International Geology Review

2011, iFirst article, 1–13

The Greater Antillean Arc: Early Cretaceous origin and proposed relationship to Central
American subduction mélanges: implications for models of Caribbean evolution
James Pindella,b *, Walter V. Mareschc , Uwe Martensa and Klaus Stanekd
a Tectonic Analysis Ltd, Chestnut House, Duncton, West Sussex GU28 0LH, UK; b School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff
University, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3YE, UK; c Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Geophysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780
Bochum, Germany; d Institut für Geologie, Technische Universitat Bergakademie Freiberg, Bernhard-von-Cotta-Strasse 2, D-09596
Freiberg, Germany
(Accepted 6 July 2010)
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We integrate known and suspected Meso-American plate motions with the geochronology of Caribbean arcs and Central
American HP/LT belts to promote two primary concepts. The first is that the Greater Antillean Arc formed at about 135 Ma
by inception of SW-dipping subduction along a sinistral ‘inter-American transform’ connecting the west-facing subduction
zones of the North and South American Cordillera. Caribbean arc magmas date from 135 Ma and Caribbean HP/LT com-
plexes from 118 Ma, and they were formed as the Caribbean lithosphere was engulfed between North and South America
during westward drift of – and divergence between – the latter. Initial arc magmatism predates exhumation of HP/LT meta-
morphic rocks by 10–20 million years; that is, magmatism developed faster than refrigeration and recycling in the subduction
zones. However, pre-130 Ma HP/LT mélanges in Nicaragua (Siuna complex, 139 Ma 40 Ar/39 Ar) and in Guatemala both
north and south of the Motagua fault zone (140–130 Ma Sm–Nd ages) require a different explanation. Therefore, our
second concept is that these older rocks originated within a mature, west-facing Cordilleran subduction channel west of
Mexico and/or the Chortis Block, and were subsequently dragged southeastward during sinistral subduction to a position
along the NW portion of the ‘inter-American transform’. Upon initiation of SW-dipping subduction along this transform at
135 Ma, these older HP/LT (and minor arc) rocks became entrained within the transpressive zone between the western end
of the Caribbean Arc and the southeast-facing Proto-Caribbean passive margin of the Chortis and Maya blocks. They were
obliquely and diachronously accreted along these margins in the Albian to Maastrichtian. Parts of these mélanges are now
exposed on both the northern and the southern flanks of the Motagua Valley of central Guatemala, and we further develop
earlier suggestions that the southern Motagua mélanges were emplaced there on Chortis basement units by mid-Tertiary
south-vergent transpression along the Motagua Fault.
Keywords: Greater Antillean Arc; Caribbean tectonics; HP/LT belts; plate kinematics; inter-American transform

Introduction 1993; Pindell 1993; Pindell et al. 2005); (3) an intra-Pacific

Main aspects of the Late Cretaceous to present engulf-
ment of the Pacific-derived Caribbean lithosphere between
the westward-drifting American continents by SW-dipping
subduction beneath the Antillean Arc have long been
understood (Pindell and Dewey 1982; Burke 1988; Pindell
et al. 1988; Pindell and Barrett 1990). However, Early
Cretaceous ‘Farallon/Caribbean’ plate interactions with
the Americas, including the site, timing, and mechanism
of origin of the Caribbean arc(s) along the American
Cordillera, remain debated and carry enormous impli-
cations for large-scale processes such as plume activity
within the Caribbean. Previous opinions range from (1)
125 Ma ‘initiation of southward-dipping subduction at
a previously-formed Atlantic fracture zone’ (Pindell and
Dewey 1982); (2) Aptian (125–115 Ma) arc-polarity rever-
sal from NE- to SW-dipping subduction (Lebrón and Perfit,
origin of an E-facing arc possibly with Aptian arc–arc
collision at the mouth of the Proto-Caribbean Seaway
(Mann et al. 2007); (4) Late Albian–Cenomanian arc-
polarity reversal (∼100–95 Ma; Stöckhert et al. 1995);
and (5) Santonian–Campanian (∼85–80 Ma) arc-polarity
reversal (Duncan and Hargraves 1984; Burke 1988; Kerr
et al. 2003). Only option 5, which relates the reversal to
the choking of an earlier SW-facing arc by the mainly
92–88 Ma buoyant Caribbean Basalt Plateau, allows the
Caribbean plateau-forming event to occur in a purely
intra-oceanic setting. However, this model fails to explain
(1) the fact that all circum-Caribbean subduction com-
plexes (associated with SW-dipping subduction) possess
HP-LT metamorphic rocks far older (both peak and cool-
ing ages) than 85 Ma (e.g. summary by Pindell et al.
2005; Garcia-Casco et al. 2006; Krebs et al. 2008); (2)

∗ Corresponding author. Email: jim@tectonicanalysis.com

ISSN: 0020-6814 print/1938-2839 online

© 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00206814.2010.510008
http://www.informaworld.com
 2 J. Pindell et al.

the lack of a systematic orogenic event or an interrup- Meso-American plate kinematics

tion or shift in arc magmatism throughout the Caribbean
Arc that could be tied to polarity reversal at ∼85–80 Ma;
(3) evidence that Caribbean–northern Andean convergent
interactions were already underway before 90 Ma (Kennan
and Pindell 2009 and references cited therein); and (4)
possible contamination of Antillean arc lavas of Puerto
Rico by a Proto-Caribbean (i.e. Atlantic) rather than a
Pacific sedimentary signature as far back as the Aptian
(Jolly et al. 2008). Additional objections not noted here
have been made concerning the other options, hence the
ongoing debate.
Here we examine pertinent plate kinematics, magmatic
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Jurassic NW–SE divergence between the Americas began
to produce tracts of oceanic crust by the Late Jurassic in the
Gulf of Mexico, Proto-Caribbean Seaway, and Colombian
Marginal Seaway (Pindell 1993; Pindell and Kennan 2001,
2009). Most authors accept that spreading in the latter
separated the continental crusts of the Chortis Block and
Colombia, and that a plate boundary of debated style must
have connected the east-dipping subduction zones of the
North and South American Cordillera at the mouth of this
widening seaway. The Colombian Marginal Seaway contin-
ued to widen at slow to medium spreading rates from 155
to 125 Ma. In the Aptian, the westward flight of both North

