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FROM GREENHOUSE TO ICEHOUSE The Marine Eocene-Oligocene Transition EDITED BY DONALD R. PROTHERO, LINDA C. IVANY, AND ELIZABETH A. NESBITT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

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Page 1: FROM GREENHOUSE TO ICEHOUSE The Marine Eocene … brief.pdfFROM GREENHOUSE TO ICEHOUSE The Marine Eocene-Oligocene Transition EDITED BY DONALD R. PROTHERO, LINDA C. IVANY, AND ELIZABETH

FROM GREENHOUSE TO ICEHOUSE

The Marine Eocene-Oligocene Transition

EDITED BY DONALD R. PROTHERO, LINDA C. IVANY,

AND ELIZABETH A. NESBITT

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

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Participants in the Penrose Conference on the marine Eocene-Oligocene transition, held at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, on August 17-22, 1999. First row (left to right): Clio Bitboul, Karina Hankins, Linda Donohoo, Ashley Streig, Elizabeth Sanger, Don Prothero, Louie Marincovich; second row: Ewan Fordyce, Rowan Lockwood, Manuel" lturralde, Karen Wetmore, James Whitehead, John Armentrout, Carol Tang, Anton Oleinik; third row: Paul Pearson, Paul Gammon, Ellen Thomas, Carole Hickman, Richard Squires, Franca Oboh-lkuenobe, Nancy Buening, Noel Vandenberghe, Tom Yancey, Liz Nesbitt, Earl Manning, Linda lvany; fourth row: John Hurley, Dave Scholl, Rick Fluegeman, Miklos Kazmer, Etienne Steurbaut, Yin Yanhong, Steve Pekar, Warren Allmon, Matt Campbell; back row: Wylie Poag, Burt Carter, David Campbell, Hiroshi Nishi, Steve Schellenberg. Photo by Anton Oleinik.

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CHAPTER22

A Brief Account of the Evolution of the Caribbean Seaway: Jurassic to Present

Manuel A. Iturralde-Vinent

ABSTRACT This paper presents a summary of the history of the Caribbean Seaway, from its Lower to Middle Jurassic Pangaean epicontinental sea precursor (rift valleys), its debut as an oceanic seaway in the Oxfordian, and its subsequent evolution until the Present. Since the Oxfordian, marine connectivity between the Tethys-Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans along the Caribbean Seaway have been shaped by the occur­rence of different topographic barriers, sometimes as isolated islands and submarine highs, sometimes as continuous land barriers. This scenario can be used to evaluate possible biotic interchange, either by land between the American continents or by water between the Pacific and Tethys-Atlantic Oceans. During the Eocene-Oligocene transition (35-33 Ma), there was a land barrier in the Caribbean (Gaarlandia), that precluded free ocean-water circula­tion between the Pacific and the Atlantic-Caribbean, probably contributing to the climatic change that took place at this time interval. This barrier was pro­gressively drowned during the Oligocene, restoring the circum-tropical current that warmed up tempera­ture within the Caribbean Sea and the Tropical Pacific.

INTRODUCTION It is well known that, due to changing Earth paleo­geography, global ocean-water circulation undergoes change, which is controlled by the configuration of the continents, islands, oceans, seas, and shallow sub­marine areas, as well as atmospheric and water com­position and dynamic factors (Barron and Peterson, 1989). As a consequence, present-day patterns of

marine circulation cannot be extrapolated to evaluate paleobiogeographic scenarios (Berggren and Hollister, 1974; Frakes et al., 1992; Parrish, 1992). In this paper, I briefly explore the origin and evolution of the Caribbean area, using the database compiled by Irurralde-Vinenr and MacPhee (1999), as well as the paleogeographic reconstructions published recently (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999; Kerr et al., 1999; Iturralde-Vinent, 1998, Lawver et ;1!., 1999). This is a necessary step toward the understanding of the history of marine biotic exchange between the Pacific and Tethyan/Atlantic oceans.

