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Caribbean Geology: An Introduction ©1994 The Authors U.W.I. Publishers' Association, Kingston CHAPTER 1 Geologic Provinces of the Caribbean Region GRENVILLE DRAPER1, TREVOR A. JACKSON2 and STEPHEN K. DONOVAN2 1Department of Geology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, U.SA. 2Department of Geology, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica INTRODUCTION South American continent. The western boundary com- prises Central America and the Isthmus of Panama, and the THE CARIBBEAN is a geologically complex region that eastern limits are defined by the Lesser Antilles archipelago. displays a variety of plate boundary interactions including Within these boundaries there are several deeper water subduction in the Lesser Antilles and Central America, regions; the Yucatan Basin, the Cayman Trough, the Colom- transcurrent (strike-slip) motions on the northern and southern bian Basin, the Venezuelan Basin and the Grenada Basin. boundaries, and sea floor spreading in the Cayman These are separated by several more or less linear ridges and Trough. The central Caribbean is a lithospheric plate con- rises; by the Cayman Ridge, the Nicaraguan Rise, the Beata sisting mainly of an anomalously thick, oceanic plateau Ridge and the Aves Ridge, respectively. The physiographic situated between two major continental regions and therein units correspond in part to the different crustal provinces lies its geological importance. Classic studies of the Alps, that make up the Caribbean and in part to the active tectonic Himalayas and Appalachians have documented the effects elements that make up the present Caribbean Plate. of major continent-continent collisions. The Caribbean pro- vides the opportunity to study the nature of the geological evolution of island arcs, and the tectonic interaction between PRESENT PLATE CONFIGURATION anomalously thick oceanic crust and continental crust. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the physiog- The location and nature of plate boundaries in the Carib- raphy and geology of the Caribbean region. Although de- bean, as elsewhere, are determined by the location of earth- tailed analysis of tectonostratigraphic terranes has been quake hypocentres; by use of the sense of slip from first published previously11, in the present account we attempt to motion studies on seismogenic faults; from detailed outline the features of the major geologic provinces that bathymetric, magnetic and seismic profiling studies of ma- make up the Caribbean and to provide a framework for the rine areas; and from detailed mapping of recent, on-land more detailed descriptions which follow in this volume. structures if the plate boundary happens to be exposed onshore. These studies show that the boundaries of the Carib- PHYSIOGRAPHIC PROVINCES bean Plate (Fig. 1.1 A), as defined by the distribution of earthquake epicentres53, run approximately from Guate- The Caribbean region is comprised of several major marine mala along the trend of the Cayman Trough, through His- and terrestrial physiographic and geologic provinces, the paniola and Puerto Rico, south through the Lesser Antilles, geographic relationships of which are illustrated in Figure and along the northern South America continental margin 1.1. Geographically and bathymetrically, the Caribbean Sea (although this boundary is poorly defined between Trinidad is bound to the north by the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan and the Meridional Andes) and the west coast of Central Platform, the Florida-Bahamas Platform and the Puerto America. First motion solutions7,28 indicate left-lateral Rico Trench, and to the south by the northern part of the strike slip at the northern boundary and right-lateral strike 3 Geologic Provinces of the Caribbean Region slip at the southern boundary, indicating that these are left important geophysical features of the Caribbean Sea floor. lateral and right lateral transform boundaries, respectively. The B" horizon marks the boundary between igneous sills Thrust fault solutions, typical of the upper part of convergent and overlying Upper Turonian to Coniacian sedimentary plate boundaries, are found in both the western and eastern strata. This reflector has been traced from the lower Nicara- margins of the plate. The depth of the hypocentres and their guan Rise eastwards through the Venezuelan Basin . The position relative to island arc volcanoes indicates Wadati- A" horizon is considered to mark the boundary between Benioff Zones dipping eastward beneath Central America Lower to Middle Eocene oozes and chalks, and underlying and westward beneath the Lesser Antilles. Detailed marine Upper Cretaceous chertiferous limestones. This reflector and terrestrial studies have considerably refined this general extends from the lower Nicaraguan Rise in the west to the picture, although there are considerable differences of opin- Grenada Basin in the east. Borehole data from Deep Sea ion about the details of the present direction and rate of Drilling Project Leg 15 indicates that the B" horizon consists movement of the Caribbean Plate relative to its neighbours. of the