Evidence for Quaternary convergence across the North America-South America plate boundary zone, east of the Lesser Antilles

New seismic and bathymetric data reveal that the plate boundary zone between the North American and South American plates, east of the Caribbean, has occupied a >200-km-wide zone of localized basement uplift and folding, and of faulting of the sedimentary cover, during the early Pleistocene to Ho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2011-10, Vol.39 (10), p.979-982
Main Authors: Patriat, M, Pichot, T, Westbrook, G. K, Umber, M, Deville, E, Bénard, F, Roest, W. R, Loubrieu, B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anticlines
Antilles
applied (geophysical surveys & methods)
Atlantic Ocean
Barracuda Ridge
bathymetry
biostratigraphy
Caribbean Plate
Caribbean region
Cenozoic
compression
Convergence
correlation
Correlation analysis
Deep sea drilling
Deep Sea Drilling Project
Deformation
DSDP Site 27
faults
folds
Foraminifera
geophysical methods
geophysical surveys
Geophysics
Holocene
Invertebrata
Leg 4
Lesser Antilles
lower Pleistocene
marine sediments
microfossils
multichannel methods
North American Plate
North Atlantic
Ocean floor
ocean floors
planktonic taxa
plate boundaries
plate convergence
plate tectonics
Pleistocene
Protista
Quaternary
Quaternary geology
reflection methods
Sciences of the Universe
Sedimentary geology
sediments
seismic methods
solid Earth (tectonophysics)
South American Plate
Stratigraphy
surveys
synsedimentary processes
Tiburon Rise
turbidity
uplifts
West Indies
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Summary:New seismic and bathymetric data reveal that the plate boundary zone between the North American and South American plates, east of the Caribbean, has occupied a >200-km-wide zone of localized basement uplift and folding, and of faulting of the sedimentary cover, during the early Pleistocene to Holocene. This zone, which includes the Barracuda Ridge and Tiburon Rise, exhibits north-south compressional structures and continues eastward up to 500 km from the boundary of the Caribbean plate. A sequence of young turbidite-dominated sediments fills the basin between these two ridges and shows synsedimentary deformation; the base of the sequence is of early Pleistocene age, dated by biostratigraphic correlation with Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 27. Recent deformation in the turbidite-filled trough north of the Barracuda Ridge is shown by uplift of the seafloor at the crests of anticlines, across which the shallowest sediment layers thin or pinch out.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G32474.1