The Andes make up the largest orogenic system developed by subduction of oceanic crust along a continental margin. Subduction began soon after the breakup of Rodinia in Late Proterozoic times, and since that time, it has been intermittently active up to the present. The evolution of the Pacific margin of South America during the Paleozoic occurred in the following stages: (1) initial Proterozoic rifting followed by subduction and final re-amalgamation of the margin in Early Cambrian times, as depicted by the Puncoviscana and Tucavaca Basins and related granitoids in southern Bolivia and northern Argentina; (2) a later phase of rifting...