The surface uplift of mountain belts is generally assumed to reflect progressive shortening and crustal thickening, leading to their gradual rise. Recent studies of the Andes indicate that their elevation remained relatively stable for long periods (tens of millions of years), separated by rapid (1 to 4 million years) changes of 1.5 kilometers or more. Periodic punctuated surface uplift of mountain belts probably reflects the rapid removal of unstable, dense lower lithosphere after long-term thickening of the crust and lithospheric mantle.

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The western Andean mountain front forms the western edge of the central Andean Plateau. Between 18.5° and 22°S latitude, the mountain front has ∼3000 m of relief over ∼50 km horizontal distance that has developed in the absence of major local Neogene deformation. Models of the evolution of the plateau, as well as paleoaltimetry estimates, all call for continued large‐magnitude uplift of the plateau surface into the late Miocene (i.e., younger than 10 Ma). Longitudinal river profiles from 20 catchments that drain the western Andean mountain front contain several streams with knickpoint‐bounded segments that we use to reconstruct the history of post‐10 Ma surface uplift of the western flank of the central Andean Plateau. The generation of knickpoints is attributed to tectonic processes and is not a consequence of base level change related to Pacific Ocean capture, eustatic change, or climate change as causes for creating the knickpoint‐bounded stream segments observed. Minor valley‐filling alluvial gravels intercalated with the 5.4 Ma Carcote ignimbrite suggest uplift related river incision was well under way by 5.4 Ma. The maximum age of river incision is provided by the regionally extensive, approximately 10 Ma El Diablo–Altos de Pica paleosurface. The river profiles reveal that relative surface uplift of at least1 km occurred after 10 Ma.

We propose an integrated kinematic model with mechanical constrains of the Maipo–Tunuyán transect (33°40′S) across the Andes. The model describes the relation between horizontal shortening, uplift, crustal thickening and activity of the magmatic arc, while accounting for the main deep processes that have shaped the Andes since Early Miocene time. We construct a conceptual model of the mechanical interplay between deep and shallow deformational processes, which considers a locked subduction interface cyclically released during megathrust earthquakes. During the coupling phase, long-term deformation is confined to the thermally and mechanically weakened Andean strip, where plastic deformation is achieved by movement along a main décollement located at the base of the upper brittle crust. The model proposes a passive surface uplift in the Coastal Range as the master décollement decreases its slip eastwards, transferring shortening to a broad area above a theoretical point S where the master detachment touches the Moho horizon. When the crustal root achieves its actual thickness of 50 km between 12 and 10 Ma, it resists further thickening and gravity-driven forces and thrusting shifts eastwards into the lowlands achieving a total Miocene–Holocene shortening of 71 km.

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[1] The western flank of the Central Andean Plateau is a crustal-scale monoclinal fold, expressed in the geomorphology and in the westward tilt of fore-arc basin strata. Data from three fore-arc basins quantify the magnitude and time of displacement of the plateau system relative to the fore arc. From 18°30′S to 22°S there is a single monocline strand. There, other authors documented ∼2000 m (±500 m) of early and middle Miocene structural relief growth across small-scale monoclines, and our data reveal 810 m (±640 m) of ∼11-5 Ma relief growth and 400 m (±170 m) relief growth since ∼5 Ma across a long-wavelength monoclinal fold limb. This structural relief growth since ∼11 Ma approximates the topographic relief growth between the fore arc and the Altiplano plateau. From 22°S to 24°S there are two subparallel long-wavelength monoclines. Structural relief on the east side of the fore arc increased by 2840 m (±2510 m) during ∼17-10 Ma and by 2320 m (±1050 m) since ∼10 Ma.

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