In the central Andes, giant porphyry copper deposits of similar ages group into discrete geographic clusters that are regularly spaced and aligned within orogen-parallel belts. This clustering highlights how exceptional geologic processes affected localized regions of the lithosphere during mineralization and that the spatial and temporal distribution of giant porphyry deposits is nonrandom. Development of favorable regions of lithosphere for significant metal concentration are linked to the overlap of structural pathways that focus fluid and magma flow from the mantle to upper crust during high-horizontal-compressive-strain events. These structural pathways are notoriously difficult to identify in the field due to their often-subtle surficial manifestations and continental scale. Field mapping at multiple scales in northwest Argentina and southern Peru, as well as regional structural traverses throughout the central Andes, indicates the presence of regional-scale structural corridors 5 to 25 km wide and hundreds of km long that consist of myriad fault planes. The variable width and diffuse surface expression of these corridors is interpreted to reflect the upward propagation of underlying zones of basement weakness through younger supracrustal sequences in the overriding plate. Such structural corridors are (1) apparent at multiple scales of investigation, (2) long-lived, (3) preferentially reactivated though time, and (4) evident in geophysical data sets. This structural architecture formed in response to the interplay of pre-Cenozoic tectonics and the orientation of inherited structural weaknesses. These fault systems persist in the upper crust as steep zones of enhanced permeability that can preferentially reactivate as pathways for ascending hydrous magmas and fluids during major deformation events. Linear orogen-parallel structural belts cogenetic with the magmatic arc provide the first-order control to giant porphyry copper deposit distribution. The second-order control is the intersection of orogen-oblique structural corridors with the orogen-parallel belts, localizing deposit clusters at these intersections. Such regions are inferred to have been zones of deep permeability, with vertical translithospheric pathways activated during high-strain tectonic events that affected the intra-arc stress field.

中文翻译：

---

安第斯山脉中部岩石圈结构模型和巨型斑岩铜矿床簇的定位

在安第斯山脉中部，年龄相似的巨型斑岩铜矿床聚集成离散的地理集群，这些集群在造山带平行带内规则间隔和排列。这种聚集凸显了特殊的地质过程在矿化过程中如何影响岩石圈的局部区域，以及巨型斑岩矿床的空间和时间分布是非随机的。岩石圈有利于金属富集的区域的发展与结构路径的重叠有关，这些结构路径在高水平压缩应变事件期间将流体和岩浆从地幔流到上地壳。由于这些结构路径通常微妙的地表表现和大陆规模，因此在野外很难识别。阿根廷西北部和秘鲁南部的多尺度实地测绘，以及整个安第斯山脉中部的区域构造横断，表明存在由无数断层组成的5至25公里宽、数百公里长的区域尺度构造走廊。这些走廊的可变宽度和扩散表面表达被解释为反映了基底薄弱区的下伏区域通过上覆板块中较年轻的表壳层序向上传播。这种结构走廊（1）在多个调查尺度上都很明显，（2）寿命长，（3）随着时间的推移优先重新激活，（4）在地球物理数据集中很明显。这种结构体系是根据前新生代构造和继承的结构弱点的方向的相互作用而形成的。这些断层系统作为渗透性增强的陡峭区域持续存在于上地壳中，在重大变形事件期间可以优先重新激活，作为含水岩浆和流体上升的通道。与岩浆弧同生的线性造山带平行构造带对巨型斑岩铜矿床分布提供一级控制。二级控制是造山带斜交构造廊道与造山带平行带的交汇处，将矿床群定位在这些交汇处。这些区域被推断为深层渗透性区域，在影响弧内应力场的高应变构造事件期间激活了垂直跨岩石圈通道。