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6
Kerr, A. C., R. V. White, P. M. E. Thompson, J. Tarney, and A. D. Saunders,
2003, No oceanic plateau — no Caribbean plate? The seminal role of
an oceanic plateau in Caribbean plate evolution, in C. Bartolini, R. T.
Buffler, and J. Blickwede, eds., The Circum-Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean: Hydrocarbon habitats, basin formation, and plate tectonics:
AAPG Memoir 79, p. 126 – 168.

No Oceanic Plateau— No
Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role
of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean
Plate Evolution
Andrew C. Kerr
Cardiff University, Wales, UK

Rosalind V. White
University of Leicester, England, UK

Patricia M. E. Thompson
University of Leicester, England, UK

John Tarney
University of Leicester, England, UK

Andrew D. Saunders
University of Leicester, England, UK

ABSTRACT

O
ceanic plateaus are areas of elevated and anomalously thick oceanic crust
that are believed to form by enhanced partial melting in a mantle plume
that is hotter than ambient upper asthenosphere. They are regarded as
the oceanic equivalent of continental flood-basalt provinces. Because of the con-
tinual subduction of oceanic crust, the oldest known oceanic plateaus occurring in
situ are Cretaceous in age. In order for oceanic plateaus to be preserved in the
geologic record, they must be accreted onto continental margins. This process,
involving their preservation as tectonic slices, depends on the fact that oceanic
plateaus are more buoyant than normal ocean floor; thus, they are not easily
subducted. If these plateaus encounter an oceanic arc, subduction polarity re-
versal may occur, and/or the locus of subduction may step back behind the
trailing edge of the advancing plateau. At a continental subduction zone, only
subduction back-step occurs.
Geochemical evidence shows that basaltic and picritic rocks exposed in the
thickened part of the Caribbean plate and around its margins (including north-
ern South America) are parts of an accreted oceanic plateau that originated in the
Pacific Ocean during the middle-to-late Cretaceous. Cretaceous subduction-related

126
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 127

rocks also occur around the Caribbean margins and possess geochemical signa-
tures (e.g., lower Nb and Ti) that are distinct from those of the oceanic plateau
rocks. This arc material represents the remnants of the subduction-generated
rocks with which the plateau collided at 80–90 Ma. Both island arc tholeiite and
calc-alkaline magmatism occurred in these Cretaceous arcs, but the changeover
between the two types appears to be gradual and cannot be used to determine the
timing of subduction polarity reversal. Many Cretaceous tonalitic batholiths
around the Caribbean margins appear to have formed during or shortly after ac-
cretion of the plateau rocks. In addition to the arc and oceanic plateau assem-
blages, Jurassic to Early Cretaceous fragments of the preexisting oceanic crust also
occur around the region.
The environmental impact of oceanic plateau volcanism around the
Cenomanian-Turonian boundary and its link to the formation of organic-rich
black shales is discussed in this paper.

INTRODUCTION
Oceanic plateaus (oceanic flood basalts) appear to
have played a fundamental role in crustal evolution
and plate tectonics (Condie and Abbott, 1999; White
et al., 1999; Kerr et al., 2000; Albarede, 1998). In this
paper, we explain how oceanic plateaus form and why
they are preserved as large tectonic slices in the geo-
logic record. We also show how these plateaus can be
identified, both geologically and geochemically. We
use this information to demonstrate that most of the
Caribbean plate is composed of an oceanic plateau,
and that its margins consist largely of accreted oce-
anic plateau(s), subduction-related lavas, and intrusive
rocks, along with ‘‘normal’’ oceanic crust. Finally, we
briefly explore the implications of oceanic-plateau for-
mation for plate-tectonic models of the Caribbean,
Central America, and the Northern Andes and the
nature of the link between oceanic-plateau formation
and black shales.
OCEANIC PLATEAUS
What (and Where) Are They and
How Do They Form?
Oceanic plateaus are areas of oceanic crust that are
considerably thicker than normal oceanic crust formed
at spreading centers (Eldholm and Coffin, 2000). Typi-
cally, oceanic crust (comprising lavas, intrusive, and
minor sedimentary rocks) generated at a spreading
center has an average thickness of
7 km, whereas
oceanic plateaus are commonly thicker than 10 km
and locally thicker than 30 km (e.g., the Ontong Java
Plateau; Gladczenko et al., 1997). Most oceanic pla-
teaus found in present-day ocean basins are of Cre-
taceous age. The main plateaus of the Pacific Ocean
are the Ontong Java Plateau, Hess Rise, Shatsky Rise,
Manihiki Plateau, and the Mid-Pacific Mountains (Ma-
honey et al., 1993; Pringle and Dalrymple, 1993; Neal
et al., 1997). Other examples include the Kerguelen
Plateau, the Naturaliste Plateau, and Broken Ridge in
the Indian Ocean (Mahoney et al., 1995; Frey et al.,
2000; Weis et al., 2001) and the Caribbean-Colombian
oceanic plateau (CCOP) (Donnelly et al., 1990; Kerr
et al., 1996c; 1997b; Sinton et al., 1998; Hauff et al.,
2000a).
To produce oceanic crustal thicknesses in excess
of 10 km implies mantle potential temperatures (Tp)
that are >1008C hotter than ambient upper mantle
(Tp
12808C; McKenzie and Bickle, 1988). Raising the
temperature increases the extent of melting in the
mantle and so produces a greater melt (crustal) thick-
ness. Higher mantle temperatures, and consequently
higher degrees of melting, result in the formation
of melts with higher MgO contents than at normal
spreading centers. These elevated mantle Tp are as-
cribed to mantle plumes, which ascend from a ther-
mal discontinuity in the deep mantle (Campbell and
Griffiths, 1990) and can be as much as 200 –3008C
hotter than ambient upper mantle. These buoyant
plumes rise through the asthenosphere, and as they
do so, modeling suggests that they develop a large
spherical ‘‘head,’’ several hundred kilometers across,
and fed by a narrow ‘‘tail’’ extending back to the
source region (Campbell and Griffiths, 1990). As the
plume head reaches the base of the rigid, noncon-
vecting lithosphere, it flattens out and undergoes de-
compression melting. These melts generally erupt rap-
idly (1–2 m.y.) over an area with a diameter of about
1000 km to form continental or oceanic flood-basalt
provinces, depending on the type of lithosphere
through which they erupt. Collectively, continental

128 / Kerr et al.
flood-basalt provinces and oceanic plateaus have be-
come known as large igneous provinces, or LIPs (Eld-
holm and Coffin, 2000).
Preservation of Oceanic Plateaus
In contrast to oceanic plateaus, which have been
recognized only in the last 25 years, continental flood-
basalt provinces have been recognized for a consider-
able time. One of the main reasons for this (as well as
the fact that the best-preserved plateaus are deep in the
present ocean basins) is the relative preservation po-
tential of the two types. Although continental flood-
basalt provinces can be eroded away, the feeders and
magma chambers through which the magmas pass en
route to the surface (dykes, sills, and other intrusive
complexes) are often preserved, even in Archean age
continental crust. Oceanic crust, however, is gradu-
ally removed by subduction, with the net result that
the oldest crust in the ocean basins is Jurassic in age,
ca. 180 Ma (Floyd and Castillo, 1992). Therefore, in
order to study pre-Jurassic oceanic plateaus, it is neces-
sary to find ways to identify their preserved fragments
in the geologic record.
Unlike oceanic crust of normal thickness, oceanic
plateaus are not readily subductable, and therein lays
the key to their preservation. As first proposed by
Kroenke (1974) and later discussed by Burke et al.
(1978), Ben-Avraham et al. (1981), Nur and Ben-
Avraham (1982), Cloos (1993), and Saunders et al.
(1996), this is due to the buoyancy of oceanic pla-
teaus. This buoyancy is attributable to the greater
crustal thickness of oceanic plateaus and, when the
plateaus are younger than 20 –30 m.y., residual heat
from their formation. Additional buoyancy is con-
tributed by large amounts of harzburgite (residual
from the partial melting of lherzolite) in the mantle
below the plateau — harzburgite is less dense than
lherzolite. Thus, when these oceanic plateaus (partic-
ularly young plateaus), encounter a subduction zone,
they may, because of their buoyancy, resist complete
subduction. In such circumstances, slices of the pla-
teau will be accreted to the continental margin or
onto the overriding plate in an intraoceanic subduc-
tion zone. Depending on whether the subduction
zone is an ocean or continental, several different sce-
narios are possible:
a. When a buoyant plateau attempts to subduct
beneath an island arc, the advancing plateau is
tectonically emplaced against the island arc.
Continued plate movements may result in the
initiation of a new island arc with a subduction
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zone dipping the opposite way, i.e., a reversal in
the polarity of subduction. It has been proposed
that this happened
25 m.y. ago, when the Cre-
taceous Ontong Java Plateau, which had been
moving westward on the Pacific plate, collided
with the Solomon Islands arc, thus resulting in a
cessation of the westward-dipping subduction
zone (Babbs, 1997; Neal et al., 1997; Petterson
et al., 1999). Further plate movements resulted
in the initiation of the current eastward-dipping
subduction zone below the Solomon Islands. Al-
ternatively, if a subduction polarity reversal does
not occur, possibly because the plateau is rela-
tively thin or the crust of the back-arc basin is
anomalously thick, the plateau may clog the
subduction zone and the subduction zone will
‘‘back-step’’ behind the plateau.
b. When an oceanic plateau collides with an
Andean-type subduction zone, subduction po-
larity reversal is impossible because of the low
density of continental crust, and thus the pla-
teau is accreted onto the continental margin. A
new subduction zone (with the same polarity) is
initiated at the trailing edge of the plateau. The
latter situation is believed to have occurred along
the northern Andean (Colombia and Ecuador)
margin in the Late Cretaceous, resulting in the
uplift and exposure of deep sections of accreted
oceanic plateau crust (Millward et al., 1984; Kerr
et al., 1997a; Lapierre et al., 2000).
Identification of Oceanic Plateaus
The accreted igneous oceanic rocks of the conti-
nental margins may be derived from a wide range of
tectonic settings: subduction zones and marginal ba-
sins, oceanic islands, igneous rocks formed during
continental rifting, mid-ocean ridge basalts, and oce-
anic plateaus— all in addition to the intraplate vol-
canism of the continents themselves.
Recognizing accreted oceanic plateaus (Kerr et al.,
2000) requires the use of detailed geochemical and
field observations, and these are briefly outlined be-
low. Oceanic plateaus are characterized by the occur-
rence of basalts and high MgO (>14 wt.%) pillow
lavas and massive flows. Volumetrically minor tephra
layers and deposits from subaerial eruptions, along
with occasional intercalated pelagic sediments, also
have been recognized (Table 1). Additionally, the oc-
currence of abundant sills and intrusive sheets can
indicate the existence of an oceanic plateau. Several
trace-element parameters have proved useful in
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 129

occasionally
Subaerial
eruption
identifying oceanic plateaus, particularly in distin-

frequently

frequently
common
guishing them from arc rocks. The first of these pa-

always
rameters is the La/Nb ratio (normalized to estimated

no
no
primitive-mantle compositions: Sun and McDonough,
1989 [Lapmn/Nbpmn). Arc rocks generally possess
Tephra Mafic Intercalated

sediments

Lapmn/Nbpmn J1 whereas oceanic plateaus have

pelagic

rare
Lapmn/Nbpmn 1 (Figure 1a). Another useful param-
yes
no
no
no

no

no
Table 1. Diagnostic geochemical and geological characteristics of volcanic sequences from different tectonic settings.

eter is the rare-earth-element (REE) pattern (normal-

ized to abundances in chondritic meteorites: Sun and
McDonough, 1989). These patterns are presented in
sills

rare
rare

rare
yes

yes

yes
Figure 1b for the Ontong Java Plateau and various arc
no

rocks; it can be seen that the plateau possesses rel-

atively flat REE patterns, whereas the arc lavas are
layers

rare
rare

rare

rare

rare more enriched in the lighter REE. Additionally, radio-

yes

yes

genic isotope signatures (particularly >Nd) of the oce-

anic plateaus generally span quite a narrow range (>Nd
are pillowed

are pillowed
not all lavas

not all lavas

+6 to +8), although, as noted below, some lavas have

Pillow
lavas

suffered more long-term enrichment or depletion than

this. Plateaus can be distinguished from normal mid-
yes
yes
yes
yes

no

ocean ridge basalts (N)-MORB because the latter gen-

erally possesses LREE-depleted chondrite-normalized
Chondrite-normalized

patterns (Figure 1a) and higher (La/Nb)pmn ratios (Fig-

Flat to LREE enriched

Flat to LREE enriched

rare-earth-element

predominantly flat

predominantly flat

ure 1b). As Table 1 demonstrates, individual fea-

LREE enriched

tures cannot positively identify an oceanic plateau,

pattern

predominantly

LREE enriched
LREE depleted

although when taken together, they do provide a

good set of discriminants for the identification of
oceanic plateaus.
Basalts erupted in marginal basins are potentially
more difficult to distinguish from oceanic plateaus.
They often possess flat REE patterns and are com-
with V1 and J1

mostly J1 <10%

monly found as pillow lavas (Saunders and Tarney,

(La/Nb)pmn

contains rocks

1984). However, as indicated by Table 1, we can em-

of flows V1
J1
V1
V1
V1
V1

ploy other geologic features to distinguish oceanic

plateaus from marginal basins. First, the proximity
of marginal basins to an explosively erupting island
or continental arc means that tephra layers poten-
High-MgO

tially will be much more common in marginal basin

(>14% )
lavas

volcanics. Furthermore, these tephra layers will pos-

rare

rare

rare
yes

yes

yes
no

sess the geochemical signature of arc-related rocks

(Lapmn/Nbpmn J 1). Secondly, the lower temperature
of the mantle below a marginal basin (Tp = 12808C) in
Arc (continental and oceanic)

comparison to plume mantle (Tp >14008C) means

pmn = primitive mantle-normalized.

that the eruption of high-MgO lavas is uncommon

Oceanic spreading center

Continental flood basalt

in marginal basins.
Tectonic setting

Oceanic island basalt

Continental-oceanic

cn = chondrite-normalized.

