Review of Geochronologic and Geochemical Data of the Greater Antilles Volcanic Arc and Implications for the Evolution of Oceanic Arcs

Abstract

The fossil Greater Antilles Arc (GAA), part of the Great Arc of the Caribbean (Burke, 1988), provides an unusual opportunity to examine the complete evolution of an intra-oceanic convergent margin from birth to demise, especially because much of it is exposed above sea-level. Igneous and metamorphic rocks of the GAA (Figure 1) record subduction beneath the Caribbean plate during the Cretaceous and Paleogene spanning about 90 m.y. all through the present ca. 2,000 km length of the convergent margin (e.g., Iturralde-Vinent et al., 2016;Mann et al., 2007; Pindell & Kennan, 2009 and references therein). In most interpretations, the subducting lithosphere corresponds to the North and South American plates separated by the Proto-Caribbean ridge during the GAA lifetime (e.g.,

Subduction initiation triggered the Caribbean large igneous province

“…1). Although numerous, geochronological 15,16 , geochemical 11,14,[16][17][18] , and plate reconstructions 9,19,20 studies helped to better constrain the Cretaceous geodynamic evolution of the Caribbean region, no geodynamic consensus has been reached yet. This is mainly because of the efficient recycling of paleo-oceanic plates by subduction, the lack of physical constraints of existing geodynamic reconstructions and the highly complex plate tectonic setting of the region.…”

Late Cretaceous‐Recent Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Yucatan Back‐Arc Basin, Northern Caribbean Sea

“…Orogenic activity in Cuba at this time was intense during the continuous accretion of the GAC to North America, as shown by the increase in volcanic‐derived sediments, the emplacement of ophiolites between the Varadero and La Trocha faults, the formation of piggyback basins, high subsidence rates in the northern foreland basin (Escalona & Yang, 2013), and the age of metamorphism in central Cuba (Cobiella‐Reguera, 2009; Cruz‐Orosa et al., 2012; Escalona & Yang, 2013; García‐Casco et al., 2006; Hu et al., 2022; Iturralde‐Vinent et al., 2016; Pardo, 2009; Saura et al., 2008) (Figure 13c).…”

“…Geologic and geophysical data from decades of previous work has led to a widespread consensus that the present‐day Caribbean area evolved as a consequence of the Great Arc of the Caribbean (GAC) moving in a northeastward and eastward direction and subducting an extensive area of the Proto‐Caribbean Sea of Jurassic and early Cretaceous age that had formed as the result of the opening between North and South America (Boschmann et al., 2014; Burke, 1988; Burke et al., 1984; Escalona & Mann, 2011; Pindell & Dewey, 1982) (Figure 1). The importance of the formation, subduction, volcanic history, and collision of the GAC have led to detailed studies of its various volcanic arc segments that can be traced as a semi‐continuous feature over a 4,300‐km‐long and strongly curved arc that can be traced on bathymetric‐topographic maps (Figure 1a) and gravity maps (Figure 1b) from southern Mexico and northern Central America (Pindell et al., 2023; Ratschbacher et al., 2009; Rogers et al., 2007); western Cuba (Gordon et al., 1997; Hu et al., 2022; Pardo, 2009), southeastward through Hispaniola (Escuder‐Viruete et al., 2023; Hernáiz‐Huerta & Pérez‐Estaún, 2002; Mann et al., 1991) and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Román et al., 2021), southward to the small volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc and largely submarine Aves Ridge remnant arc (Allen et al., 2019; Bouysse, 1988; Garrocq et al., 2021), and westward along the subaerial and submarine Caribbean margins of Trinidad and Tobago (Christeson et al., 2008), Venezuela, and Colombia (Gorney et al., 2007; Kroehler et al., 2011; Neill et al., 2011; Vence & Mann, 2020; Ysaccis, 1997; Ysaccis & Bally, 2021).…”

Metamorphism and linked deformation in understanding tectonic processes at varied scales

“…120 Ma and by regional-scale transpression. In this context, HP/LT metamorphism developed during Cretaceous and eclogites and blueschists were exhumed under lowtemperature conditions [García-Casco et al, 2006, Hu et al, 2022, Stöckhert et al, 1995, Tsujimori et al, 2006, West et al, 2014.…”