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This Round Table Discussion will be introduced by oral presentations byJ ames Pindell and Walter Maresch and others. Pindell will outline a series of concepts comprising a tectonic model in which the Cuban "arc" terrane has migrated as part of the Caribbean Plate from a Neocomian position south of the Chortis Block, highlighting potential cause-and-effect relationships between the geology of Cuba and Mexico-Central America. It also will propose a kinematic model for the origin of Yucatan Basin responsible for the collision of the Cuban arc terrane with the Bahamas. Maresch and others will then show the significance of metamorphic and cooling histories in assessing the evolution of Caribbean arc terranes, concentrating of course on that of Cuba.

The proposed history of Cuban-Mexico-Central American interaction makes implicit predictions for the significance of many aspects of Cuban geology that will become the focus of the Round Table Discussion. Discussion will address the number of arcs in Cuba and the Antilles, subduction polarity in Cuba, periodicity of arc and other magmatism in Cuba (Antilles), metamorphic and uplift history in Cuba, geochronology, structural and stratigraphic development, dynamic mechanisms and timing for tectonic evolution, and paleogeographic relationships with Mexico-Central America.

Contributions from participants in the Discussion will be sought on any of these and other geological endeavours. Visual aids such as overheads, slides, and posters may be introduced to facilitate discussion. The general model will be revised according to the Discussions and worked into a summary report for ICGP Project 433 in the months following the meeting, and distributed to project members and posted in the project’s web page.

Agenda

Time	Topic	Author(s)
14:00 - 14:40	History of Tectonic Interactions between the Cuban Forearc Terrane and Mexico-Central America	James Pindell
14:40 - 15:10	Age Systematics of High-pressure Metamorphism in the Caribbean: Confronting Existing Models With New Data	Walter V. Maresch, Klaus-Peter Stanek, Friedemann Grafe, Bruce Idleman, Albrecht Baumann(3), Martin Krebs, Hans-Peter Schertl, Grenville Draper
15:10 - 18:00	Coffee Break and DEBATE

Abstracts of presentations

• History of Tectonic Interactions between the Cuban Forearc Terrane and Mexico-Central America

  James Pindell, Tectonic Analysis, Ltd.

  North-vergent, Paleogene collision between the Cuban "arc" terrane with the passive Bahamas carbonate bank of the Proto-Caribbean Seaway is widely accepted among workers. In contrast to the "passiveness" of the Atlantic-type Proto-Caribbean margins, the Cuban arc terrane holds a wealth of information that tells of a complex tectonic, metamorphic and magmatic history that dates back to the Jurassic. Despite the fact that Cuba has been geographically isolated from the Caribbean Plate since the Eocene by the Yucatán Basin and Cayman Ridge, the geology of the Cuban arc terrane is so similar to that of numerous Caribbean terranes that it was clearly part of the Caribbean Plate prior to the Paleogene. And because the Caribbean Plate is of Pacific origin, then parts of the Cuban arc terrane may also be of Pacific origin, or perhaps the Neocomian inter-American arc that spanned the gap from Chortis to Ecuador.

  Accepting that a Pacific/inter-American arc origin is viable, the geology of Cuba may be interpreted as part of the far-travelled Caribbean Plate, rather than in terms of more local modes of evolution. Thus, regional integrated models of Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean evolution potentially provide a geometric and kinematic framework in which to interpret that history. Further, considering Cuba's position at the northwesternmost part of the Caribbean Plate, then Caribbean-Mexico/Central American plate interactions are likely recorded in the geology of Cuba.

  Using the Caribbean evolutionary model of Pindell and Kennan (2001) as a guide, cause-and-effect geological relationships between the Cuban arc terrane and Mexico-Central America are proposed. It is argued that the Cuban arc terrane derives from the inter-American Arc between Chortis (when Chortis lay adjacent to Guerrero, Mexico) and Ecuador, was involved in the Aptian Caribbean arc-polarity reversal during which west-dipping subduction beneath Caribbean Plate began, underwent arc-parallel extension during middle and Late Cretaceous time, converged obliquely with southern Yucatán in the Maastrichtian, and migrated ahead of the Yucatán intra-arc basin during the Paleogene on its way to collision with the Bahamas. Finally, it is proposed that the Cuban "arc" terrane represents a forearc piece of the Great Caribbean Arc only, and should not be considered as an arc in itself.

  
  

• Age Systematics of High-pressure Metamorphism in the Caribbean: Confronting Existing Models With New Data

  Walter V. Maresch¹, Klaus-Peter Stanek², Friedemann Grafe^1,2,3, Bruce Idleman⁴, Albrecht Baumann³, Martin Krebs^{1), Hans-Peter Schertl1, Grenville Draper5}

  ¹Institut fuer Geologie, Mineralogie and Geophysik, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, D-44797 Bochum, Germany, E-mail: walter.maresch@rub.de
  ²Institut fuer Geologie, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Bernhard-von-Cotta-Str. 2, D-09596 Freiberg, Germanyv ³Institut für Mineralogie, Zentrallaboratorium für Geochronologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität-Münster, Corrensstr. 24, 48149 Münster, Germany
  ⁴Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
  ⁵Dept. of Geology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, 33199 USA

  The development of plate-tectonic models in the Caribbean has been traditionally based mainly on a two-dimensional perspective centred on terrane analyses and studies of relative movements between terranes and plates, augmented by geochemical and geochronological data on volcanic activity. However, the importance of the information recorded in the pressure(depth)-temperature-deformation-time development of crystalline rocks has recently become more widely acknowledged. Such data require a modern and diverse, yet highly correlated multidisciplinary methodology. As more, and more detailed P-T-d-t-paths become available around the Caribbean, a systematic picture is beginning to emerge.

  The extent of this new level of perception is due to the increasing quantity and above all better quality of geochronological control on the pressure-temperature evolution of metamorphic rocks. Although early petrological studies were able to relate the high-pressure metamorphic rocks exposed along the northern and southern borders of the Caribbean to collisional geodynamic environments, it was detailed geochronological work that showed that the subduction environments responsible for the formation of these rocks were actually located far to the west of a nascent Caribbean gap. The available data set - both old and new - is consistent with the fact that peak high-pressure conditions of high-pressure suites around the Caribbean were uniformly reached between 120 to 100 Ma, i.e. before diachronous emplacement along the northern and southern margins commenced. By contrast, new data on the cooling, i.e. exhumation history of high-pressure suites as well as metamorphic rocks from the lower levels of associated volcanic arcs show that specific sections around the margins of the Caribbean exhibit characteristic and variable exhumation histories. Such data therefore faithfully record the particular timing and geodynamic setting of each area around the Caribbean perimeter and provide local stringent detailed constraints on plate tectonic models.

  Although we are just beginning to "see through" the chronology of high-pressure metamorphic events and exhumation evolution to determine details on the timing of prior events, new data are providing enigmatic and intriguing prospects. Conventional multi-grain analysis as well as corroborating detailed SHRIMP investigations have revealed that zircons in certain eclogites from the Escambray massif in Cuba point to a 140-160 Ma event. Even if discussions on the significance of this age are in full progress (crystallization of the precursor gabbro? a second earlier, pre-Caribbean high-pressure event?), it is clear that studies of P-T-d-t histories are indispensable in our quest to better understand the plate-tectonic history of the Caribbean region.

This page last modified: Jan. 30, 2003