Tectonic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and northern South America in the mantle reference frame: an update
Tectonic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and northern South America in the mantle reference frame: an update
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DOI：
10.1144/sp328.1
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Pindell;L. Kennan
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文献类型：
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作者：
J. Pindell;L. Kennan
摘要：我们分别对加勒比海和墨西哥湾演化的被广泛接受的“单弧太平洋起源”模型和“尤卡坦旋转”模型进行了更新综合。14幅随时间变化的古地理图整合了新概念以及对早期模型的修改。阿普特期之前的地图以北美参考系呈现。阿普特期及更年轻的地图以印度洋 - 大西洋热点参考系呈现，这展示了加勒比 - 美洲相互作用令人惊讶的简单性。我们使用米勒等人（《地质学》21卷：275 - 278页，1993年）的参考系，是因为美洲板块在该参考系中的运动最为平滑，并且至少自约9000万年前以来，它与更新的“移动热点”参考系没有显著差异。加勒比大洋岩石圈在新生代相对于热点移动很少，但在白垩纪以约50千米/百万年的速度向北移动，而美洲板块向西漂移得更远更快，因此对加勒比 - 美洲相对运动历史负有主要责任。该模型的新特征或修订特征（通常由新数据集驱动）包括：（1）对泛大陆西部的精细重建；（2）墨西哥湾演化过程中尤卡坦地块旋转运动的精细化；（3）加勒比弧的起源，其涉及阿普特期时从乔蒂斯到厄瓜多尔的跨美洲板块边界转变为西南倾俯冲带，该边界部分为左旋转换断层（加勒比海北部），部分为先前存在的弧（加勒比海东部、南部）；（4）承认加勒比玄武岩高原可能与古加拉帕戈斯热点有关，其出现部分受加勒比板块下方的原加勒比板片间隙控制；（5）坎帕尼亚期巴拿马 - 哥斯达黎加弧开始俯冲，尽管左旋转换边界可能在此处俯冲开始之前就已存在；（6）南美洲北部开始形成向北倾的地壳反转带，以解释在加勒比板块前方美洲之间的新生代汇聚；（7）格林纳达盆地的扇形不对称裂谷张开模型，其中玛格丽塔和多巴哥下盘地壳薄片从东南阿韦斯海岭上盘下方被抬升；（8）莫塔瓜断层带沿线埃尔坦博尔单元早白垩世高压/低温变质作用的起源，与法拉隆地壳沿墨西哥西部俯冲有关（然后在加勒比弧下方西南倾俯冲开始之前沿跨美洲板块边界平移），而非与乔蒂斯与墨西哥南部的碰撞有关；（9）中中新世巴拿马地壳薄片的构造逃逸，随后“巴拿马地块”在晚中新世和近期向东移动，其速度比加勒比板块快，这是由于东西向跨哥斯达黎加剪切带的形成而得以实现。更新后的模型以内部一致的方式整合了新概念和全球板块运动模型，可用于测试和指导墨西哥湾、加勒比海和南美洲北部更局部的研究。利用区域演化的实例，在热点参考系中结合板块相互作用对板片断裂和平板俯冲过程进行了评估。
Abstract We present an updated synthesis of the widely accepted ‘single-arc Pacific-origin’ and ‘Yucatán-rotation’ models for Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico evolution, respectively. Fourteen palaeogeographic maps through time integrate new concepts and alterations to earlier models. Pre-Aptian maps are presented in a North American reference frame. Aptian and younger maps are presented in an Indo-Atlantic hot spot reference frame which demonstrates the surprising simplicity of Caribbean–American interaction. We use the Müller et al. (Geology 21: 275–278, 1993) reference frame because the motions of the Americas are smoothest in this reference frame, and because it does not differ significantly, at least since c. 90 Ma, from more recent ‘moving hot spot’ reference frames. The Caribbean oceanic lithosphere has moved little relative to the hot spots in the Cenozoic, but moved north at c. 50 km/Ma during the Cretaceous, while the American plates have drifted west much further and faster and thus are responsible for most Caribbean–American relative motion history. New or revised features of this model, generally driven by new data sets, include: (1) refined reconstruction of western Pangaea; (2) refined rotational motions of the Yucatán Block during the evolution of the Gulf of Mexico; (3) an origin for the Caribbean Arc that invokes Aptian conversion to a SW-dipping subduction zone of a trans-American plate boundary from Chortís to Ecuador that was part sinistral transform (northern Caribbean) and part pre-existing arc (eastern, southern Caribbean); (4) acknowledgement that the Caribbean basalt plateau may pertain to the palaeo-Galapagos hot spot, the occurrence of which was partly controlled by a Proto-Caribbean slab gap beneath the Caribbean Plate; (5) Campanian initiation of subduction at the Panama–Costa Rica Arc, although a sinistral transform boundary probably pre-dated subduction initiation here; (6) inception of a north-vergent crustal inversion zone along northern South America to account for Cenozoic convergence between the Americas ahead of the Caribbean Plate; (7) a fan-like, asymmetric rift opening model for the Grenada Basin, where the Margarita and Tobago footwall crustal slivers were exhumed from beneath the southeast Aves Ridge hanging wall; (8) an origin for the Early Cretaceous HP/LT metamorphism in the El Tambor units along the Motagua Fault Zone that relates to subduction of Farallon crust along western Mexico (and then translated along the trans-American plate boundary prior to onset of SW-dipping subduction beneath the Caribbean Arc) rather than to collision of Chortis with Southern Mexico; (9) Middle Miocene tectonic escape of Panamanian crustal slivers, followed by Late Miocene and Recent eastward movement of the ‘Panama Block’ that is faster than that of the Caribbean Plate, allowed by the inception of east–west trans-Costa Rica shear zones. The updated model integrates new concepts and global plate motion models in an internally consistent way, and can be used to test and guide more local research across the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and northern South America. Using examples from the regional evolution, the processes of slab break off and flat slab subduction are assessed in relation to plate interactions in the hot spot reference frame.