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Antilles geology

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 it is geographically and biologically advantaged over
smaller islands of the Antilles. Indeed, about % of the
entire land area of the Antilles is found on Cuba alone.
Ninety percent of the area of the Antilles occurs on the
four major islands of the archipelago (Cuba, Hispaniola
[, km], Jamaica [, km], and Puerto Rico
[ km]).
But island size alone does not determine the chances
of retaining an islands biodiversity. Other important
influences are cultural history, population size and dis-
tribution, and the percentage of an islands area that is
“protected.” Once again, Cuba (with a population of .
million and a population density of  people per km)
sets the standard for the Antilles, with % of its area being
“protected” (about the same percentage of the island that
remains forested). Overall, in the Antilles, .% of the
area is “protected” (although only .% is designated con-
served in IUCN categories I–IV).
Keeping in mind that sustainable biodiversity requires
habitat (remember the lesson of species-area curves),
what are the prospects for biodiversity in other parts of
the Antilles? Island size alone is not the critical indicator,
but rather population density and the presence of suitable
habitat. For example, in the Dominican Republic, with a
population of over  million ( people per km), %
of the land area of the country is “protected” ( national
parks, six scientific reserves,  natural preserves, two
marine sanctuaries). In adjacent Haiti, with a population
of . million (population density  people per km),
only .% of the land area is protected in three barely
functional national parks. The standard for protected
land area in the Antilles is the small Lesser Antillean
island of Dominica ( km) with a population of ,
(a population density of  people per km and declin-
ing), which protects .% of the island in three national
parks. Barbados and Aruba have preserved less that % of
their land areas, and tiny Anguilla (only  km) is devel-
oping its first national park (Fountain Cavern).
SEE ALSO THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES
Antilles, Geology / Freshwater Habitats / Lizard Radiations /
Mammal Radiations / Vicariance
FURTHER READING
Crother, B. I. . Caribbean amphibians and reptiles. San Diego, CA:
Academic Press.
Fernández, E. . Hispaniola: a photographic journey through island bio-
diversity/Bioversidad a través de un recorrido fotografico [bilingual ed.].
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Poinar, G., and R. Poinar. . The Amber Forest. Princeton, NJ: Princ-
eton University Press.
Gillespie08_A.indd 29
Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. . Field
guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
Ricklefs, R., and E. Bermingham. . The West Indies as a laboratory
of biogeography and evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society of London B—Biological Sciences. doi: ./rstb...
Schwartz, A., and R. W. Henderson. . Amphibians and reptiles of the
West Indies: descriptions, distributions, and natural history. Gainesville:
University of Florida Press.
Sergile, F. E. . A la découverte des oiseaux d’Haïti. Port-au-Prince:
Société Audubon Haïti.
Smith, D. S., L. D. Miller, and J. Y. Miller. . The butterflies of the West
Indies and South Florida. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woods, C. A. . Biogeography of the West Indies: past, present and future.
Gainesville, FL: Sandhill Crane Press.
Woods, C. A., and F. E. Sergile. . Biogeography of the West Indies: pat-
terns and perspectives, nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
ANTILLES, GEOLOGY
RICHARD E. A. ROBERTSON
University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and
Tobago
Located at the eastern edge of the Caribbean plate where
it borders with the North and South America plates, the
Lesser Antilles is a region of high seismicity, tectonism,
and active volcanism that typifies oceanic-island arc vol-
canism. The island chain forms an -km arc that is
convex toward the Atlantic and extends from Sombrero
in the north to the southern island of Grenada. The arc
splits north of St. Lucia into two: an Eocene-to-Miocene
eastern arc and a Pliocene-to-Recent western arc. The
northeastern islands extending from Marie Galante to
Sombrero are characterized by Cenozoic limestones
and are called the Limestone Caribbees. The inner arc
extending from Grenada to Saba comprises the present
day volcanic front and is called the Volcanic Caribbees.
These have been mainly active from Eocene to mid-
Oligocene (Fig. ). The entire region is one of active
