Geochronology and Petrogenesis in Chortis and Xolapa: Implications for Central American Tectonics

南美与北美的盘古板块融合没有给现在的墨西哥南部和中美洲的地壳留下空间，因此这些地区是在盘古板块分裂之后形成的，或者是从其他地方来的。目前的资料表明，这些地体的地质历史不一致，表明它们的早期历史是不相关的。Chortis地块是加勒比板块上唯一已知有古生代和可能有元古代历史的地块，被认为是解开加勒比海构造之谜的重要钥匙。该项目将对Chortis区块进行地质年代学分析，以将结构事件置于牢固的时间框架中。这些数据，结合现有的地质、构造和构造限制，将允许测试有关Chortis地壳与北美特定来源的假设，并测试有关Chortis块体的第三纪构造运输与加勒比板块发展的假设。

The Pangean fit of South to North America leaves no space for the crust of present southern Mexico and Central America, thus these areas formed after the breakup of Pangean or arrived from elsewhere. Present information indicates that these terranes have discordant geologic histories suggesting that their early histories are unrelated. The Chortis block is the only terrane on the Caribbean plate with a known Paleozoic and possible Proterozoic history, and is considered an important key to solving the puzzle of Caribbean tectonics. This project will conduct geochronologic analysis of the Chortis block to place structural events in a firm temporal framework. These data, combined with available geologic, structural and tectonics constraints, will allow testing of hypotheses relating Chortis crust to specific sources in North America, and to test hypotheses relating Tertiary tectonic transport of the Chortis block to the development of the Caribbean plate.