Back
Full-text
Journal article

Eocene intra-plate shortening responsible for the rise of a faunal pathway in the northeastern Caribbean realm.

  • Philippon M Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre, France.
  • Cornée JJ Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Montpellier, France.
  • Münch P Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Montpellier, France.
  • van Hinsbergen DJJ Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
  • BouDagher-Fadel M Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), University College London, London, United Kingdom.
  • Gailler L Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Université Jean Monnet, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
  • Boschman LM Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Quillevere F Univ. Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, UMR 5276 LGL-TPE, Villeurbanne, France.
  • Montheil L Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Montpellier, France.
  • Gay A Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Montpellier, France.
  • Lebrun JF Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre, France.
  • Lallemand S Geosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Université des Antilles, Montpellier, France.
  • Marivaux L Institut des Sciences de l evolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Montpellier, France.
  • Antoine PO Institut des Sciences de l evolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Montpellier, France.
Show more…
  • 2020-10-20
Published in:
  • PloS one. - 2020
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Medicine
English Intriguing latest Eocene land-faunal dispersals between South America and the Greater Antilles (northern Caribbean) has inspired the hypothesis of the GAARlandia (Greater Antilles Aves Ridge) land bridge. This landbridge, however, should have crossed the Caribbean oceanic plate, and the geological evolution of its rise and demise, or its geodynamic forcing, remain unknown. Here we present the results of a land-sea survey from the northeast Caribbean plate, combined with chronostratigraphic data, revealing a regional episode of mid to late Eocene, trench-normal, E-W shortening and crustal thickening by ∼25%. This shortening led to a regional late Eocene-early Oligocene hiatus in the sedimentary record revealing the location of an emerged land (the Greater Antilles-Northern Lesser Antilles, or GrANoLA, landmass), consistent with the GAARlandia hypothesis. Subsequent submergence is explained by combined trench-parallel extension and thermal relaxation following a shift of arc magmatism, expressed by a regional early Miocene transgression. We tentatively link the NE Caribbean intra-plate shortening to a well-known absolute and relative North American and Caribbean plate motion change, which may provide focus for the search of the remaining connection between 'GrANoLA' land and South America, through the Aves Ridge or Lesser Antilles island arc. Our study highlights the how regional geodynamic evolution may have driven paleogeographic change that is still reflected in current biology.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/220674
Statistics
Document views: 5 File downloads:
  • fulltext.pdf: 0