volcanism, which exhibits both explosive and effusive
activity and which currently poses a threat to vulnerable
island communities throughout the Eastern Caribbean.
STRUCTURE AND TECTONICS
The main structural components of the arc consist of the
Atlantic oceanic crust; a fore-arc upon which is built an
accretionary wedge (with the island of Barbados as the
exposed top); the island arc itself; and the Grenada basin
behind the arc. The dominant tectonic process is active
ANTILLES, GEOLOGY 29
4/13/09 3:00:12 PM
 o movement is debated. The suggested direction of rela-
62 W
Anguilla
18 N
o tive movement has included east–west, left-lateral strike
St. Martin St. Bartholomew
slip to northeast–southwest oblique convergence. Vari-
Barbuda
Saba ous estimates exist for the rate of convergence within the
St. Eustatius
St. Kitts region, depending on the period considered and the spe-
Antigua
Nevis
cific part of the arc examined. All estimates suggest that
Redonda
Montserrat the rate of convergence in the Lesser Antilles (from as low
as . cm per year to as high as  cm per year) is lower
Desirade
Guadeloupe than in most arc systems.
Marie o
Galante
16 N The Benioff zone has an average dip of ° and is
at - to -km depth beneath the active volcanic
Pleistocene
Dominica arc. The configuration of the Benioff zone beneath the
Pliocene Lesser Antilles has been established using the hypo-
Miocene central locations of earthquakes recorded from  to
Limestone
Guadeloupe . The arc is segmented: To the north of Martinique,
Eo-Oligocene
the Benioff zone dips at –° and trends about °.
o
St. Lucia 14 N In contrast, the southern segment trends at °, dips
at –° in the north, and is vertical in the south at
Grenada.
St. Vincent
Gravity anomalies occur as an arcuate pair associated
Mustique with the fore-arc (negative anomalies) and the arc mas-
Carriacou
Canouan sif (positive anomalies). The anomalies are due to either
Kick 'em Jenny the presence of dense igneous rocks (positive anomalies)
Grenada o
12 N
or the presence of thick, low-density sedimentary rocks
(negative anomalies). Crustal thickness beneath the arc
is about  km and has typical island arc and oceanic
FIGURE 1 Map of the Lesser Antilles island arc, showing the ages of
the exposed rocks and the positions of the volcanic front during the crustal seismic velocities. Seismic reflection data indicate
Eocene-Oligocene (red line), Pliocene (blue line), and Pleistocene that the arc crust consists of three layers: an upper layer of
(black line). The dashed line is the 200-m isobath (adapted from
sedimentary and volcanic rocks, a middle layer of inter-
Fig. 9.3 of Wadge 1994).
mediate plutonic rocks, and a lower layer of basic rocks.
Gravity anomalies supported by seismic refraction data
crustal subduction with underthrusting of the Carib- indicate significant differences between the northern and
bean plate, by the Atlantic Ocean crust of Cretaceous to southern segments of the arc.
Jurassic age along the axis of the arc (Fig. ). Subduction
rates are estimated to be .–. cm/year. Plate subduc- EVOLUTION AND STRATIGRAPHY
tion with volcanism commenced along the arc after cessa- The Caribbean plate was generated over the Galápagos
tion of similar activity along the Aves ridge to the west (at hotspot – million years ago and was inserted
about the time of the Oligocene). between the North American and South American plates
The island arc is bounded to the north and north- sometime between the Late Campanian and Late Eocene.
west by the Greater Antilles, which consists of deformed A subduction zone and associated volcanic arc developed
and metamorphosed sediments and volcanics of Jurassic at its leading edge, and volcanic activity, now represented
to Eocene age located to the northwest of the arc. The by the Aves ridge, extended from the Upper Turonian to
Puerto Rico trench separates the Greater Antilles from the Lower Palaeocene. The Lesser Antilles volcanic arc
the island arc. To the west, the island arc is bounded by developed in the area where the accretionary prism associ-
the Venezuela basin and Grenada trough, between which ated with the Aves ridge developed. The Aves ridge accre-
lies the north–south striking Aves ridge, the site of active tionary prism was separated from the active volcanic arc
subduction during the Upper Cretaceous. by the development of a back-arc basin, now represented
Investigations of regional tectonics have indicated by the Grenada trough, a -km-deep basin, which con-
that the Caribbean plate is moving eastward relative to tains a sedimentary pile estimated to vary from .– km
the American plate, although the velocity and sense of to – km thick.