arc chronology, and subduction zone HP/LT data of the
Caribbean region (Figure 1) to assess the validity of the
various options, or to propose a new one if warranted.
Integration of these data suggests that SW-dipping sub-
duction was most likely initiated along an ‘inter-American
transform’ at about 135 Ma, in a scenario similar to but
slightly older than that suggested by Pindell et al. (2005,
their Figure 7C).
and South America from Africa accelerated drastically.
Pindell (1993) suggested that this trenchward acceleration
of the Americas and the west-facing Neocomian ‘inter-
American’ arc’s hanging wall caused the arc system to
acquire a ‘convergent’ tectonic style (Dewey 1980), such
that Cordilleran-wide eastward backthrusting evolved at
the inter-American arc into W-dipping subduction, thus
effecting polarity reversal. In addition, the tectonic style

Oriente Cuba
Western limit NORTH Los Pasos/
continental AMERICA Mabujina Sierra
Oaxaquia Bahamas del Convento
Terrane Santa Los Ranchos
Sepur Cruz oph. Cub
foredeep D a
MAYA E F
Mexico Motagua 20°
Valley Jam. Hisp.

B C A Ris
e
Bath Dunrobin
SHPB
ag ua Devil’s Racecourse
N icar Rc
b
CB(EK) E
CHORTIS LN PLAT
IB B E A N o u s)
CAR llochthon
Chiapas Massif (a
Cuchumatanes Colón foldbelt
North Motagua mélange Siuna
South Motagua mélange
10°
Pan SOUTH
ama
-Co AMERICA
sta
Rica
Ar c

