Evolution of Caribbean subduction from P-wave tomography and plate reconstruction

Abstract

<p>The Caribbean plate has a complex tectonic history, which makes it  particularly challenging to establish the evolution of the subduction zones at its margins. Here we present a new teleseismic P-wave tomographic model under the Antillean arc that benefits from ocean-bottom seismometer data collected in our recent VoiLA (Volatile Recycling in the Lesser Antilles) project. We combine this imagery with a new plate reconstruction that we use to predict possible slab positions in the mantle today. We find that upper mantle anomalies below the eastern Caribbean correspond to a stack of material that was subducted at different trenches at different times, but ended up in a similar part of the mantle due to the large northwestward motion of the Americas. This stack comprises: in the mantle transition zone, slab fragments that were subducted between 70 and 55 Ma below the Cuban and Aves segments of the Greater Arc of the Caribbean; at 450-250 km depth, material subducted between 55 and 35 Ma below the older Lesser Antilles (including the Limestone Caribees and Virgin Islands);  and above 250 km, slab from subduction between 30 and 0 Ma below the present Lesser Antilles to Hispaniola Arc. Subdued high velocity anomalies in the slab above 200 km depth coincide with where the boundary between the equatorial Atlantic and proto-Caribbean subducted, rather than as previously proposed, with the North-South American plate boundary. The different phases of subduction can be linked to changes in the age, and hence buoyancy structure, of the subducting plate.</p>