30 ANTILLES, GEOLOGY

Gillespie08_A.indd 30 4/13/09 3:00:12 PM

 ST. VINCENT
WEST (Active Island Arc) EAST
AVES RIDGE
EXTINCT ISLAND ARC BARBADOS
SEA FLOOR
FAULTS DETACHMENT FAULT
SEA LEVEL
0 0
DEPTH IN KILOMETERS

SEDIMENT
VOLCANIC ROCKS BASEMENT

20 20
BASEMENT ACCRETIONARY
CARIBBEAN SEDIMENT PILE AT E
40 PLATE N PL 40
ICA
BASE OF CRUST ER
AM
60 H 60
UT
O

G
RISING S

N
TI
MAGMA VERTICAL EXAGGERATION 2:1

EL
80 80

M
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
DISTANCE IN KILOMETERS
FIGURE 2 Cross-section drawn through the Lesser Antilles at the latitude of St. Vincent, showing the subduction of the South American plate
underneath the Caribbean plate (after Westerbrook et al. 1984).

Basement rocks in the Lesser Antilles consist of
Cretaceous/Palaeocene island arc rocks that underlie
much of the arc from Guadeloupe northward, but much
of the evidence for pre-Cenozoic arc rocks is fragmentary
and difficult to correlate. Barbados has a unique position
in the arc as the top of the accretionary wedge of sedi-
ments scraped off the ocean floor during the subduction
process. The island is composed mostly of Pleistocene reef
limestones that have been rapidly uplifted, but there are
two groups of older accretionary rocks exposed on the
northeast coast.
The Limestone Caribbees, which extend from Anguilla
to Marie Galante, are composed of Cenozoic limestones
of varying ages (Eocene in St. Barthelemy; Oligocene
on Antigua; Miocene on Anguilla and St. Martin; and
Pliocene-Quaternary on Barbuda, Guadeloupe, and Marie
Galante). They are underlain by volcanic rocks that repre-
sent the older, eastern branch of the arc where volcanism
ceased millions of years before. Generally, the rocks exposed
on these islands increase in age as one moves northward
along this part of the island chain.
The Volcanic Caribbees, which extend from Grenada
to Saba, represent the areas where magma produced by
the subduction process reaches the surface. The old-
est exposed rocks date back to the Eocene and occur in
the islands from Martinique southward. The age of the
rocks in the islands north of Martinique extend only to
the Miocene, and in some cases to the Early Pliocene.
In the southernmost part of the arc, Grenada and the
Grenadines, sedimentary rocks of Middle Eocene to
Middle Miocene age, are abundant.
Evidence for the transition from the eastern Limestone
Caribbees front to the current Volcanic Caribbees is not
well preserved on the islands. Only in Martinique, where a
record of almost continuous migration of volcanic activity
from the tholeiitic products in the east (∼ million years
ago) to calc-alkaline rocks in the west (∼ million years
ago) exists, is the evidence well preserved. In fact, deter-
mination of stratigraphic relationships in the arc is fraught
with problems given the abundance of volcanic deposits
and the essentially point-source evidence for arc evolu-
tion provided by the islands.
GEOCHEMISTRY
The Lesser Antilles arc consists of three geochemically and
structurally distinct zones. The northern segment, from Saba
to Montserrat, contains andesites and minor dacites and
belongs to the island-arc tholeiitic magma suite. The islands
of this group have low volumes of basalts and rare rhyolites
(St. Kitts and St. Eustatius). The central group (Guadeloupe
to St. Lucia) contains the most prolific volcanoes in the
Quaternary and has total erupted volumes among the larg-
est in the Lesser Antilles. The predominant rock type is
again andesites, with some basalts and dacites and rare rhy-
olites, but the magmas belong to the calc-alkaline magma
suite. The southern group extends from St. Vincent to
Grenada and consists of predominantly basalts and basaltic
andesites with rare andesites. This group includes an alkalic
suite of magmas associated with highly undersaturated lavas
enriched in incompatible and transition elements.
In addition to major rock types outlined above, three
types of plutonic nodules have been found among the
strata exposed in the Lesser Antilles. Cognate inclusions are
phenocryst clusters and fine-grained-to-porphyritic crystal
clots of differing textures to the host magma. Metamorphic
xenoliths are cordierite-bearing hornfels and metasedi-
ments with relict bedding and cross-stratification. Rare
samples of these xenoliths have been found at the Soufrière
volcano. Finally, there are plutonic cumulate inclusions
and nodules.

