Geologic Processes Trinidad by Pindell PDF

Processes & Events in the Terrane Assembly of Trinidad and E.
Venezuela
James Pindell* and Lorcan Kennan
Tectonic Analysis, Ltd.,

Chestnut House, Burton Park,
Duncton, West Sussex,
GU28 0LH, England
*Also: Dept. Earth Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
Email: jim@tectonicanalysis.com or lorcan@tectonicanalysis.com
Web: http://www.tectonicanalysis.com
Originally published in:

GCSSEPM Foundation 21st Annual Research Conference Transactions, Petroleum Systems of Deep-Water
Basins, December 2-5, 2001, pages 159-192.
Abstract
Neogene-Recent arrival of the Caribbean Plate and subsequent development of the Southern Caribbean
plate boundary zone as well as coeval deposition of Orinoco deltaic sediments in Eastern Venezuela-Trinidad
have profoundly changed the region’s earlier basin setting, including some very large vertical and horizontal
displacements of original tectonic elements and depositional systems. Plate kinematic analysis provides the
geometric and temporal framework in which to see past these late developments and to deduce the region’s
earlier paleogeographic evolution, and constrains the primary setting, style and timing of basement structure in
the region’s shallow-water and deep-water continental margins through time. Palinspastic restoration of
deformations, terrane accretions, and sedimentary additions to the region’s continental areas back through time to
the breakup of Pangea allows fine-tuning of the kinematics, and prediction of parameters such as paleo-heatflow,
paleo-sedimentary provenance, and aspects of source and reservoir potential. In Eastern Venezuela-Trinidad,
Jurassic rifting produced a serrated crustal margin, with rift segments oriented ~070° separated by sinistral
transfer zones at ~140°. A Late Jurassic-Cretaceous “passive” margin along the Proto-Caribbean Seaway
developed above this basement, but sinistral shear between South American and Bahamian crusts along the
Guyana Escarpment may have caused continued tectonism into Early Cretaceous, prior to truly passive margin
Late Cretaceous source rock deposition. Paleogene convergence between North and South America caused uplift
and erosion in Venezuela’s northern Serranía del Interior, the flyschoid depositional results of which are found in
northern Trinidad. This is because the northern Trinidad depocenter, here called the Northern superterrane, was
situated much closer to the Serranía at that time, as opposed to southern Trinidad. During Oligocene-middle
Miocene arrival from the west and dextral-oblique arc-continent collision of Caribbean Plate with the margin,
Northern superterrane strata have been translated ESE and imbricated with strata of the Southern superterrane,
producing strong foredeep subsidence in the Maturín-early Southern Basin. Coeval strike slip faults such as
Coche-North Coast may have taken up some of the strike-slip component of the oblique relative motion. Since
the end of middle Miocene, the southeast Caribbean plate boundary zone has been dominated by E-W simple
shear, with relatively minor N-S shortening and extension adjacent to faults. A 3-stage model involving variable
strain partitioning describes the tectonic and basin history of Eastern Venezuela and Trinidad for the last 12Ma.
The various stages of development have produced exploration settings of different aspect across the greater
Trinidad region.
1 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Introduction
The Trinidad region (Figure 1, 2): (1) straddles the present Caribbean-South America plate boundary
(Molnar and Sykes, 1969); (2) was involved in Paleogene convergence between North and South America
(Pindell et al., 1991; Pindell et al., 1998) as well as Oligocene-middle Miocene oblique collision between the
Caribbean and South American crusts (Dewey and Pindell, 1985; 1986; Speed, 1985); (3) formed part of the
northern South American Cretaceous (Proto-Caribbean) passive margin (Pindell and Drake and papers therein,
1998); and (4) served as the juncture of the northern South American rift zone and the Guyana Escarpment
transform margin in the Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. Therefore, understanding the tectonics and the associated
depositional history of the Trinidad region involves the integration of plate kinematics, crustal and structural
modeling, palinspastic reconstruction, detailed paleogeographic analysis through time, and analysis of
neotectonics. In addition, comparison and integration with the geology of Eastern Venezuela is vital to forming a
complete picture of the region’s geology and evolution. Here we address several of these issues to build an
overview of Trinidad’s tectonic and exploration framework, with implications for the eastern deep water
offshore.
Onshore Trinidad comprises two very different rock suites, here called the “Northern” and “Southern”
superterranes to allow further subdivision in future, defined generally by the absence (north) and presence
(south) of the Gautier and Naparima Hill formations, and the presence (north) and absence (south) of a
Paleocene-middle Eocene clastic section (Chaudière/Pointe-a-Pierre Fms. (north) vs. Lizard Springs/Navet Fms.
(south) (Figure 3). Onshore, the Northern superterrane is represented in the northern flank of Central Range and
Caroni Basin, was involved in or located adjacent to an early Paleogene tectonic event in northeastern
Venezuela, and was carried ESE as it was accreted into the Caribbean accretionary prism in the Oligocene-
middle Miocene. The Southern superterrane comprises a parautochthonous/autochthonous zone ahead of the
migrating Northern superterrane, and is represented in the Brighton-San Fernando Hill [middle Miocene]
“subthrust” belt, the Southern Basin, and the Plata-Campana Highs. These two superterranes are now separated
onshore Trinidad by a high-angle, anastomosing and often en-echelon fault system along the Central Range
(loosely termed “Central Range Fault Zone” pending further study; Kugler, 1959; Figures 1, 2), which nearly
coincides with the active (since Pliocene) trace of dextral fault motion (Figures 2, 4). In the Gulf of Paria, the
superterrane boundary appears to roughly follow the active zone of displacement, but borehole density is
insufficient to map it in detail, and it may stray south of the active strike-slip zone where it could be imbricated
in thrusts comprising the northern flank of the Plata and Campana Highs. If it does follow the trace of active
displacement, it likely continued in middle Miocene time into the trace of the Pirital and/or San Francisco Faults
of the Serranía del Interior, with a possible genetic relationship. Some distance out in the eastern offshore, the
superterrane boundary deviates from the surface trace of active displacement; the trace of active displacement
steps southward across the Pleistocene Southeastern Extensional Province (upper level pull-apart system) and
ties into the toe of the Barbados prism (Figures 2, 4). Eastward gravitational collapse here feeds down-slope
imbrication in the southernmost Barbados prism. Also at some poorly known distance offshore to the east, we
would expect the boundary to curve north and become more transitional across its original middle Miocene
imbricated fold-thrust belt.
Although the aforementioned stratigraphic differences in southern vs. northern Trinidad have long been
noted (e.g., Carr-Brown and Frampton, 1979), this paper will show that the boundary between them is abrupt for
structural rather than stratigraphic reasons. The structural arguments employed may help to guide exploration,
essentially delimiting the occurrence of good Upper Cretaceous source rocks to the south side, and prospective
early Paleogene reservoir rocks to the north side. There is potential, along the superterrane structural interface, to
reap the benefits of both, especially if rocks of the Southern superterrane can be shown locally to be overthrust
by rocks of the Northern superterrane. Also, strike-slip displacement of reservoir packages from above early
source kitchens, as well as emplacement of reservoirs upon existing kitchens, is possible. In this paper, we trace
the origin and history of these “terrane” assemblages by integrating the region’s plate kinematics, seismic
tomography, stratigraphy, and palinspastic paleogeography. Our main objective is to integrate and tie the various
geological parameters into an internally consistent and viable working model that can serve to guide continued

Pindell et al., 2001, Trinidad Terranes, Figures
Projection of continent- Tobago

63 62 61
ocean basement boundary
beneath Trinidad
11
Carupano Bsn North Coast Ft.
Coche Fault Galera Pt.

North Range
Arima Ft. idge
El Pilar Ft. ien R
Caroni Basin Dar
Gulf of Paria Manzanilla Pt.

e
Serrania al Rang
Interior Pt-a-Pierre Centr
Warm Springs Ft.
ariv a Belt
Plata 1 N
San Juan Campana 2 3 5 7
Graben 4
8 Galeota Pt.
6 Gu
ya
Pedernales Southern Range na
Pirital Ft. Es 10
ge? ca
K Shelf Ed rp
Columbus Channel m
Maturín Basin en
t
1, San Fernando Hill. 2, Brighton
El Furrial 3, Dunmore Hill, Debe-Wellington Faults.
4, Penal-Barrackpore anticlinal thrust stack.
5, Southern Basin. 6, Rock Dome
Delta Amacuro 7, Mary Assy Thrusts. 8, Guayaguayare High
Figure 1. Locality map of the Trinidad region for features referred to in text.
64 63 62 61 60 59 58
Position of ocean crust Guayaguayare Terrane (absent mid. Mioc.)
edge relative to SOAM Southern Basin Block
Nariva Fold Thrust Belt
Deepest Paria depocentres
Northern Range, Caroni Block
Serrania del Interior Oriental
12 Carupano Platform, N.most SOAM deep crust 12
CARIBBEAN PLATE
Trench where Proto-Caribbean
underthrusts SOAM.
LEADING EDGE
OF CARIB. CRUST Structure from
Carupano Platform occurs where Carib. Plate TOBAGO Boettcher et al., 2000
overthrusts edge of SOAM - note this drives the sub-
sidence of Maturin Basin and ?Columbus Channel
Pull-apart? DARIEN RIDGE
11 ?No evaps. on Evaps. on 11
Domoil High Gulf High
COCHE F.
ARIMA F. “MANZANILLA
PT.” FAULT
EL PILAR F. CRF
GUYANA TRANSFORM - earthquakes
NTF
S. FRANCISCO F. indicate possible tearing under weight
San Juan Graben PLATA- PBF GALEOTA of advancing Barbados Prism
CAMPANA FAULT
HIGH
10 10
PIRITAL THR. C.Coro, Soldado S. COAST
URICA F. backthrusts FAULT
Rock Dome, Lizard
Springs thrusts
EL FURRIAL - WARM SPRINGS F. Pliocene growth fault province shown in red.
PEDERNALES TREND Dunmore Hill and other Pleist. growth fault province shown in black
out-of-sequence thrusts
CRF - Central Range Fault, southern boundary of Cuche outcrop
NTF - Nariva Thrust Front, leading edge of accretionary prism and assoc. thrusting
9 PBF - Penal Barrackpore Fault, anti-formal stack of late middle Miocene age 9
64 63 62 61 60 59 58
Figure 2. Map of major fault traces and tectonic elements in the Trinidad region.
research and exploration in the region. The exercise also serves to define problems that need further work, the
results of which can eventually be re-integrated to further refine the model.
Regional geology: crustal boundaries, faults, basins, and terranes

Geological sub-regions and their boundaries are shown in Figures 1, 2 & 4. Although the North Coast
Fault Zone and Coche Fault Zone form the primary petrologic plate boundary between Caribbean/South
America, almost all of the fault displacement between the Caribbean Plate and South America since at least the
Pliocene has been taken up farther to the south.
The El Pilar Fault system and the Gulf of Paria pull-apart basin lie to the south of the Araya-Paria
Peninsula and Northern Range and allow strike-slip displacement to step southward into the Central Range of
Trinidad and offshore into the Darien Ridge. Many earlier papers (e.g. Robertson and Burke, 1989) explicitly
assume that the major interplate displacement lies either off the north coast of Trinidad or on the Arima Fault
(eastward projection of a strand of El Pilar). As a result, the idea has become rooted that there is a sharp E-W
boundary between the Caribbean Plate driving the Barbados Accretionary Prism to the north, and deformed
passive margin to the south (latter is likely to be more prospective for exploration). We suggest that this is
fundamentally in error and that the boundary between allochthonous and parautochthonous terranes lies farther
south than previously supposed and is broader and more complex than early models suggest. Below we outline
some of the evidence for our terrane interpretation.
Northern Range
The Northern Range (Algar, 1993a,b; Algar and Pindell, 1993; Weber et al., 2001) comprises Jurassic-
Lower Cretaceous, and Maastrichtian continental slope to basin floor strata, now metamorphosed with most of
Upper Cretaceous missing or extremely condensed. No Tertiary is known and metamorphic grade generally
increases to the west either progressively or across unclear faults. The first significant tectonic deformation is
characterised by a low angle foliation with a strong E-W trending stretching lineation. This fabric was later
modified by more open folding and, in late Miocene, gentle southward tilting as a rigid body which has produced
or increased the first foliation’s southward dip. Peak metamorphism is dated by 23-26 Ma Ar-Ar mica growth
ages within the first foliation (Foland et al., 1992), while zircon fission track ages indicate cooling below ~250°C
in the late middle Miocene in western and central areas. Apatite fission track ages from the lower grade rocks in
the east indicate cooling below ~110°C in early Miocene (Algar et al., 1998; Weber et al., 2001).
The strong E-W stretching lineation in the first foliation strongly suggests that interaction with the
Caribbean crust (leading edge of basement now SE of Tobago) or its accretionary wedge drove the ~25Ma
deformation and metamorphism. Approximate positions of the leading of edge of the Caribbean are well-
constrained (Pindell, 1993; Pindell et al., 1998; Pindell et al., in press) and indicate that the Northern Range was
originally situated up to 500 km west of its current position (25 m.y. of ~20 mm/yr inter-plate displacement).
Disregarding the complicating effects of internal E-W stretching in these terranes, this puts the Northern Range
depocenter to the north of the western part of the Serranía del Interior, and the Paria Peninsula and lower
(passive margin) nappes of the Araya Peninsula north of Caracas. In support of this, we note that the shallow
water deposits of the Caracas Group along central Venezuela show no “slope facies” belt between them and the
Caribbean Plate, while Eastern Venezuela and especially Trinidad have two parallel belts of “slope” facies. The
geochronology and structural and stratigraphic relations suggest that the Lower Araya-Paria-Northern Range
terrane was obliquely picked up by the Caribbean prism by 25Ma (start of first deformation) and obliquely thrust
across slope/outer shelf strata to the south. Uplift and cooling began during early to middle Miocene, and by 10-
12 Ma, most zircons ages were locked in. Seismic lines through the Dragon’s Mouth (gap between Norhtern
Range and paria) suggests that the northern flank of the Range is defined by a N-dipping detachment where the
Carupano Platform of the Caribbean Plate (top nappe in oblique collision) has subsequently detached
transtensionally from the overthrust Northern Range, probably at 10-12 Ma when zircons underwent final
cooling.