CHARACTERISTICS OF JURASSIC-CRETACEOUS
margin plateau
Oceanic plateau

Marginal basin

IGNEOUS ROCKS OF THE CARIBBEAN REGION

AND THE NORTHERN ANDES

In this section, we focus on the geology and geo-

chemistry of the various types of Jurassic-Cretaceous
igneous rocks in the Caribbean region. Four main

130 / Kerr et al.
Figure 1. Diagram to illustrate the differences between
subduction-related rocks and oceanic plateaus: (a) frequency-
REE plot showing the range of (La/Nb)pmn for recent arc lavas
from Colombia and the Caribbean: Marriner and Millward
(1984) and Thirlwall et al. (1996); the CCOP and OJP:
Mahoney et al. (1993), Kerr et al. (1996a, b, 1997a); the
Kerguelen plateau: Storey et al. (1992); East Pacific Rise
(EPR) mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB): Mahoney et al.
(1994) and Niu et al. (1996). (b) Chondrite-normalized
(Sun and McDonough, 1989) extended REE plot. Data
sources as in (a).
types are found: (1) oceanic plateau; (2) pre-plateau
‘‘normal’’ oceanic crust; (3) arc-derived volcanic rocks;
and (4) arc-related silicic plutons. This review builds
upon the previous reviews of igneous rocks from the
Caribbean and Northern Andes by Donnelly and Ro-
gers (1978), Beets et al. (1984), Donnelly et al. (1990)
and Kerr et al. (1996c, 1997b) and incorporates sig-
nificant post-1996 work on the region.
Oceanic Plateau Rocks
Seismic refraction (Edgar et al., 1971) and reflec-
tion (Mauffret and Leroy, 1997) studies, along with
gravity data (Case et al., 1990), reveal the anoma-
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lously thickened nature of a significant part of the
oceanic crust of the Caribbean plate. These studies
have shown that the thickness of the plate varies be-
tween 8 and >20 km (normal oceanic crust is 6–7 km
thick). Although Caribbean plate tectonic models dif-
fer in detail, most agree that the Caribbean plate
moved into its present position from the Pacific, and
that eastward movement commenced in the Late Cre-
taceous (Burke et al., 1984; Duncan and Hargraves,
1984; Pindell and Barrett, 1990; Kerr et al., 1999). This
eastward movement resulted in the uplift and preser-
vation of thick sections of the Caribbean plate at the
margins of the Caribbean and in the Northern Andes.
Although many studies have reported K-Ar ages
for the basalts and picrites of the CCOP, the highly
altered and/or metamorphosed nature of the oceanic-
plateau fragments means that these ages are of lim-
ited value. In recent years, dating using modern
40
Ar-39Ar step-heating techniques has been success-
fully carried out on some CCOP rocks (summarized
in Table 2; see Figure 2 for locations). Where Ar-Ar
dates are available, these are quoted in preference to
paleontologic ages, because in some cases, the tec-
tonic juxtaposition of the sedimentary and igneous
rocks means that ages of sediments cannot be applied
reliably to basalts with which they are in faulted con-
tact. The timescale used throughout the paper is that
of Harland et al. (1990). Table 2 shows that many of
the ages cluster around 92 –88 Ma, and a major phase
of volcanism undoubtedly occurred at that time.
Another minor phase of volcanism appears to have
occurred at 76 – 72 Ma, but its true extent needs to be
determined.
DSDP Leg 15 and ODP Leg 165
The thickened crust of the Caribbean Sea was
drilled by DSDP (Deep Sea Drilling Program) Leg 15
at Sites 146, 150, 151, 152, and 153 (Figure 2). From
the results of this drilling (Donnelly, 1973; Donnelly
et al., 1973), in conjunction with seismic refraction
studies (Edgar et al., 1971), it was proposed that a
large ‘‘flood basalt event’’ had occurred in the Carib-
bean region in the Late Cretaceous. This is also sup-
ported by the abundance of sills and the presence of
pelagic intercalated sediments. In recent years, fol-
lowing detailed research on outcropping Caribbean
oceanic plateau rocks, the samples from DSDP Leg
15 have been chemically reanalyzed using modern
techniques (Sinton et al., 1998; Hauff et al., 2000a;
Kerr et al., 2002a). Additionally, ODP Leg 165 pene-
trated the Caribbean basement at Site 1001 (Sigurds-
son et al., 1997; Sinton et al., 2000).
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 131

Table 2. Summary of radiometric (mostly Ar-Ar) and biostratigraphic ages on oceanic plateau rocks
from the Caribbean and Northern South America.

Location Age range (Ma) References

DSDP Leg 15 Site 146 90.6 – 92.1 Sinton et al. (1998)

DSDP Leg 15 Site 150 94.3 Sinton et al. (1998)
ODP Leg 165 Site 1001 80.8 – 81.3 Sinton et al. (2000)
Curaçao Lava Formation 88.0 – 89.5 and 75.8 Sinton et al. (1998)
85.6 ± 8.1 (Re-Os) Walker et al. (1999)
Aruba Lava Formation Turonian (90.5 – 88.5) Beets et al. (1984); White
et al. (1999)
Dumisseau Formation, Haiti 88.7 – 92.0 Sinton et al. (1998)
Duarte Complex, Dominican Republic 86.1 and 86.7 Lapierre et al. (1999a)
Siete Cabezas Formation, 68.5 and 69.0 Sinton et al. (1998)
Dominican Republic
Tiara Formation, Villa de Cura, Venezuela Albian (97 – 112) Beck et al. (1984)
Tobago Dykes 105 – 103 and 91 Snoke et al. (1990)
Sans Souci Formation, Trinidad No reliable ages -
Bath-Dunrobin Formation, Jamaica Campanian (83 – 74) Wadge et al. (1982)
Nicoya Complex, Costa Rica 94.7 – 87.5* and 83.0# Sinton et al.(1997); Hauff
et al. (2000b)
Tortugal Complex, Costa Rica 89.7 Alvarado et al. (1997)
Herradura Complex, Costa Rica 86.0 – 83.4 Sinton et al.(1997); Hauff
et al. (2000b)
Quepos Complex 59 and 63.9 Hauff et al. (2000b); Sinton
et al. (1997)
Osa Complex 62.1 Hauff et al. (2000b)
Golfito and Burica Complexes Maastrichtian (74 – 68) Di Marco (1994)
El Tambor Group, Guatemala Older than Cenomanian > 97 Donnelly et al. (1990)
Azuero Complex, Panama < 58 F. Hauff, personal
communication, 2001
Sona Complex, Panama 74.6 F. Hauff, personal
communication, 2001
Margot and Encrucijada Formations, Cuba Aptian-Cenomanian (124 – 90) see Kerr et al (1999)
Central Cordillera, Colombia 82.6 and 84.7 Kerr et al. (2002b)
Western Cordillera, Colombia 91.7 and 76.3 Kerr et al. (1997a); Sinton
et al. (1998)
Serranı́a de Baudó, Colombia 77.9 – 72.5 Kerr et al. (1997a)
Gorgona Island, Colombia 88.3 – 86.7 Sinton et al. (1998)
88.1 ± 3.8 / 89.2 ± 5.2 (Re-Os) Walker et al. (1991; 1999)
Piñon Unit, Ecuador At least Turonian (90.5 – 88.5) see Jaillard et al. (1995)
Pallatanga Unit, Ecuador Santonian-Campanian (86.5 – 83) Wilkinson (1998)
San Juan Unit, Ecuador 123 ± 13 (Sm-Nd) Lapierre et al. (2000)

The 40Ar/39Ar ages from Sinton et al (1997; 1998; 2000); Kerr et al. (1997a; 2002b) and Alvarado et al. (1997) are all step-heating plateau ages,
whereas the 40Ar/39Ar ages reported by Hauff et al. (2000b) are isochron ages.
*Ages for Nicoya basalts and dolerites.
#
Ages for Nicoya intrusives.

The basalts from Leg 15 and Leg 165 have been p. 224), ‘‘generally imprecise.’’ Nevertheless, the re-
dated by Ar-Ar step heating (Table 2). However, sults obtained (Site 146: 92 – 90 Ma; Site 150: 94.3 ±
because of low K2O contents and alteration, the re- 2.8 Ma) are in broad agreement with the Coniacian
sults for Leg 15 are, according to Sinton et al. (1998, (89.9–85.8) ages of overlying sediments. Paleontologic
 HOME CONTENTS SEARCH
132 / Kerr et al.

+5 to +8 for Sites 146,

150, 151 and 153 (Sin-
ton et al., 1998; Hauff
et al., 2000a; Kerr et al.,
2002b) (Figure 5a).

Curaçao and Aruba

Figure 2. Map showing the location of known oceanic plateau fragments in the Caribbean (Beets et al., 1982). Only
and Central and South America.
evidence suggests that the sediments overlying the
basalts at Site 152 are Campanian (83–74 Ma), which is
confirmed by recent Ar-Ar dating (81 Ma: Sinton et al.,
2000) of basalts drilled at Site 1001, 40 km southwest
of Site 152.
Initial analyses (Donnelly et al., 1973; Bence et al., Ar age of the lavas (Sinton et al., 1998) and a Re-Os
1975) of Leg 15 samples suggested that the lavas
and sills could be subdivided into two different
groups: those with slightly depleted light REE pat-
terns (Lapmn/Smpmn < 1) and TiO2 < 1.8 wt.% (Sites
146, 150, 152, and 153); and those with Lapmn/Smpmn
> 2 and TiO2 > 2.0 wt.% (Site 151) (Figures 3b and 4).
However, new high-precision trace-element data (Sin-
ton et al., 1998; Kerr et al., 2002a) reveal that the Site and thus do not accurately date the Curaçao lava suc-
152 basalts are more depleted in incompatible trace
elements (including the light REE) than Sites 146, 150,
and 153 and thus form a third group. These three
groups can be distinguished in Figures 3b and 4a,d).
Although most of the REE patterns of the Leg 15
basalts are slightly depleted in light REE (Figure 3b),
the thickness of the underlying crust (> 8 km) sug-
gests an origin from an anomalously hot upper-mantle
source; i.e., a mantle plume source rather than a mid-
ocean-ridge source region. An oceanic plateau origin
is also indicated by the restricted range in >Nd from
The islands of Cura-
çao and Aruba, located
just north of Venezuela
(Figure 2), contain some
of the best-preserved
sections of the CCOP.
The Curaçao lava suc-
cession is more than 5
km thick (Klaver, 1987),
with abundant pillow
lavas. The lower half of
the exposed succession
is composed of olivine
basalts interspersed with
picrites, containing as
much as 31 wt.% MgO
one intercalation of pe-
lagic sediments has been
found (Klaver, 1987), in-
dicating that the Curaçao lavas were erupted over a
relatively short time span in relatively deep water.
Wiedmann (1978) reported middle Albian (105 –100
Ma) ammonites from within the pelagic sediments.
This age is significantly older than the 90 – 88 Ma Ar-
isochron age of 85.6 ± 8.1 Ma (Walker et al., 1999).
Wiedmann (1978, p. 362) states that the Curaçao am-
monites are poorly preserved and ‘‘very few [ammo-
nites] are complete, but even then [they are] distorted.
Generally only small fragments are preserved.’’ Given
this information, a simple explanation might be that
these middle Albian ammonites have been reworked,
cession. However, Snoke et al. (2001) maintain that the
ammonites accurately reflect the age of the Curaçao
lavas and have suggested that the volcanism started
in the middle Albian and so had a much longer dura-
tion than that proposed by Kerr et al. (1996b) and
Sinton et al. (1998). In response to this, we make two
points: (1) the paucity of intercalated sediments in
the Curaçao lava succession supports a relatively a
short duration for the eruption of the bulk of the lava
succession, and (2) the 90–85 Ma Ar-Ar and Re-Os ages
have been acquired from lavas that stratigraphically
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 133

Figure 3. Chondrite-normalized REE plots for circum-Caribbean oceanic plateau rocks. Data sources: Aruba: White et al.
(1999); Leg 15: Sinton et al. (1998), Hauff et al. (2000a), Kerr et al. (2002a); Curaçao: Kerr et al. (1996b); Duarte: Lapierre
et al. (1997); Dumisseau: Sen et al. (1988); Costa Rica: Hauff et al. (2000b); Colombia: Kerr et al. (1997a); Gorgona:
Aitken and Echeverrı́a (1984), Arndt et al. (1997); Ecuador: Reynaud et al. (1999); Villa de Cura: Beets et al. (1984);
Tobago: Frost and Snoke (1989); Cuba: Kerr et al. (1999).

underlie the ammonite bearing sedimentary horizon;
therefore, the ages given by the ammonites are most
unlikely to be correct.
Kerr et al. (1996b) suggested that the high-MgO
picrites are olivine cumulates, but the most forsteri-
tic olivines may be xenocrystic (Révillon et al., 1999).
The upper, exposed half of the Curaçao lava suc-
cession consists of more evolved, plagioclase- and
clinopyroxene-phyric pillow basalts with dolerite sills
and occasional reworked hyaloclastites (Klaver, 1987).
Kerr et al. (1996b) showed that the picrites of the
Curaçao lava succession are related to the basalts by
 HOME CONTENTS SEARCH
134 / Kerr et al.

