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

南北美洲的盘古大陆拼合没有为现今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大陆解体后形成的，或者是从其他地方来的。 目前的资料表明，这些火山岩的地质历史不一致，表明它们的早期历史是不相关的。 乔蒂斯地块是加勒比板块上唯一已知古生代和可能的元古代历史的板块，被认为是解决加勒比构造之谜的重要关键。 该项目将对Chortis地块进行地质年代学分析，以将构造事件置于一个牢固的时间框架中。 这些数据，结合现有的地质，结构和构造的限制，将允许测试的假设有关的Chortis地壳在北美的具体来源，并测试假设有关的第三纪构造运输的Chortis块的加勒比板块的发展。

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.