ANTILLES, GEOLOGY 31

Gillespie08_A.indd 31 4/13/09 3:00:12 PM

 Cumulate-textured blocks are a common occurrence
in most islands of the Lesser Antilles. The blocks vary in
size from  cm to several tens of centimeters and are par-
ticularly abundant in some areas (e.g., the Soufrière of
St. Vincent). The rocks exhibit a wide variety of textures
and mineralogies with plagioclase and amphibole being
dominant in most islands.
SEISMICITY
The Eastern Caribbean is significantly seismically active
(Fig. ). Tectonic earthquakes associated with the subduc-
tion process and volcanic earthquakes associated with the
rise of magma are the two types of earthquakes experi-
enced in the region. As noted previously, the hypocenters
of the tectonic earthquakes define the shape of the sub-
ducting plate or the Wadati-Benioff zone. Energy release
from major historical earthquakes indicates a slip rate of
– mm/year, significantly less than the  mm/year pre-
dicted from global plate tectonic models.
The relatively slow plate convergence rate of  cm
per year contributes to long intervals between the largest
earthquakes generated by the system. These earthquakes
occur in the rigid crustal material on either side of the colli-
FIGURE 3 Eastern Caribbean earthquakes for the period July 1, 2004,
to July 31, 2006. (From Fig. 3 of Seismic Research Centre, 2007).
32 ANTILLES, GEOLOGY
Gillespie08_A.indd 32
sion boundary and within the descending slab. In the sub-
duction zone environment, earthquakes within the crust are
described as shallow, and those occurring in the descending
slab are described as occurring at intermediate depth or as
being deep.
Annually, there are over  earthquakes recorded by
the seismograph networks in the Eastern Caribbean with
epicenters located in the Lesser Antilles island arc. The
general pattern observed during the more than  years
that continuous monitoring has been taking place is
a broad zone of shallow seismicity with better defined,
overlapping bands of intermediate depth and deeper seis-
micity. In general, the deepest events occur to the west
of the arc. Earthquake activity in the Eastern Caribbean
is not distributed uniformly throughout the region, and
some areas exhibit more intense activity than others do.
The zones near Antigua, north of the Paria Peninsula and
Gulf of Paria, are the areas where higher levels of seismic-
ity are manifested. The lowest level of seismicity is seen in
the area from Grenada to St. Lucia. That pattern has been
attributed to a smoothly descending slab or to the accu-
mulation of strain energy, which is yet to reach its limit.
The area around Barbados also displays a relatively low
level of seismic output, which is considered consistent
with its location away from active subduction.
VOLCANISM
Volcanism in the Lesser Antilles dates back as far as the
Eocene, and its general nature appears to have remained
unchanged throughout. Volcanic centers exhibit a wide
range of isotopic and chemical compositions, which
reflect the variety and nature of sources and evolutionary
processes that led to their genesis. Westward translation
of the volcanic arc occurred in the northern islands dur-
ing the Miocene, but in the south, new volcanic centers
formed adjacent to the older ones. Although the nature
of volcanism has remained unchanged with time, there
has been migration of the center of activity within islands.
There are at least three examples of progressive intra-island
migration of volcanism during the Plio-Pliestocene period
in the Lesser Antilles: St. Kitts (northward), Guadeloupe
(southward), and St. Vincent (northward). In each case,
migration (at rates of  to  km/million years), may rep-
resent the movement of a single magma source or plume
trace along the active front, creating lines of volcanoes
with linearly decreasing age.
The largest volcanoes occur in the central part of the
arc extending from St. Vincent to Guadeloupe. These
have created large islands from overlapping volcanic
deposits produced by repeated eruptions of volcanic cen-
4/13/09 3:00:13 PM
 ters. Large, mature, and complex stratovolcanic centers
have been created on these islands usually with a central
core of lava domes surrounded by primary and reworked
pyroclastic deposits. Determination of stratigraphic rela-
tionships is often difficult and has relied in the past heav-
ily on the incidence of dateable charcoal created by the
carbonization of wood during pyroclastic flows.
The islands from Montserrat to Saba in the northern
segment of the arc are smaller and are comprised of lower-
altitude volcanoes that appear incapable of producing
the size of eruptions preserved in the rock record in the
central islands. One effect of the smaller size of volcanic
mountains is the greater interaction with the sea. As such,
on St. Kitts and St. Eustatius there are raised limestone
platforms created by the uplifting of shallow, submarine
shelves during the emplacement of cryptodomes.