45 6
EPR a. St. Isabel b.
40 MORB Site 146/150/153
5
Site 151 Tiara lavas
35
Site 152 4 El Carmen

Zr pmn/Ti pmn
30
El Chino
Zr/Nb

Colombia and Caribbean

25 Ontong Java 3
recent arc lavas
Plateau El Cano
20
2
15
1
10
Curaçao and Aruba Curaçao and Aruba
5 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 1 2 3 4
La/Y Lapmn/Nbpmn
5 50
c. d.
4 40
Site 152
Curaçao
3 30 Tortugal

Zr/Nb
and Aruba Sites 146/
Zr/Y

Golfito and 150/153

2 20 Burica
Quepos
Tobago dykes Site 151
Osa
1 Sans Souci, Trinidad 10
Nicoya and
Bath-Dunrobin, Jamacia Herradura Curaçao and Aruba
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0.01 0.1 1 2
Ti/P La/Y

Figure 4. Trace-element ratio plots showing data for circum-Caribbean exposures of oceanic plateau. Data sources
are as in Figures 1 and 3; Trinidad: Wadge and MacDonald (1985); Jamaica: Wadge et al. (1982).

simple fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopy-
roxene, and plagioclase, and that most of the Curaçao
lavas possess nearly constant Nd isotopic ratios (Fig-
ure 5a) and chondritic (flat) rare-earth element pat-
terns (Figure 3a).
The Aruba Lava Formation, recently studied by
White et al. (1999) is composed of basalts
3 km thick
(Beets et al., 1984), intruded and metamorphosed by
the 85 –82 Ma tonalitic– gabbroic Aruba batholith
(White et al., 1999). The lava formation consists of
vesicular pillow basalts and coarse dolerite sills, with
intercalations of reworked volcaniclastic sediments
and some basaltic conglomerates (Beets et al., 1984;
White et al., 1999). These features strongly suggest
that the basalts erupted in a relatively shallow sub-
marine environment. White et al. (1999) were unable
to obtain a reliable step-heating age but, in one local-
ity, the inter-lava sediments contain Turonian ammo-
nites [88.5–90.5 Ma] (reported in Beets et al., 1984).
The chemistry of the Aruba lavas is similar to that
of the Curaçao basalts, except for the presence of ferro-
basalts. The MgO content of the lavas varies from
10 wt.% for the basalts (which occur nearer the base
of the exposed section) to 4 wt.% for the ferrobasalts
(located nearer the top of the lava pile) (Beets et al.,
1984). As they have chondritic REE patterns (Figure 3a)
and incompatible element to trace-element ratios
(Figure 4) similar to the Curaçao lavas, this indicates
that they were derived from a similar, or the same,
mantle source region and may represent a higher
stratigraphic level of the Curaçao lava succession
(Beets et al., 1984; Klaver, 1987; White et al., 1999).
This proposal is also supported by the observation that
the Curaçao and Aruba lavas possess a similar range
in >Nd (Figure 5a).
Beets et al. (1984) initially concluded that the Cu-
raçao and Aruba lavas were part of an island arc suc-
cession. However, as Klaver (1987), Kerr et al. (1996b),
and White et al. (1999) have pointed out, the pres-
ence of high-MgO lavas, the absence of a subduction-
related trace-element signature, and the chemical
similarity to Pacific oceanic plateau lavas (Figure 4)
provide significant evidence for an ocean plateau
origin for these lavas. Despite this, Snoke et al. (2001)
strongly advocate an island arc origin for these
lavas; however, this hypothesis fails to take into

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 135
Figure 5. Plots of (ENd)i versus (87Sr/86Sr)i for the
oceanic plateau rocks of the Caribbean and northern
South America. Data sources are as in Figures 1 and 3;
Gorgona: Kerr et al. (1996a), Arndt et al. (1997), Aitken
and Echeverrı́a (1984).
account the trace element and isotopic evidence from
these lavas.
Venezuela
Some of the accreted basaltic and ultramafic rocks
in Northern Venezuela (Oxburgh, 1966; Beets et al.,
1984; Beccaluva et al., 1996) may belong to the CCOP
(Donnelly et al., 1990). Many of the rocks have been
tectonized and metamorphosed to high-pressure/low-
temperature equivalents, and thus the age of these
rocks has not been resolved fully. These basaltic and
ultramafic volcanic rocks represent material accreted
to the west coast of South America and later trans-
ferred by strike-slip motion to the Venezuelan margin
in the Late Cretaceous (Burke, 1988). Paleomagnetic
studies reveal that these rocks were rotated 908 clock-
wise during this transfer (Stearns et al., 1982).
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The Villa de Cura Group (Figure 2) is a 4- to 5-km-
thick, 250-km-long east-west-trending belt of meta-
volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, lying
50 km south
of the Venezuelan coast. It is composed of mafic and
more siliceous rocks. Donnelly et al. (1990) subdivided
these volcanic rocks into two chemical groups: (1)
subduction-related lavas and tuffs, and (2) a series of
basalts and ultramafic rocks with oceanic plateau char-
acteristics. The mafic, oceanic plateau – type lavas are
found chiefly in two formations in the Villa de Cura
Group: the Tiara and El Carmen Formations. The
subduction-related components of the Villa de Cura
Group will be deferred until the next section. Stiles
et al. (1999) have proposed that all the units in the
Villa de Cura Group are of island arc origin. Whereas
we accept that the Santa Isabel, El Chino, and El
Cano formations are of island arc affinity, i.e., they
possess Lapmn/Nbpmn J1 (Figure 4b), our new chem-
ical data clearly show that the Tiara and El Carmen
Formations (which possess Lapmn/Nbpmn = 1) are not
arc-related.
The basalts of the Tiara Formation are underlain
by sediments containing Albian (112 –97 Ma) radi-
olaria (Beck et al., 1984; Donnelly et al., 1990), thus
placing a maximum age on the overlying basalts. The
lavas of the Tiara and El Carmen Formations mostly
possess relatively flat REE patterns (Figure 3c). Some of
the lavas from the 1200-m-thick El Carmen Formation
contain as much as 12 wt.% MgO (Beccaluva et al.,
1996). This high MgO content provides support for an
oceanic plateau origin. Donnelly (1989) suggested that
the El Carmen Formation may be correlated with the
Curaçao picrites. As Figures 3c and 4b show, the Tiara
and El Carmen Formations have a similar composition
to the picrites and basalts of Curaçao and Aruba.
Trinidad and Tobago
The Sans Souci Formation in northeastern Trinidad
consists of a 1-km-thick section of basaltic pyroclastic
rocks, basalts, gabbros, and minor terrigenous sedi-
mentary rocks found in a 1-km-wide slice along the
northern coast of the island (Wadge and MacDo-
nald, 1985). Compositionally, these basalts have char-
acteristics similar to the lavas from Curaçao, with
chondritic-incompatible trace-element ratios and low
levels (<10  primitive mantle values) of incompat-
ible trace elements (Wadge and MacDonald, 1985). A
K-Ar whole-rock age determination on a Sans Souci
basalt yielded an age of 87 ± 4 Ma (Wadge and
MacDonald, 1985), which is within the age range of
other Caribbean oceanic-plateau basalts, but is more
likely a minimum age. The Sans Souci Formation is

136 / Kerr et al.
separated from the rest of Trinidad by strike-slip faults,
and structural evidence indicates that it was juxta-
posed along the northern margin of South America
in the Late Cretaceous (Wadge and MacDonald,
1985). Its chemistry (Figure 4c) and its tectonic posi-
tion strongly suggest it is a part of the CCOP.
The island of Tobago mostly comprises island arc–
derived lavas and an associated plutonic complex,
crosscut by a suite of basic dykes (Frost and Snoke,
1989). These dykes possess trace-element character-
istics that have many similarities with the lavas of
Curaçao and Aruba, e.g., flat REE patterns and incom-
patible trace-element ratios (Figures 3e and 4c). The
Ar-Ar ages of these dykes indicate two distinct ages of
dyke emplacement, at 103 Ma and 91 Ma (Snoke et al.,
1990).
Hispaniola
Hispaniola contains two main belts of Cretaceous
basaltic rocks, the Dumisseau Formation in the south-
west and the Duarte Complex in central Hispaniola.
The Dumisseau Formation in southwestern Haiti
comprises a 1.5-km-thick pile of pillowed and mas-
sive basalts (with minor picrites), dolerite sills, pelagic
limestones, turbidites, and siliceous siltstones. Gab-
broic intrusions and dolerite dykes locally cut the
rocks of the formation (Maurrasse et al., 1979). Fos-
sils in sediments between the upper basalts are early
Campanian (74 Ma) to late Santonian (83 Ma) in age,
and fossils from the lower basalts are Coniacian to
Turonian (90– 86 Ma) in age. These latter ages agree
with recent Ar-Ar plateau ages ranging from 88 to
92 Ma for basalts from the Dumisseau Formation
(Sinton et al., 1998).
Sen et al. (1988) showed that the major element
compositions of the Dumisseau lavas are similar to
those of many of the basalts drilled during DSDP Leg
15. Most of the samples are basaltic (<10 wt.% MgO),
but an olivine-cumulate picrite (22.7 wt.% MgO) was
encountered near the base of the succession. Indeed,
the basalts reported by Sen et al. (1988) are similar to
those found at Site 151 in that they possess >2.0 wt.%
TiO2 and are enriched in the light REE (Figure 3f ).
Also, at the base were several basalts with essentially
flat REE patterns, similar to basalts from Leg 15 Sites
146, 150, and 153 (Figure 3b). Sinton et al. (1998) have
chemically analyzed several more Dumisseau Forma-
tion samples that possess flat REE patterns (Figure 3f).
The chemical and radiometric age data strongly
suggest that the Dumisseau basalts and picrites rep-
resent a tectonically uplifted section of the CCOP (Sen
et al., 1988). Furthermore, radiogenic isotope and in-
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compatible trace-element ratios support a heteroge-
neous source region containing at least two compo-
nents (Sen et al., 1988), one with depleted and one
with slightly more enriched incompatible trace ele-
ments and radiogenic isotopes (relative to Bulk Earth)
(Figures 3f and 5a).
The Duarte Complex in central Hispaniola has
been divided into two units by Draper and Lewis
(1991). The Lower Duarte Complex (which is at least
10 km in thickness) has been metamorphosed to
greenschist facies and is composed of picrites, ankara-
mites, basalts, cherts, tuffs, and schists (Lapierre et al.,
1997). The Upper Duarte Complex (3–4 km in thick-
ness) consists of three units in faulted contact: one
comprises amphibolites and amphibolite-epidote
gneisses; the second consists of weakly metamor-
phosed pillow basalts, volcaniclastic rocks, and ribbon
cherts (containing Upper Jurassic radiolaria); and an-
other comprises serpentinized peridotites crosscut
by dolerite dykes. According to Lapierre et al. (1997,
1999a) the chemistry of these latter two units resem-
bles modern mid-ocean ridge basalts.
Lapierre et al. (1997, 2000) showed that some of
the basalts and picrites of the Duarte Complex are
relatively light-REE enriched and are similar to the
basalts from Site 151 and the Dumisseau Formation,
in Haiti. Many other Duarte Complex picrites and
basalts and the amphibolites possess relatively flat
REE patterns similar to oceanic-plateau rocks of the
CCOP (Figure 3f). Lapierre et al. (1997, 2000) pre-
sented data that show that the Late Jurassic Upper
Duarte Complex basalts are geochemically more de-
pleted than the picrites and amphibolites, and thus
require a mid-ocean ridge environment of forma-
tion. In contrast, Lewis and Jiménez (1991) found a
wide range of compositions in the Upper Duarte that
overlap considerably with those of the Lower Duarte
Complex, which led them and Lewis et al. (1999) to
suggest that the complex represented one consan-
guineous magmatic event spanning the Late Jurassic–
Early Cretaceous; i.e. an age similar to the Jurassic
cherts interbedded with some of the basalts. How-
ever, Lapierre et al. (1999b) argue that the basalts
and picrites of the Duarte Complex are not all Late
Jurassic –Early Cretaceous in age, because the whole
Duarte Complex is made up of a series of fault-
bounded thrust blocks, and the picritic and amphib-
olitic units are in thrust contact with the basalts
that are interbedded with Jurassic cherts. Ar-Ar iso-
chron ages for ‘‘magmatic’’ amphibole of 86.1 and
86.7 Ma from an amphibolite from the Duarte Com-
plex (Lapierre et al., 1999a) have been interpreted to
 HOME CONTENTS SEARCH
No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 137

mean that the lavas of the lower unit of the Duarte

Formation are a part of the 90-Ma plateau.

Jamaica
The Bath-Dunrobin inlier of eastern Jamaica com-
prises highly deformed basalts, dolerites, and gab-
bros over an area of 40 km2 (Wadge et al., 1982).
Thin sedimentary intercalations in this
2.5-km-
thick ophiolitic assemblage contain mostly Campa-
nian (83 –74 Ma) fossils, although older, possibly
reworked, fossils have been found in the succession
(Wadge et al., 1982). The Bath-Dunrobin basalts have
compositions very similar to those of the Aruba and
Curaçao basalts, as well as to some of the basalts from
DSDP Leg 15 (Figure 4c). Despite these similarities,
Wadge et al. (1982) suggested that the oceanic crust
comprising the Bath-Dunrobin ophiolite had been
obducted from the north after formation in the Yu-
catán Basin. However, there is no strong evidence that
the Bath-Dunrobin Formation was not derived from
the south, and the chemistry of the basaltic part of the
succession, as well as its age, indicates that it also may
be part of the CCOP.

Cuba
The geology of Cuba includes high-grade meta-
morphic complexes and accreted Jurassic to Creta-
ceous igneous and sedimentary material, including
significant ophiolite complexes (Wadge et al., 1984;
Iturralde-Vinent, 1994). A new geochemical study
(Kerr et al., 1999) of the freshest samples from these
accreted rocks reveals that most are arc related. How-
ever, the Margot Formation exposed in northwestern
Cuba as part of the Northern Ophiolitic Melange
(Iturralde-Vinent, 1994), possesses geochemical char- Figure 6. Sketch map of the Pacific coastline of Costa
acteristics of oceanic-plateau basalts, i.e., flat REE to Rica showing exposures of oceanic plateau and arc-
slightly LREE-enriched patterns (Figure 3e) and near- related fragments. (After Hauff et al., 2000b).
chondritic-incompatible trace-element ratios (Kerr
et al., 1999). Fossils in intercalated sediments date
the formation as Aptian to Cenomanian in age (124– plagiogranite intrusions and an upper unit of pil-
90 Ma). lowed and massive basalts. Although some have sug-
gested that the upper and lower units are of widely
Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala differing ages (e.g., Bourgois et al., 1984; Wildberg,
Several igneous complexes (generally referred to 1984), all observed contacts between the upper and
as ophiolites: see Donnelly et al., 1990, for early ref- lower units are either tectonic or intrusive (Don-
erences) are exposed along the Pacific coast of Costa nelly, 1994; Sinton et al., 1997; Hauff et al., 1997,
Rica (Figure 6): Santa Elena, Nicoya, Tortugal, Herra- 2000b). Furthermore, Ar-Ar dating (Sinton et al., 1997;
dura, Quepos, Osa, Golfito, and Burica (Alvarado Hauff et al., 2000b) has yielded an age range of 95 –
et al., 1997; Hauff et al., 1997, 2000b; Sinton et al., 83 Ma for the entire complex.
1997). Other smaller igneous complexes along the Pacific
The Nicoya peninsula consists of a lower unit of coast (Figure 6) all have yielded Late Cretaceous Ar-Ar
massive and pillow basalts with minor gabbroic and or paleontologic ages (Table 2), with the exception of

