Seismic deployment data acquisition complete!

The seismic deployment field campaign in the Andes in April 2024 is finally complete and successful after the instruments being back to the U.S.A. The Geophysics team is completely done with data acquisition for the project!

The Argentinian-American team, led by the PhD candidate Jim Bradford, took out the broadband sensors from the southern array in Malargue and La Pampa (~35 °S, 69°W). They have recorded data for the past two years, with regular maintenance checks by the researchers of the University of Arizona, staff, and students of the National University of San Juan and INPRES.

Jim left Argentina shortly after returning from the field, at which point Susan linked up with the NAU colleagues, and worked on funneling the equipment through the export process.

September 2024:

New publication from the Tectonic Petrology group at the University of Arizona, led by former PhD student Dr. Emilie Bowman. Check it out here.

Bowman, E. E., Mallik, A., & Ducea, M. N. (2024). Partial melting of arclogite and petrogenesis of alkaline-silicate complexes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 645, 118952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118952.

July 2024:

New publication from the Tectonics group at the University of Arizona, led by postdoc Veleda Muller. Check it out here.

Muller, V. A. P., Sue, C., Valla, P. G., Sternai, P., Simon‐Labric, T., Gautheron, C., et al. (2024). Geodynamic and climatic forcing on late‐Cenozoic exhumation of the Southern Patagonian Andes (Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine massifs). Tectonics,
43, e2023TC007914. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023TC007914

April 2024:

New publication from the Tectonics group at the University of Arizona, led by former PhD student Felipe Ferroni. Check it out here.

Felipe R. Ferroni, Peter G. DeCelles, Jaime Oller Veramendi; Neogene to modern foreland basin development in the Sub-Andean zone of southern Bolivia and northern Argentina, 21−23°S. GSA Bulletin 2024; doi: 10.1130/B37206.1

CONGRATULATIONS

to Dr. Emilie Bowman for a fantastic defense of her PhD on April 11, 2024. Keep an eye out for her upcoming articles on crustal thickness in the Andes and broader questions related to the evolution of Cordilleran magmatic arcs.

March 2024:

New publication from the Tectonics group at the University of Arizona, led by graduate student Chance Ronemus. Check it out here.

Ronemus, C.B., Howlett, C.J., DeCelles, P.G., Carrapa, B., George, S.W.M., 2024. The Manantiales Basin, Southern Central Andes (∼32°S), Preserves a Record of Late Eocene–Miocene Episodic Growth of an East‐Vergent Orogenic Wedge. Tectonics 43, e2023TC008100. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023TC008100

December 2023:

UArizona PhD students Jim Bradford and Sankha Subhra Mahanti, and Prof. Susan Beck presented new TANGO results at the Annual AGU meeting in San Francisco, CA! Below are hyperlinks to the abstracts:

TransANdean Great Orogeny (TANGO)–High-resolution Imaging of the Andean Cordillera from the Mantle to the Surface

Preliminary Earthquake Catalog of the Southern Central Andes (~ 23-24° S) Recorded by the TANGO Seismic Deployment

The Andes, From Slab to Surface Through Large-N, Radial-Receiver Function Analysis, at 24⁰S

Sankha Subhra Mahanti presenting his poster in the AGU meeting in San Francisco, CA, in December 2023

September-October 2023:

UArizona PhD students Chance Ronemus and Caden Howlett presented back-to-back talks at the Annual GSA Connects meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

Caden Howlett presented new thermochronology data at the 18th International Conference on Thermochronology in Riva del Garda, Italy.

Ronemus, C.B., Howlett, C.J., DeCelles, P.G., Carrapa, B., Miocene wedge-top sedimentation adjacent to out-of-sequence thrust faults in the Manantiales Basin, southern central Andes (~32°S), Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol 55, No. 6, October 2023. doi:10.1130/abs/2023AM-389672.

Howlett, C.J., Ronemus, C.B., Carrapa, B., DeCelles, P.G., Age-elevation relationships from Cerro Mercedario (6720m) record exhumation of the La Ramada massif, high Andes of western Argentina, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol 55, No. 6, October 2023. doi:10.1130/abs/2023AM-394540.

Howlett, C.J., Ronemus, C.B., Carrapa, B., DeCelles, P.G., Age-elevation relationships from Cerro Mercedario (6720m) record exhumation of the La Ramada massif, high Andes of western Argentina, 18th International Conference on Thermochronology. Riva del Garda, Italy, September 2023.

UArizona PhD student Emilie Bowman was co-convener of session T162. The Andes from Top to Bottom at GSA Connects in Pittsburgh, PA. PhD students Chance Ronemus and Caden Howlett co-convened session T160: Convergent Margin Systems. The TANGO collaborator Andrés Echaurren from CONICET in Mendoza gave an invited talk in their session.

left: Chance Ronemus presenting new findings from the Manantiales Basin in the Andes session co-convened by Emilie Bowman at GSA Connects.

May 2023:

New publication from the Tectonics group at the University of Arizona co-authored by Peter DeCelles and Barbara Carrapa. Check it out here.

TANGO In the News

February 16, 2023

“College of Science PhD candidate shares his love for geosciences and astronomy one social media post at a time”
By Scott Coleman, University of Arizona College of Science

July 29, 2022

“Investigadores/as del DGF y AMTC inician instalación de equipos para proyecto NSF TANGO”
Departamento de Geofísica, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y MatemáticasUniversidad de Chile, Noticias

July 1, 2022

“TANGO: Un importante proyecto multidisciplinar pronto a instalarse”
By Rocio Pérez Battías, FCEFN Universidad Nacional de San Juan News

May 26, 2021

“UArizona Geologists to ‘X-ray’ the Andes”
By Daniel Stolte, University of Arizona News

November 24, 2020

“Geosciences PIs Funded by NSF for Collaborative Research: TransAndean Great Orogeny”
University of Arizona Department of Geosciences

Field Updates

New VLOG as part of the TANGO Outreach. PhD students Chance Ronemus and Caden Howlett are joined by UArizona postdoc Veleda Muller in this video. Take a multi-day backpacking trip into an undisclosed location to measure a stratigraphic section and conduct detailed sedimentology with the broader goal of unraveling the history of Andean mountain building in this region.

May 2024

March 2023

PhD student Caden Howlett has produced and published five YouTube videos as part of the outreach component of TANGO.

May 24, 2022

Here are some pictures of the seismic deployment going in on the Argentina side of the TANGO transect. Data is being collected! Photos from Jim Bradford and Sankha Subhra Mahanti.

March 15, 2022

Caden Howlett and Chance Ronemus film a day in the life of a geologist as part of the TANGO project.

January 31, 2022

UArizona Geosciences PhD students, Caden Howlett and Chance Ronemus, summitted Cerro Mercedario, the eighth-highest mountain of the Andes with an elevation of 6,720 m (22,050 ft) to collect samples for geochemical analysis, which will inform on the timing of erosion & uplift of the Andes.

Jan. 17, 2022

U of A Geos PhD students, Jenna Biegel and Emilie Bowman (pictured), hike to Confluencia on Cerro Aconcagua.

Jan. 5, 2022

The tectonics and petrologic groups meet up at Volcan Maipo (pictured below).
Caden Howlett, Barbara Carrapa, and Peter DeCelles investigating pebble composition along the shoreline of Laguna Diamante. Jenna and Emilie (foreground); Caden and Chance (background) loving life.

Department of GeosciencesUniversity of Arizona1040 E 4th St., Tucson, AZ 85721
Contact slbeck@arizona.edu, veledamuller@arizona.edu, and cadenhowlett@arizona.edu for more information.