–100° –90° –80° –70°

Figure 1. Topography–bathymetry of the studied region and positions of features mentioned in text. Western limit of Oaxaquia Terrane
in Mexico (thinner black dash) from Talavera and Suastegui (2000). Heavier black dash is our estimate for the palinspastically-restored
position of that limit, before Laramide shortening in Mexico. Heavy grey dashed lines comprise the diachronous North Caribbean Suture,
now offset by sinistral transcurrent fault systems. Offset A–B (∼1400 km) is due to Maastrichtian–present Motagua Zone–Cayman Fault
Zone, only 1000 km of which is recorded by the Cayman Trough. Offset C–D (∼500 km) is due to late Maastrichtian–middle Eocene
opening of Yucatán Basin (Pindell et al. 2005). Offset E–F (∼350 km) is due to the Oriente Fault, one of three primary fault strands
(all shown in fine black lines) of the larger Cayman Trough System that cross and have controlled tectonics of the Hispaniola area (see
Pindell and Barrett 1990). ‘CB(EK)’ is Early Cretaceous position and shape (dotted line) of Chortis Block according to Pindell and
Kennan (2009). The finer grey dashed line in this restored position of Chortis shows our perception of the genetic relationship between
the Caribbean (heavy grey dash) and Guerrero–Oaxaquia (heavy black dash) sutures. ‘LNRcb’ is a postulated Late K-Eocene Lower
Nicaragua Rise convergent boundary between the Caribbean lithosphere and the Nicaragua Rise–Jamaica Arc (e.g. Pindell et al. 1988),
which allowed Chortis and the Caribbean Plate to move at different azimuths in the Maastrichtian–Eocene (pre-Cayman Trough), and
which may also have been partly responsible for bringing Caribbean arc and plateau magmatic zones closer together than they were at
the time of plateau eruption. The two southerly faults crossing Hispaniola, with cumulative offset approaching 600 km, also played this
latter role. SHPB marks the southern Hispaniolan plateau basalts that were accreted to the south side of the Central Cordillera arc in the
Palaeogene–Miocene.
 International Geology Review
of the ‘Nevadan orogeny’ (Avé Lallemant and Oldow
1988) and the apparent migration of the southern collec-
tive Mexican terranes into the position previously occupied
by Colombia, relative to North America, indicates that
a strong left-lateral shear component accompanied east-
dipping subduction outboard of the American Cordilleran
arc system. Hence, southward migration of forearc and
trench materials along western Mexico and Chortis is to
be expected.
Magmatism in the Greater Antilles
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Lebrón and Perfit (1993) developed the case that Albian
limestones covered an unconformity in the Greater Antilles
which generally separated primitive island arc/island arc
tholeiite (PIA/IAT) lavas below from calc-alkaline (CA)
ones above, and offered this as evidence for the idea of
Aptian–Albian arc polarity reversal in the Antilles (Pindell
1993). Although Greater Antillean PIA/IAT rocks gen-
erally pre-date the CA ones, the time of transition from
PIA/IAT to CA magmatics has since been shown to vary
by locality from Barremian to Turonian (i.e. 130–90 Ma)
and is sometimes progressive (Kerr et al. 2003; Proenza
et al. 2006; Marchesi et al. 2007; Hastie et al. 2009).
Thus, it seems increasingly likely that the two magmatic
suites are due to phenomena other than subduction polar-
ity and must pertain to the same subduction zone without
a polarity reversal causing an abrupt change. Further, even
the oldest Caribbean primitive arc magmas lie in appar-
ent stratigraphic succession with younger arc strata, as
shown by the following units (Figure 1): Jamaica’s Lower
Devil’s Racecourse Formation (∼132 Ma; Mitchell 2003;
Hastie et al. 2009), Cuba’s Los Pasos and Mabujina for-
mations (∼130 Ma; Rojas-Agramonte et al. 2006; Stanek
et al. 2009, the Virgin Islands’ Water Island Formation
(∼115 Ma; Jolly and Lidiak 2006), and Hispaniola’s Los
Ranchos Formation (119–113 Ma; Kesler et al. 2005;
Escuder-Viruete et al. 2006). Thus, we are forced to con-
clude that SW-dipping subduction beneath the Caribbean
lithosphere at the Greater Antilles arc system was respon-
sible for all Greater Antillean subduction-related arc rocks
(Eocene back to Hauterivian). Accordingly, from the per-
spective of arc magmatism, we see no particular reason
for an arc polarity reversal ever to have occurred after
∼135 Ma.
HP/LT complexes of the Greater Antillean Arc
Although HP/LT metamorphic rocks are indisputable evi-
dence for the existence of former zones of rapid subduction
at convergent plate boundaries and reflect the local pertur-
bation of the thermal structure because of the down-going
relatively colder plate, it is difficult to actually date the
3
various stages in the developing dynamics of this pro-
cess. In the context of this article, the age of subduction
initiation is of primary concern. Most available age data
on HP/LT rocks metamorphosed in subduction zones has
been obtained by the Ar–Ar, K–Ar, and Rb–Sr meth-
ods, which are perturbed or even reset above 400–500◦ C.
Thus, these ages provide the actual time of metamorphic
growth of minerals only in low-grade HP/LT rocks such
as blueschist or low-temperature eclogite. For higher-grade
HP/LT rocks, the ages represent only the time of cool-
ing below the critical closure temperature of the pertinent
isotopic system. This is a time coordinate on the final
exhumation path of the subducted rock, which may have
had a complicated previous history. Thus, most ages on
HP/LT rocks by themselves provide only rough constraints
on the minimum age of subduction initiation. Notable
exceptions here are Sm–Nd (Brueckner et al. 2009), Lu–
Hf (Krebs et al., 2007, 2008), and U/Pb age data (Fu et al.
2009), where refractory garnet or zircon helps to preserve
age information on peak or near-peak metamorphic con-
ditions in high-grade HP/LT metamorphic rocks such as
eclogite. However, these methods are highly sophisticated
and have not yet been routinely applied in the Caribbean
region; additional information on the prograde path of the
rock is still required to gauge the timing of subduction
initiation.
Pindell et al. (2005) summarized available data on
those HP/LT complexes most clearly related to the intra-
oceanic segments of the Greater Antillean Arc only, and
the oldest reported single cooling age dates back to 118 Ma
in Cuba (García-Casco et al. 2006). Although very low-
grade blueschists can be developed within a few million
years after subduction initiation (e.g. Maresch and Gerya
2005), return flow from depths greater than ca. 20 km is
only possible after the subduction zone has matured to a
critical stage (Gerya et al. 2002). Gerya et al. (2002) sug-
gest that, in general, initiation of intense flow from these
greater depths should be possible after about 10 million
