Recent advances on tectonics of the Andes and their foreland and southern North America, as part of special issues published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences in the last three years (2019-20-21)

Abstract

This Editorial is based on the recent advances presented in the Special Issues related to tectonics across South America, released in the last three years. Its objective is to display the intense work focused on different lines of research of the Andean and Pre-Andean tectonic field and also to summarize key aspects extracted from these volumes in one single document. These Special Issues describe recent advances related to supercontinent Gondwana formation and posterior peripheral accretions during the Early Paleozoic, the instalment of coetaneous arc along the paleo-Pacific trench, the development of Late Paleozoic basins in the retro-arc region, Early Mesozoic extension related to the break-up of Gondwana, Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic closure of main retroarc depocenters, conformation of the proto-Andes, the growth of their structure and temporal destabilization during the Cenozoic, exhumation degree, paleoenvironmental changes experienced during these processes, and their neotectonic and seismological behavior. In the following paragraphs we will describe their general content and main achievements reached in these volumes.