%0 Journal article %A Wörner, Gerhard %A Uhlig, Dieter %A Kohler, Ingrid %A Seyfried, Hartmut %T Evolution of the West Andean Escarpment at 18°S (N. Chile) during the last 25 Ma: uplift, erosion and collapse through time %R 10.1016/S0040-1951(01)00212-8 %R 10.23689/fidgeo-2583 %J Tectonophysics %V 345 %N 1-4 %X The geological record of the Western Andean Escarpment (WARP) reveals episodes of uplift, erosion, volcanism and sedimentation. The lithological sequence at 18°S comprises a thick pile of Azapa Conglomerates (25–19 Ma), an overlying series of widespread rhyodacitic Oxaya Ignimbrites (up to 900 m thick, ca. 19 Ma), which are in turn covered by a series of mafic andesite shield volcanoes. Between 19 and 12 Ma, the surface of the Oxaya Ignimbrites evolved into a large monocline on the western slope of the Andes. A giant antithetically rotated block (Oxaya Block, 80 km×20 km) formed on this slope at about 10–12 Ma and resulted in an easterly dip and a reversed drainage on the block's surface. Morphology, topography and stratigraphic observations argue for a gravitational cause of this rotation. A “secondary” gravitational collapse (50 km3), extending 25 km to the west occurred on the steep western front of the Oxaya Block. Alluvial and fluvial sediments (11–2.7 Ma) accumulated in a half graben to the east of the tilted block and were later thrust over by the rocks of the escarpment wall, indicating further shortening between 8 and 6 Ma. Flatlying Upper Miocene sediments (<5.5 Ma) and the 2.7 Ma Lauca–Peréz Ignimbrite have not been significantly shortened since 6 Ma, suggesting that recent uplift is at least partly caused by regional tilting of the Western Andean slope. %U http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/6896 %~ FID GEO-LEO e-docs