Multichannel seismic reflection records from the northern and southern margins of the Venezuela Basin reveal compressional structures analogous to structures in active Pacific trench-arc systems and indicate that these Caribbean margins have probably evolved during a Tertiary period of north-south convergence and consequent compression across the Venezuela Basin. Seismic records show evidence for underthrusting beneath and sediment accretion against the margins of the basin. A trench-slope break anticline has formed on the landward slope of both the Muertos Trench and the Venezuela Trench. This anticline has ponded thick sediment accumulations behind it in sediment basins homologous to forearc basins in other active trench-arc complexes. Progressively steeper landward dip deeper in the section on midslope terraces and in the forearc basin of the Muertos Trench suggest syndepositional tectonic rotations of the landward slopes.

Caribbean convergence rates calculated from published plate tectonic models are consistent with convergence rates calculated from considerations of sediment volume within the landward slopes of Venezuela Basin trenches. These sediment calculations suggest that over half of the accreted sediment beneath the landward slopes may be terrigenous material slumped down the landward slope or trapped as turbidite fill in the trench axis and later incorporated into the inner slope.