B. Mercier de Lépinay

The active Main Marmara Fault

Abstract This paper presents selections from and a synthesis of a high resolution bathymetric, sparker and deep-towed seismic reflection data set recently acquired by the French Ifremer R.V. Le Suroit in an E–W deep trough that forms the northern half of the Sea of Marmara in NW Turkey. It includes the first high resolution complete bathymetric map of this area. A single, throughgoing dextral strike–slip fault system, which is the western continuation of the northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault, cuts this trough lengthwise and joins the 1999.8.17 Kocaeli earthquake fault with the 1912.8.09 Şarkoy–Murefte earthquake fault, both of which display strike–slip offset. In its eastern one fourth, the structure follows closely the northern margin of the deep trough, whereas in the west it hugs its southern margin. The eastern one fourth of the structure has a minor component of its displacement distributed across the deep trough owing to a possible original bend in the course of the dextral structure. The present course of the North Anatolian Fault in the Sea of Marmara originated some 2×105 a ago, by cutting across the older basin fabric generated by a dominant NNE–SSW extension before it began taking up major motion in the Pliocene.

The Guerrero suspect terrane (western Mexico) and coeval arc terranes (the Greater Antilles and the Western Cordillera of Colombia): a late Mesozoic intra-oceanic arc accreted to cratonal America during the Cretaceous

The Guerrero suspect terrane, composed of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous sequences, extends from Baja California to Acapulco and is considered to be coeval with the late Mesozoic igneous and sedimentary arc sequences of the Greater Antilles, the West Indies, Venezuela and the Western Cordillera of Colombia. These sequences represent the remnants of an arc which accreted to the North American and northern South American cratons at the end of the Cretaceous. In western Mexico, the arc sequences built on continental crust consist of high-K calc-alkaline basalts, andesites and rhyolites enriched in LREE with abundant siliceous pyroclastic rocks interbedded either with Aptian-Albian reefal limestones or red beds. They do not show magmatic changes during the arc development. In contrast, the arc sequences built on oceanic crust show an evolution with time. Arc activity began with the development of depleted low K-tholeiitic mafic suite (Guanajuato igneous sequence), followed first by mature tholeiitic basalts and then by calc-alkaline olivine basalts interbedded with micritic limestones and radiolarian oozes of Early Cretaceous age. At the end of the arc growth, during Aptian-Albian times, calc-alkaline pillow basalts and and esites poured out in the volcanic front while shoshonitic olivine basalts extruded in the back arc. The tholeiitic and shoshonitic mafic rocks as well as the calc-alkaline lavas are mildly enriched in LREE, Y and Nb and show high ϵNd ratios, typical of oceanic arcs. In contrast, the calc-alkaline mafic suite enriched in LREE, Y and Nb exhibits lower ϵNd ratios suggesting that it was derived by the partial melting of a mantle source contaminated either by Paleozoic subducted sediments or old source enrichments (OIB). The Cretaceous arc rocks of the Greater Antilles, interbedded with and/or capped by Aptian-Albian limestones, the Cretaceous andesites of northern Colombia, the Cretaceous tholeiitic and calc-alkaline volcanic rocks of Venezuela, and the Cretaceous volcano-plutonic arc assemblage of Tobago share a similar magmatic evolution with the western Mexican oceanic arc. The tholeiitic plutono-volcanic assemblage of Tobago, depleted in LREE and characterized by high ϵNd values is similar to the Guanajuato volcano-plutonic sequence of Mexico, considered to represent the pristine stage of the arc. The mature tholeiitic sequences exposed in the proto-Caribbean arc show flat to moderately enriched LREE patterns like those of the Guerrero terrane. However, felsic plutonic and volcanic rocks prevail in the Caribbean. Calc-alkaline suites, accompanied locally by shoshonitic lavas, characterize the end of arc magmatic activity in both places. Thus, the geochemical features of the Late Jurassic-Cretaceous arc series of the Guerrero terrane and the proto-Caribbean are consistent with the following plate tectonic model. The Guerrero terrane and the proto-Caribbean probably belonged to the same intra-paleo-Pacific arc system the development of which was related to the subduction of oceanic basins fringing the North and northern South American cratons. This subduction zone was WSW dipping. While subduction was going on, these magmatic arcs drifted, moved closer to the North and South American cratons, and finally collided with the American borderlands at different periods during the Cretaceous. The late Mesozoic Guerrero and proto-Caribbean arc sequences show striking similarities with the Miocene calc-alkaline lavas dredged from the Banda Ridges, the North Marianas Seamount Province, and the Halmahera and Philippine arcs. We suggest that the diverse but mostly submarine segments of this late Mesozoic intra-Pacific arc rimmed the North and South American cratons as much as these Tertiary arcs rim Southeast Asia.

Olistostromes marking tectonic events, East Coast, New Zealand

Abstract Three discrete, successive tectonic events are marked by olistostromes in the East Coast, North Island. An Eocene Mataikona event is characterised by in situ dismembered beds. A second, Owahanga event is Otaian and preceded wrench faulting coeval with the start of oblique subduction at the East Coast margin. This second event is characterised by extended emplacement of exotic material followed by gliding, gravity‐driven nappes that are probably related to obduction along the north coast of the North Island. The third olistostrome is attributed to an early Miocene Mara event synchronous with incipient strike‐slip faulting during Alton‐ian times and the commencement of oblique convergence at the Hikurangi margin. From the ages and paleoenvironments of the olistostromes, we propose the Eocene and earliest Miocene syn‐sedimentary structures were dragged along the deforming backstop of the Hikurangi prism.

How transpressive is the northern Caribbean plate boundary

Transpressive deformation at the northern Caribbean plate boundary is accommodated mostly by two major strikeslip faults, but the amount and location of accommodation of the compressional component of deformation is still debated. We collected marine geophysical data including multi-beam bathymetry and multichannel seismic reflection profiles along this plate boundary around Hispaniola, in the Jamaica Passage and in the Gulf of Gonâve. The data set allows us to image the offshore active strike-slip faults as well as the compressional structures. We confirm that the Enriquillo-Plantain-Garden Fault Zone (EPGFZ) in the Jamaica Passage has a primary strike-slip motion, as indicated by active left-lateral strike-sliprelated structures, i.e.: restraining bend, asymmetrical basin, en echelon pressures ridges and horsetail splay. Based on topographic cross-sections across the EPGFZ, we image a very limited compressional component, if any, for at least the western part of the Jamaica Passage. Toward the east of the Jamaica Passage, the fault trace becomes more complex and we identify adjacent compressional structures. In the Gulf of Gonâve, distributed folding and thrust faulting of the most recent sediments indicate active pervasive compressional tectonics. Estimates of shortening in the Jamaica Passage and in the Gulf of Gonâve indicate an increase of the compressional component of deformation towards the east, which nonetheless remains very small compared to that inferred from block modelling based on GPS measurements