Pre-Cenozoic tectonic framework of Central America
Central America (C.A.) lies along the junctions of five crustal plates at the western edge of the Caribbean. Major fault zones divide it into at least three blocks, each of which has experienced a distinct tectonic history. Although the region has been dominated by plate interactions during the Cenozoic, paleogeographic and palinspastic relations among the various blocks is increasingly obscure and conjectural back through the Phanerozoic. Pre-Mesozoic rocks are unknown in southern C.A., but are widespread as metamorphic basement complexes in northern C.A. The Maya basement consists of Precambrian igneous massifs and Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary sequences cut by mid-Paleozoic plutons, unconformably overlain locally by Upper Paleozoic terrestrial-to-marine strata. The Chorotega-Choco basement is a Late Mesozoic ophiolite sequence accreted with Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary deep marine volcanic and sedimentary strata into a forearc subduction complex along the Pacific margin. By contrast, Mesozoic successions on the Maya and Chortis blocks are cratonic and grossly similar, consisting of basal transgressive clastics, one or more thick Lower Cretaceous rudistid limestone units, and fluvial-deltaic terrigenous redbed sequences; sections vary in detail locally, and evaporites are common on the Maya block. The Late Cretaceous along the Maya-Chortis boundary was characterized by plate collision, ophiolite obduction, and sinistral block translation.
- Research Organization:
- Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, CT (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6319838
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Journal Information:
- Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
BASEMENT ROCK
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
PETROLOGY
CENTRAL AMERICA
PLATE TECTONICS
GEOLOGIC STRATA
IGNEOUS ROCKS
METAMORPHIC ROCKS
SUBDUCTION ZONES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
LATIN AMERICA
ROCKS
TECTONICS
580201* - Geophysics- Seismology & Tectonics- (1980-1989)
580300 - Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics- (-1989)