138 / Kerr et al.
the Quepos (59 – 65 Ma) and the Osa (62 Ma) Com-
plexes. North of Nicoya, the Santa Elena Complex
has yielded ages of 124–109 Ma (Di Marco, 1994; Sin-
ton et al., 1997; Hauff et al., 2000b).
The oldest Costa Rican complex, the Santa Elena,
possesses a primitive island-arc signature. The geo-
chemistry of the remaining Cretaceous complexes
(Nicoya, Herradura, Golfito, Tortugal, and Burica) is
predominantly tholeiitic, with lavas possessing 3 –11
wt.% MgO, and flat REE patterns (Figure 3d) (Sinton
et al., 1997; Hauff et al., 2000b). Given their chem-
istry (Figures 3d, 4d, and 6a) and their age, these rocks
are interpreted as representing parts of the CCOP. At
Tortugal, a suite of more enriched basalts is very sim-
ilar to the trace element–enriched basalts of Site 151
and some other enriched basalts from the province
(e.g., Duarte, Dumisseau, and Colombian basalts).
The younger Quepos and Osa rocks are enriched
in incompatible trace elements relative to those from
Nicoya (Hauff et al., 2000b) (Figure 4d). Given their
younger age and more LREE-enriched composition,
Hauff et al. (2000b) suggested that they represent part
of the accreted hot-spot track of the plume respon-
sible for the CCOP (Duncan and Hargraves, 1984).
Metamorphosed mafic rocks (the El Tambor Group)
that crop out in several places in eastern Guatemala
also have been sampled during drilling off the west-
ern coast of Guatemala (DSDP Legs 67 and 84). Bio-
stratigraphic ages for the El Tambor Group range from
lowermost Cretaceous to Cenomanian (Donnelly
et al., 1990). Donnelly et al. (1990) suggested that the
metamorphosed mafic rocks of Guatemala (which
are also known as the Motagua Ophiolitic Belt; Wadge
et al. 1984) were part of the CCOP. More recently,
Beccaluva et al. (1995) have identified arc and MORB-
like geochemical signatures in the Motagua Ophio-
litic Belt.
Wildberg (1984) noted the presence of basalts very
similar to those of the Nicoya Complex in the Azuero
and Sona peninsulas in western Panama. Limited
chemical analyses of these basalts indicate that they
are of oceanic plateau affinity. Recent Ar-Ar dating of
basaltic lavas from the Sona peninsula gave an age of
74.6 Ma. The basalts of the Azuero peninsula are all
younger than 59 Ma (Folkmar Hauff, personal com-
munication, 2001). Much of eastern Panama east of
the Panama Canal (the Darien region) is composed
of pre-Tertiary basaltic rocks (Escalante, 1990). Ba-
salts from the Golfo de San Miguel have chemical
signatures of oceanic-plateau affinity (Goossens et al.,
1977). Cherts containing Campanian (83 –75 Ma)
radiolaria overlie the basalts around the Golfo de San
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Miguel (Bandy and Casey, 1973), thus placing a youn-
ger age limit on the complex. Given their age (>74 Ma)
and lateral continuity with the 76–72 Ma oceanic-
plateau basalts of the Serranı́a de Baudó in Colombia
(Kerr et al., 1997a, and see next section), it is likely that
these Panamanian basalts are also part of the same
oceanic plateau.
Colombia
Exposures of Cretaceous oceanic-plateau basalt and
picrites also extend into western Colombia and Ecua-
dor (Marriner and Millward, 1984; Millward et al.,
1984; Kerr et al., 1997a; Reynaud et al., 1999). The
Romeral fault (Figure 7) represents a major tectonic
boundary in western Colombia. To the east of the
fault, Bouguer gravity anomalies are strongly nega-
tive ( –220 mGals) (Case et al., 1973) confirming that
the basement in this area is composed of continental
crust. To the west of the Romeral fault, Bouguer
anomalies are strongly positive (+135 mGals) (Case
et al., 1971), consistent with high-density mafic ma-
terial forming the crust beneath this part of the west-
ern Colombian-Ecuadorian Andes.
In western Colombia, the mafic rocks crop out in
three accreted belts trending approximately north-
south. They are, from east to west, the Central, Western,
and Pacific (Serranı́a de Baudó) Cordillera (Figure 7).
The three cordillera are composed of fault-bounded
slices of pillowed and massive basalt, dolerite sills,
and relatively rare occurrences of ultramafic rocks
(Goossens et al., 1977; Millward et al., 1984; Nivia,
1987; Kerr et al., 1997a). These major thrust/fault
slices are as much as 15 km in width. Although basalts
predominate, picrites occur locally in the Central Cor-
dillera (Spadea et al., 1987, 1989; Kerr et al., 1997b,
2002b).
Steep eastward-dipping fault-bounded lenses of
metasedimentary units (slates, siltstones, cherts, and
sandstone turbidites) separate the basaltic slices, par-
ticularly in the Western Cordillera, where the vol-
canic succession is thickest. Some gabbroic plugs and
batholiths have intruded the basalts, along with sev-
eral ultramafic complexes; interestingly, however,
very few dykes cut the basalt. The absence of sheeted
dykes in Colombia, and elsewhere in the CCOP,
means that these sections cannot be referred to as
ophiolites in the classical sense.
There has been considerable discussion in the lit-
erature as to the origin of the Cretaceous basalts and
picrites of the Central, Western, and Pacific Cordillera.
Most authors agree that the basalt successions are al-
lochthonous and have been accreted onto the margin

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 139
Figure 7. Sketch map of Colombia and Ecuador, showing
the location of CCOP and Cretaceous arc rocks.
of northwestern South America in the Late Cre-
taceous or early Tertiary (e.g., McCourt et al., 1984;
Millward et al., 1984; Bourgois et al., 1987). Howev-
er, whereas Barrero (1979) and McCourt et al. (1984)
advocated an island-arc-related origin, Millward et al.
(1984), Nivia (1987), and Kerr et al. (1997a) have pro-
posed that the Cretaceous basic igneous rocks of
Colombia are the remnants of an oceanic plateau,
and they have clearly demonstrated that their geo-
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chemistry is inconsistent with an arc-related origin.
Figures 8a and c reveal that the Cretaceous basalts of
Colombia are markedly different both from Holocene
arc-derived Colombian volcanic rocks or present-day
volcanics from the Lesser Antilles. Indeed, the trace-
element and radiogenic-isotope geochemistry of the
basalts of the Central and Western Cordillera are very
similar to that of Pacific oceanic plateaus and the ba-
salts of Curaçao (Figure 8c).
Although K-Ar ages are abundant in the literature
and span a wide range, the altered nature and low
potassium contents of the lavas mean that the dates
should be treated with caution (Kerr et al., 1997a).
Two proposals have been made regarding the relative
ages and the timing of the accretion of each of the
three volcanic belts: (1) the three belts represent a sin-
gle magmatic province which developed in the Late
Cretaceous and has subsequently been accreted onto
the northwestern margin of South America (Goosens
et al., 1977; Spadea et al., 1989); and (2) the basalts
of the three cordillera represent different volcanic
provinces, which were successively accreted onto the
continental margin (Aspden et al., 1987; McCourt
et al., 1984).
The picrites of the Central Cordillera have been
dated by Ar-Ar step heating and give an age range of
93 – 87 Ma (Kerr et al., 2002a). Ar-Ar step heating of
the Western Cordillera basalts has given two distinct
ages: 91.7 Ma and 76.3 Ma (Kerr et al., 1997a; Sinton
et al., 1998). These ages are consistent with paleon-
tologic evidence from Turonian to Coniacian (90 –86
Ma) sediments that are clearly intercalated with the
lavas (Barrero, 1979; Bourgois et al., 1985). The ba-
salts of the Serranı́a de Baudó yield Ar-Ar ages of 78 –
73 Ma (Kerr et al., 1997a).
Gorgona Island, Colombia
Komatiites are common in the Precambrian, but
have been found in only one Phanerozoic locality —
the now-famous Gorgona Island, 50 km off the north-
western coast of Colombia (Figures 2 and 7). These
unusually high-MgO (>15 wt.%) magmas became su-
perheated during formation in the core of the plume
and, therefore, cooled quickly upon eruption. This
means that olivines grow rapidly into unusual skel-
etal and platy crystals, resulting in lava flows known
as ‘‘komatiites,’’ in which the platy olivines diverge
like blades of spinifex grass (‘‘spinifex texture’’) (Arndt
and Nisbet, 1982). The high eruption temperatures
(>15008C) of komatiites led to the widespread sugges-
tion that komatiites were formed by the melting of
extremely hot mantle (Nisbet et al., 1993).
 HOME CONTENTS SEARCH
140 / Kerr et al.

Figure 8. Chondrite-normalized REE plots and trace-element ratio diagrams showing oceanic plateau data from
Colombia and Ecuador. Data sources are as in Figures 1, 3, and 5.

Storey et al. (1991) were first to propose that the
komatiites and other igneous rocks on Gorgona Is-
land belong to the CCOP. The island is constructed
of uplifted and faulted blocks of spinifex-textured ko-
matiites, picrites, picritic tuff breccias, basalts, gab-
bros, and other intrusive ultramafic rocks (Echeverrı́a,
1980; Kerr et al., 1996a; Révillon et al., 2000). The
komatiites, with calculated parental magma MgO
contents of 18 –21 wt.%, are consistent with deriva-
tion from a high-temperature mantle plume (e.g.,
Storey et al., 1991; Kerr et al., 1996a). Gorgona ba-
salts have given Ar-Ar ages ranging from 88 –86 Ma

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 141
(Sinton et al., 1998) (Table 2). Walker et al. (1999)
have provided better constraints on the age of the
komatiites with an Re-Os isochron age of
89 Ma.
The geochemical signatures of the Gorgona vol-
canic rocks indicate a mantle source with both de-
pleted and enriched components (relative to chon-
drites) (Figure 8d); i.e., the komatiites, picrites, and
some of the basalts possess LREE-depleted patterns,
whereas the rest of the basalts have flat-to-LREE-
enriched patterns (Echeverrı́a, 1980; Kerr et al., 1996a;
Arndt et al., 1997). These features are not due simply
to variable degrees of melting of a homogeneous
source region, since radiogenic isotope ratios (e.g.,
87
Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd) also reveal long-term het-
erogeneity (Figure 5b).
Ecuador
Western Ecuador is also composed of accreted
oceanic crust (Feininger and Seguin, 1983) (Figure 7).
Pre-1990 work on these rocks was restricted to a small
number of samples from localized areas, which, com-
bined with the use of K-Ar ages on very altered rocks
(yielding an age range of 54 – 110 Ma), resulted in
conflicting theories on the age and original tectonic
setting of the rocks (e.g. Juteau et al., 1977; Hender-
son, 1979; Feininger and Bristow, 1980; Lebras et al.,
1987).
Recent regional mapping and detailed geochem-
ical work (McCourt et al., 1997; Cosma et al., 1998;
Reynaud et al., 1999; Lapierre et al., 2000; Kerr et al.,
2002b) have provided new insights into the age and
nature of the igneous basement of western Ecuador.
For instance the basement can now be divided into
six main structural units: the arc-derived units of Ma-
cuchi, Naranjal, and San Lorenzo and the oceanic-
plateau units of Piñon, Pallatanga, and San Juan
(Figure 7).
The exposures of the Piñon Unit consist of tho-
leiitic pillow and massive basalts with localized oc-
currences of hyaloclastites, pillow breccias, and sili-
ceous sediments. Their similar chemistry (Reynaud
et al., 1999) and close spatial association suggest that
they are all of a similar age. These rocks have thus far
proved impossible to date by Ar-Ar techniques, and
the intercalated sediments contain no fossils, but
overlying sediments and dated intrusions (72.7 Ma;
Lebras et al., 1987) help place minimum ages on the
Piñon basalts. In the Guayaquil area, the Piñon Unit
is overlain by a sequence of black shales, limestones,
and greywackes, containing Cenomanian – Turonian
(97– 88.5 Ma) foraminifera and a Turonian (88.5–
90.5) ammonite (reported in Jaillard et al., 1995).
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Worldwide, the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary is
characterized by the deposition of black shales (Bra-
lower, 1988; Kerr, 1998), and it is most likely that
these Ecuadorian deposits belong to this global an-
oxic event. This dates the volcanism of the Piñon
Unit near Guayaquil to before the Cenomanian-
Turonian boundary (i.e., >90.5 Ma). In the Manabı́
area, the Piñon basalts are overlain by the San Lorenzo
Formation, consisting of arc-derived (Reynaud et al.,
1999) volcanogenic sediments containing Campa-
nian (74– 83 Ma) radiolaria (Romero, 1990) and ba-
saltic flows and dykes (Ar-Ar dated at 72.7 ± 1.4 Ma:
Lebras et al., 1987). The Piñon basalts possess flat
REE patterns (Figure 8b) and have >Nd ratios ranging
between +6 and +7 (Figure 5b); they are therefore
very similar to the accreted oceanic-plateau rocks in
Colombia.
The oceanic-plateau material in the Western Cor-
dillera of Ecuador occur in two discontinuous north-
south-trending fault-bounded units, in close prox-
imity to the Calacali-Pallatanga fault zone (McCourt
et al., 1997). The easternmost block, the San Juan
Unit, is exposed in only one thrust block (2 –3 km
wide and
10 km long), 10 km east of Quito. This
unit consists of a layered sequence of cumulate perid-
otites, successively overlain by layered gabbros and
amphibole-bearing gabbros, intruded by mafic and fel-
sic dykes (Cosma et al., 1998; Lapierre et al., 2000). The
amphibole-bearing gabbros possess oceanic-plateau
characteristics, namely flat to slightly enriched LREE,
Lapmn/Nbpmn  1 and >Nd of +4 to +6 (Lapierre et al.,
2000), and yield a three-point Sm-Nd isochron age
of 123 ± 13 Ma.
The more westerly unit of oceanic basement in the
Western Cordillera of Ecuador is officially known as
the Pallatanga Unit (McCourt et al., 1997) and is ex-
posed as pillow basalts and dolerites, with occasional
hyaloclastite and sedimentary intercalations in dis-
continuous fault-bounded blocks from the Colom-
bian border to 38200S (McCourt et al., 1997). The
chemistry of the Pallatanga Unit resembles that of the
Piñon Unit, with flat REE patterns (Kerr et al., 2002b).
In summary, we suggest that the basalts of the
Piñon and Pallatanga Units in Ecuador can be cor-
related spatially, temporally, and chemically with the
basalts and picrites of the Central and Western Cor-
dillera in Colombia (Kerr et al., 2002b).
Oceanic Plateaus: A Summary Statement
The thickened nature (8– 20 km) and chemical
composition (predominantly flat to slightly LREE-
enriched/depleted chondrite normalized patterns and

