Chortis Block Research Articles

The outer arc of the costa rican orogen (oceanic basement complexes of the Nicoya and Santa Elena Peninsulas)

The basement of the Costa Rican outer arc consists of two major complexes. The older is composed of peridotite-serpentinite, pillow lava and radiolarite; the younger is made up of gabbro-diorite, pillow lava, pyroclastic rocks and siliceous limestone. The observational data are interpreted as follows. The older pillow lavas are believed to be oceanic crust generated along the north-south-spreading Carnegie Ridge during the late Coniacian. The younger lavas flowed from fissures along a west-northwest-trending volcanic belt (Culebra arc) which developed in this crust during early to middle Campanian time, when it collided with the Chortis block. Paleomagnetic evidence suggests that the older sequence originated on the Southern Hemisphere, and the younger in the Northern. During the Paleocene, the crust fragmented and separated into the Caribbean and Cocos plates, probably as a result of the outer arc escaping the tectonic influence of the Carnegie Ridge and entering that of the ancestral East Pacific Rise. This fragmentation resulted in the formation of two parallel volcanic belts (San Antonio and Cachimbas arcs) in the inner deep (Tempisque Valley), which remained active throughout the Eocene. It is postulated that subduction of the Cocos beneath the Caribbean plate was initiated during Oligocene time and resulted in the formation of yet another volcanic belt (Tilarán-Talamanca arc). The outer arc was uplifted, folded, and thrust south westward. The resulting pattern shows a gradual clockwise rotation west to northwest, and north-astward migration of the volcanic arcs through time. Aeromagnetic and tectonic data indicate that differential uplift and later gravitational décollement of the sedimentary rock blanket characterize the tectonic deformation of singular volcanic belts, and that tectonic overprinting is usually restricted to one major phase.