years of subduction, so that a time lag of at least 10 mil-
lion years should separate subduction initiation and locking
in of cooling ages on HP/LT rocks such as garnet-bearing
blueschists or eclogites.
Moreover, the seminal numerical modelling results
and techniques of Gerya et al. (2002) and Gerya (2010)
can be used to reconstruct more precise geodynamic
histories of well-studied fossil subduction zones from
the arrays of pressure–temperature–time paths of con-
stituent HP/LT rocks when age data on near-peak HP/LT
metamorphism are also available (e.g. from Sm–Nd, Lu–
Hf techniques or from U–Pb zircon dating on anatectic
melts in subducted oceanic crust). In this way, Krebs
et al. (2008) determined that subduction in the northern
Hispaniolan segment of the Greater Antillean Arc must
have been initiated before 124 Ma and proceeded very
slowly. In agreement with regional considerations, Krebs et
 4 J. Pindell et al.
al. (2008) determined orthogonal subduction velocities of
15–24 mm/year. Lázaro et al. (2009) arrived at a minimum
age of subduction initiation in eastern Cuba of 119 Ma
based on zircon ages in trondhjemite of anatectic origin.
Maresch et al. (2009) suggested that the trondhjemitic
Guayacán Gneiss of Margarita Island (Venezuela) also
represents anatexis of subducted oceanic crust as in east-
ern Cuba. Zircons from these gneisses yield U–Pb ages
between 116 and 106 Ma, suggesting that minimum ages of
subduction initiation in the southern segments of the Great
Caribbean arc should also lie between 130 and 120 Ma.
These occurrences all lie outboard (north and east) of their
associated Antillean magmatic arcs; hence, SW-dipping
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subduction beneath the Caribbean Plate had been initiated
and active before 130–120 Ma. Further, there may be a hint
that initial exhumation of subducted material began earlier
in the NW than to the SE along the original arc (Pindell et
al. 2005).
In contrast, southeast Nicaragua’s Siuna serpenti-
nite mélange HP/LT occurrence (139 Ma on phengite;
Flores et al. 2007; Baumgartner et al. 2008) and cen-
tral Guatemala’s northern and southern Motagua Valley
serpentinite mélange HP occurrences (131–126 Ma and
144–132 on eclogite, respectively, both from Sm–Nd min-
eral isochrons; Brueckner et al. 2009; Figure 1) are older
than those noted above and suggest that the subduction
zone(s) responsible for them were older still, active per-
haps at 150–140 Ma. This conclusion can be substantiated
by the systematics arising from the numerical modelling
presented in Gerya et al. (2002; Gerya personal communi-
cation to Krebs 2007) and from the study of Krebs et al.
(2008); Krebs et al. (2008) compared an array of pressure–
temperature–time paths obtained for HP/LT blocks in the
fossil serpentinite subduction channel exposed in north-
ern Hispaniola to various numerical models calculated by
Gerya et al. (2002). Using Gerya et al.’s (2002) basic ref-
erence model in which the slab dip is 45◦ and the age of
the subducted oceanic lithosphere is 40 Ma, Krebs et al.
(2008) concluded that, at the very low orthogonal sub-
duction velocities indicated in the Hispaniolan segment of
the Greater Antillean Arc (15–25 mm/year), more than
40 million years of subduction are required to cool to the
pressure–temperature conditions needed to form lawsonite
eclogites as found in Guatemala or eastern Hispaniola
(Zack et al. 2004; Tsujimori et al. 2006a). If the subduction
velocity is increased in the reference model, then this mini-
mum required time span decreases to 27 million years (for
3 cm/year), 13.5 million years (6 cm/year), and 9 million
years (9 cm/year). Increasing or decreasing the age of the
subducting slab in the reference model by 10 million years
decreases or increases, respectively, this required minimum
time span by ∼15%. To achieve similar variations, the slab
dip would have to be changed by 30◦ or more, so that this
factor appears secondary. Assuming a typical, but admit-
tedly unmeasurable, slab age of 40 Ma and a subduction
rate of 40 mm/year, then subduction initiation should pre-
date the Sm–Nd ages in Guatemala by about 20 million
years.
A Late Jurassic or older subduction zone is also implied
by the geochemistry and U–Pb isotopic ratios of zircons
from Guatemalan jadeitite (Fu et al. 2009), a rare HP/LT
product of metasomatic processes at subduction zones (e.g.
Johnson and Harlow 1999; Sorensen et al. 2010). The
range of δ 18 O and trace element concentrations suggests
that some zircon in jadeitite is inherited, perhaps from an
igneous precursor. However, ca. 50% of the analysed zir-
con spots yielded concentrations consistent with an origin
from the hydrothermal fluids that generated the jadeitites.
U and Pb isotopic ratios of all zircons are fairly similar
(207 Pb/206 Pb = 0.051–0.057, 238 U/206 Pb = 39–43) yield-
ing 160–148 Ma ages (mean = 153.7 ± 3.5 Ma, n = 8) that
can be interpreted in two ways: (1) inherited zircons have
some geochemical characteristics of its precursor but the
U–Pb isotopic system was fully reset and the mean age best
represents the timing of the last zircon-forming geologic
event, that is, the metasomatic processes at a subduction
zone; (2) the ages of inherited zircon and hydrothermal
zircon are very similar and cannot be resolved at the
error level of the isotopic system. Either case implies
active hydrothermal processes in a Late Jurassic subduc-
tion zone. We preclude an interpretation where all the
160–148 Ma ages register the formation of inherited zircon
and none registers the younger, jade-forming metasomatic
event because the latter is a zircon-forming event, as
demonstrated by zircon stable isotopes and geochemistry
(Fu et al. 2009).
Late Jurassic subduction is significantly older than
known Antillean arc magmatism. The Nicaraguan and
Guatemalan HP occurrences have no known paired arc
magmatic correlatives in the Antilles, suggesting an associ-
ation with a different trench. Further, the southern Motagua
Valley HP rocks are lawsonite-bearing eclogites recording
ultra-cold and probably fast subduction (Tsujimori et al.
2006b); thus its Benioff Zone was well-developed and sub-
ducting old, cold oceanic crust by the Late Jurassic; this
is further evidence that the trench responsible was not
the Greater Antilles Trench, where young warm Proto-
Caribbean crust was being subducted (Pindell et al. 2005;
García-Casco et al. 2008).
Implications for Cretaceous Caribbean tectonic models
Plate kinematic constraints allow for, and arc chronologic
data suggest, the onset of SW-dipping subduction at the
Great Caribbean Arc by about 135 Ma, such that arc
magmatism commenced at the surface in the Hauterivian
(135–130 Ma) in at least Jamaica and Cuba, and possibly
elsewhere (Figures 2 and 3). However, this poses a ques-
tion regarding circum-Caribbean HP metamorphic rocks,
 International Geology Review 5

