Considerations about the plate tectonic model, volcanism and continental crust in the southern part of the Central Andes

Mesozoic and Cenozoic volcanism in the Central Andes occurs near the boundary of convergent oceanic and continental lithospheric plates. The rocks show a chemical and temporal zonation with respect to the present Chile-Peru trench. It is inferred that the geometry of the subduction zone has not changed in the last 190 m.y.; the continental crust during Jurassic time in northern Chile may have been between 15 and 27 km thick.