Central Range, Trinidad, Paleogene

"flysch" units derived from a shallow source
A B Early Oligocene San Fernando

Formation, carbonate debris
transported into deep-water
Northern Range
?
Caroni Basin Eocene Pointe-a-Pierre Grits,
Nariva accre- quartz sand and shale,
tionary prism turbiditic deposition
Southern Basin
Paleocene Chaudiere Shale with
Olistoliths (olistostrome),
middle? to outer? bathyal
? Cuche Formation:
1, shallow marine shale in NW
2, deeper marine shale in Central Rng
3, metamorphic in Caroni Basin
C
Northern Caroni Basin, and Southern Basin, and
Range N-flank Central Range S-flank Central Range
Plio-Pleist Springvale
L. Miocene Manzanilla
Lengua/Karamat
Early-Mid. Upper Cipero unfilled foredeep
Cunapo 1/Brasso in wedge top basin
Miocene Nariva in imbricated prism,
Eroded off or Nariva in wedge top basin Lower/middle Cipero foredeep
Oligocene
not deposited San Fernando North San Fernando South
Eocene Navet
Paleocene Chaudiere/Pt-a-Pierre clastics Lizard Springs
Galera, Lopinot Guayaguayare
Late Largely missing, but note
Cretaceous Not known or occurrences near Chert Hill Gautier/Naparima Formations,
missing conformable
Early Toco-Laventille Cuche (thermally altered) Cuche (not altered)

Cretaceous Chancellor/Grande
Couva marine evaporites
Riviere/ Rio Seco
Jurassic Maraval/Maracas Unknown
Unknown
Figure 3. Summary of stratigraphy and distinctions between “Northern” and “Southern”

superterranes in Trinidad, separated generally by the Central Range Fault Zone. The Northern Range
can be considered as a terrane within the Northern superterrane, and the boundary with the Northern
superterrane may be a gradual transition, achieved by thrust imbrication with a strong component of
dextral shear. The Chaudière and Pointe-a-Pierre Fms. of the Northern superterrane may interdigi-
tate as shown in the column. These units rest unconformably on Cuche Fm. in the Northern
superterane, which is a trademark feature of the northern half of Trinidad’s Central Range as well as
of the NE corner of the Venezuelan Serranía del Interior Oriental.
66 64 62 60 58
Limit of
Jurassic trans- Barbados
12 Trace of Paleogene form edge of Prism 12
subduction zone Oceanic Crust
Edge of
Caribbean
Crust
Cariaco Basin
Gulf of Paria
SE Extensional
province "basin"
10 10
Serrania, ß<2
ic n
ass Trinidad Palinspastically
Jur Grabe Reentrant,
ino Limit of "normal" reconstructed
Esp ß=3-4 Cretaceous
continental Crust
shelf edge
8 8
66 64 62 60 58
Figure 4. Simplified map of tectonic elements showing the locus of Caribbean-South

America strike-slip motion, stepping south across the Cariaco Basin, Gulf of Paria Basin,
and Southeastern Extensional Province towards the toe of the Barbados Accretionary
Prism.
Basement of the Caroni Basin
The Caroni Basin between the Central and Northern Ranges deepens into the Gulf of Paria Basin to the
west, and may in general be considered as part of the Gulf of Paria pull-apart basin (Algar and Pindell, 1993). A
strong seismic reflector beneath the northward-onlapping late Miocene to Pliocene sedimentary fill dips south,
wedging into and beneath N-vergent backthrusts of the Central Range. The surface can be traced northward up to
surface exposures of the Northern Range. Wells onshore and offshore indicate that the surface is an
unconformity or pediment upon overmature Barremian-Aptian “Cuche Fm.”. The commonly overlying Cunapo
Fm. contains metamorphic clasts derived from the Northern Range, generally fining to the south into age
equivalent Manzanilla Fm. The “Cuche Fm.” is lithologically similar to age equivalent strata in the eastern part
of the Northern Range (e.g. Rio Seco Fm.). The northern margin of the basin is defined by the Arima Fault,
which clearly shows several km of down to the south motion, decreasing eastward to nil at the eastern coast.
There is little definitive evidence of strike-slip motion along the south side of the Northern Range (but see
Robertson and Burke, 1989), and neither the Arima nor El Pilar faults can be confidently traced into the eastern
offshore on seismic data. Thus, we infer that the Caroni Basin basement of onshore Trinidad is continuous with
that of Northern Range but distinct from that of the Southern Basin (see below).
There is strong E-W extension within the late Miocene-Pliocene section of the Caroni Basin. Overall, the
area serves as the NE null quadrant of the greater Gulf of Paria-Caroni pull-apart, while faults along the crest of
Central Range serve as the active quadrant of the pull-apart, transferring motion from El Pilar fault and Gulf of
Paria eastward across Trinidad. The south flank of the Caroni Basin was inverted in the late Pliocene, with
considerable erosion of the southern Caroni section.
Central Range
The Central Range is a prominent ridge of imbricated middle Cretaceous to Pleistocene strata cut by
range-parallel dextral strike-slip faults. Current structural expression is Plio-Pleistocene. In addition, the middle
Miocene Brasso Fm. records the middle Miocene uplift of the Central Range (and probably Caroni Basin as
well), as a piggy back basin or overlap assemblage upon the underlying submarine Nariva fold-thrust
belt/accretionary prism (Erlich et al., 1993). In cross section, today’s Central Range looks like a doubly vergent
set of high-angle thrusts overthrusting both to the north and the south, with a central strike-slip fault system
(Central Range Fault Zone) down the middle. To the south, thrusting has an “accretionary” character with large
folds thrust over piggy back basins. Recent inversion of the northern flank of Central Range has caused
northward thrusting of strata over the southern Caroni Basin. This late phase is clearly of a dextral strike-slip
(transpressive) nature. GPS motion studies (Weber et al., in press) show about 14-16 mm/yr of strike-slip motion
along the strand of the Central Range Fault that passes through Pointe-a-Pierre, such that dextral offset since the
~2?Ma onset of transpressive inversion could reach about 30km, and longer term magnitudes could be more. The
strike-slip component makes balancing cross sections very misleading.
The Central Range Fault Zone appears to define two paleogeographic zones in the Central Range. To the
north of the fault:
1) the lowest known unit is thermally altered Cuche Formation;

2) the Gautier and Naparima Hill Fms. are generally missing (except at Chert Hill exposure in the eastern
Central Range; Kugler, 1959);
3) the Paleocene Chaudière Fm. is unconformable on Cuche/Chert Hill Upper Cretaceous, bears mica
and floating sand and quartz-sandstone grains, and has a flyschoid appearance, and is strictly a
Northern superterrane unit: the “Chaudière Member” of Lizard Springs Fm. at San Fernando Hill in
the Southern-superterrane apparently was mapped as Chaudière by Kugler (1959) due to the
occurrence of the St. Joseph's Conglomerate there, but this conglomerate is distinctive from the sandy
micaceous flysch of the Northern superterrane, and can be interpreted as passive margin submarine
channel fill, to be expected in the Southern Terrane;

4) Pointe-a-Pierre Fm. is usually associated with Chaudière Fm., and is the sandy correlative to Navet
marls in the Southern superterrane. In the eastern Central Range, beds mapped as Chaudière shales
and Pointe-a-Pierre sands (Kugler, 1959) are interbedded (Figure 3), suggesting to us a basin floor
model of Chaudière overbank shales and debris flows, and Pointe-a-Pierre sandy turbidite channels
and fans across the basin plain. However, the section does appear to become much sandier upward,
such that a distinction between the two formations can usually be made: by Pointe-a-Pierre time, sand
dominated shale in the system.
5) the Vistabella and Plaisance members of the latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene San Fernando Formation
represent a coarsening and increase carbonate content in this re-sedimented Paleogene clastic section
of the Northern superterrane (Tectonic Analysis, Inc., 1997), although sandy conglomeratic beds of
similar age also occur in the south (e.g., Oligocene section of the Rocky Palace borehole), requiring
further analysis of this possible distinction between the two terranes.
The reason for the widespread absence of Upper Cretaceous in the Northern superterrane (and Northern
Range) remains unclear, but non-deposition, Late Cretaceous (pre-Galera Fm.) erosion, and severe depositional
condensation have all been considered.
The Nariva Thrustbelt

The Nariva Fold Thrust Belt is a poorly exposed area of highly deformed late Oligocene-middle Miocene
muds and sandstones, imbricated during the early and middle Miocene, that separates the Central Range to the
north from the Southern Basin. Depth to main detachment appears to drop to the north on seismic, where early
Paleogene (Chaudière and Point-a-Pierre Fms.) and Lower Cretaceous (Cuche Fm.) strata become involved in
out of sequence faulting. (Plio-Pleistocene transpression). The Southern Basin stratigraphy (except Chert Hill)
forms the footwall to this fold-thrust belt (but was also imbricated in sequence at, at least, Brighton and San
Fernando Hill during middle Miocene). Restoration of estimated younger shortening in southern Trinidad
combined with our integrated plate kinematic modeling indicates that, during the early to middle Miocene, the
Nariva fold-thrust belt was located where the leading edge of the Caribbean Accretionary Prism should have
been during oblique collision with the South American margin. We summarize similarities between the Nariva
belt and recognized accretionary prism phenomena below:
Table 1. Four characteristics of accretionary prisms and of the Nariva fold-thrust belt, Trinidad
1. Accretionary prisms comprise imbricates of sediment deposited ahead of an advancing thrust front. The trace of the prism
(trench) is usually a bathymetric low, in which gravity flows preferentially accumulate. Sedimentation commonly enters the
trench along its axis, ie laterally, but sediment can also spill into the trench from either side of the trench.
2. Sediments get accreted as packages (slices) into prisms by episodic propagation of the leading thrust into the sedimentary
section at the toe of the trench, resulting in downward younging in the sediments contained in the package. Already-accreted
packages of sediment become progressively uplifted and rotated away from the trench as new packages are accreted at the prism
base. Each package boundary can continue to act as, usually, a thrust fault during rotational uplift, and piggyback basins may
develop between major thrusts.
3. Newly accreted packages are water rich and de-water after accretion, leading to mud diapirism up through the hanging walls of
already-accreted sediment. Mud volcanoes commonly serve as conduits for fluids and blocks stoped from the strata they have
migrated through. Thus, blocks may be older or younger than the matrix. Erosion of sub-marine mud volcanoes by bottom
currents can create lag deposits of blocks across and within the surface of the prism that can look like sedimentary
olistostromes.
4. Matrices of mud diapirs show signs of ubiquitous shear, often as slickensides of all orientations. Blocks may show shear
textures along their margins as well, depending on the relative shear strength of the block and the matrix, or whether multiple
blocks have come into contact during uplift.
We interpret the Nariva Belt as part of the early to middle Miocene Caribbean Prism for the the following
reasons. The Nariva Formation (Belt) comprises latest Oligocene to early middle Miocene muds, sands, and
sandy muds, and is thought to be a source of many mud diapirs. It overlies the Lower Cipero Fm. and is laterally
continuous into middle Cipero Fm. southwards, hence there is southward stratigraphic diachroneity, consistent

with advance of a foredeep basin ahead of a thrust front. The Lower Cipero Fm. is shown on maps as stringers
within the Nariva Fm.: this may be structural or stratigraphic, or both, but the style is reminiscent of accretionary
prisms. Outcrops of Nariva Fm. often show “scaly” phacoidal fabrics (with concoidal fracture) on which
slickensides occur on all surfaces and in all directions, indicative of shale diapirism. Overlying the Nariva Fm.
are the Retrench and Herrera Fm. sandy “fairway” units, which we consider to be at least partly controlled by
syn-sedimentary folding in the accretionary prism, ie “piggy-back” basins. Development of the Nariva thrustbelt
caused progressive shallowing of the Central Range into the middle Miocene, but thrusting failed to cause
emergence to the south (foredeep depocenter). The Brasso Fm. depocenter farther north was a piggy back basin
of sorts, marking the shoaling of the Nariva foldbelt. During middle Miocene time, the Nariva thrustbelt would
have continued northeastward into the Barbados accretionary prism.
SouthernBasin and Maturin Basin south of Serranía del Interior

To the south, the Southern superterrane stratigraphy (Figure 3) prevails across fold-thrust domain that is
ultimately detached on or below Lower Cretaceous strata, but with major detachments also present beneath the
Miocene section. Typically, top Cretaceous is found at ca. 3.5sec depth, dropping to 6-8sec in the Columbus
Basin offshore. In the Guayaguayare area in the southeast, the middle Miocene succession is restricted to a thin
Herrera section and this contrasts with areas currently only a few kms to the north. Prior to Plio-Pleistocene
thrusting, there may have been dextral transtensional shear through the region now occupied by the Rock Dome
and Mary Assy structures. The two sub-domains were juxtaposed by latest Miocene time, as shown by the
Springvale-Forest “overlap” assemblage (Kugler, 1959).
Timing, kinematics and style of deformation are complex. Middle Miocene thrusting advanced south from
the Nariva Thrust Belt to the southern edge of the Penal-Barrackpore Anticline, where frontal bathymetry was
onlapped by Lengua-Karamat strata. Brighton and San Fernando Hill include the southern stratigraphy that was
involved in the middle Miocene thrusting. We expect this stratigraphy to have originally continued to the north
by an amount equal to the shortening in the Nariva Foldbelt.
Starting at ~10-12Ma, the middle Miocene Serranía-Central Range thrust wedge began to collapse,
detaching upon overthrust Carapita-Cipero foredeep shales and extending internally at NW-SE trending faults
that cut older thrusts. The Lizard-Mary Assy trend appears to have been the limit of this collapse, and depending
on the azimuth of collapse, it may have been either a low-angle detachment (northward collapse) or a transfer
zone that relayed dextral shear (ENE trantension) toward the toe of the migrating accretionary prism. Late
Miocene strata appear to thicken south towards the Rock Dome and Lizard-Mary Assy suggesting that these
structures were not yet in compression. To the west, the transtensional detachment at this time (late Miocene)
surfaced in the Maturín Basin (Figures 1, 2), where up to 30 km of extension has been mapped south of El
Furrial (di Croce et al., 1999).
Compression in this region started at about 4-6 Ma, with growth apparent on out-of-sequence thrusts south
of Brighton in late Lower Cruse Fm. time. Out-of-sequence thrusting (Debe-Wellington, Dunmore Hill thrusts)
continued into the middle Pliocene, and thrusting may have started in the Rock Dome area by no earlier than 3-4
Ma, folding previously active extensional (E-directed extension - see below) faults onshore. Detachment level
for Rock Dome, Lizard Springs and Dunmore Hill Thrusts is beneath Naparima Hill Fm. while the Debe-
Wellington thrusts reactivate a base Nariva Fm. detachment. Cretaceous lies ca. 2.5s higher in the Southern
Basin than in Columbus Channel indicating that deeper levels of stratigraphy must also be involved in thrusting.
Shortening and excess area calculations indicate a thickness below known Cretaceous of ca. 3 km, possibly
suggesting involvement of older (Jurassic-Neocomian) sediments. Pleistocene shortening direction may have
been close to parallel with the 110° Los Bajos Fault (a tear, or shallow-rooted strike-slip fault linking with intra-
Cretaceous detachment), along which minor bends in the fault’s trace produce transpressive pop-ups. The Los
Bajos Fault separates an area of greater thrust shortening to the east (Rock Dome, etc.) from a zone of lesser
shortening to the west. Linkage geometry through the Plata-Campana area is not clear.

