We present here the first geochemical data from adakitic rocks from an extensional system—the U.S. East Coast rifted margin. Adakitic magmas are high-K melts that have been petrogenetically interpreted to be partial melts of subducting slab and/or lower crustal lithologies in delamination events. The adakitic rocks presented here are from a small volcanic region in the Valley and Ridge province in Virginia and were probably emplaced around the time of continent rupture and Central Atlantic magmatic province activity. They are bimodal in character (high Si and low Si) and have the typical high- and low-Si adakitic geochemical characteristics such as high K 2 O (up to 9.88 wt%) abundances, steep rare earth element patterns, and significantly high Sr (2473 ppm) and relatively low Rb (35 ppm) contents for high-Si adakitic rocks. The petrogenetic relation of these melts to partial melting of metagabbroic rocks (high-Si adakites) and interaction of these melts with ambient peridotite (low-Si adakites) suggests that the geodynamic process for the formation of the studied Jurassic central Virginia igneous rock succession is delamination of mantle lithosphere and lower crust below the volcanic rifted margin. We present with geodynamic models that negatively buoyant mantle lithosphere instabilities developed below this passive margin during continent rupture. After foundering, warm asthenosphere welled up and heated the lower crust of the East Coast margin. This lithosphere was interspersed in our study area with fragmented hydrated metamorphic mafic to ultramafic lithologies. In situ and/or dripping melting of such meta-igneous rocks reproduces the observed geochemistry of the studied high-Si adakitic rocks. Further recycling processes within the convecting mantle of delaminated floating fertile meta-igneous rock packages could be responsible for Atlantic melting anomalies such as the Azores or Bermuda.

The central Andes in South America is an ideal location to investigate the interaction between a subducting slab and the surrounding mantle to the base of the mantle transition zone. We used finite-frequency teleseismic P-wave tomography to image velocity anomalies in the mantle from 100 to 700 km depth between 18°S and 28°S in the central Andes by combining data from 11 separate networks deployed in the region between 1994 and 2009. Deformation of the subducting Nazca slab is observed in the mantle transition zone, with regions of both thinning and thickening of the slab that we suggest are related to a temporary stagnation of the slab in the mantle transition zone. Our study also images a strong low-velocity anomaly beneath the Nazca slab in the mantle transition zone, which is consistent with either a local thermal anomaly or a region of hydrated material. The shallow mantle (<165 km) under the Eastern Cordillera is generally fast, consistent with proposed underthrusting of the Brazilian cratonic lithosphere or a string of localized lithospheric foundering. Several discontinuous low-velocity anomalies are observed beneath parts of the Altiplano and Puna Plateau, including two strong low-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle under the Los Frailes volcanic field and the southern Puna Plateau, consistent with proposed asthenospheric influx following lithospheric delamination.

Lithospheric foundering or delamination has been long recognized as an important process in the formation of the Andes, but the scale, timing, and surface uplift consequences remain controversial. We use recently completed ambient noise tomography and finite-frequency P-wave tomography results and other geologic and geophysical information to identify two ~200-km-diameter regions of piecemeal delamination in the Puna region between 21°S and 27°S. One location in the northern Puna Plateau is centered under the 11–1 Ma large-volume silicic Altiplano-Puna volcanic center, and the other in the southern Puna Plateau is centered approximately between the Arizaro Basin and 6–2 Ma Cerro Galan volcanic field. The foundering in the northern location has progressed to the point where the main thermal anomaly resides in the middle and upper crust, and the surface volcanic flare-up and mantle thermal anomalies are both in a waning stage. In the southern location, the main thermal anomaly is still in its waxing stage in the lower crust and upper mantle, and the foundering mantle material is imaged in the mantle wedge. The differing patterns of back-arc volcanism in the two foundering centers suggest different styles and timing of delamination, with the foundering process coming to completion earlier in the north than in the south. Based on plate-motion reconstructions, the NE-SW–aligned Juan Fernandez Ridge swept southward through this area starting about ca. 14 Ma in the north and ca. 10 Ma in the south. Although we do not think the passage of the Juan Fernandez Ridge initiated foundering, it played an important role in facilitating delamination by increasing interplate coupling, and weakening and perhaps hydrating the upper plate, and its passage allowed the delaminated material to sink into the expanding space of the mantle wedge. Another important factor in this evolution is the upper-plate lithospheric strength variations inherited from the different geologic basements underlying the northern and southern Puna regions. As the larger-scale delamination progressed, leaving behind thin lithosphere and a mantle wedge with a mixture of continental lithospheric fragments and hot asthenosphere, smaller secondary Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities occurred beneath the southern Puna Plateau, influencing basin development, and subsequent melting of this “drip” material was the source of the ensuing low-volume mafic volcanism.

The relative importance of crustal thickening, lithospheric delamination, and climate change in driving surface uplift and the associated changes in accommodation space and depositional facies in the adjacent foreland basin in the central Andes has been a topic of vigorous debate over the past decade. Interpretation of structural, geochemical, geomorphic, and geobiologic field data has led to two proposed end-member Tertiary surface uplift scenarios for the Eastern Cordillera and Subandes in the vicinity of the Bolivian orocline. A “gradual uplift” model proposes that the rate of surface uplift has been relatively steady since deformation propagated into the Eastern Cordillera during the late Eocene. In this scenario, the mean elevation of the region was >2 km above mean sea level (msl) by the late Miocene or earlier. Alternatively, a “rapid uplift” model suggests that the mean elevation of the Altiplano was <1 km above msl, and the peaks of the Eastern Cordillera were more than 2 km below their modern elevations until rapid uplift began ca. 10 Ma. Determining which of these uplift scenarios is most consistent with the stratigraphic record is complicated by the potentially confounding effects of global climate changes and lithospheric delamination in the stratigraphic record. In this study, we use a coupled mountain-belt–sediment-transport model to predict the foreland basin stratigraphic response to these end-member surface uplift scenarios. Our model results indicate that the location and height of the migrating deformation front play the dominant roles in controlling changes in accommodation space and grain size within the foreland basin. Changes in accommodation space and rates of sediment supply related to climate change and lithospheric delamination play secondary roles. Our results support the conclusion that the Eastern Cordillera likely gained most of its modern elevation prior to 10 Ma, in contrast with recent proposals that most of the modern elevation was obtained during the late Miocene. This conclusion is consistent with the most comprehensive paleoaltimetric analysis of the region to date.