Morphostructure at the junction between the Beata ridge and the Greater Antilles island arc (offshore Hispaniola southern slope)

Abstract

Abstract Oblique convergence between the Caribbean plate's interior and the inactive Greater Antilles island arc has resulted in the collision and impingement of the thickened crust of the Beata ridge into southern Hispaniola Island. Deformation resulting from this convergence changes from a low-angle southward-verging thrust south of eastern Hispaniola, to collision and uplift in south-central Hispaniola, and to left-lateral transpression along the Southern peninsula of Haiti in western Hispaniola. Using new swath bathymetry and a dense seismic reflection grid, we mapped the morphological, structural and sedimentological elements of offshore southern Hispaniola. We have identified four morphotectonic provinces: the Dominican sub-basin, the Muertos margin, the Beata ridge and the Haiti sub-basin. The lower slope of the Muertos margin is occupied by the active Muertos thrust belt, which includes several active out-of-sequence thrust faults that, were they to rupture along their entire length, could generate large-magnitude earthquakes. The interaction of the thrust belt with the Beata ridge yields a huge recess and the imbricate system disappears. The upper slope of the Muertos margin shows thick slope deposits where the extensional tectonics and slumping processes predominate. The northern Beata ridge consists of an asymmetrically uplifted and faulted block of oceanic crust. Our results suggest that the shallower structure and morphology of the northern Beata ridge can be mainly explained by a mechanism of extensional unloading from the Upper Cretaceous onward that is still active residually along the summit of the ridge. The tectonic models for the northern Beata ridge involving active reverse strike–slip faults and transpression caused by the oblique convergence between the Beata ridge and the island arc are not supported by the structural interpretation. The eastern Bahoruco slope an old normal fault that acts as a passive tear fault accommodating the sharp along-strike transition from low-angle thrusting to collision and uplifting.