142 / Kerr et al.
>Nd ranging from +6 to +8) of a significant proportion
of the Caribbean sea floor provides significant evi-
dence that the Caribbean plate is in large part the
remnant of an originally much larger oceanic plateau.
Furthermore, the occurrence of basalts and picrites
of similar composition around the margins of the
Caribbean plate and in northwestern South America
implies that these accreted fragments also are a part
of the oceanic plateau. Additional evidence for a
mantle-plume origin is provided by the occurrence
of high-MgO lavas, which implies a high-temperature
plume-source region. This thick oceanic plateau de-
veloped in the Pacific
90 Ma and has moved into
the Caribbean region since the Cretaceous.
EARLY CRETACEOUS–JURASSIC
OCEANIC CRUST
The identification, around the Caribbean margins,
of Early Cretaceous – Jurassic oceanic crust, both of
Pacific and proto-Caribbean origin, has proved some-
what problematic. This is probably because most of
the crust appears to have been subducted beneath
the oceanic plateau, or has been so dismembered and
metamorphosed during its accretion to the Caribbean
margins that it is barely recognizable as oceanic crust.
The original Caribbean oceanic spreading center
formed after the rifting of North and South America
in the Jurassic (Pindell and Barrett, 1990). However,
exposures of these rocks and Pacific-derived Jurassic
oceanic crust have been identified around the Carib-
bean margins; these exposures are shown in Figure 9
and are discussed in the following paragraphs. The
highly altered and metamorphosed nature of the
exposures means that dates mostly are constrained
by radiolaria from interbedded cherts.
Margarita Island
Margarita Island, 25 km off the coast of Venezuela
(Figure 9), is composed of two areas of late Mesozoic
metamorphic rocks with the more easterly area hav-
ing metamorphic rocks folded into a complex anti-
form. The core of this anticline exposes metabasic
(and eclogitic) schists and gneisses of the La Rinco-
nada Group; intercalations of peridotite, dunite, and
serpentinite are also found (Bocchio et al., 1990).
Stöckhert et al. (1995) have reported U-Pb ages of
114 – 105 Ma on zircons from small trondhjemite
bodies intruding the La Rinconada Group. These
authors proposed that the La Rinconada Group rep-
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Figure 9. Sketch map showing the locations of Jurassic
proto-Caribbean oceanic crust.
resents mid-ocean ridge basalts and is part of the
proto-Caribbean oceanic crust. REE analyses reported
by Beets et al. (1984) demonstrate that whereas some
samples possess LREE-depleted patterns of typical
mid-ocean ridge basalts, others have more-enriched
LREE patterns (Figure 10c), suggesting again that the
mantle source is heterogeneous.
Overlying the La Rinconada Group is the Juan
Griego Group, which consists of metasediment with
sparse boudins and tabular masses of metabasic rocks
that have been interpreted by Beets et al. (1984) as
sills and crosscutting dykes intruded into a sedimen-
tary protolith, but which probably would be inter-
preted now as amphibolite blocks in an accretionary
complex. The Juan Griego Group metabasites are more
enriched in their incompatible trace-element contents
than those of the La Rinconada Group (Bocchio et al.,
1990).
Bermeja Complex, Puerto Rico
The Bermeja Complex in southwest Puerto Rico
(Figure 9) consists mostly of serpentinite containing
rafts of chert and amphibolite, along with younger
and less-metamorphosed spilitic metabasalts (Schel-
lekens, 1998). The abyssal cherts associated with the
amphibolites have been found to contain Pliensba-
chian (195 –187 Ma) and Kimmeridgian-Tithonian
(155 – 146 Ma) radiolaria, whereas the sediments as-
sociated with the spilites have yielded Hauterivian-
Aptian radiolarian ages (Montgomery et al., 1994b;
Schellekens, 1998). Montgomery et al. (1994b) have
shown that these radiolaria have a Pacific provenance.

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 143
Figure 10. Chondrite-normalized REE plots showing
data from exposures of Jurassic proto-Caribbean oceanic
crust.
Schellekens (1998) noted that the presence of
abyssal cherts suggests that the original ocean floor
on which they were deposited could be present as
well, and may possibly be represented by the am-
phibolites. This proposal is supported by the LREE-
depletion reported by Jolly et al. (1998), which sug-
gests a mid-ocean ridge origin for the amphibolites
and associated ultramafics (Figure 10a). In contrast,
the Early Cretaceous spilites have geochemical char-
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acteristics compatible with formation in an island-arc
tectonic setting (Schellekens et al., 1990).
Cuba
In Cuba, the El Sabalo and part of the Encrucijada
Formation basalts have been interpreted as normal
oceanic crust (Iturralde-Vinent, 1996; Kerr et al., 1999).
The El Sabalo Formation has been paleontologically
dated as Oxfordian to early Kimmeridgian (157 – 153
Ma), whereas the Encrucijada Formation contains
Aptian-Albian (125–97 Ma) fossils. Samples from both
formations have geochemical characteristics suggest-
ing that they have been contaminated by continental
crust (Lapmn/Nbpmn ratios >1), possibly in a manner
analogous to the formation of the thick basaltic
seaward-dipping reflector sequences during the ini-
tial opening of the North Atlantic, cf. Kerr et al. (1999)
and Saunders et al. (1999). Some basalts from the
Encrucijada Formation are more enriched in incom-
patible trace elements and appear to be uncontam-
inated with continental crust (Lapmn/Nbpmn < 1);
therefore, Kerr et al. (1999) proposed that these
basalts represent accreted off-axis seamounts.
Duarte Complex, Dominican Republic, Hispaniola
The Duarte Complex (Figure 9) consists of at least
two distinct suites of volcanic rock (Lewis and Jimé-
nez, 1991): Coniacian (88.5–86.5 Ma; Lapierre et al.,
1999a) picrites and amphibolites of oceanic-plateau
affinity (Lapierre et al., 1997), Late Jurassic basalts
(based on radiolaria from intercalated chert: Mont-
gomery et al., 1994a), and dolerite dykes (Lapierre
et al., 1999a). Many of the basalts and dolerites of the
complex possess LREE-depleted patterns (Figure 10b),
and the chemistry and age of these basalts and dol-
erites led Lapierre et al. (1999a) to conclude that they
represented accreted fragments of pre-CCOP oceanic
crust, tectonically juxtaposed with the picrites and
amphibolites during the collision of the oceanic pla-
teau with the Great Arc of the Caribbean.
Other Possible Occurrences of Preexisting
Caribbean Oceanic Crust
Numerous, poorly studied, small ophiolitic occur-
rences are found along the north Venezuelan and
Colombian coastal ranges and in the offshore islands,
but until their ages and chemistry are better con-
strained, their place in the geodynamic history of the
southern Caribbean remains uncertain. The Siquisi-
que Ophiolites in northern Venezuela (Figure 9),
however, are worthy of note. They consist of a tecton-
ized complex of mafic pillow lavas with a few gabbros
 HOME CONTENTS SEARCH
144 / Kerr et al.

and contain intercalations of shales with Bajocian to SUBDUCTION-RELATED ROCKS AROUND

early Bathonian (173–164 Ma) ammonite fragments THE CARIBBEAN
(Bartok et al., 1985), suggesting that the pillow basalts
may have formed during the early rifting between In addition to plateau-related exposures, many
North and South America. However, no chemical data outcrops of intrusive and extrusive Cretaceous igne-
have been reported on these basalts. ous rocks with an island arc affinity outcrop in the
Caribbean region (Figure 11). These are present on
the northern, southern and western margins of the
Early Cretaceous–Jurassic Oceanic Crust: Caribbean and in Colombia and Ecuador. Units of
A Summary Statement both primitive island-arc (tholeiitic) and calc-alkaline
The pre-plateau oceanic crust of the Caribbean ap- affinity are found, although island-arc tholeiites pre-
pears to have been consumed largely by subduction of dominate, especially among the older rocks.
the plate beneath the eastward-advancing island arc Lebron and Perfit (1994) and Donnelly (1994) have
bordering the plateau, following attempted subduc- proposed that island-arc tholeiite (IAT) lavas belong to
tion of the Pacific-derived plateau and subsequent the early arc, whereas the calc-alkaline (CA) lavas are
subduction polarity reversal. Consequently, the few thought to represent a younger arc formed after polar-
surviving fragments (identified on the basis of their ity reversal. In these models, subduction polarity re-
Jurassic – Early Cretaceous age and their geochemical versal is regarded as being responsible for the switch
signature) are mostly highly altered and tectonized. from the IAT to CA lavas (cf. Donnelly et al., 1990).
As will be shown, in-
creasing amounts of
evidence suggest that
the change from IAT to
CA signature was a grad-
ual chemical evolution
caused by an increasing
amount of sediment in
the island-arc source,
rather than a sudden
subduction polarity re-
versal (e.g. Frost et al.,
1998; Jolly et al., 1998;
Kerr et al., 1999). More-
over, many of the ele-
ments and oxides used
to define arc IAT and
CA characteristics are
highly mobile during
secondary alteration
(e.g., K2O, FeO, MgO).
Therefore, we use dis-
criminants based on rel-
atively immobile trace
elements, i.e. the REE,
Th, Hf, Nb, and Ti. IAT
lavas possess La/Yb < 4
and Th/Hf < 0.7, and
CA lavas possess La/Yb
> 4 and Th/Hf > 0.7.
Progress on character-
FIGURE 11. Map showing the location of known Cretaceous island-arc rocks in the izing the Cretaceous
Caribbean and Central and South America. Caribbean arc lavas is
 HOME CONTENTS SEARCH
No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 145

currently hindered by a lack of chemical and chrono-
logical data.
Bonaire
The Washikemba Formation consists of two sepa-
rate outcrops of subaqueous Cretaceous volcanic rocks
(Figure 11). The Northern Complex represents a distal
intraoceanic arc (Thompson, 2002) and consists of a
5-km-thick series of bimodal lavas and shallow intru-
sions intercalated with pelagic sediment and volca-
niclastic sandstones. The Southern Complex consists
of a 3-km-thick pile of pillow basalts intercalated
with volcaniclastic sediments through which rhyo-
dacite domes erupted.
Ar-Ar dating on feldspar separates from the Washi-
kemba Formation (Thompson, 2002) has yielded a
minimum age of 95 ± 2 Ma for a rhyodacite flow in
the Northern Complex; this is likely to represent the
best age constraint for the formation. A K-Ar age of
88 ± 2 Ma from a hornblende crystal was obtained
from a tuffaceous horizon (Priem et al., 1979), but this
may have been reset Intercalated chert in the lower
portions of the Washikemba Formation yields late
Albian (112 –97 Ma) ammonites, inoceramids, and
foraminifera (Smit, 1977).
Geochemically, the sequence shows typical island-
arc characteristics, such as negative Nb and Ti anom-
alies relative to chondrites (Figure 12a) (Thompson,
2002). All of the volcanics appear to be comagmatic,
apart from the series of rhyodacite domes, which pos-
sess higher abundances of REE, Nb and Zr, along with
Lacn/Ybcn ratios >3 (cf. <2 for the rest of the lavas)
(Figure 12a). Both mobile (Donnelly and Rogers, 1980)
and immobile element data (Thompson, 2002) reveal
that the Washikemba Formation is part of the IAT
series of the Caribbean.

Figure 12. Extended chondrite-normalized REE plots showing data from exposures of Cretaceous island-arc rocks in
the Caribbean and Central and North America. Data sources: Bonaire: Thompson (2002); Los Ranchos and Loma La
Vega: Lebron and Perfit (1994); Maimon: Lewis et al. (2000); Macuchi: Lebras et al. (1987), Cosma et al. (1998); Las
Orquideas: Reynaud et al. (1999); San Lorenzo: Lebras et al. (1987), Reynaud et al. (1999); Ricuarte: Spadea and
Espinosa (1996).

146 / Kerr et al.
island arc tholeute
Figure 13. Extended chondrite-normalized REE plots
showing data from Cretaceous island-arc rocks from Villa
de Cura, Venezuela: Beets et al. (1984): Guerrero Terrane,
Mexico: Tardy et al. (1994); Santa Elena, Costa Rica: Hauff
et al. (2000b). CA = calc-alkaline; IAT = island arc tholeiites.
Villa de Cura, Venezuela
Both plateau-related and island-arc-related rocks
are found in the Villa de Cura Group of Venezuela
(Figure 11). The Santa Isabel, the El Chino, and the El
Cano Formations display island-arc characteristics
(Figure 4b). The El Cano and El Chino Formations
consist of finely bedded volcaniclastic rocks, lavas,
and cherts (Beccaluva et al., 1996; Smith et al., 1999),
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whereas the Santa Isabel Formation consists of siliceous
volcaniclastic rocks (Shagam, 1960; Donnelly et al.,
1990; Smith et al., 1999). The lavas and volcaniclastic
rocks of the three formations possess flat to moder-
ately LREE-enriched patterns, thus placing them in
the IAT suite (Figure 13a). The Dos Hermanas
Formation also forms part of the Villa de Cura Group
and consists of basaltic flows and volcaniclastic
sediments (Smith et al., 1999) with an IAT signature
(Beccaluva et al., 1996). The age of the Villa de Cura
Group is relatively uncertain.
Tobago
Tobago consists of two separate units of Mesozoic
island-arc rocks, intruded by a mafic to ultramafic
batholith and later mafic dykes (Frost and Snoke,
1989; Snoke, 1990). The older unit, the North Coast
Schist, is composed of variably metamorphosed vol-
caniclastics, chert, and andesite dykes. Paleontolog-
ic ages for sedimentary intercalations in the over-
lying Tobago Volcanic Group place the schists at
>105 Ma (Snoke et al., 2001). The Tobago Volcanic
Group, which is composed of relatively undeformed
volcaniclastic sediments and lavas (Frost and Snoke,
1989), is intruded and metamorphosed by rocks of the
Tobago plutonic suite. The Tobago Volcanic Group is
of IAT affinity and possesses Lacn/Ybcn ratios of 1.5 to
2.7. The geochemical, isotopic, and geochronologic
data suggest that the plutonic suite is consanguineous
with the volcanics.
La Desirade
The island of La Desirade is the only island in the
Lesser Antilles in which pre-Tertiary basement is ex-
posed. This is composed of three different units: the
Central Acid Massif is comprised of a quartz diorite
intrusion and rhyolite flows, all of calc-alkaline af-
finity ( J. Hernandez, personal communication, 2000).
The Northeast Complex consists of interbedded pil-
low basalt and radiolarian cherts, intruded by tron-
dhjemitic to dioritic dykes; east-west orientated ande-
site dykes crosscut the entire formation (Bouysse et al.,
1983). The silicic intrusions in the Northeast Complex
have yielded U-Pb (zircon) ages of 150–145 Ma (Mat-
tinson et al., 1980), and intercalated cherts contain
upper Jurassic radiolaria (Montgomery et al., 1992).
Mattinson et al. (1980) considered La Desirade to be
normal oceanic crust (cf., Bermeja Complex, Puerto
Rico), but new work by J. Hernandez. (personal com-
munication, 2000) has revealed a calc-alkaline af-
finity for the entire igneous basement, suggesting an
arc-related origin.