-80 -75 -70 -65 -60
25 25
300 km
A
20
Cuba 20
32
25
34 21 25 32
Muertos Trough
21 34
Mueller 13 Pindell et 25 32
et al. data 13 al. data 21
21 25 32
6 6 13 34 34
15 5 6
13 15
5 6
5 5
0 0 0 0
Colombia
Basin
10 10
Venezuela
-80 -75 -70 -65 -60
Tobago
Flowline 56 B
Blanquila 46
Flowline
33
56 46 33 17
17
10 10
Present
Figure 5. (A) Points labeled with magnetic anomaly numbers representing the former relative positions (since Campanian) of
North America with respect to a fixed South America; after Müller et al. (1999) and Pindell et al. (1988). Anomalies 34=~84Ma;
32=~72Ma; 25=~56Ma; 21=~46Ma; 13=~33Ma; 6=~19Ma; 5=~10Ma. (B) Points labeled in time (Ma) showing Tertiary motion
histories of Tobago (representing Tobago Terrane) and Blanquilla (representing Caribbean Plate) relative to South America,
based on modelled plate reconstructions of Pindell and Kennan (this volume). Although the average path is shown between 10
Ma and 0 Ma as a solid line, Trinidad’s structural history suggests that motion for this period may have been that of transtension
for ca. 10-4 Ma and transpression for ca. 4-0Ma (dashed lines). However, this is not the only mechanism that could have pro-
duced these structural styles (see text).
The south coast of Trinidad is characterized by N-vergent backthrusts growing during the Pleistocene.
These must link to S-vergent deeper detachments imaged on some deep seismic lines in the eastern offshore. The
youngest compressive structures (as young as or younger than South Coast, Galeota structures) are gentle SE-
directed folds. The Maturín-Pedernales Fault system (middle Miocene thrustfront that was later reactivated as a
normal (late Miocene-early Pliocene) and then compressive (Plio-Pleistocene) fault is quasi-continuous with the
Trinidadian Southern Range fault zone, the backthrusts of which appear to root at 4.5s to 6s depth into
detachments below the Southern Basin.
Columbus Basin and Southeastern Extensional Province

The offshore Southeastern Extensional Province lies within the Columbus Channel and to the east,
comprising areas of both Pliocene (including onshore extent) and Pleistocene extension (Figures 1, 2, 4). The
province lies to the south of the Darien Ridge and has a diffuse southern margin close to the maritime border
between Trinidad and Venezuela. The Barbados Prism accretionary front is well-defined in the east and can
clearly be traced southwest towards the Columbus Channel. This strongly suggests that some of the accretion at
least is driven by large magnitude eastward movement of Trinidad and that the extensional province marks a
third southward step in the locus of strike-slip (the others being the Cariaco Basin and the Gulf of Paria Basin).
Almost all extensional faults trend N-S or NW-SE including Pliocene faults onshore in the Southern Basin. The
extensional province south of Maturín may be a late Miocene geometric analogue whose motion was transferred
east through the Lizard-Mary Assy trend (see above).
There is not much extension, onshore or offshore, west of the projection of Los Bajos Fault. Onset of
extension was probably triggered by the incorporation of the Southern Basin strata into the allochthon as
deformation migrated to the southeast. During the Pleistocene, extension migrated eastwards (Wood et al., 2000)
as compression started to dominate onshore southern Trinidad and total extension in the east may be up to 40-
50km. Some of the massive accommodation space (6-8 km since 4 Ma) may reflect shale bulge migration (Wood
et al., 2000) but the majority appears be tectonic. Rapid subsidence reflects not only the magnitude of extension,
but the likely thickness of the sediments underlying the Province which have been extended. Note that we have
crossed a major crustal boundary, from continental to oceanic crust east of the Guyana Transform (Figures 1, 2;
Pindell and Kennan, 2001, companion paper in this volume), where accommodation space, and presumably
sediment thickness, has been greater since at least Late Jurassic time.
Plate Kinematics and Tomography: Support for Five Phases of Evolution

A simple five phase history adequately describes the geological history of Eastern Venezuela and
Trinidad. The five phases are: 1) rifting and separation of Yucatan from the Americas; 2) Paleogene subduction
of Proto-Caribbean oceanic crust beneath northern South America; 3) early Neogene oblique transpression with
the Caribbean Plate overriding the older passive margin; 4) late Neogene oblique transtension and collapse of the
orogen; 5) localized Pliocene-Pleistocene inversion of previously extensional structures while, overall,
transtension continues to dominate. Evidence in support of this history is outlined below.
North America-South America Relative Motions

Figure 5a summarizes the motion of North America relative to South America since Campanian time
(Müller et al., 1999; Pindell et al.; 1988). Separation of North and South America (by seafloor spreading in the
Proto-Caribbean Seaway) came to an end sometime between the ages of anomalies 32 and 25 (ca. late
Maastrichtian) and since then slow, generally north-south, convergence has occurred. Total convergence is
greater in the west (350km in Colombia dropping to 200 km in Eastern Venezuela) due to clockwise rotation of
South America. Significantly, ~42km of the total 200km in Eastern Venezuela had occurred by the middle
Eocene and ~56km by end of the Eocene, an amount which must be explained by plate boundary processes
which had nothing to do with the Caribbean Plate, which then lay far to the west, and which we will argue
affected the northern South American margin in Paleogene time.

Figure 6. Interpreted positions of top of Proto-Caribbean slab, location of tears in that slab, and
position of subduction zone between South America and North America now buried by over-
riding Caribbean lithosphere, based on seismic tomography data from van der Hilst (1990). Fig-
ure 6a) E-W cross-section showing thick (1) and thin (2) Caribbean lithosphere, presumably
reflecting differing degrees of magmatic underplating of Late Cretaceous age. The Proto-
Caribbean lithosphere (3) is clear as a cold region, subducted by at least 1,200 km beneath the
Caribbean lithosphere. Note that seismicity (dots) is limited to the upper 200 km of the slab,
close to the trench. In all profiles deep cold pre-existing “shadows” (4) are seen at ca. 550-650
km which appear to merge with the cold cores of subducting slab, indicating that care must be
taken when interpreting the data. b) N-S line through the Gulf of Barcelona clearly shows the
Proto-Caribbean slab subducting beneath northern South America, with warmer ?asthenosphere
between the two lithospheres (5). The asthenospheric wedge is clearer to the north (6), where its
presence allows melting at depths of ca. 100 km beneath the overriding Caribbean Plate. Again
note seismicity clustered only close to the trench (7). c) N-S line through the Gulf of Paria, far-
ther east. Note that on first examination this line appears to show a deep slab attached to SoAm
dipping to the north. However, when interpreted in the light of line b, and others, the true inter-
pretation, as a south-dipping slab subducted below the northern edge of SoAm, becomes clear
(8). Again, we note the presence of deep cold shadows (9) at ca. 600 km which can confuse the
interpretation. Note in both b and c that the magnitude of overlap between NoAm and SoAm
indicates that this subduction must predate the arrival of the Caribbean off of eastern Venezuela
and Trinidad by at least 20-30 Ma. d) Hypothetical lithospheric geometries in Eastern Venezuela
before (Paleogene) and after (Neogene) arrival of Caribbean Plate from the west. Only conver-
gence occurs between SoAm and Proto-Caribbean slabs, while dominantly transcurrent motion
occurs between those slabs and the allochthonous Caribbean Plate. Arc magmatism in Lesser
Antilles indicates that a mantle wedge occurs between the Caribbean and Proto-Caribbean crusts:
this wedge thickens southwestward. Proto-Caribbean subduction beneath SoAm is too slow to
create an arc there. e) Map showing: location of cross-sections through seismic tomographic
model for Caribbean region (modified from van der Hilst, 1990); paleopositions of South Ameri-
can (relative to NoAm) coastline and interpreted continent-ocean crust transition at 72 Ma
(coastlines in Maracaibo/Colombia area adjusted to remove Cenozoic displacement on Mérida
Andes, Oca and Santa Marta faults); and interpreted contours on top of Proto-Caribbean slab.
Stippled area shows how much of the Proto-Caribbean has been subducted beneath South Ameri-
ca (has moved north since 72 Ma). Also note that in the west, a tear formed in the Proto-
Caribbean slab as its leading edge sank to the ca. 650 km discontinuity in the mantle. Proto-
Caribbean slab is only completely imaged on sections in the east. There, the imaged overlap
matches extremely well with the calculated northward motion of SoAm since the early Cenozoic.
W 250 500 750 1000 1250 E S 250 500 750 1000 1250 1250
N
0 0
Carib. 2 Carib.
1
200 200 SoAm 5 6
7
400 3 Proto-Carib. 400 Proto-Carib.
600 4
600
800 800
A B
S N S South Proto- N
250 500 750 1000 1250 1250 Caribbean trench
0 SoAm Lithosphere Proto-Caribbean Lithosphere
Carib.
SoAm PALEOGENE TIME, PRIOR TO ARRIVAL OF
200 CARIBBEAN PLATE FROM THE WEST
8
Proto-Carib. Serrania/Trinidad foldbelt,
Puerto
400 S and East Ven foredeep
Rico
Trench N
9 SoAm Lithosphere Caribbean Lithosphere
600
Proto-Caribbean Lithosphere
SoAm
advancing
NEOGENE TIME, AFTER ARRIVAL
800 north over
C
OF CARIBBEAN PLATE IN NORTH-
trench, causing
subduction by rollback only
SOUTH CROSS-SECTION
D
E 70 65 60 55
Depth contours of proto-

Caribbean slab (km)
B C
20
100
200 Caribbean
Trench
Proto-Caribbean is 300 Westward

overthrust by extension of
Caribbean Plate in 400 Tiburon Rise
this region
A ? 15
Proto-Caribbean is
Diffuse deformation
tearing and sinking
closer to SOAM-
to the south
Proto Carib pole of
200 rotation
Proto-Carib.-SOAM 300 ?
trench now buried by 10
advancing Carib. Plate 400
Edge of
Edge of cont. cont. crust
crust at 72 Ma at 72 Ma
500 SOAM coast
at 72 Ma
Proto-Caribbean is Proto-Caribbean slab known to exist at least to

overthrust by SOAM here, but if trench had nucleated within cont.- 5
in this region ocean transition, then slab would continue to here
Caribbean-South America Motions
Using detailed Caribbean plate reconstructions through time, Pindell and Kennan (2001, this volume)
deduced the Caribbean-South America relative motion history shown in Figure 5b. On Figure 5b, only the
actual points shown define former relative positions of the two plates. The tie lines connecting the points serve
only as guidelines to define an approximate flow path between the two plates from one point to the next.
Structural style may be sufficient to indicate that motions from one point to the next were somewhat different to
these longer-term flow lines. We raise this point because we have not yet been able to define any convergent
tectonism in the Trinidad region for the period ~9Ma to ~6Ma (the interval was dominated by transtension),
whereas there is ample evidence for convergent deformation since 6Ma. This could indicate that between
anomaly 5 (9.5Ma) and the Present, which is shown in Figure 5b as an ~085°-trending line, the true motion
history might have started out with a sub-interval of more northeasterly relative motion, only to finish up with a
more southeasterly sub-interval of relative motion (dashed alternative of Figure 5b).
However, this two-phase relative motion history for the 9.5 Ma to Present interval is only one mechanism
that might explain the two intevals of contrasting structural styles. A second is that, during continuous relative
motion at 085°, net strain toward 085° may have been well partitioned for the late Miocene interval, such that E-
W transcurrent offset occurred on the Coche-North Coast Fault Zone, and N-S extension occurred within the
former Serranía-Trinidad thrust belt: by Pliocene time, partitioning may have failed, such that shear stepped
south and the components of the thrust belt began to move toward 085° with the Caribbean Plate, leading to
transpression at all faults with orientations less than 085° (e.g., Central Range). A third possible mechanism is
that southward rollback of South American lithosphere beneath the Maturín-Columbus foredeep may have
continued into late Miocene time, after the change in relative motion, but ceased in Pliocene time thereby
providing a fixed buttress against which motion toward 085° may have been able to drive transpression. Finally,
a fourth mechanism is that the 070° trend of the original basement rift geometry beneath Trinidad may have
produced a situation in which oblique plate motion above it toward 085° led to progressively greater amounts of
continental choking at the plate interface. All four possibilities must be considered for their potential
contribution to the overall history; at present, we favor the idea of variable strain partitioning as a primary cause
for the Pliocene change in structural style.
Implications of Seismic Tomography Data in the Caribbean Region

