ABSTRACT The Providencia island group comprises an extinct Miocene stratovolcano located on a shallow submarine bank astride the Lower Nicaraguan Rise in the western Caribbean. We report here on the geology, geochemistry, petrology, and isotopic ages of the rocks within the Providencia island group, using newly collected as well as previously published results to unravel the complex history of Providencia. The volcano is made up of eight stratigraphic units, including three major units: (1) the Mafic unit, (2) the Breccia unit, (3) the Felsic unit, and five minor units: (4) the Trachyandesite unit, (5) the Conglomerate unit, (6) the Pumice unit, (7) the Intrusive unit, and (8) the Limestone unit. The Mafic unit is the oldest and forms the foundation of the island, consisting of both subaerial and subaqueous lava flows and pyroclastic deposits of alkali basalt and trachybasalt. Overlying the Mafic unit, there is a thin, minor unit of trachyandesite lava flows (Trachyandesite unit). The Breccia unit unconformably overlies the older rocks and consists of crudely stratified breccias (block flows/block-and-ash flows) of vitrophyric dacite, which represent subaerial near-vent facies formed by gravitational and/or explosive dome collapse. The breccias commonly contain clasts of alkali basalt, indicating the nature of the underlying substrate. The Felsic unit comprises the central part of the island, composed of rhyolite lava flows and domes, separated from the rocks of the Breccia unit by a flat-lying unconformity. Following a quiescent period, limited felsic pyroclastic activity produced minor valley-fill ignimbrites (Pumice unit). The rocks of Providencia can be geochemically and stratigraphically subdivided into an older alkaline suite of alkali basalts, trachybasalts, and trachyandesites, and a younger subalkaline suite composed dominantly of dacites and rhyolites. Isotopically, the alkali basalts together with the proposed tholeiitic parent magmas for the dacites and rhyolites indicate an origin by varying degrees of partial melting of a metasomatized ocean-island basalt–type mantle that had been modified by interaction with the Galapagos plume. The dacites are the only phenocryst-rich rocks on the island and have a very small compositional range. We infer that they formed by the mixing of basalt and rhyolite magmas in a lower oceanic crustal “hot zone.” The rhyolites of the Felsic unit, as well as the rhyolitic magmas contributing to dacite formation, are interpreted as being the products of partial melting of the thickened lower oceanic crust beneath Providencia. U-Pb dating of zircons in the Providencia volcanic rocks has yielded Oligocene and Miocene ages, corresponding to the ages of the volcanism. In addition, some zircon crystals in the same rocks have yielded both Proterozoic and Paleozoic ages ranging between 1661 and 454 Ma. The lack of any evidence of continental crust beneath Providencia suggests that these old zircons are xenocrysts from the upper mantle beneath the Lower Nicaraguan Rise. A comparison of the volcanic rocks from Providencia with similar rocks that comprise the Western Caribbean alkaline province indicates that while the Providencia alkaline suite is similar to other alkaline suites previously defined within this province, the Providencia subalkaline suite is unique, having no equivalent rocks within the Western Caribbean alkaline province.

Abstract Northern Honduras and its offshore area include an active transtensional margin separating the Caribbean and North American plates. We use deep-penetration seismic-reflection lines combined with gravity and magnetic data to describe two distinct structural domains in the Honduran offshore area: (1) an approximately 120 km-wide Honduran Borderlands (HB) adjacent to the Cayman Trough characterized by narrow rift basins controlled by basement-involving normal faults subparallel to the margin; and (2) the Nicaraguan Rise (NR), characterized by small-displacement normal faulting and sag-type basins influenced by Paleocene–Eocene shelf sedimentation beneath an Oligocene–Recent, approximately 1–2 km-thick carbonate platform. Thinning of continental crust from 25–30 km beneath the NR to 6–8 km beneath the oceanic Cayman Trough is attributed to an Oligocene–Recent phase of transtension. Five tectonostratigraphic phases established in the HB and NR include: (1) a Late Cretaceous uplift in the north and south-dipping thrusting related to the collision in the south, between the Chortis continental block and arc and oceanic plateau rocks of the Caribbean; (2) Eocene sag basins in the NR and minor extension in the HB; two phases (3) and (4) of accelerated extension (transtension) across the subsidence mainly of the HB; and (5) Pliocene–Recent minor fault activity in the HB and a stable carbonate platform in the NR.

