Caribbean Geology: an Introduction © 1994 the Authors U.W.I

CHAPTER 2

Evolution of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

JAMES L. PINDELL

Department of Earth Sciences, Fairchild Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION discussed:

FIXIST AND mobilist views of the evolution of Caribbean (A) The reconstructions of Pangea, including the restoration 63 region have both been proposed. Strictly fixist views are of syn-rift extension along passive margins during con difficult to entertain in light of the very well-documented tinental breakup; the bulk shape changes due to opening history of the Atlantic Ocean and the fairly accurate transcurrent and convergent faulting in northern South Pangean continental assemblies, both of which show that America during Andean orogenesis; and the removal of little or no Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean region existed Mesozoic -Cenozoic accreted arc terranes from northern between the larger continents during the Triassic, Jurassic South America for times prior to accretion. 14,48,49,65,70,81 and early Cretaceous . Mobilist views all ac cept (B) Atlantic opening kinematics and implications for North- significant amounts of eastward Caribbean migration South America motion. relative to the Americas, but are split between models which (C) Mesozoic kinematic significance of the Equatorial At- generate the lithosphere of the Caribbean Plate between the lantic reconstruction. 6,29,42,48,82 Americas and models which generate that litho- (D) The opening history of the Gulf of Mexico. 27,30,69,72 67 sphere in the Pacific . Pindell listed cogent arguments (E) The eastward migration of the Caribbean Plate from the for the plate's Pacific origin, but definitive proof will only Pacific, independent of Cayman Trough magnetics, by come when the deep interior, and not just the rims, of the tracing the timing of overthrusting of circum-Caribbean Caribbean Plate is shown to be pre-Aptian in origin, as foredeep basins by Caribbean terranes. plate reconstructions dictate that the Caribbean Plate could (F) The occurrence of magmatic arcs, and their periods and not have fitted between the America's until well after that polarities of associated subduction. time (see below). However, I note that the recent identifica- (G) Arc-continent collision suture zones marking the sites tion of a Jurassic boreal or austral radiolarian fauna in 62 of former oceans/basins, and their timing and vergence Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and La Desirade also attests to of closure. the Pacific origin, as the Proto-Caribbean Seaway of Pin- 65 (H) The opening histories of the Cayman Trough, Grenada dell developed essentially within the Jurassic palaeo- Basin and Yucatan Basin. equatorial zone. (I) Plate boundary zone development in the northern and Important elements of (1) the methodology required for southern Caribbean. regional analysis, and (2) the actual history of the Caribbean inter-plate realm (Fig. 2.1), were outlined in progressively The present paper is a summary of an evolved plate more detail by, among others, Ladd , Pindell and Dewey , 55 65 14 tectonic model for the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean region Mann and Burke , Pindell , Buffler and Sawyer , Dewev by Pindell et al76. The summary utilizes many of the above and Pindell26, Klitgord and Schouten48, Pindell et al.70, 79 16 81 elements without repeating them, except where appropriate. Rosencrantz et al. , Burke , Rowley and Pindell , Pindell The summary of the model is supported with a limited and Barrett69 (and other papers in Dengo and Case22), 78 68 76 amount of local detail to point out how various aspects of Rosencrantz , Pindell and Pindell et al . These papers local geology are explained by the model. Geographic areas

14 JAMES L. PINDELL

Figure 2.2. Plate kinematic history between North and South America, Triassic to present (after Pindell et al.70) Vectors denote flowlines travelled by points on South America relative to North Americ a. where commonly accepted data are discordant to the model tonic and palaeogeographic evolution. can be considered as candidates for future research, to either reassess those data or to modify the general model. Ulti- mately, constraints derived by the deductive (tectonic mod- PLATE KINEMATIC CONSTRAINTS els) and inductive (interpretation of field data) approaches of assessment should merge and agree in the future to Atlantic Ocean Magnetics produce a common interpretation of the region's plate tec- Interpretations of the geologic evolution of the Carib-

Figure 2.1. (opposite) General location and basin map of the Caribbean region and sites mentioned in text (after Pindell68). Key to Proto-Caribbean/Caribbean episutural foredeep basins: 1, Sepur foredeep basin (and Chiapas foldbelt), Guatemala and Belize; 2, Cuba-Bahamas foredeep basin; 3, Maracaibo foredeep basin, Colombia and Venezuela; 4, Eastern Venezuelan/Trinidad foredeep basin. Key to rift and pull-apart basins: 5, Yucatan basins (lithospheric rift); 6, Grenada basin (lithospheric rift); 7, Eastern Belize margin basins; 8, Cayman Trough basin (lithospheric rift); 9, Nicaraguan Rise basins (probably upper crustal grabens); 10, Falcon basin (lithospheric? rift); 11, Sambu Basin, Panama; 12, South America borderlands basins (Baja Guajira, Triste, Cariaco, Bonaire, La Vela, Carupano, Leeward Antilles inter-island basins) (probably upper crustal grabens, but Bonaire basin probably had Oligocene lithospheric extension like Falcon). Key to accretionary prism/forearc basins: 13, Barbados Ridge and Tobago Trough basins; 14, South Carib-bean/Panama/Sinu-San Jacinto foldbelts and Lower Magdalena Basin; 15, San Juan-Azua-San Pedro- Enriquillo Basin, Dominican Republic; 16, Nicoya complex, Costa Rica. Key to arc-flank and other basins: 17, Limon basin, Costa Rica; 18, North Puerto Rican basin; 19, South Cuban shelf; 20, Cibao basin; 21, Cesar basin, Colombia; 22, Saba Bank platform. Oil fields shown as blobs.

15 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

NOAM - SOAM SPREADING HISTORY

Figure 2.3. Rates of relative motion for North-South American displacement, from data shown in Figure 2.2 and discussed in text. The two rates after the Eocene for Maracaibo and Trinidadian portions of northern South America are due to clockwise rotation of that plate relative to North America for that time. bean must be set in the framework of the former relative Ocean closed, is, therefore, the natural starting point for positions and motions of the encompassing North and South models of evolution of the Caribbean region. During the late American Plates. This is made especially poignant by Triassic -Jurassic rifting and subsequent drifting, the history Permo-Triassic reconstructions of North America, South of seafloor spreading in the oceans defines the size and shape America and Africa which show that the Caribbean region at any instant of the Caribbean inter-plate realm. Three did not exist at that time. The Caribbean must therefore have segments of the Atlantic, the central north, the south and the evolved as a co-development of the dispersal of these con- equatorial, are important for determination of the Caribbean tinents. Relative plate motion studies, as measured by mag- kinematic framewoik. Marine magnetics and fracture zones netic anomalies and fracture zone traces, are accurate for of the central north Atlantic between the U.S.A. and north- each palaeoposition to a few tens of kilometres. In contrast, west Africa/South America define the history of separation attempts to define the Caribbean framework by assessments of North America from Gondwana (two-plate system only) of the latitudinal component of motion between North and from the late Triassic to the Aptian. It was during this stage South America, measured by onshore determinations of that Yucatan rotated from its Triassic, Pangean location to palaeo-inclination through time, are less accurate by at least its present position to form the Gulf of Mexico by or just an order of magnitude. The kinematic framework in which after anomaly M-16 (Berriasian) time, which is the first time 65 Caribbean evolution took place is shown in Figures 2.2 and at which overlap with South America can be avoided . 2.370. The poles determined for the construction of Figure Also, wfthin the Neocomian, spreading began in the south 2.2 fall within error estimates of more recent pole determi- Atlantic, but significant motion through the equatorial At- nations85. lantic appears to have been delayed until the Aptian. Prior An accurate reconstruction of pre-Mesozoic continen- to this the early south Atlantic motions were manifested tal fragments for Permo-Triassic time, with the Atlantic northward into the Central African rift system rather than

