Igneous petrogenesis and tectonic setting of plutonic and volcanic rocks of the Cordillera de Talamanca, Costa Rica-Panama, Central American Arc

Abstract

The Late Miocene Talamanca Intrusive Suite (TIS) represents one of the youngest and most extensively exposed plutonic suites associated with orogenesis in the world. Rapid uplift associated with subduction of the Cocos Ridge (approx 5 Ma) is primarily responsible for exposing this plutonic core. In addition, a combination of Pleistocene glacial and recent rain forest conditions provided an efficient erosional mechanism for unroofing the Cordillera de Talamanca and generating an eclectric mix of geomorphological features. Four major lithologic groupings are made on igneous rocks of the Cordillera de Talamanca, which include mid-Oligocene tholeiitic gabbros, mid-Oligocene El Baru plutonic rocks, Late Miocene calc-alkaline TIS, and a Plio-Pleistocene volcanic group. -from Authors