Restoration of plate consumption recorded by Caribbean arc volcanism reveals probable plate movements that led to the emplacement of the proto–Caribbean plate into the present Caribbean region and provided the space necessary to accommodate the rotation of the Yucatán Peninsula concurrent with the opening of the Gulf of Mexico between ca. 170 Ma and 150 Ma. Fault movement of the Yucatán, caused by edge-driven processes, resulted in counterclockwise rotation, as shown by paleomagnetic studies. Restoration of Yucatán rotation necessitates the presence of a paleogeography different from the current distribution of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. During emplacement of the Caribbean plate region, four magmatic belts with distinct ages and different geochemical characteristics are recorded by exposures on islands of the Antilles. The belts distinguish the following segments of Cretaceous and Tertiary magmatic arcs: (1) an Early Cretaceous geochemically primitive island-arc tholeiite suite (PIA/IAT) typically containing distinctive dacite and rhyodacite that formed between Hauterivian and early Albian time (ca. 135–110 Ma); (2) after a hiatus at ca. 105 Ma of ∼10 m.y., a voluminous, more-extensive calc-alkaline magmatic suite, consisting mainly of basaltic andesite, andesite, and locally important dacite, developed beginning in the Cenomanian and continuing into the Campanian (ca. 95–70 Ma); (3) a second (calc-alkaline) suite, spatially restricted relative to the older belts, that consists of volcanic and intrusive rocks, which formed between the early Paleocene and the middle Eocene (ca. 60–45 Ma); and (4) a currently active calc-alkaline suite in the Lesser Antilles typically composed of a basalt-andesite-dacite series that began to develop in the Eocene (ca. 45 Ma). Plate convergence took place along northeastward- or eastward-trending axes during the formation of the Caribbean, which is outlined by the Antillean islands and Central and South America. Movements were facilitated by strike-slip faults, commonly trench-trench transforms, as subducting crust was consumed. Restoration of apparent displacements of at least several hundreds of thousands of kilometers along the inferred lateral faults of the Eocene and younger Cayman set separating Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and the Oriente Province of southeastern Cuba brings together Eocene volcanic rocks revealing a magmatic domain along the paleo–south-southwestern margin of the Greater Antilles. The transforms along the southern margin of the Caribbean plate are mainly obscured by contractional deformation related to the northward motion of South America as it was thrust over the faulted plate margin. Restoration of the Caribbean plate also translates the Nicaragua Rise westward, thereby revealing a pathway along which Pacific oceanic lithosphere, mainly composed of a large, Late Cretaceous igneous province (Caribbean large igneous province), manifest as an oceanic plateau (Caribbean-Colombian oceanic plateau), converged toward and subducted beneath the southern flank of the Cretaceous Greater Antilles magmatic belt between 65 and 45 Ma. The Eocene arc rocks overlie or abut previously recognized Early and Late Cretaceous subduction-related units. Eocene consumption of Pacific lithosphere ceased with the arrival, collision, and accretion of buoyant lithosphere composed of Caribbean large igneous province. The Greater Antilles formed during Late Cretaceous subduction of Jurassic ocean crust beneath an Early Cretaceous arc formed at the eastern margin of the proto–Pacific plate. Formation of a volcanic edifice above Early Cretaceous arc rocks was followed by plate collision and coupling of the Greater Antilles belt against the Bahama Platform. The most straightforward path of the Greater Antilles into the Caribbean is along northeast-striking transforms, one of which coincided with the eastern margin of the Yucatán Peninsula. The transform appears to link the Motagua suture to the Pinar del Rio Province of western Cuba. To the southeast, the arc was transected by a second transform, perhaps coinciding with the present trace of the Romeral fault in northwestern South America and extending northeast to the eastern terminus of the Virgin Islands. During Late Cretaceous convergence, a segment of the extinct Early Cretaceous arc, developed at the Pacific margin, was carried northeastward.

