Tectonic History of the Andes and Sub‐Andean Zones: Implications for the Development of the Amazon Drainage Basin

Mora, Andrés; Baby, Patrice; Roddaz, Martín; Parra, Maurício; Brusset, Stéphane; Hermoza, Wilber; Espurt, Nicolás

doi:10.1002/9781444306408.ch4

Cited by 109 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…The uplift of the Vaupés transversal Arch or Swell in Colombia (Mora et al 2010) retained the sediments and elevated the lands to the south of this feature. The sedimentary supply in the area showed to be higher than the subsidence.…”

Section: Andes Tectonic Activitymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…At the Tortonian time, with the subsidence of the Gurupá Arch, wide sea-level fall and simultaneous Vaupés Arch uplifting , Mora et al 2010, the whole continental area was exposed to erosion (Ucayali unconformity of Campbell et al 2006). This caused a deep headward valley incision of the fluvial system of the Amazon River from the Marajó Basin, with no obstruction from the Purus Arch, which left the way free for the transcontinental Amazon River to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.…”

Section: Purus Arch and Amazon Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That quick exhumation may have been reflected in the high Eastern Andean range, where the glacier-covered mountains started to prevent the movement of clouds to the west Andean side, where, currently, there are deserts (Mora et al 2010). This came to greatly accelerate the mechanical and chemical weathering and erosion on the eastern Andean slopes that released abundant molasse deposits for Andean foreland, Acre and Solimões basins.…”

Section: Andes Tectonic Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Naturally, with the steep sea-level fall in the Tortonian, the gradient increased, providing this major river with higher erosive action and carrying capacity. The rise of Vaupés Arch in Colombia (Mora et al 2010) began to hinder the drainage to the Caribbean, providing the formation of lakes and swamplands in the region. During the sea-level lowering in the Tortonian, the Colombian Vaupés Arch also prevented the headward erosion of the rivers southward from that structural feature.…”

Section: Amazon Rivermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). Vaupés Arch, in Colombia, a transversal feature to the Andes, was formed with the Andean uplift in the Middle Miocene (Mora et al 2010), caused by the Nazca and SouthAmerican plates collision. Tectonic activity of structural highs and arches was fundamental in directing the northern South-American drainage network, while sea level changes influenced on sedimentation (continental and marine) and erosion in sedimentary basins.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Eustatic and tectonic change effects in the reversion of the transcontinental Amazon River drainage system

Caputo

Soares

2016

Braz. J. Geol.

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The development of the transcontinental Amazon River System involved geological events in the Andes Chain; Vaupés, Purus and Gurupá arches; sedimentary basins of the region and sea level changes. The origin and age of this river have been discussed for decades, and many ideas have been proposed, including those pertaining to it having originated in the Holocene, Pleistocene, Pliocene, Late Miocene, or even earlier times. Under this context, the geology of the sedimentary basins of northern Brazil has been analyzed from the Mesozoic time on, and some clarifications are placed on its stratigraphy. Vaupés Arch, in Colombia, was uplifted together with the Andean Mountains in the Middle Miocene time. In the Cenozoic Era, the Purus Arch has not blocked this drainage system westward to marine basins of Western South America or eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. Also the Gurupá Arch remained high up to the end of Middle Miocene, directing this drainage system westward. With the late subsidence and breaching of the Gurupá Arch and a major fall in sea level, at the beginning of the Late Miocene, the Amazon River quickly opened its pathway to the west, from the Marajó Basin, through deep headward erosion, capturing a vast drainage network from cratonic and Andean areas, which had previously been diverted towards the Caribbean Sea. During this time, the large siliciclastic influx to the Amazon Mouth (Foz do Amazonas) Basin and its fan increased, due to erosion of large tracts of South America, linking the Amazon drainage network to that of the Marajó Basin. This extensive exposure originated the Late Miocene (Tortonian) unconformity, which marks the onset of the transcontinental Amazon River flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

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Section: Andes Tectonic Activitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Purus Arch and Amazon Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Andes Tectonic Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Amazon Rivermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Eustatic and tectonic change effects in the reversion of the transcontinental Amazon River drainage system

Caputo

Soares

2016

Braz. J. Geol.

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GPS velocities and the construction of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes

Mora‐Páez

Mencin

Molnár

et al. 2016

Geophysical Research Letters

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GPS velocities across the northeast trending Eastern Cordillera of Colombia show oblique convergence at 8.8 ± 1.7 mm/yr, consisting of 8.0 ± 1.7 mm/yr of right‐lateral strike‐slip shear along the mountain range and 3.7 ± 0.3 mm/yr of northwest southeast shortening. Faster convergence occurs only at the northeast end of the Cordillera, where its eastern edge trends northwest and the highest mountains lie. The strike‐slip shear corroborates geologic work suggesting such movement southwest and northeast of the range. Given the ~200 km width of the Eastern Cordillera, the ~100–150 km of crustal shortening inferred from balanced cross sections and implied by recent estimates of crustal thickness would require ~25–40 Myr of shortening at ~4 mm/yr. The present‐day GPS measurements, therefore, are inconsistent with the inference, based on paleobotanical observations that the entire Eastern Cordillera rose 1500–2500 m since 3–6 Ma and called for a different interpretation of those data.

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Botany and geogenomics: Constraining geological hypotheses in the neotropics with large‐scale genetic data derived from plants

Bedoya

2024

American J of Botany

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Decades of empirical research have revealed how the geological history of our planet shaped plant evolution by establishing well‐known patterns (e.g., how mountain uplift resulted in high rates of diversification and replicate radiations in montane plant taxa). This follows a traditional approach where botanical data are interpreted in light of geological events. In this synthesis, I instead describe how by integrating natural history, phylogenetics, and population genetics, botanical research can be applied alongside geology and paleontology to inform our understanding of past geological and climatic processes. This conceptual shift aligns with the goals of the emerging field of geogenomics. In the neotropics, plant geogenomics is a powerful tool for the reciprocal exploration of two long standing questions in biology and geology: how the dynamic landscape of the region came to be and how it shaped the evolution of the richest flora. Current challenges that are specific to analytical approaches for plant geogenomics are discussed. I describe the scale at which various geological questions can be addressed from biological data and what makes some groups of plants excellent model systems for geogenomics research. Although plant geogenomics is discussed with reference to the neotropics, the recommendations given here for approaches to plant geogenomics can and should be expanded to exploring long‐standing questions on how the earth evolved with the use of plant DNA.

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Tectonic History of the Andes and Sub‐Andean Zones: Implications for the Development of the Amazon Drainage Basin

Abstract: The Andes and the Amazon River have been neighbouring geographical and geological features for at least the past 10 million years. However, the nature of the interactions between them remains unclear.

Cited by 109 publications

References 87 publications

Eustatic and tectonic change effects in the reversion of the transcontinental Amazon River drainage system

Eustatic and tectonic change effects in the reversion of the transcontinental Amazon River drainage system

GPS velocities and the construction of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes

Botany and geogenomics: Constraining geological hypotheses in the neotropics with large‐scale genetic data derived from plants

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