Van der Hilst’s (1990) seismic tomographic data (Figure 6) showed the existence and geometry of
mappable oceanic slabs beneath the Caribbean and adjacent plates. The Pindell et al. (1991) model called for
southward dipping subduction of Proto-Caribbean lithosphere beneath northern South America since the
Maastrichtian, prior to the arrival of Caribbean crust from the west, such that the Caribbean Plate has obliquely
overthrust, toward the southeast, the trace of a pre-existing, southward-dipping, Proto-Caribbean trench at the
foot of the South American margin (see Figure 6d). In contrast, Russo and Speed (1992) proposed northward
dipping subduction of South America’s Proto-Caribbean slab as the source of the subducted material and
northward tectonic wedging by South America, coincident with the arrival of the Caribbean Plate, as a means of
dislocating South American continental crust from its former oceanic root. A critical reappraisal of the seismic
tomographic data, integrated with the plate motions, and forward modeling of the implications of the two types
of models (north vs south dipping subduction) indicates to us that southward-dipping subduction of Proto-
Caribbean crust prior to the arrival of Caribbean Plate is the more likely interpretation (Pindell et al., 1991).
Figures 6 a-c present our interpretations of the position of the top of the subducted Proto-Caribbean slab on
seismic tomographic cross-sections along the eastern and southern margins of the Caribbean Plate (after van der
Hilst, 1990). Critical to all interpretations are the deep, cold shadows at 400-500km depth beneath South
America at latitude 6°-12°N which represent true oceanic crust that is eastwardly continuous with the Atlantic
slab presently being subducted beneath Barbados and Tobago. Several key implications are immediately clear
from a contour map of the Proto-Caribbean slab (Figure 6e).
First, a large tear exists within the western portion of the subducted Proto-Caribbean slab which tapers out
eastwards at approximately 12°N and 65°W. The tear may be due simply to gravitationally-driven extension

within the southward-dipping slab as it was subducted beneath northern South America. We do not know when
such tearing might have occurred. A significant amount of internal deformation within the slab is likely. Second,
the trace of the trench at which Proto-Caribbean lithosphere was subducted beneath South America can be seen
as an ENE-trending break in the images beneath Tortuga, Margarita, and north of Tobago. This trend roughly
coincides with the bathymetric definition of the Carupano Platform suggesting that this is caused by the
Caribbean ramping up onto the northward limit of South American continental crust. Third, Proto-Caribbean
lithosphere can be traced beneath the northern fringe of continental South America by some 200 to 300 km in the
east, increasing considerably westwards. In the mantle reference frame, it is actually the northward migration of
South America since Maastrichtian which has dominated this apparent subduction. The total amount of
subduction, beneath Eastern Venezuela, roughly matches the total amount of Maastrichtian to Recent
convergence between North and South America (200-300km, Figure 5a). This indicates that subduction must
have started in the Maastrichtian, at the onset of the plate convergence, and that effectively all of the
convergence has been achieved in this way. Therefore, in Eastern Venezuela at least, this convergence was
underway long before the late Oligocene arrival of the Caribbean Plate from the west. We conclude that models
which relate the arrival of the Caribbean Plate to the dislocation of Proto-Caribbean lithosphere from the South
American continental crust are incorrect. If they were correct, the amount of overthrusting of Proto-Caribbean
crust by South American crust would be far less than that seen in the tomography. Finally, the tear and possible
southward gravitational sinking of the Proto-Caribbean slab hinders our ability to define the southerly limit of
subducted Proto-Caribbean crust, and therefore our ability to predict the former position of the trench when it
nucleated. The tear has to be closed in order to learn the approximate shape and size of the subducted slab.
Existing tomographic images can trace it at least to the position shown, but if the trench nucleated within the
continent-ocean transition zone, as we believe, then the slab may actually continue farther south than the
tomography has imaged.
Assuming this southward dipping subduction zone existed from Maastrichtian time on, there are no
definitive structures in the Atlantic crust east of Barbados which necessarily are related to the pre-Caribbean
trench, and thus it is not clear how the Cenozoic convergence was taken up in that area. However, the pole of
rotation for North-South America convergence was situated very close to or within this area throughout the
Cenozoic (Müller et al., 1999), and several fracture zones are clearly disturbed from their presumed original
oceanic fabric (e.g., Doldrums, Tiburon and Barracuda fracture zones). It may be that the convergent strain in
this area was sufficiently small and distributed over a wide enough area that a distinct convergent structure did
not form. If so, we consider that the trench tapers eastward into a zone of diffuse convergent strain somewhere
beneath the present Barbados prism. In Figure 7, we present a preliminary gravity model along a N-S section
through the Gulf of Paria which demonstrates that the gravity anomaly is consistent with the concept of
southward dipping subduction of Proto-Caribbean lithosphere.
The concept of Proto-Caribbean crust underthrusting northern South America in the Paleocene-Eocene,
and possible associated deformation, before the arrival of the Caribbean Plate has some first-order stratigraphic
implications and predictions for the late Cretaceous and Paleogene of Eastern Venezuela and Trinidad which are
discussed below.
Implications of Jurassic Breakup History and Basement Configuration

Much may be learned about Trinidad’s tectonic setting and basement geometry by addressing the region’s
plate kinematics during Mesozoic rifting and the subsequent dispersal of the western Pangean continents and
continental blocks. The Mesozoic plate kinematic history has recently been outlined by Pindell et al. (2000a,b).
The methodology and implications are discussed further in Pindell and Kennan (2001, this volume), from which
we summarize that:
1. Rifting did not begin in the Equatorial Atlantic (between Niger Delta and reconstructed Demerara-
Guinea Plateau) until the Aptian (Pindell, 1985). Thus Africa and South America can be treated as a
single plate until then as the Central Atlantic and Proto-Caribbean opened, and Central Atlantic
magnetic anomalies can be used to deduce the growth of the Proto-Caribbean from the time of rifting to

SSE NNW

100
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750
mGal
0
GRAVITY
-100 (dashed is modelled)
-200
2500
metres
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750
0
-2500 BATHYMETRY
-5000 Darien Ridge N. Range, Paria Tobago Terrane
etc thrustbelt
Maturin Basin Gulf of Paria Carupano Basin Grenada Basin
4 7 8
0 2.1 2.1 2.1 1.03
2.75 2.1
2.75 2.5 2.7 2.9 2.95
-20
2.9
3.23
-40
1 2 3 5 6
-60
Asthenospheric wedge
Kilometres
-80
Intense seismicity in deforming olivine rich
3.3
layer of South American lithospheric mantle
-100
9
-120
2.95
-140
Proto-Caribbean Slab
-160
-180
-200
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750
Kilometres
6°/298.5° 13°/297°
Figure 7. Gravity model which crosses obliquely into the inferred “Trinidad Embayment” (crossing both the Bohordal Fault and the Columbus Basin shelf edge.
Key features: 1) crustal thickness in Guyana Shield inferred to be ca. 35 km or more; 2) gravity bulge may be flexural bulge south of Maturín Basin; 3) gravity
low in Maturín is composite of downwarping and filling of Neogene sediments and pre-existing Jurassic depocenter at NE end of Espino Rift, and to the north,
gravity gradient and height requires substantial crustal thinning; 4) overthrusting Northern Range and Tobago Terranes drive flexure of thinned crust; 5) total
crustal thickness in north is only ca. 27 km; 6) sharp downturn in leading edge of SoAm is imaged in seismicity and tomography data (van der Hilst, 1990; Russo
and Speed, 1992); 7) arc has been thinned (due to axis parallel extension in oblique collision (Avé-Lallemant, 1997) and sutured to edge of SoAm; 8) sharp
boundary (slighty backthrust recently) with Grenada Basin (Eocene oceanic crust formed in intra-arc basin); 9) inferred deep asthenospheric wedge, required by
active volcanism in southern Lesser Antilles (reflects aqueous melting at ca. 100 km depth).
anomaly M0 (119Ma; early Aptian). From 119Ma to Present, both Central Atlantic and South Atlantic
magnetic anomalies must be used.
2. Reconstruction of western Pangea prior to Jurassic rifting shows that the straight Guyana margin lay
adjacent to the SW flank of the Bahamas now buried beneath the Cuban forearc allochthons. From
Middle Jurassic (175Ma) through Valanginian (130Ma) sinistral shear occurred along the long transform
at the base of the Guyana Escarpment, separating the growing Central Atlantic from the Proto-Caribbean
Seaway (Figure 8). NW-SE transfer faults along the early Proto-Caribbean margin (including the Urica
Fault and a proposed “Bohordal Fault” beneath the western Gulf of Paria) would have separated crustal
segments with varying amounts of crustal stretching. Aptian-Albian reefal deposits occur in Venezuela’s
Serranía del Interior Oriental as far north as Cumaná but are unknown in the generally deeper-water
deposits of Trinidad, suggesting that crustal stretching was higher in the Trinidad crustal segment. The
Southern Trinidadian depocenter thus may have formed in a NW-SE sinistral pull-apart setting (Figure
9) with “slope”, as opposed to shelf, depositional environments for the Cretaceous Cuche, Gautier, and
Naparima Hill Formations.
3. Initially, the Central Atlantic spreading ridge lay adjacent to the Demerara Rise, migrating
northwestward along the Guyana Escarpment and passing Trinidad by the Barremian-Aptian. This may
have enhanced or rejuvenated heat flow and caused uplift and complex block faulting. During the
Aptian, the Equatorial Atlantic South America-Africa plate boundary was initiated, with a transform
entering the Central Atlantic from north of the Demerara Plateau (Pindell and Dewey, 1982). This
dextral transform lay relatively far to the north and thus probably had little effect on Trinidad. Simple
passive margin thermal subsidence is expected for late Aptian through Maastrichtian time (~110Ma to
~65Ma).
4. A kink in South America-North America flow lines predicts transpression for the Trinidad-Guyana
portion of the long transform between 150 Ma and 130 Ma, possibly causing regional uplift in the
Trinidad and Eastern Venezuela area (Pindell and Erikson, 1994). This may explain the absence of
known Neocomian strata in Trinidad (eroded?). The kink had ended by Hauterivian to Barremian (130-
120 Ma), predicting renewed subsidence with possible fault control; the Barremian Cuche Formation
with its local exotic blocks of older and ?coeval shallow-water limestones may record such syn-
depositional tectonism.
5. Finally, by the Albian (~100Ma) and into the Upper Cretaceous, the plate motions and the stratigraphy
suggest the establishment of a north-facing passive margin whose strata were strongly source-prone
(Gautier and Naparima Hill formations). The depositional configuration by this time was one of shelf
sedimentation to the west and south of Trinidad, with “slope” conditions dominating the known sections
of Trinidad itself, forming a deeper water re-entrant above thinned continental crust. The shelf-slope
boundaries defining this re-entrant, after crude palinspastic reconstruction, were situated approximately
along the present western margin of the Gulf of Paria (NW trend) and the northern margin of Delta
Amacuro (ENE trend; Figure 9). This setting lasted until the Maastrichtian or early Paleocene, when
convergent conditions were established across the Proto-Caribbean Seaway (see below).
Model for Early Paleogene Orogenesis

The late Maastrichtian to Eocene stratigraphies of Eastern Venezuela and Trinidad suggest that an early
Tertiary orogenic event took place. Most geologists consider the timing of thrusting to be late Oligocene to
middle Miocene, based on stratal involvement in the Serranía’s southern fringe. However, we note that the level
of erosion becomes significantly deeper towards the north and east, and Upper Cretaceous strata are entirely
absent even in syncline cores and thrust footwalls, in contrast to the south and west. Thus, there are actually no
stratigraphic constraints on the timing of thrusting in the northern Serranía other than its being post-middle
Guayuta Group (~Campanian). In fact, several lines of evidence suggest that tectonism could have begun in the
Maastrichtian-Paleogene, including: (1) the probable erosional truncation of San Juan Formation in the northern
Serranía; (2) the occurrence of a latest Paleocene-Eocene conglomerate in depositional contact on eroded
Barranquín Formation in the north-central Serranía (Vierbuchen, 1984); (3) evidence for subaerial erosion and

