Post-Middle Oligocene origin of paleomagnetic rotations in Upper Permian to Lower Jurassic rocks from northern and southern Peru

We report paleomagnetic data from 28 sites of Upper Permian to Lower Jurassic strata from northern and southern Peru. In northern Peru (6°S), a stable magnetic component from six Permo-Triassic sites passes fold and reversal tests. The overall mean pole agrees well with Late Permian to Triassic poles from cratonal South America, suggesting this part of Peru has experienced neither significant rotation nor latitudinal transport since the Permo-Triassic. In southern Peru (13 to 16°S), thermal demagnetization isolates stable magnetic components in 16 of 22 Upper Permian to Lower Jurassic sites collected along the transition between the Altiplano and the Eastern Cordillera. These 16 sites are rotated 14 to 147° counterclockwise and pass an inclinations-only fold test. Within the same structural zone, three other Permo-Triassic sites as well as 10 Paleocene sites also show important counterclockwise rotations [Roperch and Carlier, J. Geophys. Res. 97 (1992) 17233–17249; Butler et al., Geology 23 (1995) 799–802]. The large magnitude and exclusively counterclockwise sense of rotation suggest that the tectonic regime included an important sinistral shear component. No correlation exists between rotation amount and rock age, suggesting the rotations are post-Paleocene in age. Because the rotations occur along the fringe of the Eastern Cordillera, they were likely produced during its structural formation, hence from the Late Oligocene to Present. Sinistral shear acting in the northern part of the Bolivian Orocline appears much more pronounced than that north of the Abancay Deflection, which likely arises from differences in convergence obliquity.