16 JAMES L.PINDELL

the equatorial Atlantic 70'72. Therefore, early south Atlantic sphere of the arm of the Atlantic called the Proto-Caribbean motions do not appear to have significantly affected Carib- Seaway by Pindell65; or it was generated in the Pacific bean kinematic history. (Farallon Plate lithosphere?), such that Proto-Caribbean Unfortunately, the Cretaceous magnetic quiet period crust which was already formed by the separation of the prevents resolution of detailed kinetics for Aptian to San- Americas was then subducted beneath the Upper Cretaceous tonian times. Opening poles for the central north and south to Cenozoic arc systems of the Caribbean Plate during the Atlantic Ocean show that by the early Campanian and until westward drift to the Americas from Africa, thus producing a the Eocene (anomaly 34 to anomaly 21, that is, 84-49 Ma), reactive east-west migration history of the Caribbean Plate little or no motion was occurring between North and South between the Americas. In either case, westward drift of the America, and it is likely that no significant plate boundary Americas across the mantle was mainly responsible for existed between them for that interval70. An important un- east-west Caribbean relative motion. In the case of a Pacific certainty is the exact time at which seafloor spreading actu- origin, northerly and southerly extensions of Farallon litho- ally ceased in the Proto-Caribbean. It certainly had ceased sphere were probably subducted beneath the North and by anomaly 34 time (as shown by the dashed portion of the South American Cordilleras, respectively, thereby produc- curve in Fig. 2.3). I suggest that the exceedingly rapid ing the condition of tectonic rafting of Caribbean lithosphere Albian-Cenomanian transgression of cratonic areas (for ex- into the Proto-Caribbean Seaway between the Americas. ample, in Venezuela37) and drowning of carbonate plat- The primary difference of these two interpretations lies forms was aided by loss of in-plane stress as a result of the in the magnitude of the relative east-west migration of death of the ridge71,76. This is supported by the occurrence Caribbean and American lithospheres. Therefore, this dif- of oceanic crust west of anomaly 34 immediately east of the ference suggests different locations for much of the Carib- Lesser Antilles in the western Atlantic, which has the same bean region's Jurassic and Cretaceous magmatism, fabric orientation as that to the east of anomaly 3489, imply- sediment deposition, deformation and metamorphism. In ing that any adjustments in orientation associated with the models for a Pacific origin, early Caribbean stratigraphies death of the ridge (reorganization to a two-plate system and tectonism must have developed in the Pacific prior to again) had already taken place well before anomaly 34 time the relative eastward migration, and are thus essentially part (late Albian?). If this is the case, then the period over which of 'Cordilleran' evolution. In Proto-Caribbean models of the African and North and South American plates behaved Caribbean Plate origin, such developments are strictly 'Car- as a three-plate system was limited to the Aptian-Albian ibbean', and should have involved the Yucatan, Bahamian, interval. This indicates that the opening history of both the and northern South American cratonic margins. central north and south Atlantic were essentially co-polar Pindell67 outlined several independent arguments fa- (that is, one greater American Plate) from the ?Albian to the vouring a Pacific origin. Briefly, these are (see Fig. 2.4): Eocene, although some minor degree of wrenching probably occurred at Atlantic fracture zones, possibly along those 1. Eastern Caribbean Volcanism. The Aves Ridge and extending to the Bahamas. Lesser Antilles volcanic arc complexes (Fig. 2.1) collec Since the middle Eocene, very slow north-south con- tively possess an Upper Cretaceous (about 90 Ma) to Recent vergence (dextrally oblique relative to pre-existing fracture record of intermediate arc magmatism. Polarity of subduc- zones) occurred, with the magnitude of convergence in- tion for the Eocene-Recent Lesser Antilles arc has been creasing westward away from the North America-South eastward facing with westward dipping subduction, as was America pole of rotation to the east of the Lesser Antilles probably the case for the Cretaceous-Eocene Aves Ridge arc (Figs 2.2,2.3). It is not yet known whether this convergence as suggested by its slightly convex shape and absence of an was accommodated only by descent, and maintenance of accretionary prism along it west flank. Assuming a 90 north-south slab distance, of Atlantic lithosphere into the million year period of west-dipping subduction of Atlantic Benioff zone beneath the eastward migrating Caribbean crust beneath the eastern Caribbean even at only slow con Plate, or if lithospheric shortening at an overthrust zone east vergence rates suggests a minimum relative plate movement of the migrating Caribbean Plate was also required, possibly of circa 1000 km. 75 along northern South America . 2. Cayman Trough, seismic tomography, and northern Caribbean strike-slip basins. Assessments of the develop Origin of the Caribbean Plate ment of the Cayman Trough79,93, the Tabera and northern Within the above framework, there are two possibilities San Juan Basins in Hispaniola28,56, the 'Eocene Belt' of for the origin of the lithosphere of the Caribbean Plate. Puerto Rico36, and the Cibao Basin and north coastal area Either it was generated by seafloor spreading between Yu- of Hispaniola34,73 (Fig.2.4) indicate late Eocene to Recent, catan and South America and, therefore, represents litho- east-west, sinistral strike-slip motion between the Caribbean

17 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

Figure 2.4. Summary of arguments for a Pacific origin of the Caribbean Plate, after Pindell67. Light lines denote approximate present-day general boundary configuration. Heavy lines denote approximate boundary (suture zones that formed during Caribbean evolution) between the allochthonous Caribbean arc/oceanic rocks, and the autochthonous and para-autochthonous Proto-Caribbean passive margin/foredeep basin rocks. Eastern Caribbean volcanism in Aves Ridge and Lesser Antilles (argument 1) shown with Vs. Post-Middle Eocene strike-slip basins (argument 2) shown as A (Cayman Trough), B (San Juan Basin), C (Tabera Basin), D (Eocene Belt). General stratigraphic differences of Caribbean and Proto-Caribbean rock suites (argument 3) shown in inset. Aptian position of South American outline and shelf relative to North America, showing small separation between the Americas at that time (argument 4) labeled 'Aptian So Am'. Sequential migrated positions of the Chortis block and the trench-trench-transformed (TIT) triple junction relative to Mexico (argument 5) shown by outlines southwest of Mexico: mainly Paleogene and Neogene/Quaternary arcs shown in ‘v’s. Division between pre-Campanian Pacific and Proto-Caribbean faunal realms (argument 6) nearly matches suture zones outlined in heavy lines. Foredeep basins that developed ahead of the relatively eastwardly migrating Caribbean Plate shown by dotted areas, where SF=Sepur Foredeep (late Cretaceous); CF=Cuban Foredeep (early Paleogene); MF= Maracaibo Foredeep (Eocene); EVF=Eastern Venezuelan or Maturin Foredeep (Miocene). and North American plates (northern PBZ). Offset of about 3. Caribbean vs. Proto-Caribbean stratigraphic suites. 100 km since the Eocene is indicated from the length of the Cretaceous portions of the stratigraphies of two distinct deep oceanic portion of the Cayman Trough, and from suites of rock in the Caribbean region (Figs 2.4, 2.5) are reconstructions of Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the genetically incompatible as presently juxtaposed across cir- Aves Ridge arc fragments into a single, pre-middle Eocene cum-Caribbean ophiolite belts interpreted to be suture zones Greater Antilles arc69. Seismicity61 and seismic tomogra- (Fig.2.4). The 'Caribbean suite' occurs 'Caribbeanward' of phy39 show a distinct west-dipping Atlantic Benioff zone the suture zones, whereas the 'Proto-Caribbean suite' occurs extending at least 1,200 km beneath the eastern Caribbean, 'Americanward' of the sutures. The Caribbean suite's Cre- suggesting a similar minimum magnitude of displacement taceous, tuff-dominated stratigraphy differs dramatically as the Cayman Trough. If this much motion has occurred from the Proto-Caribbean suite's coeval Cretaceous, non- since the Eocene, a much larger value for the total relative volcanogenic, passive shelf sediments. Spatial separation motion must have occurred as indicated by the late Creta- during deposition of these distinct suites of rock appears ceous period of arc activity of the Aves Ridge. necessary for the Proto-Caribbean to contain no record of

