Antillean arc — LLMpedia

Antillean arc
Name	Antillean arc
Country	Cuba; Haiti; Dominican Republic; Puerto Rico; Saint Martin (island); Guadeloupe; Montserrat; Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Trinidad and Tobago
Region	Caribbean Sea
Highest	Pico Duarte
Highest elevation m	3098
Length km	2400

Contents

Antillean arc is an island arc system in the Caribbean Sea formed by complex interactions between the North American Plate, the Caribbean Plate, and adjacent microplates such as the Gonâve Microplate and the Bartica Block. It includes volcanic, plutonic, and sedimentary terranes exposed across the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles, and has been central to studies by institutions like the United States Geological Survey, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Geological Society of America. Research on the arc integrates data from projects including the International Seismological Centre, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, and expeditions by the NOAA and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.

Geology and Tectonic Setting

The arc sits at the boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate, with subduction along the Puerto Rico Trench and transform faults such as the Septentrional Fault Zone and the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone; regional studies reference datasets from the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program and mappings by the British Geological Survey. Terranes include ophiolitic fragments similar to those in Newfoundland and Labrador and metamorphic complexes comparable to exposures in Cuba and Hispaniola; comparative work cites stratigraphic correlations with units in Bahamas platforms and the Yucatán Peninsula. Plate reconstructions by groups at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford, and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris use paleomagnetic, seismic reflection, and GPS data from networks like the Global Seismographic Network and the International GNSS Service.

Volcanic centers in the arc produced calc-alkaline and tholeiitic suites recorded in islands such as Montserrat, Guadeloupe, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; petrological analyses reference mineral assemblages studied at the Geological Society of London and the American Geophysical Union. Rock types include andesite, basalt, dacite, rhyolite, and coexisting plutons with granitoid compositions analogous to those in the Sierra Maestra and the Cordillera Central (Dominican Republic), with geochemical fingerprints compared against datasets from the Geological Survey of Canada and the U.S. Geological Survey. Geochronology using methods developed at the Geochronology Laboratory, University of Cambridge and the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory yields ages spanning Mesozoic to Cenozoic intervals, with isotopic work involving laboratories at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the University of Tokyo.

Islands in the arc display volcanic cones, calderas, limestone karst, and coral reef platforms mapped in detail by UNESCO and the World Wildlife Fund marine programs; notable highlands include Pico Duarte and the Morne Trois Pitons massif documented by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. Coastal geomorphology studies reference sites like Playa Rincon and the reef systems around Anegada and Barbados, with bathymetric surveys conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Island biogeography work links exposures to conservation initiatives managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Royal Society, and the European Commission habitat directives.

Models of arc evolution integrate concepts from researchers at the California Institute of Technology, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of Miami showing microplate rotations, slab rollback, and trench retreat documented in papers in journals like Nature Geoscience and Geology (journal). Interactions with the South American Plate along the eastern Caribbean, collision events involving the Aves Ridge, and accretion of Caribbean crustal blocks are compared with analogues in the Aleutian Islands and the Kurile Islands; datasets stem from seismic tomography produced by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology and plate reconstructions by the Paleomap Project. Numerical modeling efforts by the European Geosciences Union community explore mantle flow, slab dehydration, and arc magmatism in collaboration with the US National Science Foundation.

The arc records Mesozoic rifting, Cretaceous arc magmatism, and Paleogene–Neogene tectonic reorganizations examined in syntheses by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the International Union of Geological Sciences. Fossil assemblages in carbonate platforms cite comparisons with localities in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Plate margin, and the Iberian Peninsula; stratigraphic correlations reference cores from the Ocean Drilling Program and biostratigraphic frameworks developed at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Regional tectonic episodes are linked to events such as the closure of the Tethys Sea, the opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean, and changes recorded in the Alpine orogeny time frame.

The arc is susceptible to volcanic eruptions, tsunamis generated by submarine landslides and faulting near the Puerto Rico Trench, and earthquakes along faults like the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone and the Septentrional Fault Zone; monitoring is led by agencies including the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, the British Geological Survey for Montserrat, and the U.S. Geological Survey's Caribbean office. Hazard mitigation draws on frameworks from the Pan American Health Organization, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and programs by the World Bank; case studies reference crises at Soufrière Hills (Montserrat), La Soufrière (Guadeloupe), and historical seismic events affecting Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Ongoing risk assessment uses inputs from the Global Seismographic Network, satellite missions by NASA, and climate-linked studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Category:Caribbean geology