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Segmentation and kinematics of the North America‐Caribbean plate boundary offshore Hispaniola |
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| Authors: | Sylvie Leroy Nadine Ellouz‐Zimmermann Jordane Corbeau Frédérique Rolandone Bernard Mercier de Lépinay Bertrand Meyer Roberte Momplaisir José‐Luis Granja Bruña Anne Battani Céline Baurion Evgueni Burov Valérie Clouard Rémy Deschamps Christian Gorini Youri Hamon Manfred Lafosse Jottin Leonel Laetitia Le Pourhiet Pilar Llanes Estrada Nicolas Loget Francis Lucazeau Daniel Pillot Jeffrey Poort Kevin R. Tankoo José‐Luis Cuevas José‐Fernando Alcaide Claude Jean Poix Alfonso Muñoz‐Martin Serge Mitton Yamil Rodriguez Julien Schmitz Leonardo Seeber Andres Carbo‐Gorosabel Santiago Muñoz |
| Affiliation: | 1. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS UMR 7193, ISTEP, Paris, France;2. IFPEnergies Nouvelles, Rueil‐Malmaison, France;3. Géoazur, CNRS, The University of Nice Sophia‐Antipolis, Valbonne, France;4. Université d'Etat d'Haiti, Port au Prince, Haiti;5. Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain;6. ‘Observatoire Volcanologique et Sismologique de Martinique, IPGP, Martinique, French West Indies;7. Anamar, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic;8. Department of Geography and Geology, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica;9. CENAIS, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba;10. BME, Port au Prince, Haiti;11. Semanah, Port au Prince, Haiti;12. Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Palissades, NY, USA;13. Servicio Geológico Nacional, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
| Abstract: | We explored the submarine portions of the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault zone (EPGFZ) and the Septentrional–Oriente Fault zone (SOFZ) along the Northern Caribbean plate boundary using high‐resolution multibeam echo‐sounding and shallow seismic reflection. The bathymetric data shed light on poorly documented or previously unknown submarine fault zones running over 200 km between Haiti and Jamaica (EPGFZ) and 300 km between the Dominican Republic and Cuba (SOFZ). The primary plate‐boundary structures are a series of strike‐slip fault segments associated with pressure ridges, restraining bends, step overs and dogleg offsets indicating very active tectonics. Several distinct segments 50–100 km long cut across pre‐existing structures inherited from former tectonic regimes or bypass recent morphologies formed under the current strike‐slip regime. Along the most recent trace of the SOFZ, we measured a strike‐slip offset of 16.5 km, which indicates steady activity for the past ~1.8 Ma if its current GPS‐derived motion of 9.8 ± 2 mm a?1 has remained stable during the entire Quaternary. |
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