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 147
Figure 14. Plots of: (a) La/Yb against Th/Hf showing
Cretaceous arc lavas from Puerto Rico (Schellekens,
1998); and (b) Ba/Nb against La/Y showing Cretaceous
boninites, island arc tholeiites (IAT), and calc-alkaline
(CA) lavas from Cuba (Kerr et al., 1999). Caribbean IAT
and CA fields show data from other circum-Caribbean
Cretaceous arc lavas. (Data sources are in Kerr et al.,
1999).
Virgin Islands
The Water Island Formation is the type example
of the IAT series (or primitive island-arc series) in the
Caribbean (Donnelly, 1972; 1994; Donnelly and Ro-
gers, 1967) and consists of mafic and siliceous lavas
with pyroclastic rocks outcropping near the top of
the succession. Mafic rocks are less abundant than
the siliceous rocks (keratophyres). Donnelly et al.
(1990) reported upper Aptian to lower Albian (115 –
110 Ma) radiolarian ages for the top of the formation.
An angular unconformity separates the Water Is-
land Formation from the overlying Louisenhoj For-
mation, which consists of subaerially erupted ande-
site and its pyroclastic derivatives (Donnelly, 1994).
Pb isotopes show that the lavas of the Water Island
Formation contain very little subducted sediment
(Donnelly et al., 1971). A sedimentary succession im-
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mediately overlying the Louisenhoj Formation con-
tains late Albian (
100 Ma) ammonites (Young, 1972).
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico consists of a complex amalgamation
of accreted arcs and ocean floor. The island is divided
into three subduction-related provinces, each show-
ing a broad progression from IAT through CA to
shoshonitic geochemical affinity ( Jolly et al., 1998,
2001). The central province is the most extensive and
consists of five east-west tectonic belts that reveal that
activity migrated northward over time ( Jolly et al.,
1998). The oldest lithologies are Aptian (124–112 Ma)
volcanic breccias, and the activity continues until the
Maastrichtian (74–65 Ma), when volcaniclastic tuffs
are abundant. The southwestern province is under-
lain by a lower–upper Jurassic basement, already dis-
cussed: the Bermeja Complex. The overlying arc rocks
are dominated by detrital volcanic units containing
the remnants of two island arcs of Campanian-
Maastrichtian to Eocene (80– 45 Ma) age. The north-
eastern province consists of a lower Albian to Eocene
(112 – 45 Ma) volcanic arc and associated sediments,
although folding and large-scale strike-slip faulting
renders correlation of different units difficult. (See
Schellekens [1998] and Jolly et al. [1998, 2001] for
review.)
A progressive increase in La/Yb and Th/Hf ratios
(Figure 14a) reveals a gradual change from the IAT
series to the CA series, but both series apparently
were coeval at times (Schellekens, 1998; Jolly et al.,
1998), The first calc-alkaline lavas erupted at
100 Ma
and are interpreted as the addition of a sedimentary
component to the source region (Schellekens, 1998).
Radiogenic isotope evidence confirms this gradual
change from an IAT to CA (Frost et al., 1998), and
there is no evidence for a sudden change in geo-
chemical affinity attributable to a subduction polarity
reversal. Additionally, in the Northeastern Province,
no unconformity has been identified until 85 Ma
( Jolly et al., 1998). Thus, it is probable that subduc-
tion polarity reversal did not occur until the San-
tonian (86– 83 Ma), yet many calc-alkaline lavas are
significantly older than this, implying that there is
little connection between the polarity-reversal event
and eruption of lavas with calc-alkaline affinity.
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a geologically complex area, consist-
ing of 11 distinct arc-related blocks in addition to
oceanic plateau and oceanic crust. The arc rocks in-
clude belts of serpentinized peridotites, blueschists,

148 / Kerr et al.
and granodiorite plutons (Mann et al., 1991). The
Cretaceous-Eocene-arc rocks in the north of the is-
land represent a fore-arc, magmatic arc, oceanic base-
ment, and a possible upper Cretaceous back-arc basin
(Draper and Lewis, 1991). The Maimon Formation is
a northwestern-trending belt (9 by 73 km) of meta-
morphosed volcanic arc rocks comprising a bimodal
basaltic-keratophyre suite, and it represents the Early
Cretaceous forearc (Lewis et al., 2000). Lewis et al.
(2000) showed that more mafic lavas range from tho-
leiites with boninitic affinities (TiO2 = 0.2–0.4 wt.%;
MgO = V 15.4 wt.%) to typical IAT basalts. The bo-
ninitic basalts display slightly depleted LREE pat-
terns (Figure 12b) and the keratophyres possess less-
depleted LREE patterns with negative Eu anomalies
(Figure 12b). The Maimon Formation is of similar
age and geochemistry to the Water Island Forma-
tion of the Virgin Islands (Lewis et al., 2000).
The Los Ranchos Formation (Mann et al., 1991;
Kesler et al., 1991a) comprises rhyolites, tuffs, ande-
sites, volcanic breccias, and pillowed basalts and
represents the Early Cretaceous magmatic arc (Cum-
ming and Kesler, 1987) belonging to the IAT suite
(Lebron and Perfit, 1993, 1994). To the east, this vol-
canic succession is overlain by the Loma La Vega vol-
canics and the Las Guajabas tuffs (Lebron and Perfit,
1993, 1994), both of which are arc-derived lavas of
calc-alkaline affinity with steep chondrite-normalized
REE patterns (Figure 12b). The unconformity with the
IAT volcanics below and the CA rocks above has been
linked to the subduction polarity-reversal event (Leb-
ron and Perfit, 1993, 1994). The unconformity can be
constrained to the Albian-Aptian (97–124.5 Ma) by
the presence of a fossiliferous limestone occurring
directly above it. At this point, it should be stressed
that an equivalent unconformity is found only in
the Virgin Islands and possibly in Cuba, not in other
Caribbean arc-related units. It is therefore doubtful
that this relatively localized (to the northeastern
Caribbean) event can be interpreted as correspond-
ing to a Caribbean-wide subduction polarity reversal.
Cuba
Cuba consists of a series of accreted Jurassic and
Cretaceous rocks representing various tectonic envi-
ronments (Itturalde-Vinent, 1994; Kerr et al., 1999).
Many of these terranes contain rocks of island-arc af-
finities, albeit highly deformed and metamorphosed.
Rocks of boninitic, IAT, CA, and back-arc affinity have
all been identified in the Cuban accretionary complex
(Kerr et al., 1999). The presence of latest Jurassic–Early
Cretaceous boninites is thought to be indicative of an
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early phase of the main Cretaceous Caribbean arc.
Rocks of the IAT series are found as basalt and ande-
site blocks in an ophiolitic melange in the north,
south-central, and eastern parts of the island (Kerr
et al., 1999; Zhou et al., 2001). Despite alteration,
these lavas display close similarities to other IAT rocks
situated around the Caribbean (Kerr et al., 1999)
(Figure 14b).
Rocks of calc-alkaline affinity are found predom-
inantly in south-central and southeastern Cuba
(Iturralde-Vinent, 1994). Albian-Turonian (112 – 88
Ma) tuffs, limestones, and andesite-dacites comprise
the main lithologies, intruded and metamorphosed
by extensive plutonic bodies (Iturralde-Vinent, 1997).
These suites were followed by eruption of shoshonitic
lavas from the Santonian to Campanian (86–74 Ma).
The rocks of the CA series in Cuba possess less TiO2
than the IAT series (Kerr et al., 1999), along with a
more enriched LREE signature (Figure 14b). Kerr et al.
(1999) showed that the change from IAT to CA char-
acter was more gradual than previously suggested.
Jamaica
Jamaica consists of a complex amalgamation of
different Mesozoic and Cenozoic island-arc fragments.
The Lower Cretaceous Devils Racehorse Formation is
probably the oldest unit exposed on the island (Lewis
and Draper, 1990) and is tholeiitic in character. Al-
though little geochemical data have been published,
Donnelly et al. (1990) note that the Devils Racehorse
Formation has some characteristics of the IAT series,
in particular flat to slightly LREE-enriched patterns.
The Central Inlier consists of older units of IAT
affinity and younger CA units (Donnelly et al 1990),
but they have not been studied in any detail. The
7-km-thick Eocene Wagwater belt consists of clastic
conglomerates and sandstones interbedded with bi-
modal volcanics and volcaniclastics (Jackson, 1979)
that formed in an arc-crestal rift (Mann and Burke,
1990). The mafic lithologies (Halberstadt Volcanics)
show tholeiitic affinities, whereas the felsic units
(Newcastle Volcanics) are calc-alkaline in character
(Jackson and Smith, 1979); however, only limited geo-
chemical data are available (Donnelly et al., 1990).
Southern Mexico
The Guerrero terrane is an Late Jurassic–Early Cre-
taceous island arc (Tardy et al., 1994; Freydier et al.,
2000 that bears lithologic and geochemical similari-
ties to the Caribbean arc and is coeval with some of
these arcs (e.g. Puerto Rico). Tardy et al. (1994) iden-
tified five arc-related lithologic units, four of which

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 149
show oceanic affinities and are composed of bimodal
lavas, intrusives, and volcaniclastic rocks. These units
show an evolution from IAT basalts to calc-alkaline
basalts and andesites. The IAT units possess relatively
flat REE patterns, whereas the CA rocks are LREE
enriched (Figure 13b). A fifth type, exposed on the
Pacific coast, consists of CA lavas interbedded with
subaerial ignimbrites and continental red beds and
represents an arc formed on continental crust (Tardy
et al., 1994).
Costa Rica–Santa Elena Complex
The Santa Elena ophiolite complex in Costa Rica
(Figure 6) is made up of several distinct lithologic
units, including a volcano-sedimentary succession,
pillow basalts, and intrusive mafic bodies (Frisch et al.,
1992; Hauff et al., 2000b). The pillow basalts and in-
trusives all have similar arc-like geochemical signa-
tures with moderate negative Nb anomalies and a
general depletion in incompatible elements Lacn/
Ybcn = 0.45 (Hauff et al., 2000b) (Figure 13c). New Ar-
Ar dates indicate an age of 109 ± 2 Ma for a pillow
basalt and 124 ± 4 Ma for a plagioclase separate from
an intrusive gabbro (Hauff et al., 2000b). These mem-
bers of the Santa Elena Complex, therefore, are inter-
preted as representing an early –middle Cretaceous
IAT series.
Colombia
Subduction-related rocks also are associated with
the complex accretionary margin of Colombia, along
with units of oceanic-plateau affinity (Figure 7). In
the Central Cordillera, intermediate to basic volcano-
sedimentary rocks are found, known as the Quebra-
dagrande Complex (Nivia et al., 1996). They show a
clear subduction-related signature with high LREE,
Ba, Rb, and K2O relative to Nb and Zr (A. Nivia and
A.C. Kerr, unpublished data). Ammonites, radiolaria
and brachiopods in the complex give it a Valanginian-
Albian age (140 –97 Ma) (Gomez et al., 1995).
The Western Cordillera contains at least two sep-
arate arc-related suites: an Upper Cretaceous IAT and
CA suite and a younger, exclusively CA suite. The
Ricaurte-Altaquer area in the south of the Western
Cordillera (Figure 7) comprises submarine basaltic
to andesitic flows, volcaniclastics, and minor shal-
low intrusives possessing IAT and CA affinities, with
Lacn/Ybcn ratios of between 4 and 10 (Figure 12d); an
intercalated chert contains Campanian (83 – 74 Ma)
radiolaria (Spadea and Espinosa, 1996). The similar-
ity in age and geochemistry (Figure 12) to the Upper
Cretaceous Naranjal Unit in northern Ecuador led
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Kerr et al. (2002b) to suggest that the two units are
correlative.
The younger Dabeiba volcanic arc crops out on the
flank of the Western Cordillera in north-central Co-
lombia (Tistl and Salazar, 1994); it has yielded lower
Tertiary Ar-Ar ages of 43 ± 1 Ma (Kerr et al., 1997a).
The few analysed samples suggest that it has a calc-
alkaline affinity and consists of mafic to felsic flows
intruded by an almost coeval dioritic batholith (Tistl
and Salazar, 1994).
Ecuador
Ecuador has an accretionary margin consisting
of many juxtaposed oceanic-plateau and island-arc
blocks. There is evidence in Ecuador of several Meso-
zoic oceanic-arc events (Figure 7). The San Lorenzo arc
in coastal Ecuador includes basaltic flows and volca-
niclastics rocks, with sediments containing fauna of
late Campanian to Maastrichtian age (83–65 Ma) (Jail-
lard et al., 1995), an age range which is confirmed by an
Ar-Ar age of 72.7 ± 1.4 Ma (Lebras et al., 1987). The
rocks show LREE enrichment (Figure 12d) (Lebras et al.,
1987; Reynaud et al., 1999) typical of a CA suite.
The thin Las Orquideas unit of coastal Ecuador is
made up of pillow basalts overlain by Cenomanian-
Turonian black shales and underlain by the Piñon
Unit (oceanic plateau). The Las Orquideas unit has
high (CA-like) Lacn/Ybcn ratios of approximately 5 (Fig-
ure 12c); biostratigraphic constraints place it as pre-
Cenomanian –Turonian (Reynaud et al., 1999).
The island-arc rocks of the Western Cordillera south
of the equator are known as the Macuchi Unit and
consist of basaltic and dacitic flows, volcaniclastics,
and fine-grained sedimentary rocks. The rocks of the
Macuchi Formation display typical island-arc tholei-
ite characteristics, with Lacn/Ybcn ratios of less than
5 (Figure 12c) (Lebras et al., 1987; Kerr et al. 2002b).
Paleontologic ages range from late Palaeocene to Eo-
cene (Kerr et al., 2002b). As a result of a BGS-CODIGEM
(British Geological Society — Corporacion de Desar-
rollo e Investigacion Geologico-Minero-Metalugica)
mapping project from 1995 – 2000, previously undis-
covered accreted island-arc rocks, known as the Na-
ranjal arc, have been identified in northern Ecuador
(Boland et al., 2000). These Late Cretaceous basalts
and volcaniclastics can be correlated with the Rica-
urte arc in Colombia (Kerr et al., 2002b).
Subduction-related Rocks: A Summary Statement
In concluding this section we note: (1) the lack of
a regional, pre-100 Ma unconformity in the Carib-
bean arc rocks, and (2) the general absence of a sudden