141 Ma

*
NORTH

*
AMERICA

*
(fixed)

*
Mexican

*
backarc Extinct spreading pat-

*
basin tern in Gulf of Mexico
Pac/NA Bahamas

*
hot spot

* * * * Chortís SOUTH
Arc/NA AMERICA
*
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NA
Pac
Arc
In Antio- (stretching) SA
Pac/Arc ter-A quia
tra me
nsf ric 1000 km
orm an * *
Ecuadorian
backarc basin
Arc/SA Predicted position of HP-LTrocks
* *

Pac/SA * * Predicted position, magmatic arc rocks

Area of known/inferred oceanic crust
*

Figure 2. 141 Ma (magnetic anomaly M-16) plate reconstruction, showing the lengthening sinistral inter-American transform between
the North and South American Cordilleran subduction zones. Backarc basin formation is beginning in/behind both the Mexican and
Ecuadorian portions of the arc (Guerrero and Quebradagrande arc rocks to west). Relative motion designations are shown by convention
and keyed to the relative velocity triangles (not to scale of map) in the inset box; for example, ‘Pac/NA’ is the motion direction of the
Pacific lithosphere relative to North America. Palinspastic shape of South America and general plate boundary scheme after Pindell and
Kennan (2009). Dashed line along inter-American transform is another option for the Proto-Caribbean spreading centre, as drawn by
Pindell et al. (2006).

