Escalona, Alejandro and Yang, Wenxiu (2013): Subsidence controls on foreland basin development of northwestern offshore Cuba, southeastern Gulf of Mexico

Leg/Site/Hole:
DSDP 77
DSDP 77 535
DSDP 77 536
DSDP 77 539
DSDP 77 540
Identifier:
2013-010989
georefid

10.1306/06111212002
doi

Creator:
Escalona, Alejandro
University of Stavanger, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Stavanger, Norway
author

Yang, Wenxiu
International Research Institute of Stavanger, Norway
author

Identification:
Subsidence controls on foreland basin development of northwestern offshore Cuba, southeastern Gulf of Mexico
2013
AAPG Bulletin
American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK, United States
97
1
1-25
We reviewed the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Jurassic-Cenozoic collision between the North American and the Caribbean plate using more than 30,000 km (18,641 mi) of regional two-dimensional (2-D) academic seismic lines and Deep Sea Drilling Project wells of Leg 77. The main objective is to perform one-dimensional subsidence analysis and 2-D flexural modeling to better understand how the Caribbean collision may have controlled the stratigraphic evolution of the offshore Cuba region. Five main tectonic phases previously proposed were recognized: (1) Late Triassic-Jurassic rifting between South and North America that led to the formation of the proto-Caribbean plate; this event is interpreted as half grabens controlled by fault family 1 as the east-northeast-south-southwest-striking faults; (2) Middle-Late Jurassic anticlockwise rotation of the Yucatan block and formation of the Gulf of Mexico; this event resulted in north-northwest-south-southeast-striking faults of fault family 2 controlling half-graben structures; (3) Early Cretaceous passive margin development characterized by carbonate sedimentation; sedimentation was controlled by normal subsidence and eustatic changes, and because of high eustatic seas during the Late Cretaceous, the carbonate platform drowned; (4) Late Cretaceous-Paleogene collision between the Caribbean plate, resulting in the Cuban fold and thrust belt province, the foreland basin province, and the platform margin province; the platform margin province represents the submerged paleoforebulge, which was formed as a flexural response to the tectonic load of the Great Arc of the Caribbean during initial Late Cretaceous-Paleocene collision and foreland basin development that was subsequently submerged during the Eocene to the present water depths as the arc tectonic load reached the maximum collision; and (5) Late Cenozoic large deep-sea erosional features and constructional sediment drifts related to the formation of the Oligocene-Holocene Loop Current-Gulf Stream that flows from the northern Caribbean into the Straits of Florida and to the north Atlantic.
Coverage:Geographic coordinates:
North:24.0000
West:-85.3000East: -84.2000
South:23.2000

Solid-earth geophysics; Antilles; Atlantic Ocean; basins; carbonate platforms; Caribbean Plate; Caribbean region; Cenozoic; Cuba; Deep Sea Drilling Project; DSDP Site 535; DSDP Site 536; DSDP Site 539; DSDP Site 540; eustasy; faults; flexure; foreland basins; geophysical methods; geophysical profiles; geophysical surveys; Greater Antilles; Gulf of Mexico; half grabens; IPOD; Jurassic; Leg 77; lithologic controls; Mesozoic; North American Plate; North Atlantic; passive margins; petroleum; petroleum exploration; plate collision; plate tectonics; rifting; seismic methods; seismic profiles; seismic stratigraphy; sequence stratigraphy; southeastern Gulf of Mexico; structural controls; subsidence; surveys; tectonostratigraphic units; two-dimensional models; West Indies;

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