Subduction Zones of the Caribbean: the sedimentary, magmatic, metamorphic and ore-deposit records. UNESCO/IUGS-IGCP Project 546 Subduction Zones of the Caribbean

Abstract

The International Union of Geosciences (IUGS) and UNESCO IGCP project 546 Subduction Zones of the Caribbean (http://www.ugr.es/~agcasco/igcp546/) was launched in 2007 and scheduled to be completed by the end of the current year 2011. It was set up with the aim of gathering researchers interested in the geological evolution of the Caribbean realm. The development of this region is largely controlled by a number of subduction zones that formed along its margins from the break-up of Pangea during the Jurassic until Present. The current setting is characterized by a very complex plate-tectonic configuration dominated by subduction zones, large-scale strike-slip faults, volcanic arcs and collision belts (Figure 1). The project was built upon previous developments of IGCP project 433 Caribbean Plate Tectonics (2000-2005), of which the Special Volume 4 (Issue 1-2) of Geologica Acta Caribbean Plate Tectonics. Stratigraphic, Magmatic, Metamorphic and Tectonic Events (Iturralde Vinent and Lidiak, 2006) deserves mentioning.