Continental margins: Global belts of oil-and-gas accumulation. The Caribbean-pacific belt

Among petroliferous regions of the world, a specific place is occupied by sedimentary basins confined to continental margins at the eastern periphery of the Pacific Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. In the Cenozoic and Quaternary, this region was dominated by tectonic activity manifested as compression, movements along large fault systems (primarily, strike-slip faults), formation of mountain chains, appearance of thick accretion prisms and foothills, and development of volcanism at certain stages. The petroliferous structures of the region are mainly represented by fore-arc sedimentary basins complicated in some places by fore- and backdeeps.