U.S.-Bolivia Cooperative Research: Field-Based Determination of Tectonic Strain & Displacement Across the Altiplano of Bolivia & Implications for Modeling Andean Plateau

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9907204DavisThis Americas Program award will support a US-Bolivia research project between Dr. George Davis, and Nadine McQuarrie (Ph.D.candidate), University of Arizona, and Ing. Marcelo Claure Zapata, Bolivian Geological Survey. The goal of the project is to calculate the magnitude of tectonic shortening across much of the breadth of the Altiplano portion of the Andean Plateau in Bolivia. A second objective is to evaluate whether or not the Altiplano/Eastern Cordillera region is undergoing active extensional deformation. The fundamental issue they propose to address is the correlation between tectonic shortening and crustal thickening in the Central Andes. The researchers plan the mapping and analysis of field relationships relevant to calculating tectonic shortening across the Altiplano portion of the Andean Plateau, and to evaluating if there is contemporary extensional collapse. This will determine whether the extensional structures within the region are in the form of normal faults or detachment faults. The geodynamical modeling activities will build on dew field-base data, which will provide more robust control for Andean Plateaus. Results will also be used geodynamically to evaluate the interplay of gravity and rheology as related to collapse and spreading. The new data about the second largest orogenic plateau in the world resulting from this research, will be an important addition to existing concepts which up to now have focussed on the Tibetan plateau. The collaboration with the Bolivian Geological Survey is of benefit to the US researchers in accessing one of the greatest natural laboratories in the world, which could lead to new discoveries that will benefit the scientific community as a whole, both in the US and in Bolivia. ***