Abstract Compilation, analysis, integration, and interpretation of geochemical data from oil and gas fields, exploratory and scientific wells, oil and gas seeps, and outcrop samples allows the identification of effective and potential Cretaceous and Tertiary source rocks throughout the western Caribbean. In this vast region, seven source rocks of different ages are proven to be considered source rocks: (1) lower–middle Eocene Punta Gorda and Touche Formations along the Nicaraguan Rise (SR1), (2) middle Eocene, Yellow Limestone Group in Jamaica Island (SR2), (3) late Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Campanian) Loma Chumico Formation present mainly in northwestern Costa Rica (SR3), (4) middle Miocene Gatun Formation in Panama and Costa Rica (SR4), (5) late Cretaceous (Coniacian–Campanian) Cansona Formation in the Sinu and San Jacinto basins (SR5), (6) Oligocene to early Miocene Cienaga de Oro and lower Porquero Formations and age-equivalent units in the Lower Magdalena Valley basins (SR6), and (7) late Cretaceous (Coniacian–Santonian) rocks in the Colombian and Venezuelan basins (SR7). Although the Cretaceous section sequence is generally considered the most likely source rock in the northern part of the South American plate, data from the Venezuela and Colombian basins suggest that the petroleum generative potential of the Campanian–Maastrichtian rocks is a non-source rock, normally with total organic carbon values < 0.5%. Also, in the Mosquitia Basin offshore Honduras and Jamaica Island, the middle and upper Cretaceous contain low organic matter, suggesting the absence of source rock. The identification of several source rocks in the western Caribbean region is quite encouraging; however, future geologic research and petroleum exploration will allow to constrain the geographic distribution of the source rocks already identified and to refine in more detail their geochemical characteristics and petroleum generative potential.

Abstract Known hydrocarbon occurrences are indicative of a widespread and active, offshore petroleum system of the Nicaraguan Rise (western Caribbean Sea). We identify key petroleum system elements and processes using geological, geophysical, and geochemical data integrated into a three-dimensional petroleum system model that includes an early and late Eocene / Oligo–Miocene (!) petroleum system. Early and late Eocene source rocks identified on the Nicaraguan Rise include clayey, calcareous limestone and pelagic shale containing kerogen type II and III with TOC values ranging from 0.85% to 3.74%. Potential reservoirs include transitional to deep marine environments with clastic pinch-outs, dolomitized shallow marine carbonate complexes, and reefal buildups. Potential seal rocks include gray calcareous shale, siltstone, and silty shale deposited above regional and local unconformities and as intercalations within carbonate formations. The complex tectonic history of the area has produced known structural and stratigraphic traps effective for hydrocarbon accumulation with recovered hydrocarbons ranging from 21° API to 45° API. Thermal history modeling based on paleo-heat flows, burial histories, and transformation ratio maps shows that the initiation of hydrocarbon generation began during the early Oligocene (35 Ma) at 69 mW/m 2 with an average hydrocarbon expulsion of 7.15 MMBOE per km 2 from Eocene source rock intervals. Our proposed model predicts vertical migration on the Nicaraguan Rise with a predicted generation-accumulation efficiency of 3.5%.