Figure 22.1 illustrates the history of topograph­ic barriers between North America and South America, and shows how they affected the marine flow across the area. This history can be subdivided into the following major steps: (1) the western Pangaean epicontinental seaway; (2) the early open­ing of the Caribbean Seaway; (3) the Mesozoic evolu­tion of the Caribbean Seaway; (4) the early Cenozoic evolution; and (5) the latest Eocene to Recent evolu­tion of the seaway.

THE WESTERN PANGAEAN EPICONTINENTAL SEAWAY Similarities among several groups of marine animals (bivalves, ammonites, marine reptiles) that occur both in the western Tethys and the East Pacific suggest that since the Pliensbachian-Hettangian (nearly 190 ± 5 Ma) an aquatic connection existed between these regions (Smith, 1983; Damborenea and Macefiido, 1979; Riccardi, 1991 ; Gasparini, 1992, 1996). Although the connection, theoretically, may have taken place eastward across the eastern Tethys into the

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u 0 N 0 z w u

u 0 N 0 (/)

w ::i!E

ID c <1:1 (.)

0 ~

<1:1 c ~ 0 .Ql 0

<II c Cl (.) 0 Ql til Q.

C/)

:J

~ (.)

i!l ~ 0

g C/) C/) ro L..

:J -,

35

40

55

e o • o Islands and channels

Formation of the Panamanian landbridge

Partial uplift of the Panamanian ithsmus

Extensive uplift along Central America and within ridges, shallow banks and islands of the Caribbean Sea

Partial uplift of ridges and island arcs within northern Central America and the Caribbean Sea

Formation of the Gaarlandian ridge

Partial uplift of ridges, shallow banks and islands within northern Central America and the Caribbean Sea

Partial uplift of ridges, shallow banks and islands within northern Central America and the Caribbean Sea

First suspected intercontinental landbridge

Partial uplift of ridges, shallow banks and islands

Opening of the Strait of Florida and partial uplift of ridges, shallow banks and islands

First documented islands within the Volcanic Arc

Opening of the oceanic Caribbean Seaway

Development of an intracontinental rift system in west-central Pangaea

Islands and •• • • shallow banks DJII] Rift System

Shut down of the Caribbean Seaway

Westward flow of the Circumtropical current across the Caribbean Seaway

Restricted circulation across the Caribbean Seaway

Westward flow of the Circumtropical current across the Caribbean Seaway, with punctuated reductions due to the ephimeral formation of discontinuous topographic barriers

Restricted circulation between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans across the Strait of Yucatan and the Havana­Matanzas channel

Westward flow across the Caribbean Seaway with punctuated reductions due to the formation of discontinuous topographic barriers

Possible temporal closure of the Caribbean Seaway

Possible westward flow across the Caribbean Seaway with temporal reductions due to the ephemeral formation of discontinuous topographic barriers

Onset of the Circum Tropical Marine Current

Intracontinental aquatic systems, chiefly freshwater, punctuated marine inundations

-

Continental landmass

Figure 22.1. Major events in the evolution of the Caribbean Seaway from Jurassic to Recent. Data from Iturralde and MacPhee (1999:figure 12 and tables 1-4). On the left part of the graphic, the dotted vertical strips are the permanent continental masses of North and South Al:nerica (NA and SA), the central patternless zone represent the Caribbean marine area, and the bubble rows indicate topographic barriers within the Caribbean. The right part of the graphic provides information about the topographic barriers and the marine seaway. T he thin verti­cal strip within the textual area is intended to show in black major shutdowns of the flow along the Caribbean Seaway, and with horizontal pattern the time lapses when water exchange was possible between the Pacific and Atlantic/Tethyan oceans. Chronology not to scale.

