The Cretaceous iron belt of northern Chile:: role of oceanic plates, a superplume event, and a major shear zone

The Cretaceous constitutes a turning point in the tectonic, magmatic, and metallogenic history of Chile. The geological evidence indicates that a major change occurred in late Neocomian time when superplume emplacement (Mid-Pacific Superplume) and plate reorganization processes took place in the Pacific. The superplume event resulted in a major ridge-push force resulting in increased coupling between the subducting and overriding plates. This completely changed the tectonic setting of Chile ending the Early Cretaceous extensional period (aborted rifting in the back-arc basin), and increasing stress at a crustal scale. As a consequence, overpressurized dioritic magmas were pushed up mainly along the best possible structural path in northern Chile, i.e., the Atacama Fault Zone, eventually forming a +500-km-long belt of Kiruna-type iron deposits with reserves of similar to2,000 Mt (60% Fe), a unique case in Chile's geological history.