Early Cretaceous subduction of continental crust at the Diego de Almagro archipelago, southern Chile

Abstract

In the Diego de Almagro archipelago of southern Chile, a quartz rich mica schist and a mylonitized granite contain Late Jurassic zircons of ca 166 and 170 Ma respectively. These rocks were metamorphosed during the Cretaceous in a subduction zone environment, which developed blueschist assemblages in metabasalts interleaved with the mica schist. The dated rocks were probably part of the acid large igneous province developed in southwestern Gondwanaland during the extensional phase which preceded the dismembering of the supercontinent. They constitute evidence that tectonic erosion of the margin occurred, as these siliceous igneous rocks, formed in the South American upper plate, were transported in the subduction zone to some 20 km depth prior to their exhumation. These rocks are in tectonic contact through the Seno Arcabuz shear zone, with late Permian turbidites of the Duque de York complex, which did not undergo blueschist metamorphism.