VOLCANIC HAZARDS
Pleistocene-to-Recent volcanoes (occurring less than  million
years ago) occurs in narrow zones (less than  km wide),
which appear to define three segments: Saba to Montser-
rat, Guadeloupe to Martinique, and St. Lucia to Grenada.
Active volcanism has been characterized both by effusive
eruptions producing lava flows and domes and by explo-
sive eruptions producing various types of pyroclastic depos-
its. The total volumetric volcanic production over the past
. million years is symmetrical about Dominica, which
has produced ∼ km of volcanic deposits. This compares
with  km for Guadeloupe and Martinique and – km for
the islands located to the north and south of these central FIGURE 4 The Lesser Antilles region showing the location of the 21
islands. The mean spacing between active volcanoes during volcanic centers considered active or potentially active. The islands

the past . million years is in the range of  to  km.
The Lesser Antilles contain  live volcanoes distrib-
uted among  volcanically active islands (Fig. ). There
have been at least  eruptions of Lesser Antilles volcanoes
(Table ) during the “historic period” (the past  years),
and currently about  million people live within the areas
that can be affected by the direct impacts of eruptions
in the future. Volcanic eruptions have killed over ,
people in the past, and volcanic hazards are some of the
main geologic hazards that threaten the Eastern Carib-
bean region. All of the islands of the Volcanic Caribbees
have at least one volcano that may erupt in the future.
Twenty-one of the historic eruptions have occurred
since : nine on land from volcanoes on Guadeloupe,
Martinique, St. Vincent, Montserrat, and Dominica, and 
from the submarine volcano Kick ’em Jenny, ∼ km north
of Grenada. These eruptions have all shown a wide variety of
eruptive style, magnitude, and impact on the local popula-
tion. Several eruptions have been phreatic in nature, involv-
that make up the Volcanic Caribbees are shown in brown and those of
the Limestone Caribbees in yellow.
ing the interaction of groundwater with rising magma. One
of these was a minor phreatic eruption in Dominica in 
that went largely unnoticed; two were much more serious
phreatic eruptions in Guadeloupe in  and –.
The – magmatic eruption of Montagne
Pelée on Martinique was characterized by both effusive
dome formation and explosive dome collapse, and led
to the total destruction of the town of St. Pierre and
the deaths of approximately , people. A similar
eruption occurred from Montagne Pelée several years
later, between  and , this time with no reported
casualties.
Explosive magmatic eruptions have included the 
eruption from the Soufrière in St. Vincent that resulted
in the deaths of at least  people. In contrast, the –
 eruption of this volcano was an effusive magmatic

