“…Similar regional stress field analysis has also been conducted in the Alberta and Neuquen Basins, foreland basins of the Rockies and Andes respectively, and both reveal orientations that are consistently perpendicular to the strike of the topographic front (Bell, 1996;Guzmán et al, 2007;Guzmán and Cristallini, 2009). The orientations observed in the Alberta and Neuquen Basins, and in the southwest part of the Molasse Basin, are consistent with absolute plate motion and thus have been used to suggest that plate boundary forces, rather than gravitational forces, control the orientation in these foreland areas (Richardson, 1992;Zoback, 1992;Gölke and Coblentz, 1996;Guzmán et al, 2007;Guzmán and Cristallini, 2009). However, the strike of the topographic front is largely perpendicular to the direction of relative plate motion in the Alberta, Neuquen, Cuya and southwest Molasse Basins, and thus both topographic body forces and plate boundary forces may be expected to yield similar orientations.…”