Field report: Sailing around the exhumed roots of the Mesozoic Patagonian paleo-accretionary wedge (Diego de Almagro Island, Chile)

Samuel Angiboust (1, 2) , Jesus Muñoz (1, 3)

1 IPGP (UMR_7154) - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
2 GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences - Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam
3 UNAB - Universidad Andrés Bello [Santiago]

We undertook a boat expedition to explore the geological framework of a very remote, lesser-known island, in the Chilean Patagonia: the Diego de Almagro Island (latitude S51 33 0). This uninhabited, ca. 400 km 2 Island is one of the very rare exposures of the Mesozoic accretionary subduction complex along the Chilean margin. Unstable weather, strong winds, steep topography, and very dense vegetation make an on-land mission difficult. Careful preparation based on high-resolution satellite images is advised to optimize shore access and minimize risks of injury. Despite a relatively important degree of regional reequilibration of metamorphic assemblages due to sluggish exhumation through the forearc crust, our results have shown that the island is composed of a nappe stack of ocean-floor derived slivers of metasedimentary units that exhibit very different pressure-temperature-time paths during burial by subduction under the Chilean margin and subsequent exhumation. These rocks are witness to a complex thermal evolution of the subduction zone between Jurassic and Cretaceous times from granulite facies to blueschist facies conditions as well as multiple episodes of accretion at ca. 35e40 km in depth for almost 100 Ma over the Mesozoic era.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Samuel Angiboust, Jesus Muñoz. Field report: Sailing around the exhumed roots of the Mesozoic Patagonian paleo-accretionary wedge (Diego de Almagro Island, Chile). Geoscience Frontiers, 2018, 9 (5), pp.1591-1594. ⟨10.1016/j.gsf.2018.05.003⟩. ⟨insu-03455273⟩