105 100 95 90 85 80 75 70
40 40
Early Cretaceous 130 Ma
North America Unstretched Stretched continent
(present day Ocean crust Basalt Plateau
coordinates)
Thin Salt Thick Salt
35 Neogene 35
halokinesis (Sigsbee)
Chihuahua,
Sabinas Basins
Magnetic
Anomaly M10
30 30
Yucatán-NOAM pole
(Mid. Jur. - E. Cret.)
20 Yucatán 20
Proto-Caribbean
Mexican
Seaway
back-arc Transitional?
Ch
iap
as
Chiapas Massif
15 in final position 15
Reef
Chortis edge
New ridge is cut
once rotation stops
South America
Jamaica, Cuba
10 10
105 100 95 90 85 80 75 70
Figure 8. Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) reconstruction of the Gulf of Mexico and Proto-
Caribbean region, post-Gulf formation stage, when seafloor spreading in the Gulf had ceased
but was continuing in the Proto-Caribbean seaway (after Pindell et al., 2000b).
SE. Gulf of Mexico
A Spreading Center
Bahamas
Yucatán Restored shape of
C Southern Trinidad
for reference
Columbus
Central
A Channel
Guyana Atlantic
Fracture Spreading
Zone Center
R R
R R
Continent R R R
R R ? Guinea
R R R
- Ocean R ? R
R R ? Plateau
Boundary
(Africa)
D
Bohordal Demerara
Serrania del Transfer
Interior B Zone
Rise
Oriental
Aptian-Albian
Reef Trend
B A
Ridge
Sea-level
RR
B
Serrania Projection
del Interior of Espino
Oriental Graben
Columbus
Sea-level Channel
C nt R?R? R?
D
me
Ridge viron
e en
Slop
Continent
- Ocean
Boundary
Figure 9. Model illustrating possibility of wide zone of crustal attentuation in the Trinidad rift segment accommodat-
ed by transform motion on both the Guyana and Bohordal transfer zones, contrasting with a narrower rift zone with-
in the present day Serranía del Interior Oriental of Venezuela. “R” marks the possible Aptian-Albian reef trend con-
tinuing eastward from known El Cantil Fm. The very broad zone of attenuation allows for slope depositional
environments across all of Trinidad (Blake Plateau analogue).
incision at the top of the early to middle Eocene Caratas Formation near Barcelona (Pindell and Erikson, 2001);
(4) zircon fission track ages from Barranquín Formation in the northern and eastern Serranía which give
depositional rather than syn-thrusting reset ages (Locke, in press), suggesting a lesser degree of structural burial
(thinner thrusts) there than to the west and south where the Cenozoic is preserved today.
The existence of the ?Eocene subaerial unconformity in the northern Serranía del Interior suggests that
significant volumes of clastic material may have been shed into adjacent marine areas at that time. Further, the
observation that this unconformity cut down at least locally to Barranquín Formation levels (Vierbuchen, 1984)
suggests that the unconformity was produced by a fairly strong tectonic event (~2km missing).
The relationship of Paleogene sitting unconformably on Lower Cretaceous, as seen by Vierbuchen (1984)
but not yet revisited by us, is also a trademark feature of the northern half of Trinidad’s Central Range (Northern
superterrane), although in much deeper marine water (Chaudière, Pointe-a-Pierre and San Fernando Fms. on
Cuche Formation; Figure 3). The Chaudière and San Fernando are well known for their olistoliths of shallow-
water material resting in deeper water deposits, and the Pointe-a-Pierre is a turbiditic and locally very coarse
sandstone. Further, the Chaudière and Pointe-a-Pierre can be seen in the eastern Central Range to be
interbedded, suggesting a transitional contact (Figure ). All of these can be interpreted as erosional products of a
developing unconformity in the Serranía, if it can be shown that Neogene-Quaternary tectonic motions were
sufficient to carry these formations from near the Serranía to their present positions along the Central Range (see
below). The same argument may apply to the Northern Range as well: if the Maastrichtian age reported for
Galera Formation (highly olistostromal) is actually Maastrichtian-Paleocene, then it too could record erosion
from the Serranía del Interior (Galera resting on a variety of Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous formations). These
relationships hint that the Northern Range and the northern flank of the Central Range might be related, and that
they and the Serranía del Interior were involved in a common tectonic event of Paleogene age.
The plate kinematic history of the region calls for about 200km of north-south convergence between North
and South America since the Maastrichtian (Figure 5a), all of which is accounted for (see seismic tomography,
Figure 6) by observed overthrusting of the Proto-Caribbean by South America. About 70km of this convergence
had occurred by the late Eocene, prior to the Oligocene arrival from the west of the Caribbean Plate. An event
such as the onset of subduction is sure to cause orogenic effects which should be recorded by structures, facies
relationships, and steps in thermal histories. Given the inferred greater crustal thickness in Venezuela (Figure 9),
we would expect the chances for subaerial exposure due to such convergence to be far greater in the Serranía del
Interior Oriental of Venezuela than in Trinidad.
Figure 10 shows the Maastrichtian Cretaceous passive margin being terminated in the Early Paleocene by
the onset of Proto-Caribbean underthrusting. We do not know precisely how far out the margin the break in the
crust occurred, but speculate, on the basis of our interpretation of the tomography, that it occurred where
stretching (ß) of the lithopshere was about 2. By the Late Paleocene, uplift of the northern Serrania had begun as
a result of flexural support of South American crust by the underthrusting Proto-Caribbean crust. To the north,
underthrusting would have produced a wide deformed, mainly north-vergent prism of shaly slope and rise
sediments above the trench, possibly represented today by the material of the Paria Peninsula and Northern
Range. Northward gravity sliding of slope strata may have occurred as well. To the south of this flexural uplift, a
“negative flexural” trough was created, we suggest, in which the Vidoño Fm. was deposited. We further suggest
that material shed off of the outer high was funneled eastward across the trough and into the deep-water
depocenter of the Northern superterrane, thereby giving rise to the Chaudière and, eventually, the Pointe-a-Pierre
Fms. Maastrichtian-Paleocene olistostromal deposits shed directly northward (into the Northern Range
depocenter) may be seen today as the Maastrichtian? Galera Fm. The thermal effect of this uplift on the outer
Serrania would have been to cool the uplifted rocks as they approached the erosional surface. Such Paleogene
uplift and cooling in the north may explain why some zircon fission track ages retain detrital ages today in the
northern Serrania (Locke, in press); perhaps the absence of Upper Cretaceous section during Neogene thrusting
prevented them from sufficient burial for Neogene thermal resetting.

N water column Passive margin S

prism
South American
basement
Proto-Caribbean Continental Crust
rift blocks
Oceanic Crust
Rifted Margin MOHO

A: MID-MAASTRICHTIAN
N S
Paleocene onset of
NoAm-SoAm convergence
B: LATE MAASTRICHTIAN Begin Proto-
- EARLY PALEOCENE Caribbean underthrusting
N Oversteepened slope? slumping?

Uplift of outer high causes negative S
flexural bending of interior trough
at mid-K detachment, creation of
Paria-Northern Range belt?
Vidoño trough
S-ward (Lower Vidoño)

? transgression, "starved"
basal limes/glauconite,
sandier facies to north
C: LATE PALEOCENE
N Erosion to Barranquín level in outer Serranía,

leaving lags w/ Late Paleocene/Eocene matrix
S
Pointe-a-Pierre Fm
to east?
Broad, upwardly-shallowing
trough, Caratas Formation.
Tinajitas Limestone on outer
flank?, isolated from clastic
input from Shield to south
~40km of accumulated
shortening by Mid-Eocene
D: MIDDLE EOCENE
Figure 10. Hypothetical cross sections of the onset and progression of Proto-Caribbean subduc-
tion beneath northern South America from Maastrichtian to Eocene time.
The negative flexural basin was characterized by southward onlap of the condensed, southern lower
Vidoño Fm. (i.e., glauconitic greensands, basal limestones; Erikson and Pindell, 1998). Erosional detritus
(lithics, quartz grains, turbid water giving rise to a muddy matrix) from the rising orogen (mainly San Juan
Formation and the Guayuta Group, but locally down to the mica-bearing Barranquín Fm.) would show up in: the
northern Vidoño in the outer portion of the trough (quartz granules floating in shale); the Chaudière Fm. in the
slope setting east of the orogen (quartz grains and some mica, various upper Cretaceous blocks, floating in shale;
deep marine debris flows); and, by the Eocene, the Pointe-a-Pierre Fm. (quartz sand turbidites, possibly as
submarine channel fill within the greater Chaudière/Pointe-a-Pierre depocenter). By middle Eocene, the
erosional surface was probably heavily peneplained, and the trough to the south had been essentially filled by the
upward shallowing (and shoaling) Caratas Formation (shelf sands and shales). By early late Eocene, the Tinajitas
(rhodolith-bearing) Limestone was deposited in an area that roughly matches much of the outer high
palinspastically, and we speculate that the carbonate was able to accumulate due to isolation from clastic
influence from the south (Figure 10). In the latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene, as the Caribbean Plate approached
Eastern Venezuela-Trinidad, the topography of the Serrania salient may have been exacerbated by flexure and
active normal faulting associated with the arrival and passage of the Caribbean peripheral forebulge, thereby
providing a tectonic driver for erosion, transport and deposition of the Northern superterrane’s Plaisance
conglomerate and Vistabella [redeposited] limestones of the San Fernando Formation. Finally, in middle to late
Oligocene time, the Serranía del Interior was characterized by southward-onlapping Caribbean foredeep
deposition (Los Jabillos/Merecure and Areo/Naricual Formations). In Trinidad, conditions were always deeper
water (no in situ shallow maerial known to us), and the encroachment of the Caribbean foredeep is marked by
the Lower and Middle Cipero Fms.
Paleogeographic Snapshots for Paleocene-Middle Miocene Oblique Caribbean Collision

Here we outline simple paleogeographies for the pre-middle Miocene Tertiary units showing the evolution
of stratigraphic units prior to the structural imbrication associated with the Trinidad fold-thrust belt (Figures 11-
13). The maps are portrayed on a generalized palinspastic base (Pindell et al., 1998), showing two rhomboidal
areas of continental crust (Serranía and the Trinidad “segments”) of the original Cretaceous passive margin
which have been stretched to differing degrees. The Serranía segment maintained carbonate reefal water depths
through the middle Albian, and crustal thinning was probably modest (crust ~20km? thick). Between 70 and
110km of late Tertiary shortening has occurred in the Serranía, and Albian reefs occur in the far northwest. Thus,
the folds and thrusts of the Serranía need to be restored to the NW and the original Serranía rhomboid must have
extended at least to this restored position. In the Trinidad segment, water depths were always relatively deeper
than in the Serranía, and there is no proof of Lower Cretaceous in situ reef development. Basement was probably
more stretched and probably subsided fast and early enough that Lower Cretaceous reefs were never able to
develop. Figures 11-13 show the restored segment shapes, with Proto-Caribbean (Atlantic) oceanic crust beyond
the rhomboids. A line south of which rifting was presumably minor can be drawn, coinciding roughly with the
hinge zone of the margin. In Trinidad, this might have served as the Cretaceous-Paleogene depositional shelf
edge, with perhaps a broad and stepped slope to the north. In Venezuela, the Early Cretaceous shelf edge rimmed
the Serranía rhomboid, but in the Late Cretaceous it retreated southwards toward the southern fringe of the
Serranía Range itself, allowing shallow slope conditions across most of the Serranía. Southeast of Trinidad, the
margin is defined by the Guayana Transform Margin beyond which lies Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Atlantic
oceanic crust.
Paleocene Map
Before the arrival from the west of the Caribbean Plate, Figure 11 (Paleocene paleogeography) shows a
south-dipping Benioff Zone to the north of the margin (Proto-Caribbean beneath South America), such that the
trench occurs in the attenuated portion of the rifted continental margin. An outer high developed during the
Paleocene-early Oligocene which fed clastic material to the Northern superterrane’s Paleocene-early Eocene
olistostromes and sandy shales (Chaudière Fm.) and early to middle Eocene quartz sand (submarine channel)
turbidites (Pointe-a-Pierre Fm.). The Paleocene Lizard Springs and Eocene Navet Fms. of the Southern

66 64 62 60 58
Proto-Caribbean floor PALEOCENE, 60Ma

Deforming belt (N-vergent?) of slope-rise Paleocene-Eocene trench, at which some of
sediments in Araya-Paria-Northern Range? Jurassic SoAm rifted margin was subducted
12 12
Eastward trace of trench unknown,
?? probably diffuse, near pole of rotation
Galera?
Chaudière ~Edge Oceanic Crust

Exposed outer high
Trinidad continental
Vidoño (sandy)
re-entrant, ß=3-4,
Lizard deep water
Springs
10 Vidoño (condensed) 10
~Cretaceous
shelf edge
Serrania continental ~Paleogene shoreline
re-entrant, ß<2
Axis of "negative flexural trough"
8 8
66 64 62 60 58
Figure 11. Paleocene paleogeography, showing a south-dipping Benioff Zone to the north of the Venezuela-Trinidad margin
(Proto-Caribbean beneath South America). The trench and the subducting Proto-Caribbean plate are imaged through seismic
tomography. Reconstruction of the margin suggests that the trench formed at the toe of the north-facing passive margin slope, in
the transition to very thin continental crust. Uplift of the outer edge of the South American margin due to underthrusting pro-
duced an outer, erosional high and a “negative flexural” trough to the south. Clastic detritus derived from this high is seen in the
Paleogene units of northern Trinidad (Chaudière, Pointe-a-Pierre, ?San Fernando Fms.).
66 64 62 60 58
Caribbean
Caribbean EARLY OLIGOCENE, 33Ma
plate edge
Tobago trench axis Proto-
Caribbean
12 exposed trench axis San Fernando Fm is deep water 12
?? deposit of shallow-water (shelf)
derived, transported material
slo
pe
sh San Fernando
el ~Edge Oceanic Crust
Lecherias f
Areo Trinidad continental
re-entrant, ß=3-4,
San Fernando
Los Jabillos deep water
10 Los Jabillos 10
? ~Cretaceous
E. Oligocene
shelf edge
shoreline
As bulge moves south, Lower

Caribbean Cipero will replace San
Forebulge Fernando in Southern Basin
8 8
66 64 62 60 58
Figure 12. Early Oligocene paleogeography showing the leading edge of the Caribbean Plate over-riding the pre-existing Proto-
Caribbean trench in the northwest. The rocks of the future Northern Range are being buried, deformed and metamorphosed sever-
al hundred kilometres west of their present position, consistent with strain assessments and peak metamorphic ages (see text).
Note the inferred separation between “Northern” (offshore Serranía and in NW corner of Trinidad Embayment) and “Southern”
(near in-situ south-central Trinidad) stratigraphies. Passage of the Caribbean forebulge across the Serranía platform may have
caused the coarsening of detritus being transported and redeposited in Trinidad (San Fernando Fm.). Middle Ciero Fm. to south
records progressive and diachronous onlap of the, foredeep section, downflexed by the arriving Caribbean load.
superterrane remained far removed from the orogenic effects and related sedimentation of the uplifted northern
Serranía.
We will argue later that the clastic material spilled into the deep marine setting adjacent to the northern
Serranía was later tectonically carried ESE-wards to a middle Miocene “end collision” position, and then
translated east to its present position along the northern flank of the Central Range by strike-slip faulting. Given
(1) the relative greater (extremely so?) depths of deposition in Trinidad than Venezuela; (2) the apparent absence
of uplifted continental crust or blocks in northern Trinidad; (3) the 25Ma peak metamorphic age with E-W
stretching lineations in Northern Range, implying 500km displacement; and (4) the fact that this Paleogene event
may only be inferred from subtle evidence in Venezuela where we know continental crust was more likely to be
located (e.g., Dragon Gneiss in Paria Peninsula), we see no reason to believe that northern Trinidad (e.g.,
Northern Range) was the source of Paleogene clastic material in the Caroni Basin and northern Central Range.
We do not show an Eocene map because plate boundary configurations had not changed for that time - the
only significant change would be to replace Chaudière with Pointe-a-Pierre, Lizard Springs with Navet and
Vidoño with Caratas Formations.
Early Oligocene Map