uppermost layers of a large oceanic basalt plateau with a The Caribbean Plate is moving eastwards with respect to crustal thickness of between 15 and 20 km. This plateau both North and South America31 at a rate of about 1 to 2 was produced by a significant oceanic flood basalt event that cm yr-1. The northern and southern boundaries of the plate occurred during the late Cretaceous14 (Donnelly, Chapter 3, are thus transform fault systems dominated by left-lateral herein). and right-lateral strike-slip motions, respectively. Unlike transform fault systems in oceanic crust, where the move- Colombian Basin ment is accommodated in single, discrete fault zones, the The Colombian Basin is defined by the Hess Escarp- movements in the Caribbean are distributed on several ac- ment to the north, and the continental margin of Panama and tive fault zones to produce broad, active seismic zones about Colombia to the south. The Colombian Plain, extending to 200 km wide. As it is difficult to pinpoint the precise plate depths of 4000 to 4400 m, is the largest abyssal plain in the boundary, the north and south Caribbean Plate boundaries 8,28 Caribbean region and is located in the northeast part of the are best characterised as plate boundary zones . basin. This plain extends north to Hispaniola, south to the The Motagua, Polochic and other fault zones form Magdelana Fan and east to the southern corner of the Beata the eastern extension of the Northern Caribbean Plate Ridge22. Both the Magdelana and the Panama-Costa Rica Boundary Zone in Central America. A left lateral step- Fans introduce significant quantities of sediment into the over in the boundary between the Caribbean and North basin along its southern and western edges. The North America has resulted in a crustal-scale pull-apart basin, Panama and South Caribbean Deformed Belts are under - the Cayman Trough, in which a 100 km long spreading thrust margins to this basin. ridge segment has been produced. This ridge is bounded by two extensive transform faults, the Swan Island Transform Fault and the Oriente (previously Bartlett) Beata Ridge Transform Fault. East of Cuba, left lateral displacement The Beata Ridge is a structural high that extends south- may be accomodated on several fault zones in northern west from Cape Beata, Hispaniola, for about 400 km. The Hispaniola and offshore. Left lateral displacement has also ridge has a relief of about 2000 m and is comprised of a been documented south of the Cayman Trough in Jamaica series of north-south trending subsidiary ridges which be- 8,29,30 come less pronounced towards the south, where it converges and southern Hispaniola , and forms the southern 11,26 boundary of a microplate 44. on the South Caribbean Deformed Belt . Initial uplift of the The eastward movement of the Caribbean Plate has ridge occurred during the late Cretaceous and coincided with structural disturbances that affected the northern Colombian resulted in subduction of the Atlantic Ocean crust under 23 the eastern margin of the Caribbean, producing the Lesser Basin and the Hess Escarpment . Subsequent tectonic Antilles island arc system. Eastward motions of the Pacific events have led to the tilting of the ridge and to and Cocos Plates with respect to the Caribbean and North deformation along its southern margin. Amer ica are equally rapid, which has resulted in subduction of these plates beneath the western margin of Venezuelan Basin the Caribbean, that is, under Central America. The Venezuelan Basin is the deepest and largest of the Caribbean basins. The interior of the basin includes less than 200 m of relief, having been 'smoothed' by the accumulated GEOLOGIC PROVINCES —CARIBBEAN SEA sediments. The basin is deepest at its northern (Muertos Trough) and southern (Venezuelan Plain) boundaries, Seismic reflectors A”and B” where it converges with the North and South Caribbean Persistent seismic reflector horizons A" and B" are Deformed Belts, respectively11. Most of the sediment in the 4 G. DRAPER, T.A. JACKSON and S.K. DONOVAN Figure 1.1. (A) Map of the Caribbean region showing the relative positions of plates, physiographic regions and major islands (redrawnafter Jackson24). Direction of subduction shown by solid triangles. (B) Geologic provinces of the Caribbean region, as defined in the present chapter (simplified after Case and Dengo10; Case et al.12). Key: AP=Anegada Passage; AR=Aves Ridge; BeR=Beata Ridge; BP=Bahamas Platform; BR-Barbados Ridge and Lesser Antilles Deformed Belt; C=Cuba; C A=Colombian Andes; CB=Chortis Block; ChB=Choco Block; CO=Cuban Orogenic Belt; CoB=Colombian Basin; CT=Cayman Trough; CtB=Chorotega Block; EPFZ=E1 Pilar Fault Zone; GA=Greater Antilles; GAOB=Greater Antilles Orogenic Belt; GB=Grenada Basin; GM=Gulf of Mexico; H=Hispaniola (Haiti+Dominican Republic); J=Jamaica; LA=Lesser Antilles; MPFZ=Motagua-Polochic Fault Zone; NP=Nazca Plate; NPD=North Panama Deformed Belt; NR=Nicaraguan Rise; OTF=Oriente Transform Fault; PR=Puerto Rico; SCD=South Caribbean Deformed Belt; SITF=Swan Island Transform Fault; VB=Venezuelan Basin; VBo=Venezuelan Borderland; YB=Yucatan/Maya Block; YBa=Yucatan Basin.
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