Tectonic evolution of the Sierra Maestra Mountains, SE Cuba, during Tertiary times: From arc-continent collision to transform motion

Abstract A structural study was carried out along the southern Sierra Maestra mountain range, SE Cuba. This was aimed to monitor the effects of Paleogene island arc formation and collision due to convergence of the Caribbean and North American plates and subsequent Neogene disruption of the arc by initiation of the North Caribbean Transform Fault. In the Sierra Maestra two different and unrelated volcanic arcs are exposed, one of Cretaceous age (pre-Maastrichtian) and the other of Paleogene age, the latter forming the main expression of the mountain range. The volcanic arcs are overlain by Middle–Upper Eocene siliciclastic, carbonate and terrigenous rocks. Six distinct phases of deformation…

An anorogenic pulse in a typical orogenic setting: The geochemical and geochronological record in the East Serbian latest Cretaceous to Palaeocene alkaline rocks

Abstract This study focuses on the East Serbian latest Cretaceous to Palaeocene Mafic Alkaline Rocks (hereafter, ES-MAR). This alkaline magmatism developed along the Eurasian border after the closure of the Mesozoic Tethys in the Balkan sector. Olivine(± clinopyroxene)-phyric and olivine- and nepheline-normative basanite, tephrite and theralite rocks are studied using Ar/Ar ages and major elements, trace elements and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes. The ES-MAR are geochemically similar to other alkaline rocks of the Circum-Mediterranean Anorogenic Cenozoic Igneous (CiMACI) province, showing elevated contents of high field strength elements (HFSE) (e.g., Nb = 50–100 ppm) and high HFSE/LILE (large ion lith…

Partial Melting and Counterclockwise P T Path of Subducted Oceanic Crust (Sierra del Convento Melange, Cuba)

Fifty-five-million-year history of oceanic subduction and exhumation at the northern edge of the Caribbean plate (Sierra del Convento mélange, Cuba)

Petrological and geochronological data of six representative samples of exotic blocks of amphibolite and associated tonalite-trondhjemite from the serpentinitic melange of the Sierra del Convento (eastern Cuba) indicate counterclockwise P-T paths typical of material subducted in hot and young subduction zones. Peak conditions attained were 750 � C and 15 kbar, consistent with the generation of tonalitic partial melts observed in amphibolite. A tonalite boulder provides a U-Pb zircon crystallization age of 112.8 ± 1.1 Ma, and Ar ⁄ Ar amphibole dating yielded two groups of cooling ages of 106-97 Ma (interpreted as cooling of metamorphic ⁄ magmatic pargasite) and 87-83 Ma (interpreted as growt…

Geochemistry and early Palaeogene SHRIMP zircon ages for island arc granitoids of the Sierra Maestra, southeastern Cuba

The Palaeogene volcanic arc successions of the Sierra Maestra, southeastern Cuba, were intruded by calc-alkaline, low- to medium-K tonalites and trondhjemites during the final stages of subduction and subsequent collision of the Caribbean oceanic plate with the North American continental plate. U‐Pb SHRIMP zircon dating of five granitoids yielded 206 Pb/ 238 U emplacement ages between 60.5F2.2 and 48.3F0.5 Ma. The granitoids are the result of subduction-related magmatism and have geochemical characteristics similar to those of magmas from intra-oceanic island-arcs such as the Izu Bonin‐Mariana arc and the New Britain island arc, Lesser Antilles. Major and trace element patterns suggest evol…