane boundaries. In northern Ecuador faults merge near MedellIn (McCourt et al., 1984).
three terranes are postulated. Southward, toward Peru, the graben disappears as
the two faults diverge (Fig. 3).
Eastern Cordillera: The basement rocks east of
the Peltetec fault comprise a Jurassic island-arc se-
quence of turbidites and andesitic greenstones (Fig. T E R R A N E - B O U N D A R Y REACTIVATION
2), followed farther east by Paleozoic (?) metasedi-
ments with S-type granites (Aspden and Litherland, As demonstrated locally (Fig. 2) and deduced on
in press). Individual lithotectonic divisions in these a regional scale (Fig. 1), the two fundamental ter-
rocks may be allochthonous, but at present no other rane boundaries, or sutures, in the Ecuadorian-
ophiolitic sutures have been recognized. In Colom- Colombian continental crust were reactivated with
bia, Paleozoic metamorphic rocks occur east of the the advent of post-Oligocene Nazca subduction.
Romeral fault (McCourt et al., 1984). Recent evidence suggests that they acted as normal
 Terrane-boundary reactivation: A control on the evolution of the Northern Andes
W E
WESTERN
CORDILLERA
Fig. 4. Caldera-graben model for northern Ecuador and southern Colombia, with post-Oligooene igneous activity concentrated
along reactivated terrane boundaries.
faults, forming the 1000-km-long inter-Andean
depression, or graben. The location of m a n y of the
major post-Oligocene volcanic centers along, or close
to, the boundaries of this graben (Fig. 1) suggests
that the reactivated terrane boundaries also con-
trolled the ascent of magma, acting as regional con-
duits. A n extensional caldera-graben model could
apply at depth, similar to the one proposed for the
Tertiary Chilean Andes (Thiele et al., 1990), within
the framework of Andean volcano-tectonic segmen-
tation (Hall and Wood, 1985). In such a model (Fig.
4), extensional forces have opened up the old terrane
boundaries, thereby forming a caldera-graben struc-
ture.
Acknowledgments--Fieldwork in Ecuador was carried out under a
technical cooperation agreement between the British Geological
Survey (BGS) and the Ecuadorian Mining Institute (INEMIN)
funded by the Overseas Development Administration. Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, London. This paper is published with
permission of the Directors of BGS (NERC) and INEMIN, Quito.
We thank our INEMIN colleagues R. Bermudez, M. Pozo, and F.
Viteri for their help, and J. D. Bennett, E. J. Cobbing, M. Hall, A.
J. Reedman and F. Van Thournout for criticism of the text.
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