because this age essentially separates the two populations
of HP metamorphic ages noted above. The younger popu-
lation (<118 Ma) can of course pertain to the SW-dipping
subduction that we propose began at 135 Ma. However, the
older population more likely pertains to a different Benioff
Zone altogether, because there is no magmatic arc in the
Caribbean with such an age range, and at least some of
the older population of HP rocks formed in an ultra-cold
Benioff Zone, which the Antillean trench was not in its
inception.
We consider that the older population of HP rocks orig-
inated at an east-dipping, long-lived trench where old crust
was subducted rapidly (hence, ultra-cold and lawsonite-
eclogite-forming) along western Mexico–Chortis. Further,
the sinistral shear component of this trench caused subduc-
tion channel material (i.e. mélange) to be dragged during
the Neocomian some distance along an ‘inter-American
transform’ that connected the east-dipping Mexican sub-
duction zone to that along South America as the Colombian
Marginal Seaway widened behind it (Figure 2). Thus, when
SW-dipping subduction was conceived at about 135 Ma
along this inter-American transform, after which new HP
suites could form, the older population of metamorphic
rocks was already present along the transform in sheared
migrating pods, especially at the northwest portion of this
transform (our suggested origin for the Siuna and Motagua
HP/LT suites), but an associated magmatic arc was not.
Our envisiaged setting (Figure 2) is similar to that of
southern Chile today, where subduction becomes infinitely
oblique along the Shackleton Transform (Geletti et al.
2005). Note that judging the position and orientation of
the inter-American transform relative to North America,
and thus its length, is heavily dependent upon models for
the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous evolution of the col-
lective Guerrero arcs of Mexico. That is, the transform
could be nearer or farther, and shorter or longer, than
shown in Figure 2, which we consider shows a moderate
viewpoint. The eastern end of the inter-American trans-
form probably connected to the Andes trench in southern
Ecuador, because Colombia and northern Ecuador lack
Early Cretaceous magmatic arc intrusive rocks such that a
Colombian backarc–arc basin and remnant arc margin have
been inferred (Pindell 1993; Pindell and Tabbutt 1995;
Kennan and Pindell 2009).
 6 J. Pindell et al.

Accepting a 135 Ma age of SW-dipping subduction ini-
tiation in the Antilles west of Colombia, Figures 3 and
4 show a possible palaeogeography and fault evolution
of how SW-dipping subduction may have evolved from
a pre-existing trench–transform–trench system along the
western flank of the Americas, respectively. The litho-
sphere to be subducted early on beneath the juvenile arc,
referred to as the ‘Colombian Marginal Seaway’ by Pindell
(1993), appears to have a position relative to hot spot ref-
erence frames (i.e. Pindell and Kennan 2009) that would
allow correlation with the present-day, high-velocity man-
tle anomaly identified as the ‘Venezuelan Slab’ by van
der Meer et al. (2010). The evolution of arc magma-
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exhumation of HP/LT metamorphic rocks (<118 Ma) in
the Antilles, we look to subduction initiation in lithosphere
with normal isothermal structure as opposed to steady-state
subduction at about 135 Ma. We consider that initial under-
thrusting of the Proto-Caribbean slab beneath the Greater
Antillean hanging wall initially caused partial melting of
Proto-Caribbean sediments and basaltic crust equivalent
to the Santa Cruz ophiolite (Rosenfeld 1993) when those
materials were brought adjacent to the hot upper man-
tle (900–1200◦ C) of the lower part (80–100 km) of the
juvenile subduction zone hanging wall, or even to the pri-
mordial mantle wedge itself. In addition, a 30% partial
melting of amphibolite could also produce albite gran-

tism from the PIA–IAT to the CA trend began by the
Barremian (130–125 Ma) in Jamaica and continued in
other areas into the medial Cretaceous, perhaps due to a
non-uniform change in the composition of subducted sed-
iments from pelagic to continentally-sourced detritus over
time (Hastie et al. 2009). Concerning the lack of tempo-
ral overlap between PIA/IAT magmatism (<132 Ma) and
ite (Jolly and Lidiak 2006). García-Casco et al. (2008)
as well as Lázaro and García-Casco (2008) have docu-
mented anatexis in amphibolitic blocks of the Sierra del
Convento serpentinite mélange of eastern Cuba, indicating
that low-K trondhjemitic melts were produced in subducted
hydrated oceanic crust. The delayed beginning of exhuma-
tion of HP/LT minerals (135–118 Ma) is to be expected

130 Ma
*

NORTH
AMERICA
*

Pac/NA (fixed)
?
*
*

Mexican Extinct spreading pat-

backarc tern in Gulf of Mexico
?
*

Bahamas
basin hot spot
*
*
*

Chortís
SOUTH
AMERICA
*

These HP/LT and

arc rocks will
*

Arc/NA
become those of NA Arc Pac
Siuna and Guate-
mala, including *
Antio- SA
rocks older than * quia
135 Ma Pac/Arc * 1000 km
These HP/LT and arc rocks will
*

become those of the Antilles (Cuba, Ecuadorian

*

Jamaica), younger than 135 Ma backarc basin

*

These HP/LT and arc rocks will Arc/SA

become those of the Predicted position of HP-LT rocks
*

Quebradagrande belt, including

rocks older than 135 Ma
* * * Predicted position, magmatic arc rocks
Area of known/inferred oceanic crust
Pac/SA

Figure 3. 130 Ma (magnetic anomaly M-10) reconstruction, showing the nascent inter-American (Greater Antilles-Quebradagrande)
arc just after inception of SW-dipping subduction. A change in the Pacific relative motion direction is presumed to have played a role
in the development. Shape and width of the Mexican backarc is very poorly constrained: it could be much wider, with the arc much
farther to the west or southwest, with the arc accordingly longer. Relative motion designations as shown in Figure 2. Palinspastic shape of
South America and general plate boundary scheme after Pindell and Kennan (2009). Double arrowed line: 1500 km, travelled by arc from
135 Ma (subduction initiation) to 70 Ma collision with Maya Block; average rate of 23 km/Ma, in harmony with average Barremian–
Eocene rates determined by pressure–temperature–time paths from the Río San Juan Complex of Hispaniola (Krebs et al. 2008). Aves
Ridge and Aruba-Orchila arc trends did not yet exist at this time (Wright and Wyld 2010).
 International Geology Review 7

