The Elqui-Limarí Batholith is a group of

pluton In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

s in the Andes of Chile and Argentina between the latitudes of 28 and 30° S. The plutons of the batholith were emplaced and cooled in the

Late Paleozoic Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

and the earliest Mesozoic. Some of the plutons were emplaced in a context of crustal thickening related to the

San Rafael orogeny The San Rafael orogeny was an orogeny that affected parts of western Argentina and Chile during the Late Paleozoic. The resulting orogenic belt has a NW-NNW curved form. The San Rafael orogeny might have been linked with the roughly contemporary Gon ...

. Together with the Chilean Coastal Batholith and the

Colangüil Batholith The Colangüil Batholith is a group of plutons in western Argentina between the latitudes of 29 and 31° S. The plutons of the batholith were emplaced and cooled in the Late Paleozoic and the Triassic. Runs in a north-south direction. The plutons o ...

the Elqui-Limarí Batholith is a remnant of the volcanic arcs that erupted the volcanic material of the

Choiyoi Group Choiyoi Group ( es, Grupo Choiyoi) is a Permian and Triassic-aged group of volcano-sedimentary formations in Argentina and Chile. The group bears evidence of bimodal-style volcanism related to an ancient subduction zone that existed along the w ...

. As Pangaea broke up at the end of the Paleozoic, ocean crust material was

subducted Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

under the eastern and western continental plates. Volcanic melts from this oceanic crustal material rose through the mantle and embedded themselves in the overlying continental crust. This process was the ultimate cause of these igneous intrusive bodies.

References

Carboniferous South America Geology of Atacama Region Geology of Coquimbo Region Geology of San Juan Province, Argentina Batholiths of South America Lithodemic units of Argentina Lithodemic units of Chile Permian geology of South America Permian Argentina Triassic Argentina Permian Chile Triassic Chile Triassic South America Permian magmatism Triassic magmatism {{Atacama-geo-stub