The evolving chemistry of the Chachahuén volcanic complex provides evidence for transient entry of a subduction zone component into the mantle wedge over a late Miocene shallow subduction zone under the Neuquén Basin. The Chachahuén complex, which is in the backarc of the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone near 37°S and some 500 km east of the Chile Trench, occurs at the intersection of NE and SE fault systems that parallel regional trends. Support for a shallow subduction-zone setting at the time of eruption and during the contractional uplift of the Sierra de Chachahuén comes from K/Ar and new ⁴⁰Ar/...