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388 THE ATLANTIC, GULF, AND CARIBBEAN

Pacific Ocean, similarities between the western Tethyan and the East Pacific taxa suggest that the connection passed through the central part of the Pangaean supercontinent (Gasparini, 1978; Smith, 1983; Riccardi, 1991; Gasparini, 1978, 1992, 1996; Gasparini and Fernandez 1996; Damborenea, 2000, Aberham, 2001). This connection first yielded a lim­ited exchange of shallow marine taxa (Smith, 1983; Damborenea, 2000, Aberham, 2001), but with rime the waterway widened (Pindell, 1994; Lawver et a!., 1999) allowing an increasing exchange of marine ani­mals, including both open and shallow marine taxa, limited during the Bathonian-Oxfordian, and exten­sive since the Oxfordian (Westermann, 1981; Westermann, 1992; Hilldebrandt, 1981; Hillde­brandt et a!., 1992: Imlay, 1984; Sandoval and Westermann, 1986; Bartok et a!., 1985; Riccardi, 1991; Gasparini, 1978, 1992, 1996; Gasparini and Fernandez, 1996; lturralde-Vinent and Norell, 1996; Damborenea, 2000). According to recent paleogeo­graphic reconstructions, this passageway was estab­lished before the breakup of Pangaea, probably across a dominantly shallow siliciclastic interior sea located within western Pangaea (figure 22.1; Salvador, 1987; Pindell, 1994; Pindell and Tabbutt, 1995).

The fact that large ocean-dwelling saurians are recorded from the Middle Jurassic of the southeastern Pacific (Gasparini, 1992; Gasparini and Fernandez, 1996) suggest that the western Pangaean epicontinen­tal seaway may have been transected by some deep­water channels, probably along grabens and semi­grabens produced by crustal extension (rift valleys). This hypothesis is supported by the existence of "con­tinental margin and marine facies" in the pre­Oxfordian (probably Bathonian-Bajocian) siliciclastic rocks of western Cuba (San Cayetano Formation), with sedimentary features suggesting the occurrence of paleoslopes from fluvio-marine facies into marine environments (Haczewski, 1976; Pszczolkowski, 1978). It is also supported by the occurrence of Jurassic rift grabens and semigrabens in the eastern and southern continental margin of North America (Salvador, 1987; Pindell, 1994; Marton and Buffler, 1994, Bullard et a!., 1965; Klitgord et a!. , 1988; Gradstein et al., 1990; Jones eta!., 1995, Pindell and Talbut, 1995; Milani and Tomas Filho, 2000).

The Pangaean epicontinental sea should not be thought of as the proto-Caribbean basin itself, but as a precursor situated within western Pangaea (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). For this rea­son, I propose to avoid the confusing terms "Hispanic Corridor" or "Caribbean Corridor" to designate this

seaway and refer to it instead by a more descriptive term, the western Pangaean epicontinental seawav and rift valley system (figure 22.1).

THE EARLY OPENING OF THE CARIBBEAN SEAWAY As the break-up of western Pangaea completely sepa­rated Laurasia and Gondwana, a new paleogeograph­ic feature formed: the Caribbean Seaway. This seaway is here understood as a truly oceanic basin located between the North and South American continental landmasses. It represents a linkage between the Pacific and the Atlantic-Tethyan Oceans. In order to explore the origin of this basin, two sources of information are needed: earliest Mesozoic occurrence of ocean crustal indicators, and the first occurrence of true marine environments.

