A palaeomagnetic study and age determinations of Tertiary rocks in Nicaragua, Central America

Abstract

Summary Palaeomagnetic, K–Ar and Ar40/Ar39 measurements have been made to elucidate Nicaragua's plate tectonic history. These show that the Nicaraguan Highland rotated 90° counterclockwise between 30 and 18 Myr ago, but the Pacific Coastal Plain has not rotated. A lack of data has prevented a direct comparison with the tectonic history of adjacent areas, in particular, the Chortis Block, which is the part of the Caribbean Plate that is geologically most closely related to the Nicaraguan Highland. However, our data suggest that the Caribbean Plate in this part of Central America was not consolidated until c. 15 Ma.

Pantasma: Evidence for a Pleistocene circa 14 km diameter impact crater in Nicaragua

“…a) Geological map of North Central Nicaragua with the catchment of Pantasma depression (Mapa Geológico Minero de la Republica de Nicaragua, INETER, 1995), modified (Ehrenborg ; Elming et al. ). Inset: location of the Pantasma structure in Central America.…”

Geochemical variation along and across the Central American Miocene paleoarc in Honduras and Nicaragua

“…It has been determined that the Central American volcanic arc (CAVA) developed in the Late Cretaceous with the initiation of subduction of the Farallon plate beneath the northern area of Central America (Duncan and Hargraves, 1984;Tyburski et al, 1991;Elming, 1998). Throughout the Tertiary, there were frequent eruptions of highly siliceous magma (McBirney and Williams, 1965;Williams et al, 1969), with very large eruptions taking place during the Miocene Jordan et al, 2006).…”

Numerical modeling of the Momotombo geothermal system, Nicaragua

“…; it is 400-500 m thick. According to DAL (1995) and Moore et al (1979), Units III and IV may be related to the Pliocene-Miocene Upper Coyol Group (Elming et al, 2001).…”