CONFERENCIA MAGISTRAL DR.

TOMAS FEININGER THE TECTONIC PUZZLE OF SOUTHWESTERN ECUADOR Resumen

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Basement rocks on the Pacific side of the modern Andes in Ecuador are restricted chiefly to the southwestern corner of the country where they are exposed over an area of about 3000 km2 in El Oro and western Loja Province. These rocks were first noted by Teodoro Wolf and depicted on his geological map of Ecuador, published in 1892. In the 1940s, Walther Sauer, in unpublished reports, and later in his 1965 Geologa del Ecuador, related the metamorphosed part of the basement to a vast (and mythical) Tagun batholith. Eight years later, Brian Kennerley assigned a Cretaceous age to the basement though subsequently, in 1980, he gave it in part a Precambrian age. The westernmost part of the basement was mapped in detail by the present author, and a decade ago the entire basement was mapped in reconnaissance fashion under the aegis of a cooperative programme between CODIGEM and the British Geological Survey. GEOLOGY The basement is situated on the northern flank of the Huancabamba deflection, one of the great Andean oroclines. The borders of the basement vary regionally. Late Tertiary(?) sediments and alluvium overlap the basement on the northwest. On the northeast, the basement is intruded by Tertiary granitic plutons or overlain by consanguineous(?) intermediate and felsic volcanic rocks, whereas on the east it is truncated by the major regional Las Aradas fault zone. On the south the basement is cut off by faulting, or is unconformably overlain by Cretaceous rocks: volcanic breccias to the east, and sedimentary rocks to the west. The basement itself is composed of a remarkably wide range of rocks in a series of distinct belts that strike west, at right angles to the Andean axis. Each belt is characterised by a unique lithologic assemblage, metamorphic history, and age (Table 1). In fact, rocks in whichever of the four belts are unique to that belt and occur in none of the other three. Of the belts, three are true terranes in that they display assemblages of rocks that can be placed in a firm geologic context. The fourth belt is composed of retrograded amphibolite (Piedras Amphibolite) and is of uncertain origin. The terranes and Piedras Amphibolite are set apart from one another by major boundary faults (Table 2) which slice uninterruptedly across the entire basement. From south to north, the three faults display features in keeping with their having taken place at progressively shallower levels. TECTONIC INTERPRETATION Only distant tectonic transport can account for the juxtaposition of the diverse belts of rocks now observed in the basement of southwestern Ecuador. No simple geological process, acting in place, can have produced andalusite schist against eclogite, or low-grade blueschist against gneiss metamorphosed at ~800o C. Where these rocks originated is uncertain. The Tahun terrane has been interpreted as parautochthonous; more or less in place at the edge of the Guiana shield. It also has been interpreted as part of a vast accretionary complex, displaced from the adjacent Cordillera Real; or as having been transported from the west, or from the south and rotated clockwise prior to its emplacement. The Raspas terrane, exhumed from a depth of >40 km, is a subduction complex that perhaps is related to coeval intrusive and volcanic rocks in the Ecuadorian Oriente. The Birn terrane has many earmarks of an oceanic arc. It is outboard to the other terranes. The Piedras Amphibolite is especially enigmatic. The absence of evidence that it was ever subjected to high-grade metamorphism argues against it having been the sole of the Tahun terrane. The resolution of the tectonic puzzle of southwestern Ecuador is incomplete in spite of nearly the entire area having been mapped geologically in considerable detail. Only a 300-km2 window between Pasaje and Chilla remains poorly known. Some pieces of the puzzle might be put into place by additional geochronological work, particularly U-Pb geochronology of detrital zircon which is present in all three terranes, and by systematic paleomagnetic studies.

SOUTH ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NORTH Tahun terrane Dominant rock types Shale and slate; phyllite pelitic schist and quartzite; granitic gneiss and migmatite Protolith Metamorphic facies series Metamorphic facies Metamorphic minerals and assemblages Sedimentary flysch Low P/T Non-metamorphic to high amphibolite or granulite (?) Early appearance of biotite; andalusite in low- to mediumgrade pelites. Garnet chiefly in orthoclase-sillimanite gneiss and migmatite above the breakdown of muscovite Titaniferous non-opaque minerals in mafic rocks Cataclasis Associated intrusive igneous rocks Intermediate dykes K-Ar ages (Ma) Rare Chiefly granodiorite, quartz diorite and alaskite; but also tonalite and granite Common 207-216 Very rare 196-743 Absent 132 Absent 72-76 Absent Harzburgite and serpentinite Local Harzburgite and serpentinite Widespread None Sphene > rutile Gabbro Medium P/T (?) Amphlibolite (strongly retrograded) Pale green hornblende and wholly saussuritized plagioclase Piedras Amphibolite Amphibolite Raspas terrane Greenschist, greenstone, crossite schist, glaucophane schist, eclogite, quartzite and pelitic schist Basalt and siliceous sediments High P/T Transitional greenschist blueschist to eclogite Crossite in low-grade, and omphacite in high-grade basic rocks; kyanite, chloritoid and garnet in medium- to high -grade pelites. Absence of biotite Rutile sphene Birn terrane Metasandstone, phyllite, pelitic schist and greenschist, tonalitic and granitic gneiss; migmatite and amphibolite Sedimentary-volcanic flysch Very low P/T Low greenschist to middle amphibolite Andalusite in low- to medium -grade pelites; cordierite and sillimanite in high-grade gneiss and migmatite. Absence of garnet, Accessory pyrite Sphene

Table 1. Characteristics of the three terranes and Piedras Amphibolite in the basement of southwestern Ecuador

SOUTH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------NORTH Santa Teresita fault Rocks to the south and to the north of the fault Metamorphic facies of rocks immediately south and north of the fault Dip of fault Width of fault zone (meters) Metamorphic facies of rocks in the fault Upper amphibolite or granulite (?) Greenschist Low greenschist or nonmetamorphic ~60o south 1-10 Steep to the north 100-300 ~Vertical 20-50 Upper amphibolite (or granulite?) amphibolite(?) Tahun terrane Piedras Amphibolite Zanjn fault Piedras Amphibolite-Raspas terrane Amphibolite (?) -lower blueschist Lower blueschist -middle amphibolite El Guayabo fault Raspas terrane Birn terrane

Table 2. Boundary faults in the basement of southwestern Ecuador