The earliest occurrence of Mesozoic oceanic crustal indicators within the Mesoamerican realm comprise the pillow basalts and associated marine sed­iments reported from the Andean terranes of north­ern South America (Bajocian-Bathonian Siquisique basalts: Bartok eta!. 1985) and from the Guaniguani­co terrane of western Cuba (Oxfordian El Sabalo basalts: Pszczolkowski, 1994; Kerr eta!., 1999). The original position of the Siquisique basalts is not yet well understood, but they probably belo.&l.g to the Pacific margin of Pangaea, as do the Andean terranes (Pindell, 1994; Pindell and Tabbutt, 1995, Aleman and Ramos, 2000). If this is true, they predate the for­mation of the early Caribbean oceanic crust (Irurralde-Vinent, 1998). This is not the case for the El Sabalo basalts, which probably formed on the Mayan (Yucatan) block margin facing the Caribbean (Iturralde-Vinent, 1994; Hutson et al., 1999), so they can be thought of as representing a magmatic event related to the initiation of ocean spreading within the Caribbean (Irurralde-Vinent, 1998; Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999; Kerr et al., 1999). This inference is corroborated by the occurrence of an important assemblage of Oxfordian marine animals (bivalves, ammonites, ganoid fish and marine reptiles) in the Guaniguanico terrane of western Cuba (Iturralde­Vinent and Norell, 1996) that are clearly related to both the western Tethys and the eastern Pacific faunas (Ricardii, 1991; Gasparini, 1992; Gasparini and Fernandez, 1996; Fernandez and lturralde-Vinent, 2000).

The opening of the Caribbean Seaway represents an important paleoceanographic golden spike, at which point the Mesozoic deep circum-equatorial ocean-water circulation that linked the Tethys, the

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central Atlantic, and the Pacific Oceans may have begun.

THE MESOZOIC EVOLUTION OF THE CARIBBEAN SEAWAY It is generally understood that active seafloor spread­ing berween North and South America lasted from Late Jurassic through late Albian, widening the gap berween the continents (Pindell, 1994). Subsidence of the crust produced abyssal water-depth sections within the area, as early as the Tithonian (Pszcwlkowski, 1978; 1982; Iturralde-Vinent, 1998; Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). These process­es generally improved the chances for interoceanic marine communication across the Caribbean Seaway. Such a paleoceanographic scenario allowed extensive biotic exchange berween the Tethys, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, as recorded by the distribution of sev­eral mollusks (Soh! and Kollmann, 1985; Ricardii, 1991; Rojas eta!. , 1996; Boitr6n-Sanchez and L6pez­Tinajero, 1996).

Some numerical models of Cretaceous ocean cir­culation across the Tethys suggest that the main cir­culation was directed easrward (Barron and Peterson, 1989) . This hypothesis is contradicted by the pattern of ammonite (cephalopod) , acteonelid (gastropod) and rudist (bivalve) dispersion from east to west (Soh! and Kollmann, 1985; Ricardii, 1991; Roj as et a!., 1996; Boitr6n-Sanchez and Lopez-Tinajero, 1996).

Marine connectivity along the Caribbean Seaway was eventually moderated by local and regional uplift within the Caribbean (figure 22.1). lturralde-Vinent and MacPhee (1999) have compiled abundant infor­mation concerning the occurrence of locals and regional unconformities and hiatuses, as well as the presence of shallow-water banks, indicating both sub­aerial exposure and/or submarine topographic highs during the time interval under consideration. T hese positive topographies must have ultimately interrupt­ed deep-ocean circulation, and forced circulation ' along deep trenches and channels. However, current knowledge precludes accurate reconstruction of the specific paleoceanographic scenarios.

T he Bahamas are an important permanent barri­er that occurs within the Caribbean Seaway. By the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, this shallow-water strucmre included the present-day Florida Peninsula and the Bahamas, but since the Aptian this megaplat­form has been subdivided into smaller platforms sep­arated by a nerwork of abyssal channels (Buffler and Hurts, 1985; lturralde-Vinent, 1994; 1998). This general barrier allowed restricted deep-marine circula-

Evolution of the Caribbean Seaway 389

tion through the channels, but it concentrated the · main circulation across the Strait of Florida and the central Atlantic Ocean. Some other barriers probably occurred as islands chains (erosional surfaces and hia­tuses within the volcanic sections) and shallows (interbedded shallow marine limestones) along the active volcanic arcs of the Caribbean realm (lturralde­Vinenr and MacPhee, 1999), but during the Cretaceous these topographic features were mostly located on the western periphery of the Caribbean (Pindell, 1994; Iturralde-Vinent, 1998). Within these volcanic terranes, major uplift events are recorded during the Neocomian, Aptian-Albian, and Coniancian-Santonian; but these barriers were surely non-permanent, because subsidence and deposition of marine rocks are also recorded in them after each uplift (lturralde-Vinenr and MacPhee, 1999).

