Sedimentary record of regional deformation and dynamics of the thick-skinned southern Puna Plateau, central Andes (26-27°S)

•Cenozoic sedimentation on the SE Puna Plateau started during the late Eocene to early Oligocene.•A regional basin formed on the S. Puna during late Eocene to early Oligocene time.•Compartmentalized plateau formed since late Oligocene to after late Miocene time.

The Puna Plateau, adjacent Eastern Cordillera and the Sierras Pampeanas of the central Andes are largely characterized by thick-skinned, basement-involved deformation. The Puna Plateau hosts ∼N-S trending bedrock ranges bounded by deep-seated reverse faults and sedimentary basins. We contribute to the understanding of thick-skinned dynamics in the Puna Plateau by constraining regional kinematics of the poorly understood southern Puna Plateau through a multidisciplinary approach. On the southeastern plateau, sandstone modal composition and detrital zircon U-Pb and apatite fission-track data from Cenozoic strata indicate basin accumulation during the late Eocene to early Oligocene (∼38-28 Ma). Provenance analysis reveals the existence of a regional-scale basin covering the southern Puna Plateau during late Eocene to early Oligocene time (∼38-28 Ma) that was sourced from both the western plateau and the eastern plateau margin and had a depocenter located to the west. Petrographic and detrital zircon U-Pb data reveal erosion of proximal western and eastern sources after ∼12 Ma, in mid-late Miocene time. This indicates that the regional basin was compartmentalized into small-scale depocenters by the growth of basement-cored ranges continuing into the late Miocene (∼12-8 Ma). We suggest that the Cenozoic history of the southern Puna Plateau records the formation of a regional basin that was possibly driven by lithospheric flexure during the late Eocene to early Oligocene, before the growth of distributed basement-cored ranges starting as early as the late Oligocene.