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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Houston Geological Society Bulletin
Abstract
Abstract: Cuba-Bahamas Arc/Margin Collision:
Constraints on Timing of Suturing
By
Constraints on timing of suturing
include (1) stratigraphic data, both surface
and subsurface, (2) isotopic age data
from the southern metamorphic belt,
which originally consisted of sediments
deposited at the southern edge of the
Bahamas/Florida margin, (3) seismic
data in the carbonate foreland (e.g.,
Bahamas, Florida, and southeast Gulf of
Mexico), and (4)
seismic
data from offshore
western Cuba. These data are consistent
with a scenario whereby suturing
took place between the Late Cretaceous
and the Late Eocene with a more quiescent
period in the early Paleocene.
(1) The Late Cretaceous initiation of suturing and northward movement of the thrust belt is represented by widespread erosion of Turonian-Santonian margin sediments and ubiquity of a Late Cretaceous unconformity overlain by Campanian-Maastrichtian flysch. Early Paleocene marls record a cessation (or slowing) of thrusting. By the Late Paleocene, vigorous thrusting resumed and waned progressively from west to east from early to latest Eocene. Although this scenario can be argued from surface data alone, it is reinforced by the addition of new, deep-well penetrations drilled by Soviet/Cuban teams in northern Cuba.
(2) Isotopic age data (K-Ar) generated by Soviet and American teams show cooling ages associated with a pervasive Late Cretaceous thermal overprint related to initial suturing. Age dates from the southern metamorphic belt (derived from abyssal plain sediments deposited over stretched North American basement) yield dates from 45-90 Ma, but possess a mode at 6570 Ma.
(3) Reflection seismic
data from the
carbonate foreland north of Cuba show
significant reactivation of basement
faults from the Late Cretaceous-Early
Tertiary in response to arc/margin convergence
from the south. This reactivation
is manifested as tilted fault blocks,
upthrown fault blocks, foreland bulges,
and faults that propagate up through the
overlying carbonate section.
Vertical
displacement
on these faults in Florida
ranges up to 1500 ft.
(4) Reflection seismic
data from offshore
western Cuba over the frontal
thrust and associated foredeep sediment
wedge to the north, interpreted with
well-constrained Gulf of Mexico correlation
horizons indicate the sediment
wedge consists of a thick sequence of
Upper Cretaceous and Eocene flysch.
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