150 / Kerr et al.
Figure 15. Sketch map showing the locations of Cretaceous plutonic rocks in the Caribbean region and in northern
South America.
switch-over from IAT to CA magmatism. The change
from IAT to CA magmatism is gradual, with the two
types being coeval in many post-100 Ma localities for
an extended period of time. That there was not a ma-
jor period of uplift or tectonic disturbance throughout
the region in the Albian indicates that a Caribbean-
wide subduction polarity reversal did not occur until
after 85 Ma (cf. White et al., 1999).
CRETACEOUS PLUTONIC ROCKS OF THE
CARIBBEAN REGION
Silicic plutonic rocks represent another compo-
nent of the Cretaceous arc magmatism around the
Caribbean (Figure 15). These plutons potentially allow
us to determine the location of ‘fossil’ subduction
zones around the Caribbean, even where the volcanic
arc lavas have been eroded away.
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The majority of dates for Caribbean plutons have
been obtained by K-Ar or Rb-Sr methods (for a pre-
1984 summary, see Burke et al. [1984]). However,
more accurate intrusion ages now can be obtained by
Ar-Ar (step heating of biotite or hornblende) or U/Pb
(zircon) techniques.
Lidiak and Jolly (1996) reviewed the elemental and
isotopic compositions and mineralogic characteristics
of many circum-Caribbean granitoids. They identified
two main types: low-K tonalite suites and high-K calc-
alkaline suites dominated by quartz monzodiorite
and granodiorite. These plutonic rocks are interme-
diate between the tholeiitic and calc-alkaline series
(Figures 16a and b). Initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios for Creta-
ceous plutons from the Caribbean region vary from
0.7024 to 0.706, with the majority between 0.703
and 0.704. REE plots for the plutons (Figures 16c –f )
range from flat to LREE-enriched patterns (Figure 16c)
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 151

Figure 16. Trace-element ratio and extended chondrite-normalized REE plots for Cretaceous circum-Caribbean plutonic
rocks; Aruba: White et al. (1999); El Valle: Lebron and Perfit (1993); Tobago: Frost and Snoke (1989); Maguayo, Morovis,
San Lorenzo, Utuado: Smith et al. (1998); St Croix: Lidiak and Jolly (1998).

152 / Kerr et al.
(Lidiak and Jolly, 1996). Little is known, however,
about the age and chemistry of many Cretaceous-
Tertiary plutons from the Caribbean region. We will
therefore review the localities in which recent de-
tailed studies have been carried out.
Aruba
The
70 km2 Aruba batholith (Figure 15) is pre-
dominantly tonalitic with subordinate granite, grano-
diorite, diorite, mela-diorite (‘‘hooibergite’’), and gab-
bronorite. Crosscutting relationships in the batholith
demonstrate that the mafic components are slightly
older. The batholith intrudes and metamorphoses
the CCOP-related Aruba Lava Formation, and there
is evidence that intrusion occurred during move-
ment along shear zones in the host rock (White et al.,
1999).
Priem et al. (1966) and Santamaria and Schubert
(1974) dated Aruba batholith biotites by Rb-Sr and
K-Ar, and obtained ages ranging from 75 ± 4 to 67 ± 4
Ma. Rb-Sr isochrons (Priem et al., 1978) implied that
the batholith represented two phases of intrusion:
85.1 ± 0.5 Ma and 70.5 ± 2.2 Ma. Subsequent Rb-Sr
and K-Ar dating on hornblendes concluded that in-
trusion of the batholith occurred at 88.5 ± 0.8 Ma
(reported range: 89.5 – 83.5 Ma), with thermal reset-
ting events at
72 Ma and
62 Ma (Priem et al., 1986).
Recent Ar-Ar dating of biotite and hornblende sepa-
rates appears to confirm that the batholith intruded
between 85 and 82 Ma (White et al., 1999).
The Aruba batholith has major element character-
istics generally consistent with the CA series (White
et al., 1999). In terms of the trace-element discrimi-
nants used for the volcanic-arc rocks (Figures 14 and
17b), the batholith is transitional between IAT and
CA. In this case, the magmatism must be later than
the subduction polarity reversal because the batho-
lith intrudes plateau-related rocks.
Venezuelan Antilles
The islands of the Venezuelan Antilles consist of
metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks in-
truded by silicic plutons, overlain unconformably
by Tertiary to Holocene sedimentary rocks (Jackson,
1994). Several K-Ar ages were obtained by Santama-
rı́a and Schubert (1974) (and others, see Bellizia and
Dengo [1990]) but due to resetting, these ages, which
range from 66–71 Ma, are best considered as mini-
mum ages. The Garantón pluton, which covers an
area of
13 km2 on La Blanquilla, includes tonalite,
trondhjemite, and granodiorite and has yielded
K-Ar ages of 62 to 64 Ma (Santamarı́a and Schubert,
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1974) and ages as old as 81 Ma (Bellizzia and Dengo,
1990).
The trondhjemitic Matasiete pluton on Margarita
Island ranges in age from 114 – 105 Ma (U-Pb zircon;
Stöckhert et al., 1995). The trondhjemites intrude
metabasaltic rocks of the La Rinconada Group (dis-
cussed earlier in the section titled ‘‘Margarita Island’’),
but it is not known whether trondhjemites were
formed by precollisional oceanic magmatism or arc
magmatism. The calc-alkaline El Salado granite also
intrudes the La Rinconada Group and gives a U-Pb
(zircon) age of 86 Ma (Stöckhert et al., 1995). These
U-Pb ages and field relationships suggest that a high-
pressure metamorphic event occurred on Margarita
Island between 105 and 86 Ma that could potentially
be related to subduction polarity reversal in the Carib-
bean (Stöckhert et al., 1995).
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Two small stocks intrude Cretaceous sedimentary
rocks on St. Croix: the Fountain Gabbro and the
Southgate Diorite (Whetten, 1966). K-Ar (hornblende)
dates for the plutons range from 66 to 71 Ma (Speed
et al., 1979). Smith et al. (1998) reported Ar-Ar total
gas ages of 67 Ma (hornblende), 66 Ma (biotite), and
57 Ma (K-feldspar) for the Fountain stock. The Foun-
tain gabbro has high K2O and other incompatible
trace-element contents together with enriched LREE
patterns (Figure 17e) (Smith et al., 1998; Lidiak and
Jolly, 1998).
Puerto Rico
Cretaceous intrusive rocks in central Puerto Rico
consist of small stocks, geochemically similar to vol-
canic rocks of the same age, and large composite
bodies intruded in several stages with no associated
volcanic rocks. Smith et al. (1998) propose that the
small stocks and associated volcanics resulted from a
northward-dipping subduction zone, whereas the
composite batholiths were intruded after the initia-
tion of a new subduction zone with the opposite
polarity at around 80 Ma.
The San Lorenzo batholith (500 km2) is dominated
by tonalite, with minor granodiorite, quartz monzo-
nite, quartz monzodiorite, and gabbro (Rogers, 1977;
Rogers et al., 1979). An early phase of the batholith is
constrained only by K-Ar ages of 109 ± 9 and 100 ± 16
(Cox et al., 1977) and is of IAT affinity (Frost et al.,
1998). Smith et al. (1998) report Ar-Ar ages of 75 Ma
(hornblende) and 65 Ma (K-feldspar) for the main
phase of the batholith. This phase possesses La/Yb of
3–5 and Th/Hf of 0.5–1.4 (Figure 17b), and therefore
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 153

Figure 17. Summary of all ages discussed in this paper for circum-Caribbean and Central and South American Jurassic
and Cretaceous igneous rocks. Abbreviations: CCOP: circum-Caribbean oceanic plateau; u/c = major unconformity;
oc = Jurassic-Cretaceous oceanic crust older than CCOP; op = oceanic plateau; IAT = island arc tholeiite; CA = calc alkaline;
P = pluton. Question marks and dotted lines indicate uncertain ages.

154 / Kerr et al.
belongs to the CA series (Frost et al., 1998; Smith et al.,
1998).
The Utuado batholith (175 km2) is also compos-
ite, containing diorite and granodiorite with tonal-
ite, quartz monzodiorite, and minor gabbro. Smith
et al. (1998) obtained Ar-Ar ages for the batholith of
76 Ma (hornblende) and 69 Ma (K-feldspar). In terms
of trace elements and isotopic composition, the batho-
lith is similar to the main phase of the San Lorenzo
batholith (Smith et al., 1998; Frost et al., 1998).
The Morovis stock comprises homogeneous grano-
diorite that has been dated as 86 Ma (Ar-Ar total gas
hornblende) (Schellekens et al., 1990). The Maguayo
porphyry stock has yielded an Ar-Ar age of 83 Ma
(Schellekens et al., 1990) and is thought to be a sub-
volcanic intrusion related to the surrounding Magu-
ayo volcano-stratigraphic association (Schellekens
et al., 1990).
Hispaniola
Plutonic rocks on Hispaniola fall into three groups
(Bowin, 1966; J. Lewis, personal communication,
2002): (1) mafic-ultramafic plutons (e.g., Jautia batho-
lith), (2) a main belt of tonalite plutons of the Cor-
dillera Central, and (3) a more northern, east-west-
trending belt of tonalite plutons (e.g., the El Valle
pluton).
The ultramafic-mafic composite intrusions give Ar-
Ar dates of around 123 Ma (Hernáiz Huerta et al.,
2000a, b). These bodies are relatively undeformed
and intrude the Duarte Complex and Cretaceous
volcanic rocks (Lewis and Draper, 1990; Kesler et al.,
1991a, b). They are, in turn, intruded by the main
belt of tonalite plutons of the Cordillera Central.
These tonalite plutons include the large composite
batholiths of Loma de Cabrera (1500 km2) and El Rio
(500 km2) as well as more homogeneous, smaller
intrusions including the El Bao batholith (165 km2)
and the Medina Stock (50 km2). Kesler et al. (1991a, b)
combined new K-Ar data with published ages and
suggested that most of the tonalitic magmatism in
the southern part of the Cordillera Central occurred
between 87 and 80 Ma, although volumetrically im-
portant tonalitic magmatism appears to continue
after 80 Ma in the northern part of the Cordillera.
The northern east-west-trending plutons intrude
the Early Cretaceous units (Los Ranchos Formation).
These include the Zambrana and El Valle intrusions,
which display moderate LREE enrichment (Figure 17f;
Lebron and Perfit, 1994) and are interpreted as be-
longing to the IAT series. These batholiths may well
be genetically related to the Los Ranchos volcanics.
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The Zambrana intrusion gives a U –Pb zircon age of
115 ± 0.3 Ma ( J. Lewis, personal communication,
2002). The El Valle intrusion has yielded dates of
87.3 ± 4.4 Ma and 95 ± 4.8 Ma (Lebron and Perfit,
1993); however, these dates are K – Ar whole-rock
determinations and are almost certainly too young.
Jamaica
Intrusive rocks crop out in three inliers in Jamaica
(Figure 15). A granodiorite intrusion (55 km2) in the
Above Rocks Inlier intrudes arc-related rocks of un-
known age. Chubb and Burke (1963) reported K-Ar
(biotite), Rb-Sr, and U-Pb ages of 65 ± 3 Ma for this
intrusion. Granodiorites of the Central Inlier (Ginger
Ridge stock) also intrude arc-related rocks. A K-Ar age
of 85 ± 9 was reported by Lewis et al. (1973) on a
contact hornfels adjacent to the intrusion.
The Guava River stock in the Blue Mountain Inlier
is composed of granodiorite and has been dated as
80 ± 5 Ma (K-Ar biotite; Wadge et al., 1982). How-
ever, according to Lewis and Draper (1990), it in-
trudes Maastrichtian rocks. The Blue Mountain Inlier
(in which CCOP rocks of the Bath-Dunrobin Forma-
tion occur) contains other predominantly tonalitic
plutons (Lidiak and Jolly, 1996).
Cuba
Cretaceous granitoid rocks crop out in a 400-km-
long belt in central Cuba and intrude amphibolites
and basalts of the Mabujina and Zaza zones (Draper
and Barros, 1994). They are divided into two groups:
the Camagüey province and the Las Villas province
(Mossakovsky et al., 1988). Low-K and medium-K
granitoids are present in both provinces, but a youn-
ger high-K series is present only in the Camagüey prov-
ince. The low-K granitoids belong to the IAT series,
whereas the medium-K granitoids are calc-alkaline
(Stanek, 1996; Lidiak and Jolly, 1996).
In the Las Villas province, U-Pb (zircon) ages for the
low-K series range from 118 to 90 Ma, whereas K-Ar
ages from the medium-K series vary between 103 and
72 Ma (Lidiak and Jolly, 1996). The high-K series has
yielded K-Ar (hornblende) ages from 95 to 85 Ma
(Eguipko et al., 1984; Stanek, 1996). Mineralization
related to intrusion of the Camagüey batholith at
Jacinto has given an Ar-Ar date of 72 Ma (Simon et al.,
1999).
Tobago
The plutonic suite on Tobago (
80 km2) is dom-
inated by gabbro and diorite, with minor quartz dio-
rite, tonalite, trondhjemite and ultramafic rocks (Frost

