Magmatism, metamorphism, and exhumation in the Colombian Andes: an introduction

This chapter presents a short and partial overview of tectonic events happening in the northwestern corner of South America (Colombia) since the Mesoproterozoic. The events/provinces briefly discussed here include: Proterozoic magmatic arcs, continental rifting, anorogenic magmatism, an Ordovician orogeny, a Permian arc, Triassic anatexis, migration of continental arcs in a single subduction zone (Late Triassic – Early Cretaceous), Oceanic Plateau collisions, subduction migration, a birth of a suture zone, Late Cretaceous – early Eocene magmatic arcs, Late Cretaceous – Paleocene metamorphism, the orogenic pulses of the Andean orogeny and the present configuration of the subduction zone in northwestern South America with its current Andean volcanic arc. The chapter also presents a description of the contents of the book.