NE-dipping 1 Original trench-

subduction zone transform transition
20 Incipient
40 (Chortis)
60 backthrusts
80
when motion
Point where fault
changes
dip is vertical
Change in
X relative motion
Y
= HPLT pod, rising

2
*
Crust between former SW-dipping
along transform

transform and new

thrust originally * subduction zone
(Antilles)
belonged to the NE
flank of the transform * Fo
ne rme
w rt
20
40 Structure
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ha ra
ng ns 60 contours, km
ing for
HPLT pods wa m in 80
already high ll
(cooled) in the
hanging wall

X
* Y
Point where fault
dip is vertical
3 Path of 4
With time,
transform will subducted ? 20 km
lengthen rock
40 km 80
60
60 km
40
Propellor fault plane NE-dipping 20
projected to XY section subduction zone
as transform lengthens (Peruvian Andes)

Figure 4. Possible configuration of inter-American fault zone during onset of SW-dipping subduction at the Antilles segment. Main
diagram, two propeller-shaped fault segments at the northern and southern ends of the former transform. Depth to Benioff Zone in
kilometres. Inset box 1: original trench-transform transition, with HP/LT rocks dragged (and rising?) along transform. Onset of subduction
could be a change in plate relative motion. Inset box 2: onset of SW-dipping subduction at backthrusts, with HP/LT rocks already in
hanging wall. Inset box 3: transfer zone between trenches lengthens with time and gives deep mélanges additional chance to rise towards
surface. Inset box 4: propeller fault projected into cross section XY (grey in main figure), showing possible pathway for some of the
subducted material. As transform lengthens, this material may reach a high (cool) level in the western end of the hanging wall. The
asterisks on grey circles denote new subduction related magmatism in the Antillean Arc.

on the basis of numerical models (e.g. Gerya et al. 2002;
Maresch and Gerya 2005; Krebs et al. 2008), which indi-
cate that at least 10–20 million years are needed after
subduction initiation before the dynamics of the subduc-
tion zone are sufficiently well established to allow the
return of HP/LT metamorphic material. Establishment of a
steady-state subduction zone by about 120–115 Ma seems
in turn to be roughly commensurate with the onset of the
calc-alkaline trend in much of the Greater Antilles Arc.
In the medial and Late Cretaceous, the Greater
Antillean Arc migrated NE, probably with a strong
axis-parallel stretching component due to sinistral oblique
subduction of North American Proto-Caribbean crust
(Figure 3), towards first the eastern flank of Chortis, then
the southern flank of the Maya Block (Chiapas Massif and
northern Guatemala), and finally the Bahamas (Pindell
and Dewey 1982; Pindell et al. 2005). Subduction channel
material represented by the Siuna and Motagua Valley
serpentinite mélanges, and derived from the forearc of
the western end of this arc (but originally from west-
ern Mexico/Chortis), obliquely overrode the eastern
Chortis and southern Maya margins (Pindell et al. 2005,
Figure 18A–D), giving rise to the Colón Foldbelt of
eastern Honduras (Rogers et al. 2007) and the Sepúr
foredeep basin of northern Guatemala (Pindell et al. 1988;
Rosenfeld 1993).
Running with the idea that the Siuna and southern
and northern Motagua HP/LT serpentinite mélanges were
dragged from the old and cold trench of western Chortis
along the inter-American transform, a possible history for
the HP/LT ‘components’ within these mélanges is envisi-
aged as follows. At 135 Ma, SW-dipping subduction was
initiated at a pre-existing and still active sinistral trans-
form that bore the older HP/LT rocks. Some of these
HP/LT rocks had already cooled in the transform, whereas
deeper HP/LT rocks apparently did not. For SW-dipping
subduction to initiate, a trench-to-trench transform (trans-
fer zone) must have been established due to the opposing
 8 J. Pindell et al.

polarities of the Mexico/Chortis and the juvenile Antillean

subduction zones. This trench-to-trench transform had a (A)
propeller geometry and would lengthen with time, as with Remnants
the southern Caribbean boundary in the Cenozoic (Pindell of Chontal
et al. 1988). In this situation, HP/LT material from the Arc terrane?
Cuba
Las
E-dipping Chortis subduction channel should have con- Ovejas
tinued to migrate along the lengthening transcurrent zone CHORTIS N Motagua
that now defined the NW Caribbean plate boundary (the S Motagua? Jamaica
oblique end of the Antillean Arc). But now, the bulk of Siuna
carp
this material (mélange) would find itself in the hanging ise Es
Nic R x y
wall of the SW-dipping Antillean subduction zone (fore-
arc of the westernmost part of the arc), with the mélange
being stretched out along the propeller-shaped, lengthening (B)
Zone of strong
Downloaded By: [Consorci de Biblioteques Universitaries de Catalunya] At: 11:40 8 February 2011