The approach of the Caribbean Plate from the west began to affect the stratigraphic development of the
Trinidadian depocenters by late Eocene to early Oligocene time (Figure 12). For example, the Caribbean
peripheral bulge had migrated into the region (at the time of Figure 12 it had reached the southwest corner of the
Trinidad rhomboid). The bulge flexed and elevated any exposed or shelf areas of the Serranía and Columbus
Channel by about 200 meters, thereby creating a significant erosional source area (SE-wardly diachronous?) to
the west and south of the Trinidad rhomboid. Both the Northern and the Southern superterrane’s deep water “San
Fernando Formation” conglomerates and redeposited shallow-water material, as recognized for example at the
Rocky Palace borehole (Southern) and near Pointe-a-Pierre (Northern), are likely derived from the shallower
areas to the west and/or south but deposited in the deeper water of the rhomboid. In the Serranía, the region in
the wake of the migrating bulge progressively deepened, marked by the onlapping Los Jabillos sands and
upward deepening Areo shales of the foredeep basin. For this interval, the northern Serranía was no longer an
erosional source area.
Secondly, the Caribbean trench and accretionary prism had started to encroach upon the outer face of the
Serranía rhomboid, accreting the Paria-Northern Range strata into the prism and possibly constricting it along
the shelf margin: peak metamoprhism was reached by 25Ma, and strains would be highly transpressional with E-
W stretching lineations in Northern Range strata at this setting. Along the trench axis, the “Lecherias” outcrops
near Barcelona (dated for us as Oligocene by T. King, pers comm., 2001) are interpreted here as trench fill
(innermost foredeep, with large-scale olistostromes and strong syn-sedimentary tectonism, slumping) as the
accretionary prism migrated up the face of the margin. The northeasterly continuation of this depositional setting
would predictably comprise turbidites of orogenic character, i.e., dirty, poorly sorted, coarse to fine, mica
bearing, and of dual sedimentary provenance (Serranía and Caribbean prism). We suggest that this depositional
setting, by late Oligocene time, would be that of the Nariva Fm. in Trinidad. In southern Trinidad, the Lower
Cipero would replace the “San Fernando” unit as the Caribbean forebulge migrated farther southeastwards.
Early Middle Miocene (18Ma) Map

By the early middle Miocene (Figure 13), the Caribbean forebulge had migrated sufficiently far south that
all of the area now comprising Trinidad was situated in the flexural foredeep basin. However, the absence of
Oligocene to early middle Miocene in the Guayaguayare area may indicate that this area remained positive (horst
on flexural bulge?) or non-depositional, perhaps due to currents along the Guyana Escarpment. To the northwest,
a portion of the Caribbean prism had been thrust onto the northern Serranía del Interior, driving the folding and
thrusting to the south, and, in turn, loading the Maturín foredeep basin (Carapita Fm.). Much of the Serranía
orogen was subaerial by this time, as probably was the Northern Range (peak metamorphism had been reached

66 64 62 60 58
E. Miocene
Caribbean EARLY MIOCENE, 18Ma
shoreline
plate edge
12 Carupano Shelf eroding
12
Caribbean
to Cretaceous
prism edge
Northern
Tobago Range
Nariva/
Retrench ~Edge Oceanic Crust
10 Carapita Middle Cipero ~Cretaceous 10
Fluvial Naricual shelf edge
trunk Merecure
system
E. Miocene
shoreline
Caribbean
Forebulge
8 8
66 64 62 60 58
Figure 13. Early middle Miocene paleogeography showing the leading edge of the
Caribbean prism (Nariva thrustbelt) advancing towards the Southern superterrane.
Northern superterrane strata had been incorporated into the allochthonous belt and were
being carried at this time to the east-southeast. Subsequent strike-slip motions will trans-
port these strata further east into their present positions.
and cooling was underway there), but most of the deforming Trinidad depocenter to the SE was still deep
marine. Clastics of dual provenance derived from the rising Serranía/Caribbean prism (Nariva Fm.) were shed
out onto, and in front of, the imbricating folds and thrusts of central Trinidad. The Brasso Fm. of the Caroni
Basin and northern flank of the Central Range (Northern superterrane) represents the shallower and more
proximal (relative to erosional source areas) deposits of the hanging wall of the orogen.
At the Trinidadian thrustfront, the Northern and Southern superterranes were coming together by dextral
transpressive thrusting, but the “boundary” was likely transitional at this stage. Nariva Fm. sands and shales
were being fed longitudinally along the trench axis and accreted to the toe of the deformation front. Structural
control on Nariva deposition here was strong, such that sands were “fairwayed” along the trench and synclinal
fold axes of the prism. This aspect of the tectonostratigraphy also applies to the Herrera and Retrench sands at
their respective times of deposition. We infer potentially large amounts of telescoping of the Northern across the
Southern superterrane strata during juxtaposition, with possibly some interleaving of respective strata; the total
shortening seen within the Nariva Belt (30-40km) is just a minimum estimate for this telescoping.
At this point, it is essential to clarify that the structures of today’s onshore boundary between the Northern
and Southern superterranes have very little to do with the structures of the original, middle Miocene, imbricated
juxtaposition of the Northern and Southern superterranes. This is because significant E-W dextral strike-slip
offset has cut obliquely across the original ENE thrust front since the end of middle Miocene, thereby carrying
Northern superterrane rocks eastward and emplacing them in high-angle fault contact with Southern superterrane
rocks (next section).
Caribbean-South America Transcurrent Motion Since 12Ma

About 240km of Caribbean-South America displacement has occurred at an azimuth of 085° in the
Trinidad region since 12Ma (@20mm/yr), and this value of offset must be accounted for in the collective
structures of the Trinidad region. A detailed analysis of this period is underway by the authors, and is well
beyond the scope of this paper; however, some of the principles for this period are outlined below.
Pindell (1993), Algar and Pindell (1993), and Pindell et al. (1998) developed the concept that a change in
the azimuth of Caribbean motion, relative to the Americas, occurred at 12Ma which produced a major change in
the tectonic style of development in the southeastern (and northeastern) Caribbean region at that time; in short,
dextral oblique collision as described above gave way to east-west dextral strike slip tectonics (see change of
Caribbean-SoAm azimuth in Figure 5b). During this latter phase, the hanging wall of the middle Miocene fold-
thrust belt essentially has failed and collapsed eastwards, probably largely under the influence of gravity toward
the Atlantic Ocean, but certainly prodded by Caribbean relative plate motion. Despite the fact that a strain ellipse
for E-W dextral simple shear suggests that SW-NE extension and NW-SE shortening should occur concurrently,
our analysis of the trend along the fold-thrust wedge in Trinidad and eastern Venezuela shows that ENE-directed
transtension and associated sedimentation (late Miocene-early Pliocene) clearly preceded SE-directed
transpression and inversion of older faults (Plio-Pleistocene). However, to the north of Trinidad and east of
Tobago in the Caribbean accretionary prism (Figure 14), the strain ellipse (prior to Plio-Pleistocene? time when
the prism has been little deformed there) appears to describe strain history quite satisfactorily.
At the end of the middle Miocene, profound changes in subsidence, uplift and erosion patterns, structural
styles, and basin development took place, including: (1) rapid collapse and renewed (Late Miocene)
sedimentation on Carupano Platform (highest nappe in middle Miocene collision); (2) renewal of deposition (late
Miocene) in a half-graben geometry above the Serranía-Plata-Campana thrust wedge in the Maturín Basin; (3)
late Miocene growth of the Gulf of Paria and Cariaco pull-apart basins (Erlich and Barrett, 1990); and (4) 12Ma
setting of fission track ages on zircons from Northern Range metasediments, interpreted as cooling due to the
normal detachment of the Tobago Terrane from the Northern Range (Algar and Pindell, 1993). New GPS
solutions (Weber et al., in press), interpretation of slip vectors from earthquake focal mechanisms (Deng and
Sykes, 1995), and seismic mapping (Robertson and Burke, 1989) all suggest that active relative motion has an
azimuth of 085°, but it is critical to recognize that this azimuth of motion began at 12Ma. This position conflicts

A. Transcurrent motion along discreet E-W strike-slip fault(s);
Carib
SoAm
B. Horsetailing of motion into tightening folds of accretionary prism;
Carib
SoAm
C. Clockwise rotation and fold axis-parallel extension in accretionary prism.
Strain ellipse:
Caribbean
Carib Plate 20mm/yr
Accretionary
s3
s1 Prism
SoAm Dextral-oblique sub-

duction along the
southeastern Caribbe-
an Plate Boundary.
Strike-slip component
increasing southwards,
expressed as arc-
parallel extension
1 2 3 4 5
50km
Incremental (5 steps shown) strain history of folds:
• 50km accumulated dextral shear (in this example);
• 60% axis-parallel extension (in this example);
• clockwise rotation and tightening of fold axes.
Figure 14. Processes allowing progressive Caribbean-South American dextral displacement since about 12Ma. A)
Simple transform motion (dip of fault not important), curving around into Caribbean Trench. B) Transform process
accompanied by addition of shortening at a number of horsetails in the accretionary prism which take up portions of
the total displacement, such that strain is distributed over a large area. C) Transform and horsetail processes accom-
panied by addition of fold axis rotation and fold axis-parallel extension in a broad simple shear zone. Note break-
down of compressive and strike-slip components of subduction along strike of trench; southward increase in strike-
slip component is expressed as axis-parallel extension in the hanging wall prism (Avé Lallemant and Sissons, 1993).
A combination of all processes (i.e., “C”) is closest to actual development of southeast Caribbean plate boundary
zone in the offshore prism, and can be applied generally to the Central Range and Southern Basin, as well.
with the belief of others (e.g., Speed, 1985; Russo and Speed, 1992) that NW-SE relative motion continues to the
present.
With regard to our Northern and Southern superterranes, a first-order result of the post-12Ma
transcurrent phase is shown in Figure 15, which demonstrates the effect of crossing the original imbricated
thrust front with a high-angle transcurrent fault zone (A). Ignoring details in fault style and placement, dextral
shear along the Central Range fault zone has juxtaposed internal (north) and external (south) portions of the
original fold-thrust belt, thereby causing the appearance of a very sharp Northern and Southern terrane boundary
along the Central Range in the Trinidadian onshore. Plio-Pleisocene transpression has been strong along the
Central Range, hence the subaerial exposure. In contrast, we would expect a more gradual, imbricated transition
between the two terranes in the offshore to the west and east.
A second primary aspect of the post-12Ma phase was the nearly regional occurrence of late Miocene-
early Pliocene dextral transtensional structures, subsidence and renewed sedimentation above previously eroded
orogenic areas. Although in transpression since the Pliocene, late Miocene transtension was surely the case along
the entire toe of the Serrania-Naparima thrustfront, and it appears to have occurred within the Caroni Basin as
well (Figure 16). In these areas, probable ENE-directed collapse has occurred on low angle detachments
extending below and within the fold-thrust belt, producing half-graben geometries of renewed basin fill (growth
and rotational fanning of strata up to 8°, listric rollovers, sedimentary onlap toward the keels of hanging walls,
etc.).
In all cases where we have been able to verify it, Upper Miocene sections are thicker on the north sides
(grabens) of faults than south sides (footwalls). Also, in most cases late Pliocene-Pleistocene transpressive
inversion was not strong enough to destroy seismic evidence for the late Miocene half graben stage. However,
along the Southern Range of Trinidad, transpression either has destroyed the original half-graben geometry, or
transtension did not occur here. We suggest, given a similar structural style of the transpression stage to that seen
in other areas where the half-grabens are recorded, that late Miocene-early Pliocene transtension was responsible
for nucleating the Southern Range where it is; further, late Miocene extension may have been nucleated there
because it lay near the shelf-slope break beneath the Columbus Channel.
Figures 17 & 18 summarize our proposed sequence of events (transtension and transpression) in cross
section and map view. Further, we suggest that the change from transtension to transpression along the Furrial,
Pedernales, Central Range and Southern Range trends was caused by the breakdown of strain partitioning of
motions between the Caribbean and South American plates. In the late Miocene, effective partitioning allowed
ENE collapse of the thrust toe, accompanied by shear in the northern offshore, but by Pliocene the thrust toe
began to move with the Caribbean Plate. This is corroborated by a significant reduction in plate boundary
deformation in the northern offshore at about Pliocene time. In fact, at present, it is difficult to define a plate
boundary in the northern offshore, and we believe that most plate boundary displacement has occurred south of
the Northern Range for the last few million years. Recent GPS studies (Weber et al., in press) agree with this
view.
The Pliocene onset of transpression produced a fairly widespread unconformity initially, occurring in
Maturín Basin (above La Pica Fm.), Central Trinidad (above Manzanilla Fm.), and over much of the Gulf of
Paria (boundary between extensional half-graben and syn-inversion portions of basin fill; Figures 16-18). This
regional event seems to relate to a reduction (near termination?) of transcurrent motion along the Coche-North
Coast Fault, such that all displacement occurred in the south, in Trinidad. The oblique (085°) advance of the
Caribbean crust toward the 070°-trending segments of the continental basement of the rifted margin may have
led to a progressive increase in interplate coupling, which may have led in turn to a southward shift in the locus
of transcurrent faulting.
In Figure 4, we summarized the configuration of the present surface trace of relative plate displacement.
Most late Pliocene to Recent transcurrent displacements along the Central and Southern Range faults have been
transferred southward again (as with Gulf of Paria Basin) across the zone of gravitational collapse along the