18 JAMES L. PINDELL

Caribbean volcanism. As this difference extends from Campanian time44, suggesting spatial separation of shal- around the Caribbean Sea to the Santa Marta massif of low-water organisms prior to that time. The areas of occur- Colombia and to Chiapas, Mexico, it is unlikely that the rence for the two realms closely match the areas of the Caribbean arcs were situated any farther east than these Caribbean and Proto-Caribbean stratigraphic suites. The locations for most of the Cretaceous. Campanian initiation of faunal merging of the realms relates 4. Pre-Aptian geometrical incompatibility, Caribbean to the onset of tectonic juxtaposition of the shelfal areas they Plate and Proto-Caribbean Seaway. Numerous faunal and occupied, presumably during relative eastward migration of isotopic ages from the basements of most Caribbean arcs are the Caribbean Plate between the Americas. Further, pre-Aptian, and seismic sections of the Colombian and Montgomery et al62 identified cold water forms of Upper Venezuelan Basin90, particularly the basement continuity Jurassic radiolarians in the Puerto Plata Basement Complex from the Jurassic rocks of Costa Rica to the Colombian of Hispaniola73, the Bermeja complex of Puerto Rico59, and Basin, suggest that the crust of the internal Caribbean plate on La Desirade, which can only be explained by a Pacific, is pre-Aptian (probably Jurassic) as well. However, plate non-Tethyan, original for the basements of those localities. separation between North and South America was insuffi The above arguments collectively indicate that the crust cient (Fig. 2.4) to house a pre-Aptian Caribbean Plate until of the Caribbean Plate and the Chortis block was situated the late Cretaceous, probably the Albian. Thus, the Carib west of the Cretaceous shelf sections of Yucatan, the Baha- bean Plate must have formed outside the present Caribbean mas, and northern South America prior to the later Creta- area, much farther west than the 1100 km of displacement ceous (Campanian). Seafloor spreading between North and indicated by the Cayman Trough and seismic tomography, South America had ceased, probably in the Albian, leaving and its migration history must have began well before the a Proto-Caribbean oceanic arm of the Atlantic to subside Eocene, probably in the early late Cretaceous as suggested thermally in the absence of plate boundaries. In addition to by Aves Ridge subduction-related volcanism and by the understanding regional evolution, acknowledgement of the Albian to early Tertiary ‘Antillean phase’ of magmatism in existence of this Proto-Caribbean Seaway, with the Carib- the Greater Antilles. bean Plate situated to the west, is critical to the hydrocarbon 5. Truncation and uplift of the southwestern margin of story of the circum-Caribbean region because it was along Mexico. Structural trends and the Paleogene arc of south this seaway's margins that the region's best source rocks west Mexico have been truncated46 either by subduction were deposited, from Albian to Campanian time68. erosion or by strike-slip removal of arc and forearc areas. In light of these arguments, the concept of the present- Paleogene arc rocks in Mexico are largely restricted to the day Caribbean lithosphere representing a piece of the Proto- Sierra Madre Occidental; the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Caribbean Seaway is difficult to entertain. The implication arc is mainly Neogene in age, with volcanism commencing is that the entire Caribbean Plate is allochthonous relative to earlier in the west than in the east, implying an eastward the Americas and has migrated from well over 200 km to migration of arc inception (Fig. 2.4). In the Chortis Block the west, and that (what are now) adjacent portions of the of Central America, evidence for Paleogene arc activity is Mesozoic Caribbean and America (Proto-Caribbean) strati- abundant, with volcanism extending back into the Creta graphic suites should not be correlated due to the large ceous. The Paleogene arc sequences were probably continu spatial separation during original deposition. Deep drilling ous from western Mexico into Chortis, prior to eastward within the interior of the Caribbean Plate would likely return strike-slip offset of Chortis to its present position and pro an undeformed stratigraphic sampling of the eastern Pa- gressive development of volcanism in the Trans -Mexican cific's Upper Jurassic(?) and Lower Cretaceous section, Volcanic Belt93. In addition, Precambrian rocks of the which elsewhere is only poorly preserved. southwest margin of Mexico46 yield cooling ages that indi- Merging the relative motions between North and South cate uplift and erosion since Oligocene time, younging America (Fig.2.2) with a Jurassic or early Cretaceous eastwards21. This probably occurred as a function of an Pacific origin of the Caribbean lithosphere implies a very intra-continental, strike-slip fault zone (between Mexico simple history of Caribbean evolution that can be described and Chortis) progressively becoming a Neogene subduction generally by two phases. The first phase was Triassic to mid margin as Chortis migrated to the east, with associated uplift Cretaceous, northwest-southeast relative separation of of the hanging wall (Mexico). Thus, it appears that Chortis North and South America, and the opening of the Proto-Car- has migrated with the Caribbean crust during Cenozoic time ibbean Atlantic-type seaway bounded by passive margins frpm a more westerly position72,93. along the Bahamas, eastern Yucatan and northern South 6. Faunal provinciality: Pacific versus Proto-Caribbean America. The second phase involved the Albian to Recent Realm. Two differing Cretaceous faunal realms exist across subduction of that Proto-Caribbean lithosphere beneath arcs the Mexican-Caribbean region that remained distinct until along the eastern Caribbean border, during westward drift

19 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

Figure 2.5. Generalized stratigraphic columns for portions of the Proto-Caribbean passive margins versus the central portion of the Caribbean Plate (after Pindell8).

of the America's from Africa. Eastwardly progressive de- assessing total Tertiary strike-slip displacements, because struction of the Proto-Caribbean passive margins by the they were not in place at the onset of the strike-slip disloca- relative motion of the Caribbean Plate would be recorded by tions. In the simple two-phase model, the emplacement of foredeep basin development above the pre-existing Proto- allochthons occurs as a direct consequence of mainly Terti- Caribbean shelf sections. Figure 2.4 shows four large basins ary, Caribbean-South American relative motion. Therefore, formed by this process whose eastwardly-younging ages of most of the Caribbean-South American transcurrent offset foredeep loading are: Sepur, Guatemala (Campanian-Maas- occurred along the basal thrusts of the allochthons. The high trichtian); Cuban (early Paleogene); northern Maracaibo angle strike-slip faults within the orogen, which are secon- (Eocene); and Eastern Venezuelan (Miocene). dary in magnitude of offset, thus record only a minor portion The often-cited Cretaceous orogenesis along northern (less than 150 km) of the total relative motion which is in South America9,10,19,57 does not fit the simple scenario of excess of 1,000 km in the vicinity of Guajira Peninsula. Caribbean-South American interaction26'66 implied by the However, it is apparent that as one heads east, the actual total above kinematics, and this discrepancy has been the subject offset between South American and Caribbean terranes of much recent study. No Cretaceous orogenesis affected becomes progressively less, because the Caribbean-South Trinidad1-3. Similarly, passive margin conditions prevailed America plate boundary did not exist until progressively across northern South America until the Tertiary 74,75. An younger times toward the east. implication of these concepts is that all rocks in northern South America affected by metamorphism in the Cretaceous CARIBBEAN EVOLUTION: PHASE 1; NORTH are Caribbean-derived and allochthonous. Flysch units con- AND SOUTH AMERICA DRIFT STAGE taining South American shelf debris, once believed to be Cretaceous in age on the basis of clasts, are now known to The following discussion on regional Caribbean evolution have Tertiary matrices (Gaitapata and Paracotos Forma- is adapted from a full synthesis by Pindell et al.76. The first tions), in keeping with the simple, two-phase tectonic phase of evolution (Triassic to Albian) was primarily asso- model. A second important implication is that the belts of ciated with the development of the Proto-Caribbean Sear Cretaceous metamorphic rocks are not viable markers for way. The second phase (Albian to Recent) involved the