Velocities from six continuous and 14 campaign sites within the boundaries of the Caribbean plate, including eight new sites from previously unsampled areas of Honduras and Nicaragua at the western edge of the Caribbean plate, are described and tested for their consistency with Caribbean–North America plate motion and a rigid Caribbean plate model. Sites in central Honduras and Guatemala move 3–8 mm yr −1 westward with respect to the Caribbean plate interior, consistent with distributed east-to-west extension in Guatemala and the western two-thirds of Honduras. A site in southern Jamaica moves 8 ± 1 mm yr −1 westward relative to the Caribbean plate interior, indicating that most or all of Jamaica is unsuitable for estimating Caribbean plate motion. Two sites in southern Hispaniola also exhibit anomalous motions relative to the plate interior, consistent with a tectonic bias at those sites. An inversion of the velocities for 15 sites nominally located in the plate interior yields a well-constrained Caribbean plate angular velocity vector that predicts motion similar to previously published models. Data bootstrapping indicates that the solution is robust to better than 1 mm yr −1 with respect to both the site velocities that are used to estimate the plate angular velocity and the site velocity uncertainties. That velocities at seven of eight GPS sites in eastern Honduras and Nicaragua are consistent with the motions of sites elsewhere in the plate interior indicates that much or all of eastern Honduras and Nicaragua move with the plate interior within the 1–2 mm yr −1 resolution of our data. It further suggests that the morphologically prominent, but aseismic Guayape fault of eastern Honduras is inactive. Tests for possible east-to-west deformation across the Beata Ridge and Lower Nicaraguan Rise in the plate interior establish a 95% upper bound of ∼2 mm yr −1 for any deformation across the two features, significantly slower than a published estimate of 9.0 ± 1.5 mm yr −1 during the past 23 Ma for deformation across the Beata Ridge.

An aeromagnetic survey of Honduras and its northeastern Caribbean coastal area covering a continuous area of 137,400 km 2 was acquired by the Honduran government in 1985 and provided to the University of Texas at Austin for research purposes in 2002. We correlate regional and continuous aeromagnetic features with a compilation of geologic data to reveal the extent, structural grain, and inferred boundaries of tectonic terranes that compose the remote and understudied, Precambrian-Paleozoic continental Chortis block of Honduras. A regional geologic map and a compilation of isotopic age dates and lead isotope data are used in conjunction with and geo-referenced to the aero-magnetic map. These combined data provide a basis for subdividing the 531,370 km 2 Chortis block into three tectonic terranes with distinctive aeromagnetic expression, lithologies, structural styles, metamorphic grade, isotopically and paleontologically determined ages, and lead isotope values: (1) The Central Chortis terrane occupies an area of 110,600 km 2 , exhibits a belt of roughly east-west–trending high magnetic values, and exposes small, discontinuous outcrops of Grenville to Paleozoic continental metamorphic rocks including greenschist to amphibolite grade phyllite, schist, gneiss, and orthogneiss that have been previously dated in the range of 1 Ga to 222 Ma; the northern 59,990 km 2 margin of the Central Chortis terrane along the northern Caribbean coast of Honduras exhibits an irregular pattern of east-west–trending magnetic highs and lows that correlates with an east-west–trending belt of early Paleozoic to Tertiary age metamorphic rocks intruded by Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic plutons in the range of 93.3–28.9 Ma. (2) The Eastern Chortis terrane occupies an area of 185,560 km 2 , exhibits belts of roughly northeast-trending high magnetic values, and correlates with outcrops of folded and thrusted Jurassic metasedimentary phyllites and schists forming a greenschist-grade basement; we propose that the Eastern and Central terranes are distinct terranes based on the strong differences in their structural style and aeromagnetic grain, sedimentary thickness, metamorphic grade, and lead isotope values. (3) The Southern Chortis terrane occupies an area of 120,100 km 2 , contains one known basement outcrop of metaigneous rock, exhibits a uniformly low magnetic intensity that contrasts with the rest of the Chortis block, and is associated with an extensive area of Miocene pyroclastic strata deposited adjacent to the late Cenozoic Central American volcanic arc. The outlines of the terranes as constrained by the aeromagnetic, lithologic, age, and lead isotope data are restored to their pre–early Eocene position along the southwestern coast of Mexico by a 40° clockwise rotation and 1100 km of documented post–early Eocene (ca. 43 Ma) left-lateral offset along the strike-slip faults of the northern Caribbean strike-slip plate boundary. The inner continental and outboard oceanic terranes of Chortis and the 120,100 km 2 Siuna terrane to the south trend roughly north-south and align with terranes of similar magnetic trend, lithology, age, and crustal character in southwestern Mexico. Additional progress in mapping and isotopic dating is needed for the proposed Chortis terranes in Honduras in order to constrain this proposed position against much better mapped and dated rocks in southwestern Mexico.