HR: 0800h
AN: T11B-0383    [Abstracts]
TI: Transfer of the North-Western Caribbean Plate to the North American Continental Margin: Cuba from the Late Cretaceous to Late Eocene
AU: * Hueneke, H
EM: hueneke@uni-greifswald.de
AF: University of Greifswald, Institute of Geography and Geology, Freidrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Str. 17a, Greifswald, D-17487 Germany
AU: Sommer, M
EM: sommerm@uni-greifswald.de
AF: University of Greifswald, Institute of Geography and Geology, Freidrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Str. 17a, Greifswald, D-17487 Germany
AU: Cobiella-Reguera, J
EM: jcobiella@geo.upr.edu.cu
AF: University of Pinar del Rio, Institute of Geology, Marti, Pinar del Rio, 2070 Cuba
AU: Meschede, M
EM: meschede@uni-greifswald.de
AF: University of Greifswald, Institute of Geography and Geology, Freidrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Str. 17a, Greifswald, D-17487 Germany
AB: The Cuban orogenic belt records subduction, volcanic arc formation and accretion along the pre-Eocene north-western leading edge of the Caribbean plate. We review geologic evidence for a two-stage development with a change in subduction polarity from a south to south-west-dipping Cretaceous to a north-dipping Paleocene to Early Eocene volcanic arc. During the Late Campanian, the Cretaceous arc collided with the North American continental margin. Ophiolites and thrust sheets of the Cretaceous arc advanced onto the North American continental margin until the Late Eocene. Strike-slip faults bound domains that display an eastward younging trend in the termination of the thrusting process. After the initial Campanian collision, the Caribbean plate continued its relative northward movement. During the Maastrichtian, this resulted in the emplacement of oceanic lithosphere from the back arc on top of the southern extension of the inactive Cretaceous arc. During the Danian, a new north-dipping subduction zone was established that consumed oceanic lithosphere of the Caribbean plate until the Middle Eocene. The arrival of the Caribbean Large Igneous Province stopped the subduction and the relative northward movement of the Caribbean plate. From the Middle Eocene onward, the east-west trending Oriente transform fault system was established as the northern boundary of the Caribbean plate.
DE: 3040 Plate tectonics (8150, 8155, 8157, 8158)
DE: 8104 Continental margins: convergent
DE: 8140 Ophiolites (3042)
DE: 8185 Volcanic arcs
DE: 9350 North America
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005