This project is to investigate aspects of the Caribbean "plate buffer zone" which is a complex area of small plates wedged between the much larger North and South American plates. The island of Cuba experienced compression and development of a fold and thrust belt during late Cretaceous to late Eocene, an interval of rifting and marine sedimentation in the Yucatan Basin, the Cayman Trough and along the Nicaragua Rise. This project will analyze samples collected in Cuba in order to test a model of paired zones of divergence and convergence in the Cuban orogenic belt -- the field aspects being supported by non-federal sources. Results should help clarify to what extent synchronous plate divergence and convergence has occurred in the Caribbean.
