Magnetic fabric (AMS, AAR) of the Santa Marta batholith (northern Colombia) and the shear deformation along the Caribbean Plate margin

• The structure of the Santa Marta batholith was investigated by AMS.
• Fabrics evidence mostly the simple shear component that deformed the arc.
• Magma explored extensional shear bands to emplace.
• The deformation records the interaction of the Caribbean and South American plates.

Anisotropy of low-field magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and anhysteretic remanence (AAR) were measured in the Santa Marta Batholith formed by subduction of the Caribbean Plate beneath the northern South America. The batholith, elongated in the N-S direction, records multiple pulses of quartzdiorite to tonalite and granodiorite magmas between 58 and 49 Ma. The high mean magnetic susceptibility (4 × 10−3 SI) combined with thermomagnetic and partial magnetic remanence measurements indicate that the magnetic susceptibility depends on Ti-poor magnetite. AMS is defined by ellipsoids that are dominantly oblate. The foliation was used to distinguish a narrow band of E-trending magnetic structures that separate the batholith in two lobes. The southern lobe is characterized by foliations that are broadly parallel to the contact with the wall rocks, while the northern lobe by foliations oblique to the batholith elongation. Late tonalitic magmas dated at c. 50 Ma record, in turn, a fabric apparently controlled by E-trending tectonic events. Partial AAR indicates that the subfabrics of magnetite with different grain sizes are nearly parallel to AMS, therefore discarding the possibility of superposed fabrics with different orientations. The magnetic fabric pattern is consistent with a magma emplaced in an arc setting deformed by a dextral shear. Synthetic extensional shear bands localize the magmatic deformation along East-trending corridors that probably were exploited to emplace the late magmatic pulses. Accretion of the Eocene batholith and the Late Cretaceous metasedimentary host-rocks to the South American continent defines a major strike-slip shear suture that resulted from the oblique convergence of the Caribbean Plate.

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