Flexural isostasy in the Bolivian Andes: Chaco foreland basin development

Abstract

The Chaco foreland basin was initiated during the late Oligocene as a result of thrusting in the Eastern Cordillera in response to Nazca-South America plate convergence. Foreland basins are the result of the flexural isostatic response of an elastic plate to orogenic and/or thrust sheet loading. We carried out flexural modelling along a W-E profile (21.4°S) to investigate Chaco foreland basin development using new information on ages of foreland basin strata, elastic and sedimentary thicknesses and structural histories. It was possible to reproduce present-day elevation, gravity anomaly, Moho depth, elastic thicknesses, foreland sedimentary thicknesses and the basin geometry. Our model predicted the basin geometry and sedimentary thicknesses for different evolutionary stages. Measured thicknesses and previously proposed depozones were compared with our predictions. Our results shed more light on the Chaco foreland basin evolution and suggest that an apparent decrease in elastic thickness beneath the Eastern Cordillera and the Interandean Zone could have occurred between 14 and 6 Ma.