Subduction exerts a strong control on surface topography and is the main cause of large vertical motions in continents, including past events of large-scale marine flooding and tilting. The mechanism is dynamic deflection: the sinking of dense subducted lithosphere gives rise to stresses that directly pull down the surface. Here we show that subduction does not always lead to downward deflections of the Earth’s surface. Subduction of young lithosphere at shallow angles (flat subduction) leaves it neutrally or even positively buoyant with respect to underlying mantle because the lithosphere is relatively warm compared with older lithosphere, and because the thickened and hence drier oceanic crust does not undergo the transformation of basalt to denser eclogite. Accounting for neutrally buoyant flat segments along with large variations in slab morphology in the South American subduction zone explains along-strike and temporal changes in dynamic topography observed in the geologic record since the beginning of the Cenozoic. Our results show that the transition from normal subduction to slab flattening generates dynamic uplift, preventing back-arc marine flooding. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.