Middle-Late Ordovician magmatism and Late Cretaceous collision in the southern Maya block, Rabinal-Salama area, central Guatemala: Implications for North America-Caribbean plate tectonics

摘要

The Rabinal-Salamá area in central Guatemala provides critical data bearing on the relationships between the North American and Caribbean plates because it lies within the Polochic-Motagua fault zone that separates the two plates. The cumulative Cenozoic sinistral displacement across this zone that separates the Maya and Chortís terranes has been variously estimated to be ~125 km or ~1100 km, evidence for which should be recorded in the rocks of the studied area. The Rabinal-Salamá area lies between two of the east-west faults within the Motagua fault zone, the Polochic fault, and the Baja Verapaz shear zone. The shear zone separates the Maya block from eclogitic rocks of the Chuacús Complex that pass southward into ophiolitic rocks and mélanges that define a suture between the Chuacús Complex and the Chortís block.