The Ayabacas Formation (Turonian-Coniacian boundary, southern Peru): submarine collapse ensued from the initiation of the Andean orogeny

The Ayabacas Formation, which crops out irregularly in the Andes of southern Peru, is a resedimented unit displaying spectacular deformation. It results from the submarine collapse, near the Turonian-Coniacian boundary (~90 Ma), of the carbonate platform that had developed during two transgressions, in the early to late Albian (~108.5 - ~102 Ma) and from the late Cenomanian to late Turonian (~95 - ~90 Ma). The collapse extended over more than 80 000 km2 and its deposits, which are locally lacking in the head, reached > 500 m in thickness in the toe. More than 10 000 km3 of sedimentary materials were displaced during a single event (at the scale of geological time). Its dimensions are comparable to those of recent giant slides and the Ayabacas collapse appears as the most extensive fossil submarine mass-wasting body currently known.<br />Deposits are organised from NE (head) to SW (toe) into six zones, on the basis of deformational facies and in relation with two important structural systems that were reactivated at the time of collapse. A seventh zone corresponds to the northeastern ‘stable' platform. In zones 1 to 3, deposits consist in a megabreccia, with elements of 10s to 100s of metres (limestone rafts and sheets, plastically folded, and less commonly rigid blocks deriving from Cretaceous or Paleozoic units) ‘floating' in a calcareous-siliciclastic mix of small clasts and red mudstones to siltstones. These materials were partly liquified and easily deformable and thus prone to ductile deformation: they acted as a sliding sole that greatly facilitated the downslope displacement of the larger elements. These zones are also characterised by deformation and brecciation at whichever scale. Zones 4 to 6, at the toe of the collapse, are exclusively calcareous and display stacked limestone masses that increase in size, due to the westward disappearance of the ductile sliding sole.<br />When compared with recent or fossil giant slides, the Ayabacas Formation appears as an atypical collapse because it occurred along an apparently stable backarc margin. The collapse occurred just prior to the rapid continentalization of the backarc basin of Peru, which have long been interpreted to mark the beginning of the Andean orogeny, and was one of the consequences of the significant changes that affected the Pacific mantle convection cell between ~91 and 70 Ma. Along the Peru margin, the conditions of subduction were abruptly modified starting ~91-89 Ma: decrease in slab subduction angle increased plate coupling and slab velocity, which dragged down and flexured the backarc lithosphere. This flexuration normal-faulted the backarc substratum, which triggered the giant collapse of its sedimentary cover.