Chapter 1 Caribbean sedimentary basins: classification and tectonic setting from jurassic to present

Abstract

Publisher Summary The introductory chapter describes the active tectonic setting of the Caribbean, its major crustal provinces, provides a simple classification for sedimentary basins in the Caribbean region. The distribution of recorded earthquakes, active calc-alkaline volcanoes, and spreading ridges defines five rigid plates in the Caribbean region: North America, South America, Caribbean, and Nazca. Geologic and seismic studies indicate that the Caribbean plate is moving eastward relative to the Americas and this movement is accommodated by left-lateral strike-slip faults along its boundary with the North America plate, and right-lateral strike-slip faults along its boundary with the South America plate. Rates of relative plate motion as predicted by the Nuvel-1A plate motion model of DeMets and others are relatively slow (11-13 mm/year) between the Americas and the Caribbean plate but much faster (59-74 mm/year) between the Cocos, Nazca and Caribbean plates. Recent GPS-based studies of the relative motion between the North America and Caribbean plates in the northeastern Caribbean by Dixon and others have shown that the actual North America-Caribbean rate of east-west strike-slip motion may be twice as fast as predicted by the Nuvel-1A plate motion model.