ABSTRACT
The Lucea Inlier exposes a Santonian to Campanian 4 km + thick
sequence
of shale-siltstone, resedimented volcaniclastics, lenses of
shallow-water
limestone, micritic limestone, pebbly mudstone and sandy pebble to
boulder
conglomerate. Clastics were deposited by a variety of gravity flow
mechanisms.
Petrographically sandstones are lithic or feldspathic arenites and
contain
only very small amounts of detrital quartz. Structurally the
inlier is
characterized by simple, open, east-west trending folds. A spaced,
vertical
axial-planar cleavage is developed in shales and fine siltstones.
Two
major
east-west trending left-lateral fault zones, the Fat Hog Quarter
and
Maryland
faults, cut the inlier into three blocks, northern, central and
southern.
The basal part of the sequence has been subjected to a
prehnite-pumpellyite
metamorphism.
The rocks of the Lucea Inlier are interpreted to represent a shelf
to basin sequence within an upper slope basin of a Cretaceous
intraoceanic
arc trench system. Detritus shed from the arc was funneled down
submarine
canyons feeding a submarine fan complex. Between canyon heads,
shoal
areas
fringing volcanic islands locally accumulated bioclastic,
reef-type
limestone.
The geology of the northern Caribbean plate boundary records a
complex
array of Cretaceous to Eocene arc-trench systems that has been
modified
by Cenozoic left-lateral slip along the Oriente and Swan
transforms.
Ridge related north-south lineated topography of the Cayman Trough
suggests that a minimum of 720 km of left-lateral movement has
occurred
between the North American and Caribbean plate since approximately
Oligocene
times. Presently active northwest, northeast and east-west
trending
structures
within Jamaica are interpreted as being of compressional,
extensional
and
strike-slip origin, respectively, and are thought to be related to
Recent
left-lateral slip along the northern Caribbean plate boundary.
Grippi, J., 1978. Geology of the Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica.
Unpublished
MSc. thesis, State University of New York at Albany.
183pp., +x.; 6 folded plates (maps)
University at Albany Science Library call number: SCIENCE
Oversize
(*) QE 224 G63X
MS thesis (scanned text pdf - 23.5MB)
Plate 1 - Geologic
Map
- Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica
(uncoloured geological map;
scale
1:15,840) - pdf
file 16 MB
Plate 1A - Stratigraphic
columns
of the Central Block - Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica
(scale 1:2500)
Plate 1B - Geologic
cross
sections - Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica
(uncoloured; scale 1:15,840)
Plate 2 - Geologic
Map
- Cascade-Maryland area - Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica
(uncoloured geological map;
scale
1:12,500)
Plate 2A - Stratigraphic
columns
of the Cash Hill Anticline - Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica
(scale 1:3000)
Plate 2B - Geologic
cross
sections - Cascade-Maryland area - Lucea Inlier, Western Jamaica
(uncoloured; scale 1:12,500)
Return to MS Theses completed in the
Geological
Sciences Program, University at Albany