ANTILLES, GEOLOGY 33

Gillespie08_A.indd 33 4/13/09 3:00:14 PM

 TABLE 1
Historical Volcanic Eruptions of the Lesser Antilles

Country Volcano Date Type of Eruption

Saba Mt. Scenery ∼1670 (280 ± 80 years BP) a

Explosive
Montserrat Soufrière Hills 1667 ± 40 (285 years BP; n =10) b
Dome-forming
Soufrière Hills 1995–present Dome-forming
Guadeloupe La Soufrière 1690 Phreatic
La Soufrière 1797–1798 Phreatic
La Soufrière 1812 Phreatic
La Soufrière 1836–1837 Phreatic
La Soufrière 1956 Phreatic
La Soufrière 1976–1977 Phreatic
Dominica Valley of Desolation 1880 Phreatic
Valley of Desolation 1997 Phreatic
Martinique Montagne Pelée 1792 Phreatic
Montagne Pelée 1851–1852 Phreatic
Montagne Pelée 1902–1905 Explosive and dome-forming
Montagne Pelée 1929–1932 Explosive and dome-forming
St. Lucia Soufrière Volcanic Center 1766 Series of phreatic eruptions
St. Vincent The Soufrière 1718 Explosive magmatic
The Soufrière 1780 Dome-forming
The Soufrière 1812–1814 Explosive magmatic
The Soufrière 1902–1903 Explosive magmatic
The Soufrière 1971–1972 Dome-forming
The Soufrière 1979 Phreatomagmatic and
dome-forming
Grenada Kick ’em Jenny July 24, 1939 Phreatomagmatic
Kick ’em Jenny October 5–6, 1943 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny October 30, 1953 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny October 24, 1965 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny May 5–7, 1966 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny August 3–6, 1966 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny July 5, 1972 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny September 6, 1974 Phreatomagmatic
Kick ’em Jenny January 14, 1977 Submarine, dome-forming
Kick ’em Jenny December 29–30, 1988 Phreatomagmatic,
dome-collapsing
Kick ’em Jenny March 26–April 5, 1990 Submarine
Kick ’em Jenny December 4–6, 2001 Submarine

note: From Lindsay et al. 2005.

a
There are no written accounts of this eruption, but radiocarbon dates place it well within the historical period for the region.
b
There are no written accounts of this eruption, but radiocarbon dates place it well within the historical period for the region.

eruption that resulted in the formation of a lava dome
confined within the summit crater. The  eruption
of the Soufrière was again explosive but was followed
by dome growth, and although there was some property
damage, no lives were lost.
The  submarine eruptions from Kick ’em Jenny are
believed to have been dominantly explosive, although in
at least one case a lava dome was extruded. The Soufrière
Hills volcano on Montserrat has been in active eruption
since  and has had a major impact on the island’s
population. The eruption is characterized by periods of
dome growth interspersed with dome collapse and minor
explosions. The Soufrière Hills volcano is the only vol-
cano currently erupting in the Eastern Caribbean.
VOLCANO MONITORING
IN THE LESSER ANTILLES
The responsibility for monitoring volcanic and seismic
activity in the Lesser Antilles is divided between three
main organizations. The Seismic Research Centre, which
is part of the University of the West Indies (UWI), is
based in St. Augustine, Trinidad, and is responsible for
monitoring activity in the independent Commonwealth
countries of the Lesser Antilles, namely St. Kitts and

