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Newly discovered xenoliths within Pliocene and Quaternary intermediate volcanic rocks from southern Peru permit examination of lithospheric processes by which thick crust (60-70 km) and high average elevations (3-4 km) resulted within the Altiplano,the second most extensive orogenic plateau on Earth. The most common petrographic groups of xenoliths studied here are igneous or meta-igneous rocks with radiogenic isotopic ratios consistent with recent derivation from asthenospheric mantle ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.704-0.709, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd = 0.5126-0.5129). A second group, consisting of felsic granulite xenoliths exhibiting more radiogenic compositions ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.711-0.782, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd = 0.5121-0.5126), is interpreted as supracrustal rocks that underwent metamorphism at ~9 kbar (~30-35 km paleodepth, assuming a mean crustal density of 2.8 g/cm 3 ) and ~750 °C. These rocks are correlated with nonmetamorphosed rocks of the Mitu Group and assigned a Mesozoic (Upper Triassic or younger) age based on detrital zircon U-Pb ages. A felsic granulite Sm-Nd garnet wholerock isochron of 42 ± 2 Ma demonstrates that garnet growth took place in Eocene time. Monazite grains associated with quenched anatectic melt networks in the same rocks yield ion microprobe U-Pb ages ranging from 3.2 ± 0.2 to 4.4 ± 0.3 Ma (2σ). These disparate geochronologic data sets are reconciled by a model wherein Mesozoic cover rocks were transferred to >30 km depth beneath the plateau in the Eocene and progressively heated until at least Pliocene time. Isothermal de-compression and partial melting ensued as these rocks were entrained as xenoliths in volcanic host magmas and transported toward the surface. Mafic granulites and peridotites from the same xenolith suite comprise the basement of the metasedimentary sequence, exhibiting isotopic characteristics of Central Andean crust. Calculated equilibrium pressures for these basement rocks are >11 kbar, suggesting that the basement-cover interface lies beneath the northernmost Altiplano at ~30-40 km below the surface. Together, these results indicate that crustal thickening under the northernmost Altiplano started earlier than major latest Oligocene and Miocene uplift episodes affecting the region and was coeval with a flat slab-related regional episode of deformation. Total shortening must have been at least 20% more than previous estimates in order to satisfy the basement to cover depth constraints provided by the xenolith data. Sedimentary rocks at >30 km paleodepth require that Andean basement thrusts decapitated earlier Triassic normal faults, trapping Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks below the main décollement. Magma loading from intense Cenozoic plutonism within the plateau probably played an additional role in transporting Mesozoic cover rocks to >30 km and thickening the crust beneath the northern Altiplano.

The Sibişel Shear Zone is a 1–3 km wide, ductile shear zone located in the South Carpathian Mountains, Romania. In the Rășinari area, the ductile shear zone juxtaposes amphibolite facies rocks of the Lotru Metamorphic Suite against greenschist facies rocks of the Râuşorul Cisnădioarei Formation. The first represents the eroded remnants of Peri‐Gondwanan arcs formed between the Neoproterozoic‐Silurian (650–430 Ma), regionally metamorphosed to amphibolite facies during the Variscan orogeny (350–320 Ma). The second is composed of metasedimentary and metavolcanic Neoproterozoic‐Ordovician (700–497 Ma) assemblages of mafic to intermediate bulk composition also resembling an island arc metamorphosed during the Ordovician (prior to ~ 463 Ma). Between these lie the epidote amphibolite facies mylonitic and ultramylonitic rocks of the Sibișel Formation, a tectonic mélange dominated by mafic actinolite schists attenuated into a high strain ductile shear zone. Mineral Rb‐Sr isochrons document the time of juxtaposition of the three domains during the Permian to Early Triassic (~290–240 Ma). Ductile shear sense indicators suggest a right lateral transpressive mechanism of juxtaposition; the Sibişel shear zone is a remnant Permo‐Triassic suture between two Early Paleozoic Gondwanan terranes. A zircon and apatite U‐Th/He age transect across the shear zone yields Alpine ages (54–90 Ma apatite and 98–122 Ma zircon); these data demonstrate that the exposed rocks were not subjected to Alpine ductile deformation. Our results have significant implications for the assembly of Gondwanan terranes and their docking to Baltica during Pangea's formation. Arc terranes free of Variscan metamorphism existed until the Early Triassic, emphasizing the complex tectonics of terrane amalgamation during the closure of Paleotethys.

ABSTRACT. The uppermost Jurassic continental and volcanic deposits of the Río Damas-Tordillo Formation represent an interval of intense continental deposition within the Jurassic to Early Cretaceous dominantly marine environment of the Mendoza-Neuquén back-arc basin. Stratigraphic and geochronological data indicate that progressive emersion of the arc and forearc domain, disconnecting the back-arc region from the Pacific Ocean, occurred during occurred during the Late Jurassic and probably the Early Cretaceous (~160-140 Ma). This change in the margin configuration induced a marine regression and the subsequent deposition of continental material in the back-arc basin. The most likely source of the sediments would have been the Jurassic arc, located west of the back-arc basin. The maximum depositional age of 146.4±4.4 Ma obtained from a red sandstone immediately below volcanic rocks confirms recent Tithonian maximum depositional ages assigned to the Río Damas-Tordillo Formation, and suggests that the volcanic rocks, overlain by marine fossiliferous Tithoninan-Hauterivian sequences, should have erupted within a short time span during the Late Jurassic. Volcanism was probably facilitated by the presence of extensional structures related to the formation of the back-arc basin. Elemental and isotopic data, along with forward AFC models, suggest a depleted sub-arc asthenospheric mantle source for the volcanic rocks and the fractionation of olivine and plagioclase, along with small volumes of lower crust assimilation, as the main processes involved in the magmatic evolution. It is not possible to establish a different source and petrogenetic conditions for the Río Damas-Tordillo Formation and the magmatism in the arc domain located further west, at the present-day Coastal Cordillera. Keywords: Jurassic, Volcanism, Central Chile, Detrital zircons, Isotopes. 530 The Upper JUrassic volcanism of The río ): insighTs on peTrogenesis... RESUMEN. El volcanismo jurásico superior de la Formación Río Damas-Tordillo (33°-35,5°S): antecedentes sobre petrogénesis, cronología, proveniencia e implicancias tectónicas. Los depósitos continentales y volcánicos delJurásico tardío, pertenecientes a la Formación Río Damas-Tordillo, representan un período de intensa sedimentación continental dentro del registro mayormente marino observado en la Cuenca Neuquina, durante el Jurásico y Cretácico Inferior. Datos estratigráficos y geocronológicos indican una progresiva emersión del dominio de arco y antearco, desconectando finalmente a la cuenca de trasarco del océano Pacífico durante el Jurásico Superior. Este cambio en la configuración del margen tuvo como resultado el desarrollo de una regresión marina y posterior sedimentación continental en la cuenca de trasarco. La fuente de sedimentos más probable habría sido el arco jurásico, ubicado hacia el oeste de la cuenca. La edad máxima de 146,4±4.4 Ma, obtenida en una arenisca roja inmediatamente por debajo de las rocas volcánicas, confirma las edades máximas de depósito titonianas, asignadas ...