20 JAMES L.PINDELL progressive consumption of Proto-Caribbean crust beneath Ma). The crust to the north of the Blake Plateau that was Caribbean arcs during westward drift of the Americas across the created by seafloor spreading prior to formation of the mantle, leading to the present plate configuration. BSMA produced the central north Atlantic's asymmetry with respect to the present ridge axis. An early ridge appar- Late Triassic-Jurassic ently was abandoned as the spreading centre jumped to the The western Pangean reconstruction of Figure 2.6a is site of the BSMA86,92. modified after Pindell65 and Rowley and Pindell81. The The northeastern Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the western total closure pole for Yucatan/North America relative to Florida Shelf, the Blake Plateau and the western Bahamas is 14,47,65 North America is latitude 28.4, longitude -82.1, angle -47.781 a complex region of continental blocks . Sinistral and lies in northern Florida. The Atlantic closure poles are motion along the Jay Fault began such that continental hosts after Pindell et al.70. The Chiapas Massif is not included with the (Sabine, Monroe, Wiggins, Middle Grounds or Florida El- Yucatan Block. Andean deformations in northwest South bow, and Tampa or Sarasota Arches) became separated by America have been restored in a similar (but more rigorous) rifts along the northeastern Gulf Coast margin. Extension way to that of Dewey and Pindell26. Mexican terranes have was far greater south of the Jay than it was to the north, been displaced by the minimum amount necessary to avoid requiring a sinistral component of displacement in addition to overlap with South America. Chortis is not included along normal offset at essentially a transfer zone. Total offset, western Colombia as it is in some reconstructions because which continued into the Jurassic, increased southwards the Central Cordillera of Colombia possessed a Triassic - Ju- relative to North America (differential shear) and perhaps rassic arc axis and must have been adjacent to the Pacific was as much as 100 to 150 km between the Sarasota Arch lithosphere. and the Ouachitas, the latter of which serves as a fixed, North In late Triassic to early Jurassic time, North America America reference frame. Thus, the North Louisiana and began to rift from Gondwana along widespread, poorly-de- Mississippi Salt Basins (although no salt was yet deposited), fined zones of intracontinental block-faulting, redbed depo- the Northeast Gulf Basin and the Florida Elbow Basin sition and dyke emplacement (Fig. 2.6a, b). In the southern between the aforementioned highs came into existence. 65 U.S.A. , north-south extension77 produced an extension gra- Pindell noted that there is (a) sufficient overlap between ben system filled with Eagle Mills redbeds. Along the the present day limit of continental crust in the Bahamas and eastern U.S.A., redbeds, dykes and sills of the Newark that in the Guinea Plateau of western Africa during Pangean Group and its equivalents were deposited and emplaced in a closure, and (b) an unfilled gap in the eastern Gulf of Mexico belt of grabens paralleling the coast from the Piedmont out to during closure, to warrant the suggestion that a fault zone in the continental shelf. The Eagle Mills and Newark systems addition to the Jay exists between the Florida Elbow and are lithologically and tectonically equivalent. These systems Sarasota Arches (Florida Elbow Basin) along which crust of relate to hanging wall collapse of pre-existing thrust faults of south Florida and the Bahamas migrated eastwards during the Alleghanian Orogen, as the latter went into extension. Gulf opening. Although the Guinea overlap could be ex- Judging from subsidence history, in which post-rift thermal re- plained also by magmatic addition during crustal stretching in equilibration is lacking, these basins are upper crustal the South Florida Volcanic Belt, this still does not satisfy detachments rather than true lithospheric rifts. The true the Gulf gap problem, suggesting that one or more faults lithospheric rifts developed farther south and east, cross Florida to allow the marginal offset between the Ba- 15 respectively, during the Jurassic. hamas and the Blake Plateau. Buffler and Thomas showed Drift between Africa and North America was underway in faulted basement at the west flank of the Florida Elbow the middle Jurassic (Fig. 2.6b). The Punta Alegre and Basin which could coincide with the Florida Elbow Fault 65 Exuma Sound(?) salt of the Bahamas might correlate with zone of Pindell , but the strike of the faults is not clear. In the portions of the Louann and Campeche in the Gulf of any case, it is noted that assessments of relative motion Mexico, but these units are probably older and appear to between North America and the Yucatan Block based on relate to the opening of the central north Atlantic rather than structural or tectonic style cannot be made in the eastern to the Gulf of Mexico. Such is the case with the Senegal Gulf during the period over which the blocks south of the Basin and Guinea Plateau salt deposits43 which opposed the Jay Fault, including the Sabine and Wiggins Arches, were Bahamas at that time. The Blake Spur Magnetic Anomaly moving, because the blocks were independent, intervening 65 (BSMA; Fig. 2.6b) can be symmetrically correlated about the terranes with their own relative motion . mid-Atlantic Ridge with the western margin of Africa, but To the west, the Yucatan Block began to migrate south- internal stretching within the Blake Plateau accounts for wards along the eastern flank of the Tamaulipas Arch, divergence between North America and Africa until the time producing the arcuate shear zone along eastern Mexico when the BSMA formed to the north (approximately 170 (Tamaulipas-Golden Lane-Chiapas transform fault of Pin-

21 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

65 dell , not a rifted margin) which helps define the North Legend for Caribbean Evolutionary Maps America-Yucatan pole of rotation in Florida (Fig. 2.6b, c). This shear zone truncates any faults entering the Gulf from Mexico, including hypothetical extensions of the Mojave- LEGEND FOR CARIBBEAN Sonora trace, and therefore must have remained active EVOLUTIONARY MAPS longer. The absence of a major marginal offset (about 700 km6,48) on basement isopach maps of eastern Mexico15 precludes the possibility that a Mojave-Sonora fault zone entered the Gulf of Mexico during rifting, and renders unlikely all tectonic models which open the Gulf by moving Yucatan along Atlantic flowlines. The question is, then, how did the terranes of Mexico get into the South American overlap position after rifting? One possibility is that strike slip systems such as the Mo- jave-Sonora and the Nacimiento may have been active during the Jurassic toward the northwest, but, rather than entering the Gulf of Mexico to the east, they instead trended more southwards to the west of the Tamaulipas Arch. Un- fortunately, this area has been overthrust by the Sierra Madre Oriental so that this hypothesis is not easily tested. However, the suggestion would provide a logical mechanism for the production of the deeper water depocentre of the section now comprising the Sierra Madre. I suggest that the southward trace of the fault system(s) became transtensional in central Mexico, creating a Mexican backarc trough. This trough may have formed in order to maintain the subduction zone outboard of Mexico. In the southwest U.S.A., sinistrally transpressive Nevadan orogenesis oc - cured at this time due to migration of North America from Gondwana, but the margin presumably became progres - sively more oblique toward the south along Mexico (Fig. deeper water deposition across central Mexico, the depocen- 2.6c). Backarc extens ion may have been driven by subduc- tre for the Sierra Madre section; and fit very well into our tion zone rollback at the trench, and a significant component perception of plate kinematics of the region at that time. The in the backarc basin is predicted in order to help maintain proposed basin probably began its formation in the Cal- trench-normal subduction at the trench. In this way, the lovian, concurrent with the earliest known marine spills into terranes of Mexico could have migrated southwards, but in the Gulf of Mexico in the area (Tepexic Formation? in a more extensional direction relative to the Atlantic flowli- southern Mexico). Depending on the degree and variability nes. Later, during late Cretaceous -Eocene shortening in the of the obliquity of opening, the basin could have had vari- Sierra Madre thrustbelt, which was directed essentially to- able water depths, with limited basaltic intrusion or produc- ward the eastnortheast, the terranes encroached upon the tion of oceanic basement. Gulf of Mexico. The net travel path of southward transten- In northern South America, rifting, igneous intrusion sion followed by eastnortheast thrusting (two sides of a and redbed deposition occurred over Triassic -Jurassic triangle) may have produced an apparent transcurrent offset times. Rifts can be divided between those east of Maracaibo (third side of the triangle) along the hypothetical southeast- (Takatu, Espino, Uribante/Tachira, Cocinas?), which are ward extension of the Mojave-Spnora trace. This suggested due to continental breakup from Yucatan/Florida-Bahamas, history would: explain basement offsets in northwest Mex- and those west of Maracaibo (Machiques, Cocinas?, Bo- ico and southwest U.S.A. along the Mojave-Sonora and gota/Cocuy, Santiago, Payande), which are Andean backarc other faults6; provide a mechanism for Mexican terranes to basins with arc-related volcanism, as well as rift-related migrate into the South American overlap position in volcanism, in or adjacent to them. The Machiques, Pangean reconstructions; account for Sierra Madre shorten- Uribante/Tachira and Bogota/Cocuy rifts would become the ing; avoid predictions of a large and missing marginal offset sites of Andean uplift during Neogene times (Perija, Merida, along the eastern Mexican margin; suggest a mechanism for Eastern Cordillera, respectively) '41. The continental mar -

22 JAMES L. PINDELL

NORTH AMERICA

Figure 2.6a. Palaeogeography, late Triassic -early Jurassic.

