Transverse Extension of Guatemala Active Margin: Implications for Accretion

Kenneth J. McMillen

The inner trench wall of the Middle America Trench off Guatemala does not show evidence of accretion, based on DSDP Legs 67 and 84. The presence of normal faults on the lower inner trench slope has resulted in various subsidence models for the margin. Fault traces would be expected to trend parallel to the margin (northwest-southeast) if margin subsidence had occurred. Instead, the faults trend north-south and occur in groups of faults downdropped to the east and to the west.

The faults do not seem to be related to margin subsidence but rather to previously proposed Cenozoic Central American rifting. The rifting resulted from crustal bending as the Central American block rounded southern Mexico during differential North American/Caribbean plate motion. The rifts, which extend nearly to the trench axis, underlie the San Jose submarine canyon and align with the Guatemala City graben. Possible east-west accommodation zones, between fault zones that dip in opposite directions, exist near the shelf edge. These accommodation zones may have formed along lines of weakness where oceanic crust was previously emplaced into the margin during or prior to the Eocene.

These rifts show that compressional and extensional features can occur simultaneously with underthrusting on active margins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91038©1987 AAPG Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, June 7-10, 1987.