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Early-Middle Tertiary Deposition In The Corque Syncline, Altiplano Plateau, Bolivia, Brian A. Hampton

LSU Master's Theses

Tertiary age rocks are exposed along north-south trending structures throughout the hinterland Altiplano plateau, central Andes. The east limb of the Corque syncline (SW Bolivia) contains the thickest and most continuous successions of late Eocene–Oligocene age non-marine strata (Potoco Formation) on the Altiplano. The Potoco is up to ~6500 m thick and has continuous exposure >10³ km² making it the thickest and most extensive remnant of the mid-Tertiary Altiplano basin. Basin fill during late Eocene–Oligocene time remains the most rapid and sustained period of deposition since Andean orogenesis, recording a long-term sediment accumulation rate of ~0.5 mm/my. The …