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.

Retroarc foreland basins in contractional arc settings contain evidence of temporal and spatial variations in magmatic activity, deformation, and exhumation along the continental margin and serve as excellent recorders of subduction dynamics through time. The Cacheuta basin, northwestern Mendoza Province, Argentina, is situated within the transition zone between the Pampean flat-slab subduction segment north of 33°S and the normal-dipping slab segment of the Southern Volcanic Zone to the south, and it records a detailed history of Andean orogenic exhumation at this latitude. The integration of sedimentologic, stratigraphic, geochronologic, and sediment provenance data from the Cacheuta basin constrains orogenic exhumation patterns and basin evolution during basin development. Cacheuta basin strata record at least a 12 m.y. period of basin evolution (ca. 20 Ma to younger than 7.5 Ma), based on new geochronology. The timing of initial basin subsidence is constrained by the lowermost sample in the Mariño Formation, which yielded a maximum depositional age of 19.2 ± 0.26 Ma, ~4 m.y. earlier than previous interpretations. Conglomerate clast counts, thin section petrography, and detrital zircon analyses, coupled with distinct sedimentologic variations, record progressive orogenic exhumation of the Cordillera Principal, Cordillera Frontal, and Precordillera during early to middle Miocene time. Examination of basinal strata demonstrate that uplift of the Cordillera Principal, Cordillera Frontal, and Precordillera, and simultaneous development of the Cacheuta retroarc foreland basin, in the early to mid-Miocene was the result of contractional deformation and crustal thickening during normal subduction-related orogenic processes and did not result from the development of the flat slab in late Miocene time.

The Andes between 28° and 30°S represent a transition between the Puna‐Altiplano Plateau and the Frontal/Principal Cordillera fold‐and‐thrust belts to the south. While significant early Cenozoic deformation documented in the Andean Plateau, deciphering the early episodes of deformation during Andean mountain building in the transition area is largely unstudied. Apatite fission track (AFT) and (U‐Th‐Sm)/He (AHe) thermochronology from a vertical and a horizontal transect reveal the exhumation history of the High Andes at 30°S, an area at the heart of this major transition. Interpretation of the age‐elevation profile, combined with inverse thermal modeling, indicates that the onset of rapid cooling was underway by ~35 Ma, followed by a significant decrease in cooling rate at ~30–25 Ma. AFT thermal models also reveal a second episode of rapid cooling in the early Miocene (~18 Ma) related to rock exhumation to its present position. Low exhumation between the rapid cooling events allowed for the development of a partial annealing zone. We interpret the observed Eocene rapid exhumation as the product of a previously unrecognized compressive event in this part of the Andes that reflects a southern extension of Eocene orogenesis recognized in the Puna/Altiplano. Renewed early‐Miocene exhumation indicates that the late Cenozoic compressional stresses responsible for the main phase of uplift of the South Central Andes also impacted the core of the range in this transitional sector. The major episode of Eocene exhumation suggests the creation of significant topographic relief in the High Andes earlier than previously thought.