The geology of Cuba: A brief overview and synthesis

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J.A. Proenza³  M.A. Iturralde-Vinent⁶  A. García-Casco¹  Y. Rojas-Agramonte²  R.J. Stern⁴  J.B. Murphy⁵ 

[1] Departamento de Mineralogía y Petrología, Universidad de Granada, Fuentenueva s/n, 18002 Granada, Spain; and Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain$$;Institut für Geowissenschaften, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Becherweg 21 D-55099 Mainz, Germany$$;Departament de Mineralogia, Petrologia i Geologia Aplicada Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain$$;Geosciences Department, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080 USA$$;Department of Earth Sciences, St. Francis Xavier, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, B2G 2W5, Canada$$;Cuban Academy of Sciences, Cuba$$

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DOI  :  10.1130/GSATG296A.1

学科分类：地质学

来源: Geological Society of America

【 摘 要 】

Cuba is the largest island in the Greater Antilles, and its geologyrecords three important episodes: (1) the Jurassicbreakup of North and South America (Pangea) and associated passive marginand oceanic sedimentary and magmatic evolution;(2) the sedimentary, magmatic, and metamorphic evolution of an intra-oceanicCretaceous-Paleogene ophiolite-arc complex;and (3) the Paleogene “soft collision” and transfer of the NW Caribbean plate(and Cuba) to the North American plate. Thick sequences of Jurassic-Cretaceous strata(conglomerates, sandstones, limestones, dolo­stones, shales) and interlayered basalticrocks characterize passive margin sequences preserved in the Guaniguanico terrane(western Cuba, related to the Mayan passive margin and the Gulf of Mexico) and theBahamas Platform borderlands (north of Cuba). Passive margin deposition ceased inlatest Cretaceous time, when increasing relief of accreted (overriding) oceanicarc and ophiolite complexes shed coarse sediments (olistostrome and flysch), followedby carbonate deposition. Fragments of the intervening oceanic lithosphere (Proto-Caribbean,connected to the Central Atlantic) and fore- and back-arc oceanic lithosphere (Caribbean,of Pacific origin) occur as tectonic fragments detached from the ophiolitic units,including serpentinized harzburgites and dunites, banded and isotropic gabbros,basalts (tholeiitic and fore-arc basalts, locally with boninites) and Late Jurassic(Tithonian) through Late Cretaceous (Coniacian and younger) oceanic sediments. Arcactivity in the Cuban segment of the Greater Antilles produced sedimentary, volcanic,and plutonic rocks during Cretaceous times (ca. 135–70 Ma). A new arc developedin eastern Cuba during Paleocene–middle Eocene times. Cuban arc sequences includeisland-arc tholeiitic, calcalkaline, and alkaline bimodal suites of volcanic andplutonic rocks. Remnants of Proto-Caribbean oceanic lithosphere occur as exhumedmélange-bearing eclogite-, blueschist-, and garnet-amphibolite-facies tectonic blocks(oldest age ca. 120 Ma) within a serpentinite matrix intercalated with, or at thebase of, the overthrusted ophiolitic bodies. Cuban Cretaceous arc magmatic activityended due to the subduction of Proto-Caribbean passive margin sequences of the Caribeanaterrane, an offshore protuberance of Yucatan. This event formed strongly deformedhigh-pressure meta­sedimentary and metaigneous rocks at ca. 70 Ma, when the Caribbeanplate began to collide with North America. The collision, which included overridingof the ophiolitic and arc units over both subducted and unsubducted passive marginsequences, also produced synorogenic basins and filled them, a process that continueduntil ca. 40 Ma. This foldbelt was succeeded by local uplift and subsidence to formlate Eocene–Recent unconformable post-orogenic continental basins.

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