Paleogeography of Jurassic fragments in the Caribbean

Abstract

Jurassic rocks of the Caribbean are a sampling of 100 million years of Farallon Plate history with fragments originating at diverse paleolatitudes and from varied tectonic settings. Fragments with clear paleogeographic signatures are components of the basement complexes of Duarte in Hispaniola, Bermeja in Puerto Rico and La Drsirade off Guadeloupe. Paleolatitudinally sensitive radiolarian faunas document origination of Duarte as equatorial, La Drsirade as higher latitude, and various Bermeja cherts as both equatorial and higher latitude. Red ribbon chert of Duarte and Bermeja of the same age, physical appearance, and lithological association are probably dismembered components of the same slab of Pacific crust. La Drsirade red ribbon chert is slightly younger than the Duarte and Bermeja red ribbon chert and was deposited at higher latitude. Bermeja tuffaceous chert is also of higher latitude and probably had an arc-proximal origin. On the basis of modeled plate trajectories in the Pacific, the origin of various cherts from different paleolatitudes that end up in the same location requires different arrival times at the trench between North and South

Geodynamic significance of the Raspas Metamorphic Complex (SW Ecuador): geochemical and isotopic constraints

“…In Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, pillow basalts are interbedded with ribbon radiolarian cherts of Late Jurassic -Early Cretaceous age and exhibit a Pacific affinity (Mattson and Pessagno, 1979;Montgomery et al, 1994). In Hispaniola and possibly in Puerto Rico, these MORB-type basalts probably emplaced near a hotspot (Donnelly et al, 1990;Lapierre et al, 1999).…”

Multiple plume events in the genesis of the peri‐Caribbean Cretaceous oceanic plateau province

“…Bowin [1975] and Palmer [1979] proposed that this complex represents a fragment of oceanic crust. Draper and Lewis [1991] and Lewis and Jimdnez [1991] Detailed field mapping in the Juncalito-Janico-La Vega area allowed us to distinguish four units in the Duarte Complex (Figure 2), the first three of which are particularly important geochemically in the context of the present study: (1) a thick pile of Mg-rich basalts, (2) mafic amphibolites and amphibole-epidote gneisses tectonically imbricated with the Mg-rich basalts, (3) pillowed and massive basalts stratigraphically associated with Upper Jurassic (160-149 Ma) ribbon cherts [Montgomery et al, 1994], and (4) serpentinized peridotites crosscut by diabase dikes.…”

Aalenian to Cenomanian Radiolaria of the Bermeja Complex (Puerto Rico) and Pacific origin of radiolarites on the Caribbean Plate

“…Therefore, all these radiolarites were originated from either the eastern Pacific or the ''Mediterranean'' region. The Pacific faunal affinities sensu Montgomery et al (1994a) based on this paleolatitudinal argument was included in the literature in many occasions in order to consolidate certain paleogeographic hypotheses (e.g., Hoernle et al 2002;Bosch et al 2002;Bortolotti and Principi 2005). Montgomery et al (1994a) applied this model to the Jurassic radiolarian assemblages from the Bermeja Complex of Puerto Rico.…”