Geology and Evolution of the Cauto-Ana Maria Basin, Cuba

G. Barcelo-Carol, J. G. Lopez-Rivera, J. Alvarez-Castro, J. Fernandez-Carmona

The Cauto-Ana Maria basin extends for almost 300 kilometers on the southern part of Cuba. It developed as the result of a complex multi-stage process.

The basin conditions were established in the Cenomanian in a back-arc setting, lying over Aptian-Albian rocks, related to the formation of the Cuban Zaza volcanic arc. This condition prevailed until the Santonian.

In the Campanian-Maastrichtian the volanic arc started to collide with the southern continental margin of North America and the Cauto-Ana Maria region was transformed into a hinterland basin.

But in the Paleogene the Turquino volcanic arc was formed to the South and the basin underwent back-arc conditions again. At the end of the middle Eocene the Cayman-Bartlett transform fault opened, ending the subduction and vulanism, and from that time on the basin has developed in a stike-slip pull apart mode.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995