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The geology of Chile is a characterized by processes linked to subduction, such as volcanism, earthquakes, and orogeny. The building blocks of Chile's geology were assembled during the Paleozoic Era when Chile was the southwestern margin of the supercontinent Gondwana .
The subduction of the Chile Ridge beneath the Chile Trench provides a suitable analog for the initiation of the Archean continental crust via the melting of deep oceanic crust. [4] This is because the Chile Ridge subduction is the only example in the world that the overriding plate is a continental one.
The trench is also a part of the Chile triple junction, an unusual junction that consists of a mid-oceanic ridge and the Chile Rise being subducted under the South American plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. Two seamount ridges within the Nazca plate enter the subduction zone along this trench: the Nazca Ridge and the Juan Fernández Ridge.
The flat-slab subduction in northern Peru and the Norte Chico region of Chile is believed to be the result of the subduction of two buoyant aseismic ridges, the Nazca Ridge and the Juan Fernández Ridge, respectively. Around Taitao Peninsula flat-slab subduction is attributed to the subduction of the Chile Rise, a spreading ridge. [36] [37]
The Chile triple junction, a geologic junction off the southern coast of Chile where the South American, Nazca and Antarctic tectonic plates meet. The Chile triple junction (or Chile margin triple junction) is a geologic triple junction located on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean off Taitao and Tres Montes Peninsula on the southern coast of Chile.
The ongoing subduction, along the Peru–Chile Trench, of the Nazca plate under the South American plate is largely responsible for the Andean orogeny. The Nazca plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific plate and to the south by the Antarctic plate through the East Pacific Rise and the Chile Rise, respectively.
The South Volcanic Zone (SVZ) extends roughly from Central Chile's Andes at the latitude of Santiago, at ca. 33°S, to Cerro Arenales in Aysén Region at ca. 46°S, a distance of well over 870 mi (1,400 km). The arc has formed due to the subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American plate along the Peru–Chile Trench.
Volcanism of Chile is a continuous volcanic process that has a strong influence on Chilean landscape, geology, economy and society. Volcanism constantly renews the Chilean landscape with lava flows, lava plateaus , lava domes , cinder cones , stratovolcanoes , shield volcanoes , submarine volcanoes , calderas , diatremes , and maars .