Plate-kinematics and crustal dynamics of circum-Caribbean arc-continent interactions: Tectonic controls on basin development in Proto-Caribbean margins

Abstract

The American margins of the Caribbean comprise basins and accreted terranes recording a polyphase tectonic history. Plate kinematic models and reconstructions back to the Jurassic show that Mesozoic separation of the Americas produced passive margins that were overridden diachronously from west to east by allochthonous Caribbean plate-related arc and oceanic complexes. P-T-t and structural data, sedimentary provenance, and basin-subsidence studies constrain this history. Caribbean lithosphere is Pacifi c-derived and was engulfed between the Americas during their westward drift as the Atlantic Ocean opened. This began ca. 120 Ma with development of a west-dipping Benioff zone between Central America and the northern Andes, now marked by the Guatemalan and Cuban sutures in North America and by the northern Colombian and Venezuelan "sutures" of South America, persisting today as the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. Most Caribbean high-pressure metamorphic complexes originated at this subduction zone, which probably formed by arc-polarity reversal at an earlier west-facing Inter-American Arc and was probably caused by westward acceleration of the Americas. The mainly 90 Ma Caribbean basalts were extruded onto preexisting Caribbean crust ~30 m.y. later and are not causally linked to the reversal. The Great Caribbean Arc originated at this trench and evolved up to the present, acquiring the shape of the preexisting ProtoCaribbean Seaway. The uplift and cooling history of arc and forearc terranes, and history of basin opening and subsidence, can be tied to stages of Caribbean plate motion in a coherent, internally consistent regional model that provides the basis for further studies.

Oblique collision and accretion of the Netherlands Leeward Antilles to South America

“…One model suggests that the plate has moved eastward very slightly; it is essentially in situ [e.g., Meschede and Frisch, 1998;James, 2006]. The other suggests that the plate formed far to the west and migrated relatively eastward for more than 1000 km [e.g., Pindell and Dewey, 1982;Pindell et al, 1988Pindell et al, , 2005Pindell et al, , 2006. We favor the latter model because of reasons described by Pindell [1994] based on an integration of Caribbean stratigraphy, magmatism, deformation, and regional geometries.…”

“…[7] According to Pindell et al [2005Pindell et al [ , 2006, northwestsoutheast rifting between North America and South America began with plate divergence in the Middle Jurassic. With continued rifting, the proto-Caribbean lithosphere formed between the Americas from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous, approximately 160-80 Ma.…”

“…[9] In the Paleocene/Eocene ($55 Ma), the Caribbean terranes collided with the Great Bahama Bank [Pindell et al, 2005]. The Caribbean plate altered its migration path to its current easterly direction [Pérez et al, 2001].…”

“…[8] A subduction zone polarity reversal occurred in either the Aptian ($110-120 Ma [Pindell et al, 2005]) or the Campanian ($80 Ma [Burke, 1988]). The reversal allowed the arc and Farallon plate to override the proto-Caribbean lithosphere as the subduction zone flipped to westward dipping.…”

“…The Caribbean -South American plate boundary zone in the north consists of the South Caribbean Deformed Belt, the ABCs (which are being back thrusted to the north), and in the south the Venezuelan dextral strike-slip system [Silver et al, 1975]. The present paper deals with the southeastern Caribbean plate and its interaction with the Lesser and Leeward Antilles and the South American plate [e.g., Pindell et al, 2005Pindell et al, , 2006.…”