Jackson Team Discovers Andes Formed Faster than Imagined
- Aug 13, 2026
A new study by The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences found that part of the Andes Mountains may have formed much faster than scientists previously believed.
The study, published in Nature Communications, revealed findings that instead of growing slowly over tens of millions of years, a section of the mountain range in west-central Argentina (which includes the highest peak in South America) formed in four distinct and rapid pulses of activity. Each phase lasted about 5-8 million years — a growth rate that is significantly faster than previously thought.
“The remarkable part was how short-lived and how frequent the pulses were,” said the study’s lead author Tomas Capaldi, who started the research as a doctoral student at the School of Geosciences and is now an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. “You can almost think of it as a high-tempo beat.”
This rapid growth outpaces the previously held 50-100-million-year timeline, but researchers think that hot magma and underground fluids released during tectonic plate movement could explain the mountains' rate of expansion.
The researchers found that each phase of growth was preceded by volcanic activity, with mountain-building activity moving farther inland after each phase.
“This study shows that there’s a form of internal self-organization that happens, maybe cyclically, and this process somehow regulates mountain building,” said study co-author Brian Horton, a professor at the Jackson School.
The case for the rapid rise is built on a range of geological data related to four pulses of mountain-building activity over the past 30 million years. This includes study of rock and sediment samples in the lab, along with a larger-scale analysis of geological features in the field.
The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is also a testament to the value of sustained field study and collaboration. The data was collected and analyzed over nearly 15 years of collaboration between Capaldi, Horton and Mackaman-Lofland, along with their Argentine colleagues.
