GEOLOGIA DE LAS MARGENES DE LA PLACA DEL CARIBE: GENERALIDADES EN GUATEMALA, COSTA RICA, LA ESPAÑOLA Y RESULTADOS PRELIMINARES DEL ANALISIS DE UNA TRANSVERSAL EN LA CORDILLERA DE LA COSTA DE VENEZUELA

Abstract

The Caribbean Plate margins are constituted by deformed belts built up since the Cretaceous in acompressional and strike-slip stress field, which allowed overthrusting of the Caribbean crust onto the Pacific,North and South American Plates.The Caribbean borders include Jurassic-Cretaceous ophiolitic units (Great Antilles, Venezuela, Costa Rica,Guatemala, etc.), composed by mantle peridotites, gabbros, volcanic and sedimentary covers, which have beendeformed in at least two ductile penetrative phases and were often metamorphosed in the prehnite-pumpelleyite,green and blue schist, amphibolite, and in places eclogite facies. These units may present part of a subductioncomplex or are an accretionary prism.This paper deals with a regional geological survey (1989-1993) conducted on the main periCaribbean ophioliticunits of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Hispanola, and Venezuela. The preliminary data, recently updated with new anddetailed researches, allow to recognize the magmatic affinities (MORB and IAT) of the different reconstructedlithological sequences, which can be related with an hypothetical kinematic model of the development of theCaribbean Plate.