plate boundary. This material, which would lie farther west
along the new lengthening trench than the original HP/LT
material along the transform at the time of subduction initi-
ation, would necessarily be uplifted, leading to cooling. We
suggest that this is the reason that the southern Motagua
HP/LT mélange carries eclogites with 125–118 Ma Ar–Ar
cooling ages (Harlow et al. 2004), as this process must have
been active at that time, shortly after subduction initiation.
We further suggest that a portion of the northern Motagua
HP/LT mélange represents Farallon-derived material that
had already reached the inter-American transform by the
time of subduction initiation, and that it remained deep (did
not cool) and lay farther east along the new trench. These
rocks survived metamorphic overprints (Brueckner et al.
2009) until they were re-metamorphosed and exhumed dur-
ing collision of the Greater Antillean Arc with the Maya
Block’s rifted margin basement (Chuacús Complex) in
the Maastrichtian, and hence they show zircon crystalliza-
tion and Ar–Ar cooling ages of 75–70 Ma (Harlow et al.
2004; Martens 2007), respectively (Figure 5). The south-
ern, already high-level Motagua HP/LT-block-bearing ser-
pentinites collided in our opinion with the margin to the
south of the Chiapas Massif portion of the Maya Block,
whereas the northern Motagua serpentinites collided with
the Cuchumatanes portion several hundred kilometres to
the east. The two complexes now lie across the Motagua
Valley from one-another, but only after hundreds of kilo-
metres of Tertiary sinistral motion between them on the
Motagua (and Polochic) fault zones.
Also during this period of transcurrent motion, the Las
Ovejas Complex of the northern Chortis basement was tec-
tonically elevated and cooled from some 10 km depth since
the Eocene (Ratschbacher et al. 2009). This unit is now
overlain by the southern serpentinite mélange and the San
Diego Phyllite (e.g. Schwartz 1976), which do not show
evidence for having been 10 km deep in the Eocene like
the Las Ovejas. Thus we suggest that these units were
brought together by either (1) faulting during the latter
stages of uplift of the Las Ovejas or (2) southward thrusting
or extrusion of the southern mélange/San Diego Phyllite
from a transpressive Motagua flower structure onto the
Las Ovejas metamorphic rocks after the latter had been
transpression
n
Cayma
y
Las Ovejas Jamaica
x N Motagua
S Motagua
Chortis motion Siuna
direction
0 500 km 1000
(C)
N Motagua
Jamaica
Las Ovejas
S Motagua, obducted as
flower petals to South
Siuna
Figure 5. Three-stage scheme for juxtaposition of ‘terranes’ in
Central Guatemala during the progressive migration of Chortis
Block along southern Mexico and Guatemala. (A) 70 Ma time
of arc–continent collision, showing restored alignment of HP-LT
complexes (grey belt defining suture) before Motagua–Cayman
offset. Transcurrent displacement may begin just after this time
(note: Chortis migration is larger than Eocene–Recent Cayman
length). (B) 45 Ma, during transcurrent displacement with Chortis
restored by 900 km, showing southward transpressional extru-
sion of Las Ovejas Complex, which cooled through 350◦ C
just after 35 Ma. Inset shows simplest possible scheme for
large-scale extrusion of Las Ovejas unit (grey); basal thrust is
likely Chamelecón fault. (C) 20 Ma time of continued trans-
pression with Chortis restored by 400 km, showing obduc-
tion (in flower structure?) of southern Motagua mélanges onto
the already elevated Las Ovejas. Subsequent movements after
20 Ma have juxtaposed these complexes today. N Motagua
and S Motagua: northern and southern Motagua HP/LT block-
bearing mélanges, following terminology of Brueckner et al.
(2009).
exhumed (Figure 5; Pindell and Barrett 1990, their note
added in proof; Pindell and Kennan 2009). The idea of less-
metamorphosed units being emplaced onto the Las Ovejas
unit raises the possibility that the San Diego Phyllite, like
the southern mélange, derives from the original north wall
 International Geology Review
of the Motagua Fault. If true, possible correlations for
the San Diego Phyllite include the Santa Rosa unit of the
Maya Block, or the similar Cosoltepec unit of the Acatlán
Complex in southern Mexico (Weber et al. 2008).
We favour this model for the origin of the southern
Motagua serpentinites (Figure 5) to that of Harlow et al.
(2004), Mann et al. (2007), and Ratschbacher et al. (2009),
in which the serpentinites are believed to derive from a
marginal basin between Chortis and southern Mexico that
opened in the Late Jurassic and closed by N-dipping Early
Cretaceous subduction (pre-132 Ma), thereby obducting
southern Motagua mélange onto the Las Ovejas basement
rocks of Chortis. First, evidence for Late Jurassic rifting
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and N-facing margin development in Chortis is lacking
in our opinion. Second, there is no load-induced fore-
deep section beneath the obducted serpentinites. Third, the
southern Motagua mélange records some of the coldest
subduction conditions in the world, which we doubt could
have formed in a short-lived marginal basin. Fourth, the
Las Ovejas basement rocks on which the obducted serpen-
tinites rest did not cool through 350◦ C until the Oligocene
(Ratschbacher et al. 2009), and thus were probably not near
the surface in the Early Cretaceous. In addition, we favour
our model to that of Brueckner et al. (2009), because
that model (1) also presumes the Las Ovejas was rela-
tively shallow in the Early Cretaceous; (2) invokes large-
scale strike-slip between Chortis and southern Mexico,
apparently abandoning suspected late Palaeozoic corre-
lations between the two; and (3) requires an E-dipping
trench beneath southern Mexico to the east of the migrat-
ing Chortis, for which we see no evidence (e.g. eastern
Chortis/southern Mexico was more likely a passive margin
(Pindell and Kennan 2001)).
Implications for the Caribbean basalt plateau
A 135 Ma initiation of SW-dipping subduction at the
Greater Antillean Arc beneath the Caribbean Plate (or
Aptian, 125–112 Ma, in most previous models) implies
that mid-Cretaceous Caribbean basalt plateau formation
occurred behind the active Cretaceous Antillean Arc
in what would loosely appear (today) to be a supra-
subduction setting. However, two aspects of Caribbean
evolution enhance this appearance, perhaps making the site
of plateau development seem closer to the arc than was
actually the case. The first was the creation of a Proto-
Caribbean slab gap between 135 and 72 Ma as the arc
overran the Proto-Caribbean spreading centre, which may
have greatly reduced the expected extent of the Proto-
Caribbean slab as a source of contamination for plume
magmas (Pindell et al. 2006). Hastie and Kerr (2010) argue
against this concept, but the fact remains that a slab gap
could only have helped the plume magmas to find a posi-
tion closer to the arc than can otherwise be expected. The
9
second is the probable Late Cretaceous subduction of sev-
eral hundred kilometres of Caribbean crust beneath the
Nicaragua Rise–Jamaica Arc, and also the several hun-
dred kilometres of Palaeogene sinistral strike-slip motion
between the Central Cordillera (arc) and the southern
(basalt plateau) ranges of Hispaniola along the Peralta and
other fault zones, both of which have brought Caribbean
plateau rocks closer to the arc than was the case during
the mid-Cretaceous plateau extrusion (Pindell and Barrett
1990; Pindell and Kennan 2009). In addition, arc magma-
tism, and hence subduction, did not begin at the Panama–
Costa Rica Arc until the Late Campanian–Maastrichtian
(Buchs et al. 2007; Baumgartner et al. 2008), well after
most Caribbean basalt plateau extrusion, negating the idea
of an eastward dipping slab from the west during extrusion.
Acknowledging the concerns of Hastie and Kerr (2010),
we accept that the northeastern limit of the plateau must
have been situated at least a couple of 100 km behind the
arc axis, possibly allowed closer to the arc by the central
part of the slab gap, and that the rest of the plateau to the
southwest (e.g. Curaçao) was thus situated many hundreds
to over a thousand kilometres from the arc. We consider
that any subduction-related fluids that might overlie the
slab as far from the trench as 400–500 km would likely
be drowned out by the overwhelming volume of plume
magmatism when the plume was extruded. The occurrence
of centimetric arc-derived tuffs interbedded with plume-
derived lavas of the Bath Dunrobin Formation of Jamaica
(Hastie et al. 2008) suggests reasonable mutual proximity;
the Bath Dunrobin area of southeast Jamaica was probably
allochthonous with respect to the rest of Jamaica by sev-
eral hundred kilometres until the Palaeogene, the suturing
of which pertains to the intra-plate contraction noted above
(Pindell and Kennan 2009).
Conclusions
Integration of Caribbean arc chronology and geochem-
istry, circum-Caribbean HP/LT metamorphic petrology
and chronology, and Meso-American plate kinematics indi-
cates that the most likely time for the initiation of SW-
dipping subduction beneath the Greater Antilles Arc, and
hence the beginning of relative migration of Caribbean
lithosphere into the inter-American gap from the Pacific
realm, was about 135 Ma (Hauterivian). Such an age
aligns with the earliest ages for all known Caribbean
subduction-related arc magmatic rocks, such that the often-
cited Cretaceous arc polarity reversal is not indicated,
and likely never happened. In fact, a continuous uninter-
rupted dynamic history of subduction indicative of con-
stant SW-dipping subduction polarity is indicated well into
the Eocene for most of the Greater Antilles (e.g. Krebs
et al. 2008; Lázaro et al. 2009). In addition, we postulate
that an older population of HP/LT rocks now present in
 10 J. Pindell et al.
Nicaragua and Guatemala (140–130 Ma with subduction
initiation perhaps 20 million years older than that) origi-
nated at the west-facing trench along Mexico–Chortis and
was dragged southward by oblique subduction to a posi-
tion along an inter-American transform setting, at which
time the Antillean Arc was initiated at about 135 Ma. Much
of the PIA/IAT magmatic series may pertain to a period
of subduction initiation rather than to steady-state under-
flow. Earliest known peak metamorphic or cooling ages
of HP/LT metamorphic belts generated by Antillean sub-
duction post-date its initiation by 10–20 million years; the
time lag likely pertains to establishment of a thermal struc-
ture conducive to HP/LT metamorphism as well as to the
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dynamics of return flow and exhumation.
This view of Caribbean subduction initiation and his-
tory, given the kinematically constrained geometry of the
Pangean starting point for Caribbean models, is probably
the simplest conceivable. It does not, for example, require
mid-Pacific arcs to migrate large distances in short time
periods (e.g. Mann et al. 2007); it does not require intra-
plate inception of new Benioff zones between the Americas
(e.g. Meschede and Frisch 1998; James 2009); and it does
not require a plateau–arc collision in the Late Cretaceous
(e.g. Duncan and Hargraves 1984; Burke 1988) for which
we see no evidence. There can be little doubt that an ‘inter-
American transform’ must have connected the North and
South American cordilleran trench systems in the Early
Cretaceous: the bulk of the data appear to indicate that
this pre-existing structure was the site where Caribbean
subduction began, as pressure–temperature–time histories
from Caribbean HP/LT complexes record a long-lived and
uninterrupted history of subduction that is accordingly cor-
roborated by Caribbean arc magmatism. Further, we have a
continuous and diachronous record of convergent interac-
tion between the migrating arc and the original American
passive margins (Pindell et al. 2005).
Our view of Caribbean subduction history suggests that
the mid-Cretaceous, plume-fed Caribbean Basalt Plateau,
which, where studied, does not show contamination by
subduction-related fluids, formed behind the active Greater
Antillean Arc. However, we stress that the study areas
of plateau rocks that show lack of subduction contami-
nation were situated many hundreds – to even thousands
– of kilometres from the trace of the Antillean Trench.
Further, several structures in the northern Caribbean such
as the Nicaragua Rise, the San Juan Valley, and the
Muertos Trough were probable sites at which plateau
rocks were allowed to encroach upon the Antilles arc
axis long after plateau formation (e.g. Pindell and Barrett
1990). The plateau appears to be closest to the arc
where a Proto-Caribbean slab gap may have allowed man-
tle plume material to reach the base of the Caribbean
lithosphere with less interference from adjacent flanking
slabs than would be otherwise expected (Pindell et al.
2006).
Acknowledgements
We thank Lorcan Kennan for his collaboration on numerous
Andes issues over the years, Roberto Molina and Luigi Solari for
discussions on southwest Mexico, and Lothar Ratschbacher, Jinny
Sisson, and Hans Avé Lallemant for discussions on Guatemala.
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