64 62 60
A. Concept A
Caribbean South American
Plate Autochthon
10 ? E 10
1•
D
•2 Points 1 (internal zone) C
and 2 (more external zone) B
can be juxtaposed by strike-slip 64 62 60
to cause the appearance of two distinct B S El Furrial area N
tectonostratigraphic terranes of different origins
B 5 km
B. 12 Ma horsetails, fold rotation,
100 km
1
fold axis stretching
A=half graben stage
Tobago 2 A B=Inversion stage
? "accretionary" belt
N. Rng oceanic Peneplaned top of
Paria 3
1• •2 crust Mid-Miocene orogen
El Pilar
TWT (sec)
subthrust belt 4
Serranía
thrustbelt K shelf edge modified after Aymard et al, 1990
future Gulf of Paria Central Range shear zone

C S Guarapiche Block N
C. Plio-Pleistocene Internal
Caribbean
Caribbean crust 1
Prism
Gulf of Paria B
here, 2
1• ? prism fed
•2 by gravity
sliding 3 A Peneplaned top of
Mid-Miocene orogen
A=half graben stage
TWT (sec)
4 B=Inversion stage
Southern Range 5 km
Courtesy PDVSA
5
Figure 15. Schematic fault/terrane maps for late Neogene time, showing
D S Warm Springs Ft Paria West Block N
strike-slip juxtaposition of Northern (internal zone) and Southern 1
(extenal zone) super-terrane stratigraphies. A) Concept map showing B
strike-slip fault (with pull-apart basin) cutting across grain of orogenic
front; points 1 and 2 can be juxtaposed by fault movement. B) Concept 2
applied to Trinidad for 12Ma, where the El Pilar-Gulf of Paria-Central
Range fault system cuts across the middle Miocene orogenic front. A
Peneplaned top of
Paria and Northern Range displaced 100km to west; Tobago displaced 3 Mid-Miocene orogen
240km to west. Horsetails and fold axis rotation and stretching (Fig. 14) A=half graben stage
TWT (sec)
operate in the Caribbean prism to the north (we do not know of a dis- B=Inversion
stage
creet fault zone that cuts through to toe of prism; hence, query mark). 4 5 km
Note representative points 1 and 2, not yet juxtaposed along Central Courtesy PDVSA
Range fault zone. C) Late structures shown on Present day map. Gulf
of Paria has opened, Northern and Southern superterrane stratigraphies E S Caroni Basin, Trinidad N
(points 1 and 2) are abruptly juxtaposed, and the strike-slip offset along Central Range
the Central Range has been (since Pliocene) transferred to the southern
tip of Barbados prism across the Southeastern Extensional Province 1
B
(fault pattern after Wood, 2000). Note that the Central Range (and north)
has been translated to the east of the Jurassic oceanic-thinned continent
reverse A
faults
Warm
crustal boundary. Question mark and dashed line in eastern offshore 2
Springs
refers to the uncertain break up and eastward displacement of blocks Fault
comprising the middle Miocene subthrust belt. Peneplaned top of
Guaico Mid-Miocene orogen
3
Fault?
Figure 16. (a), Locality map of four interpreted line drawings of seismic
TWT (sec)
A=half graben stage

lines (b-e). Note in all cases the two-fold evolution since 12Ma: (1) late B=Inversion stage
Miocene-earliest Pliocene northeast-directed listric half-graben rotation 4
5 km after Payne, 1991
and infilling, followed by (2) southeast-directed Plio-Pleistocene inver-
sion of certain faults. The similarity of these structural developments
over this large of an area demonstrates that the processes are controlled
regionally.
S N Stage 1: 13 Ma Tobago Edge of Nariva

Prism
Trench
Margarita
A Mid-Miocene: emplacement of thrust front ?
wedgetop basin? elt

erosional unconformity, 10 thrustb
sub-marine in places Guarico Carapita-Cipero Present-
Former positions of blocks foredeep basin day base
south of thrusts
Carapita/Lr Cipero Allochthon Arrows show azimuth, not rate,
foredeep basin of terrane motion rel to stable SOAM End of dextral oblique collision
Early Oligocene foredeep unconformity Stage 2: 10 Ma Tobago Barbados

Prism
(extensional structures due to flexure) 11 Margarita
6 km
Cariaco Bsn
?
10 ? ? Sthn. source
Area of half-graben
B Late Miocene relaxation of thrust front) sedimentation G. Paria Basin of clastics
Arrows show azimuth, not rate, Well partitioned trantension

Late Miocene-Early Pliocene of terrane motion rel to stable SOAM (wrenches and half-grabens)
half-graben depocentre
Stage 3: 4 Ma Tobago Barbados
Prism
Rotated 11
unconformity Margarita
Cariaco Bsn ?
Allochthon
?
10
6 km
Arrows show azimuth, not rate, Poorly partitioned transtension
of terrane motion rel to stable SOAM (transpressional inversion along
66 64 faults trending less than 085°)
Trace of detachment is unknown,
but was probably within Carapita
Pre-Miocene Section section, and may have anastomosed
Figure 18. Map view evolution of the same three stages as

C Plio-Pleist. dextral compressive inversion in Figure 17. In the center map, transtensional movements
between the Caribbean and South American plates were
post-Early Pliocene depocentre,
showing growth on master fault well partitioned into strike-slip at the Coche-North Coast
Fault and Gulf of Paria pull-apart, and northward listric
Seismically extension along the half-graben faults in Maturín and
transparent
zone, mud diapirs Rotated Southern Basins. (Note: A half-graben bounding fault
rise along dextral
compressive
unconformity along Trinidad’s South Coast is partly conjectural at this
transfer zone, point. In the last map, the half-grabens move toward 085°
inverting flanks Allochthon 6 km with the Caribbean plate and throw the pre-existing 070°-
trending structures into strong dextral transpression.
Pre-Miocene Section
0 km ~20 km ~40 km
Figure 17. Three-stage cross-sectional idealization of

the line drawings of Figure 16, showing the three pri-
mary stages of structural development since 13Ma:
(1) end of oblique collision between Caribbean Plate
and South American autochthon; (2) northward exten-
sional collapse of the former thrust front; and (3) dex-
tral compressive inversion of the bounding normal
faults. With this model in mind, note probable differ-
ences in up-dip migration direction within the half-
graben strata before and after inversion. Several large
tar lakes occur at the up-dip keels of the half grabens.
Southeastern Extensional Province. This motion is then relayed to the toe of the Barbados Prism along an E-W
transcurrent zone (lateral ramp) located roughly at the international border with Venezuela. Thus, the current
locus (at the surface) of Caribbean-South American shear lies in Central and Southern Trinidad, achieved by
low-angle detachments along which stratal packages are allowed to slump gravitationally from the Serranía del
Interior (much higher previously) toward the Atlantic oceanic basin across the Guyana transform margin, and
transferred out to the Barbados prism along the southern limit of the extensional collapse zone. Ultimately, this
shear most likely roots northwards into the Caribbean-South American crustal boundary along the Coche-North
Coast Fault, as we see no evidence for basement involvement in the Trinidadian fold-thrust belt. It will be
important to decipher the level(s) of detachment beneath Trinidad, and how the detachment levels of the thrust
belts onshore merge into the extensional detachments offshore. Finally, we suggest that the early Pliocene
regional unconformity may pertain to the development of compressional stress that were relieved by the
development of the Central Range-Southeastern Extensional Province releasing bend.
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
The big picture: exploration provinces of the Trinidad region

In Figure 19, we divide the Trinidad region into 5 crustal provinces (CP), some of which have sub-
provinces. Province 1 comprises continental crust, and is subdivided into “normal thickness” (1a) and “thinned”
crust with initially high heat flow (1b): CP1b has deformed parautochthonous strata over it, and likely possesses
a Middle Jurassic rift section, locally with basalts and/or evaporites, and a Late Jurassic marine shelf to slope
section toward the north. Province 2 is oceanic, although the inner edge of this province may comprise highly
sheared, thinned, and heavily intruded continental crust which has behaved since rifting like oceanic crust, with
initially high heat flow but now cool. Province 3 is the far-travelled allochthonous Caribbean accretionary prism
which had formed prior to the 12 Ma change from oblique collision to transcurrent relative motion; CP3a rests
above thinned continental crust, and CP3b overlies oceanic crust. Province 4 is the parautochthonous
accretionary prism which has formed since 12 Ma, and which comprises sedimentary section that was deposited
within the Trinidad region. Province 4 can probably be subdivided into two parts based on structural style, the
northern part being essentially the younger portion of the Barbados accretionary prism (CP4a), and the southern
part forming the compressional toe of the eastwardly-collapsing shelf section along southeastern Trinidad
(CP4b). However, we see only a semantic difference here, although Griboulard et al. (1991) interpreted a shear
zone along the line indicated which may indicate a minor displacement but certainly not a major fault zone.
Depositionally, the main difference between sub-parts 4a and 4b will be a gradual, not an abrupt, change from
more continental to more oceanic influences. Finally, Province 5 is underlain by Caribbean Plate crust whose
cooling history (e.g., Tobago) suggests heat flow today; CP5a is overriding Proto-Caribbean lithosphere, and
CP5b overrides thinned South American continental basement.
Relationship between the Trinidad “Prism” and typical Accretionary Prisms

Accretionary prisms can accrete material from a variety of environments. Typically, deep sea prisms form
ahead of an intra-oceanic arc, consisting of pelagic materials, some volcanic detritus from the arc, and distal
turbidites from nearby land areas. However, when an arc begins to override a continental margin, such as
happened in Eastern Venezuela-Trinidad, elements of the margin become accreted and form important parts of
the prism, prior to final emplacement onto the margin. With continued convergence, elements of the shelf can
also become incorporated (e.g., Serranía del Interior, Venezuela). In most cases, the material near the toe of the
prism, regardless of age, will have been the latest material to have been accreted. The boundary between the
farther-traveled Caribbean prism and the imbricated margin strata may not be simple. If allochthonous prism
strata override the marginal strata before the marginal strata become detached themselves, then the marginal
material may underlie the distal prism, and the boundary will be a thrust. Further, each newly incorporated thrust
slice will have progressively more “marginal characteristics”, such that the prism itself will become transitional
from more distal to more marginal (e.g., abyssal to rise to slope to shelf to foredeep). Alternatively, the distal
prism may indent the marginal strata, underriding those strata by backthrusting, thereby creating a range of
structural complexities and intermixing of former depositional settings.

66 64 62 60 58
12 12
CP 5a
CP 5b CP 3b
CP 4a
CP 3a
10 CP 1b CP 4b 10
CP 1b Possible shear
boundary
CP 1a of Griboulard
et al., 1991
CP 2
8 8
66 64 62 60 58
Figure 19. Summary map showing Crustal Provinces (CP) in Trinidad as discussed in text.
Crustal Province 1 comprises “normal” (CP1a) and “thinned” (CP1b) continental crust.
CP1b has deformed parautochthonous strata over it, and may have a Middle Jurassic rift
section and a Late Jurassic marine shelf to slope section. Crustal Province 2 is oceanic.
CP3 is the far-travelled allochthonous Caribbean accretionary prism: CP3a rests above
thinned continental crust, and CP3b overlies oceanic crust. CP4 is parautochthonous
accretionary prism and comprises sedimentary section that was deposited within the
Trinidad region. The northern part is the younger portion of the Barbados accretionary
prism (CP4a), and the southern part is the compressional toe of the eastwardly-collapsing
shelf section along SE Trinidad (CP4b). The boundary between sub-parts 4a and 4b is a
gradual, not an abrupt, change from continental to oceanic influence. The basement of
CP5 is Caribbean Plate crust; CP5a basement has overthrust Proto-Caribbean lithosphere,
and CP5b is that portion of the Caribbean Plate overriding thinned South American conti-
nental basement.
In Trinidad, the arc-continent collision was underway in the middle Miocene and then two things
happened: (1) the Caribbean Plate changed its relative direction of movement from ESE to 085°, and (2) the
continental crust has “run out”, i.e., the margin changes trend to the SE along the Guyana Escarpment, such that
no new continental crust has entered the collision zone for several million years. Hence the Barbados prism has
migrated past the continental crust beneath Trinidad by about 200-300 km and is once again entirely in the
oceanic environment. Because of the known strike-slip history of the South Caribbean plate boundary, it is often
assumed that there must be a discreet boundary between the migrating, far traveled prism and the Trinidadian
marginal strata. But the considerations outlined here would argue against this. Until about 10 Ma, the Trinidad
marginal strata were very much a part of the growing prism, and the “boundary” between distal prism and
marginal strata material was a thrust complex, possibly with some lateral ramps where higher-angle
juxtapositions of differing material may occur. Further, the youngest material added to the prism is not far
traveled, and is essentially of the Trinidad margin. This is certainly true of the upper level strata, but it would
also be true of strata as old as Jurassic, if it could be shown that the time of accretion was young. Thus, we need
to think carefully about the nature of the “boundary” of the distal prism and marginal strata. It is not a simple
fault where the prism has come in along the margin. For the early and middle Miocene, most of Trinidad was
very much a part of the prism, and its entire thrust geometry needs to be restored in order to understand the
boundary between the distal prism and the marginal strata. Since the end of middle Miocene, the plate boundary
zone has been more transcurrent, but our studies thusfar show that the E-W shear is distributed all the way to the
Orinoco Delta, with most of it coming to the surface between the Delta and the Caroni Basin (i.e., Central and
Southern Ranges). Thus, even the late transcurrent phase is not producing a discreet boundary between the distal
prism and the Trinidad marginal strata.
The Columbus Basin eastward gravitational slump zone is the site of toe thrusts and folds in the very
deep-water to the east in addition to the extensional half-grabens along the shelf. These toe structures are
certainly “accretionary” with respect to the hanging wall of the zone undergoing slumping into the deep
offshore. In the absence of a discreet prism/margin boundary to the north of this area, the toe thrusts of the
Columbus Basin system must be considered part of the Barbados accretionary prism. The only difference is that
there is progressively more extension within the hanging wall as one comes south. This extension appears to be
approximately matched by the strike-slip displacement amount and rate along the Central and Southern Range;
hence, it appears as a shallow-level pull-apart. An important question, however, is the respective levels of
detachment between the Columbus extensional and toe structures, the rest of the Barbados prism to the north,
and the depth to which the strike-slip faulting occurs in the Central and Southern Ranges. We currently believe
that they must become one and the same at depth beneath Trinidad, merging into a common, north-dipping,
oblique transcurrent zone between the South American crust and the base of the Caribbean Plate beneath the
North Coast Fault.
Acknowledgements
This work has evolved over many years of ongoing research with a number of colleagues. In particular, we are
grateful to Sam Algar, Hans Avé Lallemant, Kevin Burke, Barry Carr-Brown, Johan Erikson, John Frampton,
Roger Higgs, Anthony Ramlackhansingh of PetroTrin, and John Weber for ongoing collaboration and input. Mr.
Guy Flanagan of Phillips Petroleum provided initial gravity modeling on the crustal profile of Figure 7. We
thank the sponsors of the Tectonic Analysis Ltd Trinidad Tectonics Study Program (2001) for continued support:
BP, BHP, Talisman, Repsol-YPF, TotalFinaElf, Chevron, Venture, Phillips, EOG, Petrotrin and Shell.
Exploration: Gulf Coast Section, SEPM Foundation, 13th Annual

