Lesser Antilles Archives - Accessible Science Graphics Collection

Subduction zone initiation reconstructions

Subduction zone initiation (SZI) reconstructions for selected events since around 100 Ma. The reconstructed events are based on the whole Earth Sciences community point-of-view of the SZI database.

Schematic tectonic reconstruction of the Lesser Antilles SZI event (modified from van Benthem et al., 2013 and Boschman et al., 2014). Subduction of the North and South America plates beneath the Caribbean plate was probably already active earlier on. At 58-39 Ma, subduction jumped eastwards, creating the new Lesser Antilles SZ. Shown are the new subduction zone (pink line), other active (solid purple lines) and inactive (dashed purple lines) subduction zones, and transform faults (red dashed lines).

Lesser Antilles subduction zone initiation

The Lesser Antilles SZI event that formed the present-day Lesser Antilles subduction zone likely occurred between 59–38 Ma and might be an episodic event.

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