The documented interchange of large terrestrial tetrapods berween North and South America, late in the Cretaceous, strongly suggests that a land bridge linked these continents (Gingerich, 1985; Gayet et al. , 1992) . Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee (1999) suggested that this land bridge probably coincided in time with the regional uplift that took place by late Campanian-early Maastrichtian along the Antillean Cretaceous volcanic arc (figure 22.1) . This event would have dosed the Caribbean Seaway for a period of 1-3 million years, producing a major change in ocean-water circulation and global climate, like the one recorded after the formation of the Panamanian land bridge in the Pliocene. Prior to the late Campanian. topographic barriers within the Cretaceous volcanic arcs were ephemeral and proba­bly not continuous landmasses and shallows separat­ed by local deep-water channels (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999), so their effect on the marine flow across the Caribbean Seaway would have been less drastic (figure 22.1).

THE EARLY CENOZOIC EVOLUTION OF THE CARIBBEAN SEAWAY The end of the Cretaceous in the Caribbean realm was accompanied by strong modifications in the tec­tonic regime of the area. Rock deformation and colli­sional tectonics associated with important vertical movements played an outstanding role since the latest Campanian, and the formation and destruction of topographic barriers was a common phenomenon during the Cenozoic (Khudoley and Meyerhoff, 1971; Pszczolkowski and Flores, 1986; Droxler eta!., 1998; Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). This dynamic of the crustal movements wi thin the

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Late Eocene (40 Ma)

Late Oligocene-Middle Miocene (32-9 Ma)

Drowning of Gaarlandia

Drowning of the Panamanian area

Latest Eocene-Early Oligocene (35-32 Ma)

Uplift of Gaarlandia

Late Miocene (9-7 Ma)

General uplift and closure of the Havana-Matanzas channel

Pliocene-Holocene (3.7-0 Ma) ,......-------,

Closure of the Panamanian rthsmus

Figure 22.2. Main scenarios of late Eocene to Recent marine surface circulation across the Caribbean Seaway. Afrer data from Prothero (1994), Coates and Obando (1996), Droxell et al. (1998), Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee (1999: figure I 0). Since the Late Eocene the course of westward-flowing currents in rhe mid­Atlantic/Tethys across the Caribbean Seaway has been greatly affected by the appearance and disappearance of various topographic barriers. Thus, the circumtropical current, which originally passed into the western Pacific (late Eocene) was temporarily disrupted during the Eocene-Oligocene transition by the emergence of Gaarlandia, during the late Miocene by the partial emergence of Central America, and was permanently dis­rupted by the uplift of Central America in the late Pliocene.

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Caribbean also produced a more complicated land­scape, as several volcanic chains and ridges were pres­ent, with a clear tendency toward the reduction of the size of the marine basins (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999:figures 6-8). Nevertheless, those bar­riers did not prevent marine currents from flowing across the Caribbean Seaway (figure 22.1), as Paleogene and Neogene biotas from the Pacific and Atlantic- Tethys intermingled in the Caribbean and/or migrated between these oceans (Squires, this volume; Dockery and Lozouet, this volume; Duque­Caro, 1990; Collins, 1996; Iturralde-Vinent et al., 1997). This biotic interchange was particularly marked during the periods of highstand, recorded by the frequent occurrence of deep-water environments within Caribbean early Cenozoic stratigraphic sec­tions (Irurralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999).

Consequently, during the Paleocene and Eocene, the so-called circum-global equatorial current (Drox­ler et al., 1998) flowed between the Tethys- Atlantic and the Caribbean-Pacific across the Caribbean Seaway. Figure 22.2 (60-35 Ma) illustrates, in a very general manner, the Caribbean paleogeography dur­ing this time interval.