References Cited Research Conference, p. 221-235.
Algar, S.T., 1993a, Structural, stratigraphic and thermo-chronological Algar, S.T., and J.L. Pindell, 1993, Structure and deformation history
evolution of Trinidad: Ph.D. thesis, Dartmouth College, USA, of the Northern Range of Trinidad and adjacent areas: Tectonics,
433 p. v. 12, p. 814-829.
Algar, S.T., 1993b, Controls on Jurassic through Early Tertiary Algar, S.T., Heady, E.C., and J.L. Pindell, 1998, Fission track dating in
sedimentation in Trinidad, in J.L. Pindell and R.F. Perkins, eds., Trinidad: Implications for provenance, depositional timing, and
Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic Development of the Gulf of tectonic uplift, in Pindell, J.L., and C.L. Drake, eds.,
Mexico and Caribbean Region: A Context for Hydrocarbon Paleogeographic Evolution and Non-glacial Eustasy, northern
South America: SEPM Special Publication 58, p. 111-128.

Ave Lallemant, H.G., and V.B. Sisson, 1993, Caribbean-South Conference, p. 251-274.
American plate interactions: Constraints from the Cordillera de La Pindell, J.L., and C.L. Drake, eds., Paleogeographic Evolution and
Costa Belt, Venezuela, in J.L. Pindell and R.F. Perkins, eds., Non-glacial Eustasy, northern South America: SEPM Special
Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic Development of the Gulf of Publication 58, 324 p.
Mexico and Caribbean Region: A Context for Hydrocarbon Pindell, J.L., and J.F. Dewey, J.F., 1982, Permo-Triassic reconstruction
Exploration: Gulf Coast Section, SEPM Foundation, 13th Annual of western Pangea and the evolution of the Gulf of
Research Conference, p. 211-219. Mexico/Caribbean Region: Tectonics, v. 1, p. 179-211.
Carr-Brown, B., and J. Frampton, 1979, An outline of the stratigraphy Pindell, J.L., and L. Kennan, this volume, Kinematic evolution of the
of Trinidad, in Field Guide, Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados: Fourth Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
Latinamerican Geological Congress, Port of Spain, Trinidad, p. 7- Pindell, J.L., Cande, S.C., Pitman III, W.C., Rowley, D.B., Dewey, J.F.,
19. LaBrecque, J., and W. Haxby, 1988, A plate-kinematic framework
Deng, J., and L. Sykes, 1995, Determination of an Euler pole for for models of Caribbean evolution: Tectonophysics, v. 155, p.
contemporary relative motion of Caribbean and North American 121-138.
plates using slip vectors of interplate earthquakes: Tectonics, v. Pindell, J.L., Erikson, J.P. and S.T. Algar, 1991, The relationship
14, p. 39-53. between plate motions and sedimentary basin development in
Dewey, J.F., and J.L. Pindell, 1985, Neogene block tectonics of eastern northern South America: from a Mesozoic passive margin to a
Turkey and northern South America: Continental applications of Cenozoic eastwardly progressive transpressional orogen, in, K.A.
the finite difference method, Tectonics, v. 4, p. 71-83. Gillezeau, ed.: Transactions of the Second Geological Conference
Dewey, J.F., and J.L. Pindell, 1986, Neogene block tectonics of eastern of the Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Port-of-Spain,
Turkey and northern South America: Continental applications of 1990, p. 191-202.
the finite difference method: Reply, Tectonics, v. 5, p. 703-705. Pindell, J.L., Higgs, R., and J.F. Dewey, 1998, Cenozoic palinspastic
Di Croce, J., Bally, A.B., and P.R. Vail, 1999, Sequence stratigraphy of reconstruction, paleogeographic evolution, and hydrocarbon
the Eastern Venezuela Basin, in Mann, P., ed., Caribbean Basins: setting of the northern margin of South America, in Pindell, J.L.,
Sedimentary basins of the world, v. 4, p. 419-476. and C.L. Drake, eds., Paleogeographic Evolution and Non-glacial
Erikson, J.P., and J.L. Pindell, 1998, Cretaceous through Eocene Eustasy, northern South America: SEPM Special Publication 58,
sedimentation and paleogeography of a passive margin in p. 45-86.
northeastern Venezuela, in Pindell, J.L., and C.L. Drake, eds., Pindell, J.L., Kennan, L. and S.F. Barrett, S., 2000a. A Removal-
Paleogeographic Evolution and Non-glacial Eustasy, northern Restoration Project. Part 3 of a series: “Regional Plate
South America: SEPM Special Publication 58, p. 217-259. Kinematics: Arm Waving, or Underutilized Exploration Tool”:
Erlich, R., and S.F. Barrett, 1990, Cenozoic plate tectonic history of the AAPG Explorer, August 2000.
northern Venezuela-Trinidad area: Tectonics, v. 9. p. 161-184. Pindell, J.L., Kennan, L., and S.F. Barrett, 2000b. Putting It All
Erlich, R.N., Farfan, P.F. and P. Hallock, 1993, Biostratigraphy, Together Again. Part 4 of a series: “Regional Plate Kinematics:
depositional environments, and diagenesis of the Tamana Arm Waving, or Underutilized Exploration Tool”: AAPG
Formation, Trinidad: a tectonic marker horizon: Sedimentology, Explorer, October 2000.
v. 40, p. 743-768. Robertson, P. and K. Burke, 1989, Evolution of southern Caribbean
Foland, K.A., Speed, R. and J. Weber, 1992, Geochronologic studies of plate boundary, vicinity of Trinidad and Tobago, AAPG Bulletin,
the Caribbean mountains orogen of Venezuela and Trinidad: GSA v. 73, p. 490-509.
Abstracts with Programs, v. 24, p. A148. Russo, R.M., and R. Speed, 1992, Oblique collision and tectonic
Griboulard, R., Bobier, C., Faugères, J.C., and G. Vernette, 1991, Clay wedging of the South American continent and Caribbean tarranes:
diapiric structures within the strike-slip margin of the southern leg Geology, v. 20, p. 447-450.
of the Barbados Prism: Tectonophysics, v. 192, p. 383-400. Speed, R.C. 1985. Cenozoic collision of the Lesser Antilles arc and
Kugler, H.G. 1959, Geological maps of Trinidad - 1:50,000 and spot continental South America and the origin of the El Pilar fault:
maps at various scales: Treatise on the Geology of Trinidad, Tectonics, v. 4, p. 41-69.
Natural History Museum, Basel. Tectonic Analysis Ltd., 1999, Exploration Framework Atlas Series,
Locke, B.D., in press. Thermal evolution of the eastern Serranía del Volume 4: Venezuela-Trinidad. Unpublished commercial report.
Interior foreland fold and thrust belt, northeastern Venezuela, Tectonic Analysis, Ltd., 1997, Tectono-sedimentary Evolution of
based on apatite fission-track analyses, in Ave-Lallemant, H., ed., Trinidad, Unpublished commercial report.
Caribbean/South American plate interactions, Venezuela: GSA van der Hilst, R., 1990, Tomography with P, PP, and pP delay-time
Special Paper. data and the three-dimensional mantle structure below the
Molnar, P., and L.R. Sykes, 1969, Tectonics of the Caribbean and Caribbean region: Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Utrecht, Holland, 250 p.
middle America regions from focal mechanisms and seismicity: Vierbuchen, R., 1984, The geology of the El Pilar Fault Zone and
GSA Bull., v. 80, p. 1639-1684. adjacent areas in northeastern Venezuela, in Bonini, W.E.,
Müller, P., Royer, J.-Y., Cande, S.C., Roest, W.R., and S. Maschenkov, Hargraves, R.B., and R. Shagam, eds., The Caribbean-South
1999, in Mann, P., ed., Caribbean Basins: Sedimentary basins of American Plate Boundary and Regional Tectonics: GSA Memoir,
the world, v. 4, p. 33-62. 162, p.189-252.
Pindell, J.L. and J.P, Erikson, 1994, The Mesozoic passive margin of Weber, J., Dixon, T., Demets, C., Ambeth, W., Jansma, P., Matioli, G.,
northern South America, in J.A. Salfity, ed., Cretaceous Tectonics Bilham, R., Saleh, J., O. Perez, O., in press, a GPS estimate of the
in the Andes: International Monograph Series, Earth Evolution relative motion of the Caribbean and South American plates, and
Sciences, Vieweg Publishing, Weisbaden, p. 1-60. geological implications: Geology.
Pindell, J.L. and J.P. Erikson, 2001, Stratigraphy and structure of the Weber, J., Ferrill, D. A., and M.K. Roden-Tice, 2001, Calcite and
northwestern Serranía del Interior Oriental, Venezuela: quartz microstructural geothermometry of low-grade
Constraints on dynamic evolution, Eastern Venezuela/Trinidad: metasedimentary rocks, Northern Range, Trinidad: Jour.
2001 International Field Trip of the Geological Society of Structural Geology. v.32, p. 93-112.
Trinidad and Tobago, May 2-5, 2001. Wood, L. J., 2000, Chronostratigraphy and tectonostratigraphy of the
Pindell, J.L., 1985, Alleghanian reconstruction and subsequent Columbus Basin, eastern offshore Trinidad: AAPG Bull., v.84,
evolution of the Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, and Proto-Caribbean: p.1905–1928.
Tectonics , v. 4, p. 1-39.
Pindell, J.L., 1993, Regional synopsis of Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean
evolution, in J.L. Pindell and R.F. Perkins, eds., Mesozoic and
Early Cenozoic Development of the Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean Region: A Context for Hydrocarbon Exploration: Gulf
Coast Section, SEPM Foundation, 13th Annual Research

Geologic Processes Trinidad by Pindell PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Geologic Processes Trinidad by Pindell PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Processes & Events in the Terrane Assembly of Trinidad and E.

James Pindell* and Lorcan Kennan

Tectonic Analysis, Ltd.,

Email: jim@tectonicanalysis.com or lorcan@tectonicanalysis.com

Originally published in:

1 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

2 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Projection of continent- Tobago

Carupano Bsn North Coast Ft.

Coche Fault Galera Pt.

Gulf of Paria Manzanilla Pt.

Regional geology: crustal boundaries, faults, basins, and terranes

3 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Central Range, Trinidad, Paleogene

A B Early Oligocene San Fernando

Early Toco-Laventille Cuche (thermally altered) Cuche (not altered)

Figure 3. Summary of stratigraphy and distinctions between “Northern” and “Southern”

Figure 4. Simplified map of tectonic elements showing the locus of Caribbean-South

1) the lowest known unit is thermally altered Cuche Formation;

4 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

The Nariva Thrustbelt

5 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

SouthernBasin and Maturin Basin south of Serranía del Interior

6 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Columbus Basin and Southeastern Extensional Province

Plate Kinematics and Tomography: Support for Five Phases of Evolution

North America-South America Relative Motions

7 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

400 3 Proto-Carib. 400 Proto-Carib.

Depth contours of proto-

Proto-Caribbean is 300 Westward

Proto-Caribbean is Proto-Caribbean slab known to exist at least to

Implications of Seismic Tomography Data in the Caribbean Region

8 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Implications of Jurassic Breakup History and Basement Configuration

9 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Pindell et al., 2001, Trinidad Terranes, Figures

Model for Early Paleogene Orogenesis

10 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

11 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

N water column Passive margin S

Rifted Margin MOHO

N Oversteepened slope? slumping?

S-ward (Lower Vidoño)

N Erosion to Barranquín level in outer Serranía,

Paleogeographic Snapshots for Paleocene-Middle Miocene Oblique Caribbean Collision

12 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Proto-Caribbean floor PALEOCENE, 60Ma

Chaudière ~Edge Oceanic Crust

Axis of "negative flexural trough"

As bulge moves south, Lower

Early Oligocene Map

Early Middle Miocene (18Ma) Map

13 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

Caribbean-South America Transcurrent Motion Since 12Ma

14 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

A. Transcurrent motion along discreet E-W strike-slip fault(s);

B. Horsetailing of motion into tightening folds of accretionary prism;

C. Clockwise rotation and fold axis-parallel extension in accretionary prism.

SoAm Dextral-oblique sub-

15 Pindell et al, GCSSEPM 2001

future Gulf of Paria Central Range shear zone

A=half graben stage