Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Map of geologic provinces in the Caribbean region

1984; Geological Society of America; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1130/mem162-p1

0072-1069

James E. Case, Troy L. Holcombe, Ricky Martin,

Geological and Tectonic Studies in Latin America

The greater Caribbean region has been divided into more than 100 geologic provinces, some of which are tectonostratigraphic terranes or suspect terranes as defined by Coney, Jones, and Monger (1980). The principal criteria for distinguishing provinces are groups of rocks that differ from their immediate neighbors with respect to: (1) rock lithology, thickness, and age, (2) structural style, (3) presence or absence of outcropping igneous rocks, (4) degree of metamorphism, (5) physiographic expression, (6) nature of crust, and other characteristics. Many of the provinces thus identified are bordered by known major faults, including suture and transform zones; other provinces are bordered by unexposed or cryptic faults; and still other boundaries are drawn on the basis of major changes in rock facies, and so are not boundaries of tectonostratigraphic terranes. Paleomagnetic data, far from complete in the region, indicate that many of the provinces have experienced large tectonic translations and rotations.