Comment on “Emplazamiento del magmatismo Paleoceno-Eoceno bajo un régimen transtensional y su evolución a un equilibrio dinámico en el borde occidental de Colombia” by Grajales et al., Rev. Mex. Cienc. Geol. (2020), 37(3), 250-268

Grajales et al. (2020) reviewed geochronological and geochemical data from Paleogene volcanic and plutonic rocks outcropping in the Panama-Choco Block (north western Cordillera) and southern Western Cordillera, as well as the Central Cordillera of Colombia. These data were used to support a model of continuous Paleogene arc magmatism along the Colombian continental margin, and to propose a paleogeographic model for the arc. The authors did not discuss previously published paleomagnetic, geochemical, geochronological, thermochronological and provenance constraints from Cretaceous to Miocene rocks of western and northern Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador that support a more plausible model of a double subduction system controlled by the convergence of the Caribbean and Farallon plates beneath the north Andean block during Paleogene. In this comment, we discuss shortcomings in the data and model proposed by Grajales et al. (2020) and present an alternative interpretation for contemporaneous arc-like magmatism during the Paleogene in the Northern Andes. We conclude that the double subduction system is the more plausible explanation for the contemporaneous arc-like magmatism during the Paleogene, currently exposed in the northern and southern portions of the Northern Andes.