Figure 2.6b. Palaeogeography, Bathonian.

23 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

gin to the north also formed at this time, as late and possibly of motion must have approximately summed to match the middle Jurassic marine, passive margin sediments were opening rate and azimuth of the central Atlantic Ocean. By deposited from Guajira to Trinidad3,37.The platform areas Oxfordian times, rifting appears to have ceased between the between these rifts behaved as basement highs during sub- blocks south of the Jay Fault, such that Gulf of Mexico sequent late Jurassic and early Cretaceous thermal subsi- marine magnetics and structural trends west, but not south- dence. The backarc marginal trough predicted for Mexico east, of the Florida Elbow Arch probably define Yucatan- (see above) is also predicted for offshore Colombia Triassic North America motion. Hall et al38 suggested a pole for this to Jurassic arc magmatism ceased in this area by the end of time based on magnetics that is farther south in Florida than the Jurassic and all of autochthonous Colombia became a my total closure pole defined earlier, and it may be that 74 part of the northern South American passive margin . The crustal stretching during the rift stage in the Gulf Coast was plate vector circuit for North America, South America and northwest-southeast directed, followed by more north-south Cordilleran Mexico can be satisfied by a single RRR triple rotational seafloor spreading. If so, the two stages of opening junction within the backarc basinal area, connecting the may sum match the total closure pole. Given, among Mexican, Colombia and Proto-Caribbean zones of displace- other things, the slight bend to the northwest in basement ment (Fig. 2.6c, d). This allowed continuity of the Cordille- structure contours in the Burgos Basin area at the north end ran arc systems in an outboard position away from passive of the Tamaulipas Arch15, this two stage model appears to margin elements of Colombia and eastern Mexico: the back be justified58. To the north of the migrating junction be- arc systems would collapse during the late Cretaceous tween the Tamaulipas-Golden Lane-Chiapas fault zone Sevier-Peruvian orogenesis after Aptian-Albian onset of (TGLC) and the central Gulf ridge system, the TGLC westward drift of South America from Africa and plate re- evolved as a fracture zone separating regions of differential organization in the eastern Pacific. subsidence. The abrupt topographic low, or freeboard, east By the middle Oxfordian, intra-continental extension in of TGLC has received enormous volumes of sediment the Gulf of Mexico had reached a point (constrained South through time (for example, Burgos Basin east of Monterrey, America divergence rate) where it had opened enough to Mexico46). As strike-slip motion ceased along the Tamaulipas accommodate the entire extent of the Louann and Campeche Arch after passage of the ridge system, it thermally evaporite basin, but salt deposition may have been in the subsided and eventually was onlapped by uppermost Jurassic Callovian or earlier. Oxfordian salt deposition is supported and Cretaceous carbonates. In Chiapas, deposits of the by seismic studies which show no erosion of the salt below Todos Santos 'rift facies' are younger (late Jurassic -early the Oxfordian Norphlet and Smackover Formations, sug- Cretaceous) than those in the northern Gulf. This is prob- gesting very little time between the deposition of the two ably because shear along the active TGLC continued longer in units . In most places, the salt appears to cover or mark the the south, well into the thermal subsidence stage of the breakup unconformity around the Gulf: elevation and expo- north. sure of the surface across the Gulf Basin prior to salt The whereabouts of the Chortis Block relative to North deposition was probably controlled by the ratio of crustal to 24 America during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous is un- lithospheric thickness until a critical value was reached known. However, by Aptian times the carbonate units of during continued extension. The salt often marks the onset southern Mexico and Chortis became very similar, and it of thermal subsidence which led to establishment of open could be argued that the Cretaceous magmatic rocks of marine conditions around most of the Gulf, but isolated Chortis formed a southerly extension of the Cretaceous pockets may have been well below sea level during the Mexican arc as well. For simplicity, I do not show the Oxfordian advance of the seas, resulting in rapidly deepen- Chortis Block in the reconstructions until the Valanginian. ing conditions. Two likely entrances for marine waters into To the east, the juvenile Proto-Caribbean continued to the Gulf during the Callovian-Oxfordian times are between open, fanlike, between Yucatan and Venezuela. The mid- Florida and Yucatan, as DSDP leg 77 documented Jurassic 83 ocean ridge in this basin must have been joined in some way extension and marine sedimentary rocks , and the southern with the plate boundary separating the Florida/Bahamas and Mexican Isthmus, where Callovian marine rocks of the Yucatan Blocks, which in turn have been connected to the Tepexic Formation occur. Central North Atlantic system by a long transform along the During the entire late Jurassic, seafloor spreading was south side of the Bahamas. A single triple junction is por- occurring in the Gulf of Mexico where it separated the salt trayed connecting these plate boundaries in the northern basin into halves, and also in the Proto-Caribbean Sea (Fig. Proto-Caribbean, for simplicity, but late Cretaceous to Pa- 2.6c). The crust of southern Florida/Bahamas may have leogene subduction of this crust has eliminated direct evi- been mobile relative to North America as well, by faulting dence for this proposition. The crust east of Yucatan and along the Florida Elbow Fault Zone. The three components south of the Bahamas may have had a rough bathymetric

24 JAMES L. PINDELL

Figure 2.6c. Palaeogeography, late Oxfordian.

Figure 2.6d. Palaeogeography, Valanginian.

