Subduction of Atlantic aseismic ridges and Late Cenozoic evolution of the Lesser Antilles island arc

Abstract

A great amount of data concerning the Lesser Antilles arc and the near Atlantic has been reviewed: nature, timing and spatial evolution of the Oligocene to Recent volcanic sequences; the location and scale of uplifted areas; facturation of the arc ridge; the structural pattern of the Central Atlantic oceanic crust; and characteristics of the subduction beneath the Caribbean plate. These data allow us to lay stress on the role of the interaction of underthrust oceanic aseismic ridges with the evolution of the overriding arc. Depending on the degree of gravimetrical compensation (buoyancy) of these features, this interaction can induce effects of the first and second orders of magnitude. With the onset of the Late Oligocene, a buoyant ridge of anomalous mid Cretaceous crust reached the front of the northern half of the Lesser Antilles arc basement. It momentarily stopped the subduction along the whole arc, bringing the arc volcanism (Older arc) to a standstill as it was underplated beneath the eastern rim of the Caribbean lithosphere, and triggering the westward tilting of this part of the arc, with locally dramatic uplifting (La Désirade). After a gap of 9–10 m.y., the volcanic activity resumed in the early Burdigalian (Recent arc), with a westward jump of the volcanic axis north of Martinique (Inner arc, corresponding to the northern part of the Recent arc). Later, the subduction of non-buoyant (gravimetrically uncompensated) ridges (Barracuda, Tiburon and St. Lucia ridges) exerted significant effects, but of a lower extent with regard to their spatial incidence and intensity, on the arc north of St. Lucia. These effects induce a sudden transverse shift of the volcanic front, of only some kilometers in length (forward and backward), centrifugal (longitudinal) migration of the eruptive centers on either side of the arc segment above the ridge, gentle uplifts, and enhance seismic and hydrothermal ( sensu lato) manifestations. An inverse approach of reasoning leads us to infer the existence of a ridge in the southern part of the subducted slab, the “Grenadines crypto-ridge”. The latter might be in its final stage of absorption by the subduction. Emphasis is put on the role played by the aseismic ridges in the volcanic and tectonic evolution of convergent margins, and particularly their control of the thickness of the subducted sediments, thought to be the necessary condition for triggering the usual arc volcanism.