Emplacement of the northern ophiolites of Cuba and the Campanian-Eocene geological history of the northwestern Caribbean-SE Gulf of Mexico region

Abstract

AbstractThe Mesozoic Proto-Caribbean Plate was consumed in the subduction zone of the Greater Antilles volcanic arc until the Campanian. At this time, volcanic arc magmatism ceased along Cuba. From Late Campanian to Danian, Cuba and its surroundings were a collision zone where the GAC accreted to the North American palaeomargin. In the Danian the almost east–west trending SE Cuba–Cayman Ridge–Hispaniola? volcanic arc was born. The related north dipping subduction zone acted as the SE North American plate boundary. From the Paleocene to Middle Eocene dense Caribbean lithosphere travelled northwards. The location, strike and subduction polarity of the assumed subduction zone are very different from those described by other models. Almost simultaneously the Cuban Orogeny developed in western and central Cuba. During the orogeny the northern ophiolite belt of Cuba and the Cretaceous volcanic rocks were thrust northwards tens of kilometres, onto the Mesozoic North American palaeomargin. In the Middle Eocene subduction stopped. Simultanously(?) a change in the regional stress field originated the near east–west trending sinistral Oriente fault zone, whose position and origin are probably tied to the weakened hot crust to the south of the Palaeogene volcanic arc axis.