“…Although subduction erosion removes much of the previous history of deformation in the fore arc, in conjunction with subcrustal accretion at the leading edge of the continental plate, subduction has driven deformation in the fore arc and resulted in the formation of three distinct physiographic N‐S striking domains, which lead into the present‐day arc, the Western Cordillera (WC; e.g., Hartley et al, 2000; Kukowski & Onken, 2006). These domains are, from west to east, the Coastal Cordillera (CC), largely made of sedimentary and volcanic deposits ranging from the Paleozoic through the Paleogene with Jurassic and Cretaceous andesites, diorites, and granodiorites formed in an early arc formed at the birth of the Andes; the Central Depression (CD), a basin filled with late Eocene to early Pliocene sediments and volcanic deposits; and the Precordillera (PC), containing plutonic and volcanic remnants of a Cretaceous‐Paleogene arc rising into the WC with Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic sequences underlying more recent Cenozoic cover (Figure 2b; Hartley & Chong, 2002; Scheuber & Reutter, 1992). The CC is crosscut by N‐S striking normal faults, E‐W striking reverse faults, and some NW‐SE striking strike‐slip faults (Figure 2a; Allmendinger et al, 2005; González et al, 2003).…”