Topography growth drives stress rotations in the central Andes: 3 Observations and models

Recent numerical models that couple global mantel circulation with lithosphere dynamics show that growth of the central Andes controls the 30% reduction of convergence velocity between the Nazca and South America plates observed over the past 10 Ma. The increase of gravitational potential energy due to topographic growth is also a major control on the stress pattern. Here we use numerical models which reproduce the Nazca/South America convergence history to predict the change of stress pattern in the central Andes for the past 10 Ma. Comparing the modeled stress orientations at present-day with observed ones results in ±23.9° mean deviation. Based on this good agreement we attempt to predict paleostress orientations 10 Ma ago. Interestingly, the modeled stress orientations 3.2 Ma ago are very similar to the present-day orientations. From this result we infer that stress rotations occurred between 10 and 3.2 Ma ago, when topography was considerably lower. Citation: Heidbach, O., G. Iaffaldano, and H.-P. Bunge (2008), Topography growth drives stress rotations in the central Andes: Observations and models, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, LXXXXX, doi:10.1029/2007GL032782.

@article{id1261,
  author = {Heidbach, Oliver  and Iaffaldano, Giampiero and Bunge, Hans-Peter},
  doi = {10.1029/2007GL032782},
  journal = {GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS},
  language = {en},
  number = {8},
  title = {Topography growth drives stress rotations in the central Andes: 3 Observations and models},
  volume = {35},
  year = {2008},
}

%O Journal Article
%A Heidbach, Oliver 
%A Iaffaldano, Giampiero
%A Bunge, Hans-Peter
%R 10.1029/2007GL032782
%J GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
%G en
%N 8
%T Topography growth drives stress rotations in the central Andes: 3 Observations and models
%V 35
%D 2008