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 155
and Snoke, 1989; Lidiak and Jolly, 1998). also present.
Sharp and Snoke (1988) report that the complex, in-
cluding apparently related arc rocks of the Tobago
Volcanic Group, was emplaced during the interval
from 107 to 91 Ma. Limited geochemical data reveal
that the Tobago plutonic suite possess La/Yb ratios < 4
and major-element characteristics that are consistent
with an IAT signature (Frost and Snoke, 1989).
Other Cretaceous Plutons
In general, Cretaceous plutons in Central America
and northern South America could well do with a
detailed geochemical study. The dates, which exist, for
these batholiths are mostly pre-1985 K-Ar, and Rb-Sr
ages, and therefore are not as reliable as more recent
Ar-Ar or U-Pb ages. However, for completeness we
summarise in Table 3 what is known about these
batholiths.
Cretaceous Plutons: A Summary Statement
The intrusive rocks of the Caribbean region are
dominated by low-K tonalites and trondhjemites.
More trace-element data for the plutonic rocks, as
well as U-Pb or Ar-Ar dating, are required to allow an
integrated reconstruction of the location and com-
position of Cretaceous arc magmatism in the region.
Many of the reliable dates obtained are younger than
90 Ma, suggesting a significant pulse of subduction-
related magmatism at this time. On Aruba, it has been
proposed that this is related to the earliest stages of
subduction beneath the oceanic-plateau crust after
subduction polarity reversal (White et al., 1999). Other
examples of tonalitic batholiths are spatially associ-
ated with accreted basaltic rocks of the CCOP. It is
possible that remelting of basaltic underlying plateau
crust contributed to the low-K silicic magmatism.
Table 3. Age of Cretaceous batholiths in Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela.
Location Batholith
Mainland Venezuela Guaremal/Choroni
Oritapo
Honduras Mezapa
Tela
San Ignacio
Panama Cerro Azul, Rio Pito, Azuero
Colombia El Tambor
Buga
*Recent Ar-Ar dating of CCOP basalts, which the Buga batholith intrudes, imposes a maximum age of
85 Ma for the Buga batholith (Kerr et al., 2002a).
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TECTONIC DEVELOPMENT OF
THE CARIBBEAN PLATE
The age ranges of the Jurassic and Cretaceous igne-
ous rocks discussed in this paper, along with signif-
icant unconformities, are summarised on Figure 17.
Although opinions differ as to the causes and timing
of some of the tectonic events associated with the
emplacement of the Caribbean plate into the inter-
American (which was then part of the Atlantic) oce-
anic basin, the models broadly agree on several im-
portant points:
1) The rocks of the Caribbean plate formed in the
Pacific region and were carried toward the inter-
American oceanic basin sometime during the Cre-
taceous. During this period, eastward-dipping sub-
duction occurred along the western margin of the
inter-American oceanic basin.
2) For the Caribbean plate to separate from the Far-
allon plate and advance into the inter-American
oceanic basin, a reversal in polarity of the arc, from
eastward- to westward-dipping, was required.
3) During tectonic emplacement between the Amer-
icas, fragments of the oceanic plateau, ‘‘normal’’
oceanic crust, and pre-plateau arc rocks were
accreted onto the margins of the Caribbean and
northwestern South America by convergence
and transform motion.
Although it has been proposed that subduction
polarity reversal was caused by plateau accretion be-
tween 80–90 Ma (Burke et al., 1978; Burke, 1988; Sin-
ton et al., 1998; Kerr et al., 1999; White et al., 1999),
others have suggested that, in order to explain the
exhumation of Aptian-Albian blueschists around the
Age (method) References
79 ± 4 Ma (Rb-Sr) Morgan (1967), Santamaria and
Schubert (1974)
76 ± 4 Ma (K-Ar) Morgan (1967)
72 Ma (K-Ar) Horne et al. (1974,1976)
73 and 93 Ma (K-Ar) Horne et al. (1974,1976)
114 Ma (K-Ar) Horne et al. (1974,1976)
70 – 60 Ma (K-Ar) Kesler et al. (1977)
84 – 83 Ma (K-Ar) McCourt et al. (1984)
113 – 69 Ma (Rb-Sr, K-Ar) McCourt et al. (1984)

156 / Kerr et al.
Caribbean margins, polarity reversal must have oc-
curred much earlier (Beets et al., 1984; Pindell and
Barrett, 1990; Lebron and Perfit, 1994; Stöckhert et al.,
1995). A relatively rapid change from primitive IAT to
CA magmatism is cited as evidence of a pre-100 Ma
polarity reversal. However, as we have seen, IAT and
CA magmatism are coeval in the later stages of the
Caribbean arc; therefore, the change in magmatic
type is gradual and unrelated to subduction polarity
reversal.
If the gradual change from IAT to CA magmatism
(Figure 17) is not due to pre-100 Ma subduction po-
larity reversal, what, then, caused the exhumation
of Aptian-Albian blueschists and eclogites? Polarity
reversal is not the only possible mechanism that can
account for the occurrence of high-pressure rocks
around the Caribbean margins. Some accreted oceanic-
plateau fragments in the Caribbean region (Kerr et al.,
1999) and in northwestern South America (Lapierre
et al., 2000) are Aptian in age. Since little of this
Aptian (124 –112 Ma) oceanic plateau is preserved, it
is possible that it was a much smaller event (with
lower crustal thicknesses) than the 90 Ma event, and
therefore more of it was subducted. We propose that
collision of this plateau with the proto-Caribbean arc
in the Albian did not cause a subduction polarity
reversal — the plateau was not large enough or thick
enough — but rather resulted in subduction ‘‘back-
step’’ behind the trailing-edge plateau. Compression
prior to subduction back-step is a possible mechanism
for uplifting and exhuming the high-pressure meta-
morphic rocks found around the Caribbean margins.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CCOP
FORMATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE
DEPOSITION OF ORGANIC-RICH SEDIMENTS
Although it is widely recognised that the eruption
of continental flood basalts can have a modifying
effect on the environment through the emission of
CO2, SO2, halogens, and ash (e.g., Caldeira and Ram-
pino, 1990; Sutherland, 1994; Courtillot, 1994), it is
much less commonly realized that oceanic plateaus
also can have a detrimental effect on the environ-
ment, particularly the oceanic realm. These models
have been discussed in several papers (Sinton and
Duncan, 1997; Kerr, 1998) and will be only briefly
summarized here.
In addition to the CCOP, a continental flood-
basalt province in Madagascar and portions of the
oceanic Ontong Java and Kerguelen Plateaus also
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were formed
90 Ma (Sinton and Duncan, 1997; Kerr,
1998). All this volcanism coincided with the
91 Ma
Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (CTB). This bound-
ary is marked by the worldwide occurrence of ex-
tensive organic-rich, black-shale horizons (Schlanger
et al., 1987), implying a major phase of global ocean-
ic anoxia. The CTB is also marked by elevated d13C
values, a reduction in 87Sr/86Sr, inferred higher atmo-
spheric CO2 levels, and elevated temperatures, sea-
level transgression, and the demise of
25% of known
genera (Kerr, 1998).
Given the temporal association of increased vol-
canism in the oceans and these chemical, physical,
and biological phenomena, it is probable that there
are strong causal links between the anomalous oce-
anic volcanism and the environmental catastrophe
that befell the earth at this time. These causal links
are discussed below and summarised in Figure 18. The
physical effects of plume-related volcanism in the
oceans include higher sea levels, resulting both from
the extrusion of lava onto the sea floor and from
doming of the oceanic lithosphere (thus displacing
seawater) by the hot plume head. Oceanic-plateau
formation could also disrupt oceanic circulation pat-
terns. This may be particularly true of the Caribbean-
Colombian plateau that formed relatively close to
the only significant Cenomanian-Turonian oceanic
gateway between the Pacific and Atlantic. As the sup-
ply of deep, cold, oxygenated water to the Atlantic
came mostly from the Pacific (DeBoer, 1986), it is pos-
sible that circulation in the Pacific was disturbed to
such an extent that cool, polar waters were not cir-
culated to lower latitudes, resulting in increased oce-
anic anoxia.
Higher d13C values reflect increased rates of or-
ganic carbon burial (Arthur et al., 1987) as a result of
high productivity and more effective preservation of
organic material. Elevated carbon dioxide levels may
also have been a consequence of increased volcanic
activity from 92 –88 Ma. Kerr (1998) calculated that
approximately 1017 kg of CO2 would have been re-
leased as a result of oceanic plateau volcanism in the
Cenomanian-Turonian (cf. Arthur et al., 1987).
The dissolution of sulphur dioxide, chlorine, fluo-
rine, and hydrogen sulphide released into the sea by
the volcanism at this time would have made the
oceans more acidic. Arthur et al. (1987) suggested that
the lack of carbonate at the CTB may be the result of
dissolution by acidic seawater, thereby releasing CO2
and increasing atmospheric CO2 levels still further.
Addition of CO2 to the atmosphere would have
resulted in a substantial degree of global warming.
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No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 157

The solubility of CO2 in seawater decreases by 4% for that a ‘‘runaway greenhouse’’ climate may have de-
every 18C temperature rise (DeBoer, 1986). Thus, with veloped (Figure 18). Increased atmospheric CO2 and
this positive CO2 feedback mechanism, it is possible the upwelling of nutrients from the deep ocean could

Figure 18. Flow diagram showing the possible environmental effects of oceanic plateau volcanism and the possible
relationship with deposition of oil source rocks. (Diagram modified from Kerr, 1998).

158 / Kerr et al.
have resulted in increased productivity in ocean sur-
face waters (Figure 18), leading to the widespread dep-
osition of black shales. Warmer oceanic temperatures
could also contribute to anoxia, since the solubility of
oxygen in seawater decreases by 2% for every 18C
temperature rise (DeBoer, 1986).
Increased oceanic volcanism as a causal mecha-
nism for the development of oceanic anoxia and the
deposition of organic-rich sediments has important
implications for the location of potential oil source
rocks in the geologic record. This link is given further
credence by the occurrence of Aptian-Albian (124 –
97 Ma) black shales, which probably represent one of
the most extensive concentrations of organic-rich
black shales in the geologic record (Jenkyns, 1980;
Hallam, 1987; Bralower et al., 1993). It is no coinci-
dence that one of the most extensive periods of anom-
alous plume-related oceanic-plateau formation also
occurred in the Pacific and Indian oceans during this
period, including the Ontong Java Plateau, Hess Rise,
Manihiki Plateau, the East Mariana and Nauru Ba-
sins, and the Kerguelen Plateau (Eldholm and Coffin,
2000). It is highly likely that many of the world’s most
important occurrences of mid-Cretaceous oil source
rocks— for example, the La Luna and Querecual For-
mations in Northern Venezuela (James, 2000)— owe
their existence to the formation of oceanic plateaus in
the Pacific and Indian oceans, causing widespread
global anoxia.
This is obviously an interesting model, but how
applicable is it to older oceanic plateaus and black-
shale sequences? Major black-shale deposits occur
throughout the Mesozoic (Hallam, 1987) and some of
these correlate with oceanic plateau volcanism, e.g.,
important Kimmeridgian to Tithonian (155–146 Ma)
oil source rocks correlate with the formation of the
Sorachi Plateau in the Western Pacific (Kimura et al.,
1994). Furthermore, Sinemurian (204–195 Ma) black-
shale deposits in Europe and North and South America
correlate with the formation of the newly recognized
Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, at least part of
which erupted in the opening Atlantic ocean (Marzoli
et al., 1999). The formation of Toarcian (187–178 Ma)
black shales corresponds with the eruption of the
Karoo, Ferrar, and Weddell Sea large igneous province
during the break-up of Gondwana (Riley and Knight
2001).
To conclude this section, we tentatively pro-
pose that widespread global oceanic anoxia (and
the formation of oil source rocks) does not appear
to occur without the concurrent eruption of oce-
anic plateaus.
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CONCLUSIONS
1) During the Jurassic, oceanic crust formed as North
and South America rifted apart. The basalts of
this inter-American ocean mostly have been
subducted. However, some remnants of normal
oceanic crust from the Pacific have been pre-
served as accreted fragments around the Carib-
bean margins. They are Jurassic in age and are
LREE-depleted.
2) Many of the basaltic and picritic lavas around the
Caribbean margins and in northwestern South
America have been shown to be parts of a Cre-
taceous oceanic plateau, which also makes up a
significant part of the Caribbean plate. Because
of its buoyancy, this Pacific-derived oceanic
plateau resisted subduction. As a result, fragments
have been accreted to the margins of the Carib-
bean and northwestern South America. Associ-
ated subduction polarity reversal and back-step
contributed to the isolation of the thickened
Caribbean plateau as a separate plate.
3) A gradual change from IAT to CA magmatism in
the Cretaceous pre-plateau arc systems of the
Caribbean, rather than an abrupt Albian change,
and combined with the lack of a Caribbeanwide
Albian unconformity, argues against subduction
polarity reversal in the Caribbean region at this
time.
4) Many of the tonalitic and granitic arc-related bath-
oliths are younger than 90 Ma. These plutons
may represent an important indicator of tectonic
change in the proto-Caribbean realm.
5) An earlier Cretaceous plateau collision also has
been recognised in the Caribbean and northern
South America. Of this much smaller plateau,
formed in the Pacific during the Albian, little
is preserved today; probably it was mostly sub-
ducted. We suggest that uplift and tectonic dis-
turbance associated with this collision were re-
sponsible for the exhumation of the Caribbean
blueschists in the Albian. In contrast, the at-
tempted subduction of the much thicker
90-Ma
plateau resulted in subduction polarity reversal
and preservation of oceanic plateau fragments.
6) Oceanic plateau volcanism around the Cenoma-
nian-Turonian boundary (CTB) appears to have
contributed to global warming, the mass extinc-
tion related to global oceanic anoxia in the
oceans, and the formation of organic-rich black
shales. Oceanic plateaus appear to correlate well
with organic-rich black shales, and we suggest

No Oceanic Plateau — No Caribbean Plate? The Seminal Role of an Oceanic Plateau in Caribbean Plate Evolution / 159
that oceanic plateaus have been important in the
generation of oil source rocks.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Throughout the years we have been fortunate to
have worked and carried on discussions with a wide
range of people who have contributed to our under-
standing of Caribbean and Colombian geology and
oceanic volcanism. These include Ray Kent, Dallas
Abbott, Giz Marriner, Dave Millward, Alvaro Nivia,
Manuel Itturalde, John Aspden, Bill McCourt, Leon
Pors, Gerard Klaver, Dirk Beets, Godfrey Fitton, Nick
Arndt, Sidonie Révillon, John Mahoney, Bob Dun-
can, Chris Sinton, Matthew Thirlwall, Henriette La-
pierre, and Folkmar Hauff. We thank Kevin Burke,
John Lewis, Henriette Lapierre, and Keith James for
their constructive reviews of the manuscript. This
work was supported by the Natural Environment Re-
search Council (UK) through grants GR3/8984 and
GR9/583A and through NERC studentships GT4/95/
157E and GT4/98/ES/135. Andrew Kerr is grateful to
the Leverhulme Trust for the provision of a research
fellowship that enabled the continuation of this work.
Rosalind White is currently supported by a Royal
Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship.
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