25 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean character (stretched continental blocks or raised oceanic gesting that the trenches of whatever arc systems existed fracture zones?), such that a complex pattern of carbonate west of the Proto-Caribbean area did not intersect the South highs and lows developed into the Cretaceous. Sediments America Andes until southern Ecuador. I speculate that an originally deposited in the northern Proto-Caribbean depo- evolving and lengthening intra-oceanic arc system from centre is now represented in the Cuban thrust belt north of Chortis/Mexico to southern Ecuador would form the roots and underneath the Cuban ophiolite/arc belt. Siliciclastic to the Greater Antilles and Aves Ridge arcs of the Caribbean sands in those sections were probably derived laterally from and the Amaime-Chaucha terrane of Colombia/Ecuador, Yucatan rather than the Bahamas. Hence, sedimentary evi- although at this point the arc was westward facing. Subduc- dence in Cuba for the Cuba-Bahamas collision appears older tion of Pacific (Farallon?) lithosphere at this speculative arc (late Cretaceous) than it actually was (Paleogene). configuration may have been accompanied by accretion of The opening of the Gulf of Mexico was achieved prob- Jurassic ophiolitic fragments and cold water cherts now ably within the Berriasian, when sufficient room existed found in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and La 62 between North and South America to avoid overlap between Desirade . The relative velocity triangles of Figure 2.6d Yucatan and South America (anomaly M-16). At that time, describe the relative plate motions at this time. the Yucatan block became part of the North America Plate By the Barremian/Aptian (Fig. 2.6e), a plate boundary (NOAM) as spreading ceased in the Gulf of Mexico, and a reorganization in at least the eastern portion of the Proto- Neocomian circum-Gulf carbonate bank was established. Caribbean is required to accommodate the onset of opening Starting in the Berriasian, North America-Gondwana plate in the equatorial Atlantic. The trace of the fracture zone separation occurred solely within the Proto-Caribbean Sea, which originally existed along the Guyana margin must an arm of the Central North Atlantic (Fig. 2.6d). Most have shifted north, possibly as a result of the kinematic margins of the Proto-Caribbean Sea had been formed by adjustments made during the M-21 to M-10 kink in Atlantic rifting, and carbonate and terrigenous shelf deposits accu- fracture zones. Final development of the eastern Bahamas mulated on the subsiding shelves throughout the Creta- basement uplift also probably was associated with this reor- ceous. The Proto-Car ibbean ridge system connected the ganization. central North Atlantic ridge system to plate boundaries in Other important plate boundary reorganizations were 33 the Pacific realm, presumably the backarc spreading centres also about to take place. Engebretson suggested that Far - of central Mexico and offshore Colombia. allon crust may have begun to converge in a more northeast direction relative to North America during Aptian-Albian Early Cretaceous and Aptian-Albian times, which would have relieved the sinistral component Cordilleran orogenesis of strain along the Mexican Cordillera. The opening of the Plate separation continued between North and South equatorial Atlantic was presumably well underway by the America in the Proto-Caribbean, whose passive margin Albian, as evidenced by Albian marine inundation of all sections (Fig. 2.5) continued to develop during thermal equatorial Atlantic rift basins, such that for the first time the subsidence (Fig. 2.6d, e). However, tectonically driven up- South American lithosphere accelerated westward across lift of unknown magnitude in northeastern South America the mantle. The Proto-Caribbean spreading ridge probably may have been caused at the end of the Jurassic and earliest ceased to exist in the late Albian (Figs 2.2, 2.3), but the Cretaceous by a transient shift in the central North Atlantic spreading rate in the central Atlantic increased dramatic ally 48 spreading centre between M-21 and M-1035 . Also at this during the Cretaceous Quiet Period . Thus, South America time, the eastern Bahamas was elevated to sea level so that accelerated from Africa faster in order to 'catch up' with a carbonate bank developed there, either by tectonism re- North America, but in fact both American plates must have lated to the shift in the Atlantic spreading65 or by igneous accelerated westward across the mantle. This would drive the Cordilleran arc systems into a compressional arc con- extrusion which may have been associated with a hot spot 23 trace extending from the Jurassic Florida Volcanic Belt. figuration in the sense of Dewey , in which the overriding Along the Cordillera, the Mexican (Sierra Madre) and plate was actively thrust across the trace of the pre-existing Colombia backarc extensional zones probably continued to trench(es). This process was a chief cause of Sevier and expand as divergence between North and South America Peruvian orogenesis in the continental arc portions of the continued. Deep water sedimentation has been suggested Cordillera, which involved Cordilleran uplift, reduction of from rocks of central Mexico, and ophiolitic rocks occur in the subduction angle, a general eastward shift in the axis of the Juarez Terrane east of Oaxaca18, but it is difficult to volcanism, and backthrusting and associated foredeep basin suggest the width of the basin. In continental portions of development. Colombia and northern Ecuador, there is no record of arc However, the Aleutian-like Antillean-Amaime intra- magmatism during the early and middle Cretaceous, sug- oceanic arc between Chortis/Mexico and southern Ecuador

26 JAMES L. PINDELL

Figure 2.6e. Palaeogeography, Barremian. appears to have flipped its polarity (Fig. 2.6f, g), possibly by the arc was probably over 2,000 km long, the structural the evolution of backthrusting taken to the extreme by the disruption within the arc as it changed convexity could have creation of a new Benioff zone. Aptian/Albian metamor-phic been intense: the arc may have been first shortened (uplift) ages, often from high-pressure minerals, are common around and then extended (subsistence with much rifting) during the Antilles, Tobago, the Villa de Cura complex of the flip. Most of the arc's pre-Albian palaeogeographic Venezuela, the Ruma zone of northern Colombia and the elements were probably rendered beyond recognition, with Amaine terrane of Colombia, and possibly relate to the many 'new' areas of the arc infilling gaps (such as larger orogenesis pertaining to the flip and/or to the onset of west- batholiths) between older rearranged fragments. Likewise, dipping subduction (possible mechanism to elevate seismic sections of the internal Caribbean Sea's lithosphere blueschists toward the surface) on the east side to the arc74. indicate that it underwent significant deformation in mid- Albian metamorphic ages, such as from the Villa de Cura of Cretaceous times, including extrusion and intrusion of ba- Venezuela10, probably pertain to terranes which were pre- salts and dolerites (seismic horizon B") onto and into, served at relatively shallow levels after the flip, such that the pre-existing Pacific-derived sediments and crust of probable metamorphic age was preserved. Other terranes, such as the early Cretaceous and ?Jurassic age. It has been suggested rocks of the northern Cordillera de la Costa Belt of central that the arrival from the Pacific of buoyant B" lithosphere at Venezuela8, probably remained deeper in the forearc or the the west-facing arc helped to cause the flip in polarity51, and trench setting such that they continued to develop metamorphic this may be so, but the age of the B" material (approximately fabrics and ages at younger times and at progressively lesser Albian? to Coniacian) suggests that its extrusion may be a depths. In some locations, the magmatic axis of the arc itself result, rather than a cause, of the flip. shifted during the Albian, for example in the Dominican Although many details of this event remain to be Republic from the Los Ranchos area to the Central worked out, I will assume here that the well-known late Cordillera, possibly as a result of the reversal. Albian to Eocene phase of magmatic activity in many Car- The polarity reversal theoretically should have trans- ibbean arc terranes with Aptian-Albian, possibly amalga- formed the configuration of the intra-oceanic arc from con- mated, metamorphic basements is due to subduction of vex to the west, to generally convex to the east. Given that Proto-Caribbean and Colombian backarc oceanic crust be-

27 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

Figure 2.6f. Palaeogeography, late Albian. neath the Greater Caribbean arc after a highly orogenic tinued along the margins of the Proto-Caribbean during Aptian-Albian reversal of subduction polarity (see, for ex- thermal subsidence in the absence of plate boundaries (Fig. ample, Fig. 2.6g). The reversal correlates tectonically to the 2.6g). The late Albian drowning of carbonate shelves and Sevier and Peruvian orogenesis in continental areas to rapid landward transgression at most portions of the Proto- the north and south. From late Albian to Santonian times, Caribbean margins may have been enhanced by the death of the arc system may have defined the eastern edge of the Proto-Caribbean spreading ridge. The death of the ridge Farallon crust, but the Santonian onset of subduction at the would reduce in-place stress around the region, due to the Panama-Costa Rica arc isolated the Caribbean lithosphere loss of the ridge push force as it subsided, also allowing the by Campanian time as an independent plate with its own 69 margins to subside. In contrast, arc activity was underway relative motion history for the first time . Once this was along the Greater Antilles, the Amaime-Chaucha Terrane achieved, the east-west component of motion of the (for example, Buga Batholith), and the Mexico/Chortis and Caribbean lithosphere remained approximately in the southern Ecuador/Peruvian margins. mantle reference frame, unable to shift east or west The onset of relative eastward migration of the Cordil- because of its bounding Benioff zones. Continued leran systems led to the progressive closure of the Mexican westward drift of the Americas from Africa produced the and Colombian backarc basins (Fig.2.6g, h). In Mexico, apparent late Cretaceous to Recent eastward migration of closure probably began in the Albian as in the rest of the the Caribbean relative to the Americas, at rates very close Cordillera, but orogenic facies did not commonly appear to the Atlantic spreading rate through time. until the Campanian. This was because the thrust belt would not become emergent until enough shortening had accumu- CARIBBEAN EVOLUTION: PHASE 2; lated to roughly match the amount of extension which had CONSUMPTION OF THE PROTO-CARIBBEAN taken place during the early Cretaceous. To the southeast, SEAWAY BENEATH THE CARIBBEAN PLATE arc-continent collision and northward obduction of the Santa Cruz ophiolite took place alone southern Yucatan Late Cretaceous during the Campanian-Maastrichtian80,94. This was mar ked Non-volcanogenic shelf sedimentation generally con- by the drowning of Cuban shelf carbonates by deeper-water

28 JAMES L. PINDELL

Figure 2.6g. Palaeogeography, Turonian.