34 ANTILLES, GEOLOGY

Gillespie08_A.indd 34 4/13/09 3:00:16 PM

 Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grena-
dines, and Grenada. The Institut de Physique du Globe
de Paris (IPGP) monitors volcanic activity in Martinique
and Guadeloupe, and the Montserrat Volcano Observa-
tory (MVO) operates a monitoring network in Mont-
serrat. In all of the islands of the Lesser Antilles, these
agencies work closely with the civil authorities (typically
known locally as national disaster preparedness organiza-
tions), which represent the respective local governments.
The mainstay of all volcanic monitoring in the Lesser
Antilles is the seismograph network. The Seismic Research
Centre of UWI maintains  seismic stations in the
volcanic islands for which they are responsible; these are
located near the  live volcanoes spread across these coun-
tries. The IPGP maintains eight stations in Guadeloupe
and eight in Martinique to monitor La Soufrière and
Montagne Pelée, respectively. The seismograph network on
Montserrat comprises  stations, eight maintained by the
MVO and three by the Seismic Research Centre. All these
stations form part of the regional seismograph network,
which includes a further  UWI stations on the surround-
ing non-volcanic islands (Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados,
Antigua, Barbuda, St. Martin); nine stations in northeast
Venezuela maintained by the Universidad de Oriente,
Cumana, Venezuela; and the Fundacion Venezolana de
Investigaciones Sismologicas and several French stations in
eastern Guadeloupe and southern Martinique.
In addition to seismic monitoring, programs of volcanic
gas surveillance and ground deformation monitoring are also
maintained in the volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles.
SEE ALSO THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES
Antilles, Biology / Earthquakes / Island Arcs / Kick ’em Jenny /
Lava and Ash
FURTHER READING
Biju-Duval, B., and J. C. Moore. . Initial report of the Deep Sea Drill-
ing Project. A. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
Briden, J. C., D. C. Rex, A. M. Faller, and J. F. Tomblin. . K-Ar geo-
chronology and palaeomagnetism of volcanic rocks in the Lesser Antil-
les island arc. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
A: –.
Brown, G. M., J. G. Holland, H. Sigurdsson, and J. F. Tomblin. .
Geochemistry of the Lesser Antilles volcanic island arc. Geochimica et
Cosmochimica Acta : –.
Fox, P. J., and B. C. Heezen. . Geology of the Caribbean crust. The
Ocean Basins and Margins series, volume . A. E. M. Nair and F. G.
Stehli, eds. New York: Plenum.
Lindsay, J. M., R. E. A. Robertson, J. B. Shepherd, and S. Ali, eds. .
Volcanic hazard atlas of the Lesser Antilles. Trinidad and Tobago: Seismic
Research Unit,University of the West Indies.
Macdonald, R., C. J. Hawkesworth, and E. Heath. . The Lesser
Antilles volcanic chain: a study in arc magmatism. Earth-Science
Reviews : –.
Gillespie08_A.indd 35
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Pindell, J. L., and S. F. Barrett. . Geological evolution of the Caribbean
region: a plate tectonic perspective, in The geology of North America,
Vol. H, The Caribbean region. G. Dengo and J. E. Case, eds. Boulder,
CO: Geological Society of America, –.
Speed, R. C., and G. K. Westbrook. . Lesser Antilles and adjacent ter-
ranes, Atlas 10, Ocean Margin Drilling Program regional atlas series 28.
Woods Hole, MA: Marine Science International.
Wadge, G. . The Lesser Antilles, in Caribbean geology: an introduc-
tion. S. K. Donovan and T. A. Jackson, eds. Kingston, Jamaica: UWI
Publishers Association.
Westerbrook, G. K., A. Mauffret, A. Munschy, R. Jackson, B. Biju-
Dival, A. Mascle, and J. W. Ladd. . Thickness of sediments
above acoustic basement, in Lesser Antilles arc and adjacent terranes,
Atlas 10, Ocean Margin Drilling Program regional atlas series. R. C.
Speed and G. K. Westbrook, eds. Woods Hole, MA: Marine Science
International.
ANTS
BRIAN L. FISHER
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
The rise of ants to ecological dominance has been called
one of the great epics in evolution. The same features
associated with their ecological success also make them
destructive invaders. Islands provide an exceptional model
for studying ant dispersal, extinction, and radiation. Ants
often reach oceanic islands via accidental “sweepstake
routes,” leading to a unique cluster of ant species on differ-
ent islands. The chance dispersal to islands results in high
species turnover between islands and within islands over
time. The composition of the ant fauna on any particular
island can therefore reflect the age, size, and relative isola-
tion of the island. At the same time, the limited land area
and biodiversity of islands also increase their vulnerabil-
ity to incursions by invasive ant species. Increased habi-
tat fragmentation and the accelerated pace of ant species
introductions put endemic island ecosystems at increased
risk for invasional meltdown.
ISLAND ANTS
Ants are the glue that holds ecosystems together. These
social insects dominate almost every terrestrial habitat
throughout the world, in terms of both sheer numbers
and ecological interactions. This dominance is particu-
larly remarkable because ants constitute only about % of
all described insect species. Understanding the processes
driving the phenomenal success of ants is an active area of
research. Current techniques involve the careful analysis
ANTS 35
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