Some remarks on the Caribbean Plate kinematics: facts and remaining problems

Abstract

AbstractCaribbean Plate margins are assemblages of terranes located, since the Mid-Cretaceous, along transform boundaries between the Caribbean, North and South America and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Litho-stratigraphic, petrological and metamorphic features of the main units and their regional correlations allow definition of the main geotectonic elements (continental margins, oceanic basins, subduction zones, magmatic arcs) involved in the evolution of Caribbean Plate margins. They provide valuable constraints on plate evolution since the Jurassic. This involved proto-Caribbean ocean opening, thickening into an oceanic plateau, beginning of convergence in the Early Cretaceous, atypical evolution of a supra-subduction system during the Mid-Cretaceous, subduction of rifted continental margins, Late Cretaceous convergence related to eastward migration of two opposite triple-junctions and strike–slip tectonics. Using these data, we compare different models and suggest improvements.