Campur carbonates and eventually Sepur Formation fore- Eastward-dipping subduction began in the Panama- deep flysch derived largely from the arc. Similar flysch Costa Rican arc along the Pacific side of B"-affected crust sequences probably flowed eastwards along the Cuban in the Santonian, as indicated by rapid uplift and the onset trench to be accreted to the Cuban thrust belt during its of Campanian volcanogenic sandstone and shallow-water journey toward the Bahamas. In the Antillean segment of carbonate deposition53. The formation of this arc at this the arc, subduction of Proto-Caribbean crust continued particular time was required in order to take up the rapidly throughout the late Cretaceous, but the Campanian was a accelerating Farallon-North America convergence rate of time of uplift, erosion and deformation (for example, in 33 12 about 150 mm/yr . The Caribbean proceded to move at Hispaniola ), probably related to plate interactions accom- about 30 mm/yr70, so that the new arc, which defined the modating the Proto-Caribbean bottleneck between Yucatan Caribbean Plate for the first time, took up the difference of and Colombia. over 100 mm/yr. I suggest that the arc stretched from west In Colombia, the Amaime-Chaucha Terrane had been of Chortis, southeastwards to southern Ecuador. The Ecua- diachronously accreted by eastward-vergent thrusting onto dorian site for the trench-trench-transform fault (TTT) triple the Central Cordilleran passive margin by the end of the junction is indicated by the boundary between voluminous Campanian, which (1) thermally reset many older radio- and nearly absent Andean volcanism at this time to the south genic systems in the Central Cordillera, producing the ap- and north, respectively: to the north, Caribbean plate con- pearance of Cretaceous magmatism there, and (2) drove vergence with the Andes was only approximately 20 mm/yr, foredeep basinal subsidence (Colon, Umir Formations) east whereas to the south the Farallon Plate's convergence rate of the Central Cordillera by tectonic loading from the 74 with the Andes was over 100 mm/yr. During the remainder west . Toward the end(?) of the Campanian, continued of the Cretaceous and into the Tertiary, the triple junction convergence began to occur at an east-dipping trench out- appears to have migrated northwards and eventually into board of the Amaime Terrane, leading to the progressive southern Colombia (Fig. 2.6i, j, k), at the rate of the north- accretion of Caribbean B" and other sedimentary materials ward component of motion in this area between the Carib- into the Western Cordillera Belt during Maastrichitian and bean and South American plates, with a corresponding early Paleogene times (Fig. 2.6h). increase in magmatism in the wake. However, this level of

29 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

Figure 2.6h. Palaeogeography, Campanian.

onshore Cuba may represent mainly the forearc complex if detail cannot be stated with confidence without further rifting occurred nearly along the arc axis. A possible reason work. Finally, in regard to the Cretaceous, the problem of that Cuba lacks latest Cretaceous -Paleogene magmatic having both the Chortis Block as well as the Caribbean Plate rocks is that the presently subaerial portion of Cuba was too move synchronously eastwards relative to the Americas still close to the former trench: the arc-trench gap should have appears to be best solved by northward underthrusting or been greater, and plutons and volcanics of that age may exist subduction along the Lower Nicaraguan Rise69. The char - offshore to the south. The opening of the Yucatan basin is acter of the Rise is not unlike a submarine, oceanic crust- defined by the three-plate system (NOAM-Caribbean- 22 Cuba); trends and magnitudes of the relative motions may bearing accretionary prism and volcanism in the Upper 69 Nicaraguan Rise to the north continued at least into the be calculated by vector completion . Collision between the Paleocene. The Chortis Block must have moved relatively Greater Antilles and the Bahamas began in the Paleocene, eastwards, while the Caribbean must have moved eastnorth- although subduction accretion packages occur onshore east, thereby producing convergence between the two at the Cuba which formed during the late Cretaceous and included late Cretaceous orogenic sediments probably derived from Nicaraguan Rise. Yucatan, confusing the definition of the exact age of the Cenozoic onset of the Cuba-Bahamas collision. A Paleogene age is also generally accepted for the The Caribbean Plate continued migration relatively 89 eastnortheastwards, subducting oceanic crust of the Proto- opening of the Grenada Basin . North-south extension best Caribbean. The Yucatan Basin opened by intra-arc spread- explains the east-west magnetic pattern and orientation of ing and extreme attenuation of Greater Antilles arc crust78 normal faults in and around the basin, as well as the sharp in a three-plate system (Fig. 2.6j, vector inset) between southeast boundary of the Aves Ridge (transform faulted?). Cuba, the Cayman Ridge and North America69. The bulk of Dextral oblique subduction of the Proto-Caribbean crust, the Cuban portion of the Greater Antilles magmaiic arc is dextral transform drag along South America, and subduc - split between the basement of the Cayman Ridge and Cuba's tion zone rollback of the Jurassic oceanic crust along the northern South America passive margin may have combined southern arc belt. The Cretaceous volcanic assemblages of

30 JAMES L. PINDELL

Figure 2.6i. Palaeogeography, Maastrichtian. to drive the Andaman Sea-type intra-arc extension. The to the Lesser Antilles arc, beginning in the Eocene in the opening of both the Yucatan and the Grenada intra-arc northern Lesser Antilles, but possibly not until the Oligo- basins was the mechanism by which the Caribbean Plate cene or early Miocene in the south. This diachroneity prob- accommodated the shape of the Proto-Caribbean basin. It ably relates to the north-south opening of the Grenada Basin was apparently easier to rift the arc complexes (driven by and a consequently lesser subduction rate (component of rollback of existing Benioff zones) than to tear railroad eastward migration) in the south during the Eocene. transforms in the Jurassic Proto-Caribbean oceanic crust. In the middle to late Eocene, just after the Antilles-Ba- To the west, the Yucatan block prevented simple east- hamas collision, east-northeast migration of the Caribbean northeastward motion of Chortis and the Nicaraguan Plate relative to North America continued along a new plate Rise/Jamaica with the rest of the Caribbean Plate, and boundary system which became the northern Caribbean compression was consequently set up between Chortis and plate boundary zone (NCPBZ). The Cayman Trough nucle- the Caribbean Plate. Chortis, the Nicaraguan Rise, and ated as a pull-apart basin between Yucatan and Jamaica. Jamaica were internally deformed during the Paleogene Cuba, the Cayman Ridge and the Yucatan Basin were left (Wagwater and Montpelier Troughs in Jamaica; rifts of the 54 as apart of the North American Plate by the development of Nicaraguan Rise ). the NCPBZ. The middle Eocene was marked by the termination of To the south, subduction of Caribbean crust beneath Bahamian-Antillean collision and the onset of platform northwest Colombia produced an accretionary prism of deposition in Cuba (overlap assemblage). Extension in the Andean, Incaic phase orogenic sediments (San Jacinto Belt) Yucatan Basin ceased as Cuba came to rest against the which grew until the Miocene31,32. Progressive development Bahamas. The reconstruction of Figure 2.6k is constrained of the early Barbados accretionary prism88 was due to by: restoring 1,050 km of offset in the Cayman Trough; the southeastward migration relative to South America of the alignment of late Cretaceous-Eocene, subduction-related terrane to the east of the Grenada Basin (Grenada Terrane) plutons throughout the Greater Antilles and Aves Ridge; during the opening of the Grenada Basin (three-plate sys- and sedimentary facies changes across the Greater An- 69 tem; Fig. 2.6j). Quartzose sands of Barbados and the tilles . Volcanism shifted eastwards from the Aves Ridge Piemontine nappes of central Venezuela were accreted to