THE LATEST EOCENE TO RECENT EVOLUTION OF THE CARIBBEAN SEAWAY The transition between the end of the Eocene and the beginning of the Oligocene (Zones P16 to P18 of Berggren et al., 1995) coincides with the Pyrenean phase of tectogenesis (Leonov and Khain, 1987), the effects of which are well represented in the Caribbean Region (MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent, 1995; Irurralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). During this phase, regional tectonic uplift coincided with a major eustatic sea level drop at about 35 Ma (Miller et al., 1996). As a result, subaerial exposure within the Caribbean Region was probably more extensive then than at any other time in the Cenozoic, including the late Quaternary. Figure 22.2 (35-33 Ma) reflects this fact. However, it is important to compare this map with other "Oligocene" reconstructions which repre­sent this period as one of overall minimum land expo­sure (e.g., Gonzalez de Juana et al., 1980; Galloway et al., 1995; Macellari, 1995). The explanation for the difference in treatment lies in the fact that most Oligocene reconstructions depict the paleogeography of the mid- to later Oligocene, by which time the Pyrenean orogenic phase had terminated (Iturralde­Vinent and MacPhee, 1999).

Evidence for Pyrenean uplift can be seen in

Evolution of the Caribbean Seaway 391

stratigraphic sections as well as submarine dredge samples, drill cores, and seismic lines recovered from many parts of the Caribbean and surrounding conti­nental borderlands (table 22.1). Many stratigraphic sections consistently lack marine sediments of latest Eocene-early Oligocene age, with this time interval represented instead by hiatuses, red beds, and other kinds of terrestrial deposits (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). In many sedimentary basins located near former topographic highs, latest Eocene-early Oligocene sediments carry abundant land-derived debris, chiefly very coarse conglomerates (matrix- or clast-supported) and sandstones. This type of sedi­mentary unit is so common in the Caribbean realm that Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee (1999) dubbed it the "Eocene-Oligocene transition conglomerate event". In places far removed from terrestrial sedi­ment sources, such as the Colombian, Venezuelan, and Yucatan basins, deep-marine deposition was con­densed (Edgar et al., 1973; Sigurdsson et al., 1997).

The Aves Ridge is considered to have constituted the southeastern continuation of the Greater Antilles Ridge in latest Eocene-early Oligocene time. Irurralde-Vinent and MacPhee (1999) argue that exposure of the ridge crest created, for a short time around 33-35 Ma, a series of large, closely-spaced islands or possibly a continuous peninsula (as part of Gaarlandia) stretching from northern South America to the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands to Central Cuba. It is noteworthy that during the Eocene-Oligocene tran­sition, western Cuba was uplifted but separated by the Havana-Matanzas deep-water channel from central Cuba (actually from Garrlandia), and by the Strait of Yucatan from the Yucatan Peninsula (figure 22.2; Irurralde-Vinent et al., 1996). Some positive topo­graphic features characteristic of the present Caribbean seafloor did not exist in Eocene-Oligocene times (and are therefore not depicted in figure 22.2). These are the Cayman Trench, Mona Channel, Anegada Trough, and so on (see discussion by MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent, 1994, 1995).

During the latest Eocene (37 Ma), after the col­lision of the Antillean arc with the Bahamas, general uplift started all along the axis of the present day Greater Antilles (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). Shorr after this event, during the Eocene­Oligocene transition (about 35-33 Ma), a pro­nounced topographic barrier (Gaarlandia) reduced to a minimum water exchange between the Atlantic and the Caribbean-Pacific, and a special pattern of ocean­water circulation similar to present day was estab­lished for a short time (figure 22.2), probably con-

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Table 22.1. Stratigraphic Indicators for Land, Shallow-Marine, and Deep-Marine Environments During che Latest Eocene-Early Oligocene (35-33 Ma, Zones P16-1 8) Interval Within the Caribbean Realm and Its

Surroundings

Location Land indicators (hiatuses, Shallow marin~ and costal n~ep marin~ indicators

red beds, alluvia, paleosls, indicators (lagoonal (Globigerine ooze, etc.)

