The Cayman Trough (also known as the Cayman Trench, Bartlett Deep and Bartlett

Trough) is a complex transform fault zone pull-apart basin which contains a small
spreading ridge, the Mid-Cayman Rise, on the floor of the western Caribbean Sea
between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.[1] It is the deepest point in the Caribbean
Sea and forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and
the Caribbean Plate. It extends from the Windward Passage, going south of the
Sierra Maestra of Cuba toward Guatemala. The transform fault continues onshore as
the Polochic-Motagua fault system, which consists of the Polochic and Motagua
faults.[2] This system continues on until the Chiapas massif where it is part of
the diffuse triple junction of the North American, Caribbean and Cocos plates.[3]
The relatively narrow trough trends east-northeast to west-southwest and has a
maximum depth of 7,686 metres (25,217 ft). Within the trough is a slowly spreading
north–south ridge which may be the result of an offset or gap of approximately 420
kilometres (260 mi) along the main fault trace. The Cayman spreading ridge shows a
long-term opening rate of 11–12 mm/yr.[4] The eastern section of the trough has
been named the Gonâve Microplate. The Gonâve plate extends from the spreading ridge
east to the island of Hispaniola. It is bounded on the north by the Oriente and
Septentrional fault zones. On the south the Gonâve is bounded by the Walton fault
zone, the Jamaica restraining bend and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone.
The two bounding strike slip fault zones are left lateral. The motion relative to
the North American Plate is 11 mm/yr to the east and the motion relative to the
Caribbean Plate is 8 mm/yr.[4] The western section of the trough is bounded to its
south by the Swan Islands Transform Fault.[5]
During the Eocene the trough was the site of a subduction zone which formed the
volcanic arc of the Cayman Ridge and the Sierra Maestra volcanic terrain of Cuba to
the north, as the northeastward-moving Caribbean Plate was subducted beneath the
southwest-moving North American Plate, or as some researchers contend, beneath a
plate fragment dubbed the East Cuban Microplate.[6][failed verification]
In 2010 a UK team from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton (NOCS),
equipped with an autonomously controlled robot submarine, began mapping the full
extent of the trench and discovered black smokers on the ocean floor at a depth of
5 km (16,000 ft), the deepest yet found.[7][8][9] In January 2012, the researchers
announced that water exits the vents at a temperature possibly exceeding 450 °C
(842 °F), making them among the hottest known undersea vents. They also announced
the discovery of new species, including an eyeless shrimp with a light-sensing
organ on its back.[10]
See also
• Oceanic trench
References