31 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

Figure 2.6j. Palaeogeography, Paleocene. the complex in the Eocene prior to emplacement onto the Rico into contact with central Puerto Rico along the 'Eocene shelf. These probably originated from western and central Tectonic Belt'. Venezuela, where Precambrian acidic massifs were exposed In the developing southern Caribbean plate boundary 11,87 at that time, and from the peripheral bulge ahead of the zone (SCPBZ) , eastward migration of the Caribbean Venezuela foredeep basin. Plate progressively lengthened the zone of Caribbean-South Post-Eocene subduction of Proto-Caribbean crust is American interaction (Fig. 2.61). Nappes have been em- indicated by subduction-related magmatism in the Lesser placed southeastwards onto the Venezuela margin since the Antilles. In the NCPBZ, the Cayman Trough progressively Paleocene; initiation of thrusting upon the autochthon be- opened by seafloor spreading at the Mid -Cayman Spreading comes progressively younger to the east. Subsidence of the Centre, which linked transform faults connecting to the Venezuela shelf near Maracaibo was Paleocene-early Eo- 95 Middle America and Lesser Antilles subduction zones (Fig. cene and subsidence in the Eastern Venezuela Basin was 91 2.6j, k). These transforms have changed location through Miocene-Pliocene . A transform fault between the Carib- time, forming anastomosing fault systems across central bean Plate and the obducted terranes on South America Guatemala in the west and across Hispaniola/Puerto Rico in basement developed progressively after thrust emplace- the east. Large-offset transcurrent motions between blocks ment, and assisted with continuing strike-slip offset of the of Hispaniola are indicated by incompatible Tertiary sedi- Caribbean, but not the obducted terranes, after emplace- 64 84 mentary facies which are presently juxtaposed across fault ment. The Falcon and Cariaco Basins are two examples zones. The primary offset during the late Eocene and Oligo- of Oligocene-early Miocene and Miocene-Recent, respec- cene occurred along faults of the northern San Juan Basin, tively, transtensional basins that developed in previously juxtaposing the San Juan block with the Cordillera Central- overthrust areas. I note that both opened only after the Massif du Nord arc by the early Miocene, as indicated by development of the Grenada Basin, when the relative mo- the flooding of arc-derived elastics into the San Juan Basin tion vector was extremely oblique. at that time20,60. Motion on eastward extensions of this fault Motion through Hispaniola during the early to middle system separated Puerto Rico from central Hispaniola, and Miocene (Fig. 2.6m) continued along the northern San Juan may have brought the Bermeja area of southwest Puerto Basin, and possibly along the south flank of Sierra Neiba,

32 JAMES L. PINDELL

Figure 2.6k. Palaeogeography, middle Eocene. but the main locus of motion became the Oriente Fault Cordillera, marking the suture zone within the Western between Cuba and Hispaniola at about 20-25 Ma. This was Cordillera rather than at the Atrato Basin; and (4) shows that responsible for the present separation of the two islands. By arc magmatism, which did not begin in Colombia until the the late Miocene, convergence and uplift in Sierra Neiba had middle? Miocene, pertains to subduction of the Cocos or structually separated the San Juan and Enriquillo Basins. Nazca Plates, rather than of the Caribbean Plate. In any case, The logical continuation of this system is the Muertos 50 the progressive collision hindered and eventually blocked Foldbelt , which has become a south-vergent overthrust circulation between the Caribbean and Pacific45, and was a zone probably since Miocene time. major cause of northern Andean compression and uplift, In the south, the North Venezuelan and Piemontine helping to drive the Maracaibo Block northwards from the nappes reached final emplacement onto the Venezuelan Eastern Colombian Cordillera. This escape produced the shelf, overthrusting the Oligocene-early Miocene foredeep South Caribbean Foldbelt north of the Maracaibo block and basin (Roblecito Formation). Out in the Pacific, spreading offshore terranes 25, and development of the Panama Oro- was initiated at the Galapagos spreading centre; its relation- cline produced the North Panama Foldbelt52. The arc terra- ship to the Caribbean plate boundary circuit is unclear nes of Cuba and Hispaniola continued to separate by because its eastern portions have already been subducted. transform motion along the present-day Oriente Fault. Com- The Panama arc, a part of the Caribbean Plate, has often pression has continued in the Sierra Neiba/Enriquillo sys- been shown as having collided with Colombia in the Mio- tems, contributing to the present-day complexity of the cene. In Figure 2.6k-n, I show a speculative, more prolonged NCPBZ. history of interaction, which: (1) considers slower relative Miocene to Recent deformation around the Caribbean motion rates farther south such that Panama was always was and is common and very strong. This Neo-Caribbean closer to Colombia than previously thought (16 mm/yr for phase of deformation17,69 results from the continued drift of Neogene, 24 mm/yr for Paleogene); (2) portrays the Panama the Americas westward past the Caribbean, and from the Orocline as a slowly developing feature as plate conver- general state of compression which can be related to at least gence continued; (3) allows for the east-vergent obduction three causes. First, North-South American relative motion of the Panamanian arc, or Choco Terrane, onto the Western vectors (Fig. 2.2) show convergence during the Neogene,

33 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean

Figure 2.6l. Palaeogeography, early Oligocene. which constricts the Caribbean Plate. Second, the restrain- REFERENCES ing bend in the Oriente-Puerto Rico Trench transform fault 1 northeast of the Dominica Republic 13 constricts the east- Algar, S.T. 1993. Structural, stratigraphic, and thermo- ward migration of the north-central Caribbean and is respon- chronologic evolution of Trinidad. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Dartmouth College, Hanover. sible for much transpression in Hispaniola. The eastern part 2 of Hispaniola, which has already passed this bend, has Algar, S.T. & Pindell, J.L. 199la. Structural development subdued topography relative to the western part. Third, the of the Northern Range of Trinidad, and implications for northeastward migration, relative to the Guyana Shield, of the tectonic evolution of the southestera Caribbean: in the Andean Cordilleran Terranes has induced a compression Gillezeau, K. A. (ed.), Transactions of the Second Geo- upon the Caribbean Plate to the northnorthwest, because the logical Conference of the Geological Society ofTrin- Caribbean Plate possesses an eastward component of mo- dad and Tobago, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, April 3-8, 1990, 6-22. tion relative to the Guyana Shield that is slightly greater than 3 that of the Cordilleran Terrane26. In the southeast Carib- Algar, S.T. & Pindell, J.L. 1991b. Stratigraphy and sedi- bean, where the Caribbean and South American plates mentology of the Toco region of the Northern Range of nearly come into contact, the relative motion of the two has Trinidad: in Gillezeau, K.A. (ed.), Transactions of the been slightly north of east since the late Miocene4, but was Second Geological Conference of the Geological Society more convergent (transpressional to the eastsoutheast) in the ofTrindad and Tobago, Port-of -Spain, Trinidad, April 3- early and middle Miocene. A fourth cause, which pertains 8, 1990,56-69. 4 mainly to Colombia, is that the crust of the Caribbean Plate Algar, S.T. & Pindell, J. 1993. Structure and deformation is buoyant and resists subduction, as attested to by the history of the Northern Range of Trinidad and adjacent Andean orogenesis which has occurred in the absence of areas. Tectonics, 12, 814-829. 5 volcanism throughout the Cenozoic. Anderson, T.H., Burkart, B., Clemons, R.E., Bohnenber- ger, O.K. & Blount, D.N. 1973. Geology of the Cuchu- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS—I thank John Dewey, Walter Pitman, Edward mantanes, northwestern Guatemala. Geological Robinson, Sam Algar and Johan Erikson for their input on various elements Society of America Bulletin, 84, 805-826. of this review.

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Figure 2.6m. Palaeogeography, early Miocene.

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Figure 2.6n. Palaeogeography, late Miocene.

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