terrestrial plant and sediments, carbonate

animal fossils, nearshore shelf, etc.)

conglomerates)

Florida Peninsula X X -Bahamas Platform X X X

Southern Mexico X X X

Yucatan Peninsula X X X

Northern Central X - -America

Southern Central - X X

America

Northeastern South X X X

America

Northeastern South X X -America shelf and islands

Nicaragua Rise X X -Cayman Ridge X X -Beata Ridge - X -Aves Ridge X X -Cuba X X X

Jamaica X X X

Hipaniola X X X

Puerto Rico-Virgin X X -Islands

Lesser Antilles X X ?

Yucatan Basin and - ? X

Cayman Rise

Colombia and Venezuela - - X

Basins

Grenada Basin - X X

Note. Some present-day geographic areas are not listed because they did not exist at this time interval (Cayman Trench, Windward Passage, Mona Passage, Anegada Trough, etc.). Compiled from Irurralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999, table 2 and appendix 1.

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triburing to the climatic change recorded at the Eocene-Oligocene transition (Prothero, 1994).

Since the early Oligocene, Gaarlandia progres­sively drowned. Inundation of terrestrial environ­ments began as early as Zone P19 (Berggren et al., 1995) and continued into Zone P22, as it is indicat­ed by the widespread occurrence of transgressive Oligocene marine sediments in the Caribbean Region (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999: table 3, appendix 1). Marine communication between the Atlantic and Pacific was re-established, and the cir­cum-tropical current warmed up the water tempera­ture within the Caribbean Seaway and the equatorial Pacific (Droxler et al., 1998). This scenario lasted until the middle Miocene (figure 22.2: 33-9 Ma), and by the late Miocene, water circulation across the Caribbean Seaway was restricted again by regional uplift (figure 22.2: 9-7 Ma; Coates and Obando, 1996; Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee, 1999). This is suggested by a foraminiferal faunal turnover in the Panamanian area, by the abundance of high latitude Californian elements in the Panamanian fauna, and bu the occurrence of South American land mammals in the late Miocene-Pliocene of North America (Gingerich, 1985; Duque-Caro, 1990; Collins, 1996). The Panamanian barrier was drowned at the end of the Miocene (figure 22.2: 7-3.7 Ma), and soon arose again, first as a shallow submarine ridge, late~ as a land bridge between North and South American continents (figure 22.2 3.7-0 Ma; Duque-Caro, 1990; Collins, 1996; Coates and Obando, 1996).

CONCLUSIONS The history of the Caribbean Seaway is very compli­cated, but can be generally explored with the available data. Figure 22.1 is a summary of the history of marine connections and topographic barriers within the Caribbean area. This scenario can be used to eval­uate possible biotic interchange, either by land between the American continents or by water between the Pacific and Tehys/Atlantic oceans. Figure 22.2 illustrates the Paleocene to Recent evolution of the seaway, which is the main focus of the this vol­ume. In general, the evolution of the Caribbean Seaway must have had a strong bearing on the global patterns of ocean circulation and climate change in the past, but this is an issue that remains to be stud­ied in more details.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is a contribution to UNESCO/lUGS IGCP Project 433 Caribbean Plate Tectonics. The author

Evolution of the Caribbean Seaway 393

wish to thanks his colleague Ross MacPhee (American Museum of Natural History), and an anonymous reviewer, for important suggestions to the original typescript and drawings. Attending the GSA Penrose Conference on The Marine Eocene-Oligocene Transition (Olympia, 1999) was possible thanks to a grant from the Cuba Group of SSRC. Field work in the Greater Antilles for this paper was partially sup­ported by a NGS Grant to the author. Laboratory work at the Institute for Geophysics of the University of Texas at Austin (UTIG) was possible thanks to grants from the Institute for Latin American Studies (UTEXA.S) and UTIG.

REFERENCES Aberhan, M., 2001, Bivalve paleogeography and the

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