Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Rogers, R. D. Articles by van der Hilst, R. D. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Epeirogenic uplift above a detached slab in northern Central America

¹ Department of Geological Sciences and Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas, 4412 Spicewood Springs Road, Building 600, Austin, Texas 78759-8500, USA
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 54-918, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

P-wave tomographic images reveal that the northern Central America highlands east of the modern volcanic arc overlie a detached slab. Hypsometric analysis of the highlands in Honduras demonstrates that the region is a dissected plateau that is disrupted by normal faults near the North American–Caribbean plate margin. The dissected Central American plateau contains a network of superimposed rivers with meanders cut into bedrock; such a geomorphic character indicates that the regional uplift occurred in the absence of tilting. We propose that the epeirogenic uplift of northern Central America is the buoyant upper-plate response to the influx of mantle asthenosphere following the break-off and sinking of the slab.

Key Words: uplift • slab break-off • Central America • entrenched meanders • tomography

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Mann Overview of the tectonic history of northern Central America Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 428(0): 1 - 19. [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. D. Rogers and P. Mann Transtensional deformation of the western Caribbean-North America plate boundary zone Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 428(0): 37 - 64. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. D. Rogers, P. Mann, R. W. Scott, and L. Patino Cretaceous intra-arc rifting, sedimentation, and basin inversion in east-central Honduras Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 428(0): 89 - 128. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. D. Rogers, P. Mann, P. A. Emmet, and M. E. Venable Colon fold belt of Honduras: Evidence for Late Cretaceous collision between the continental Chortis block and intra-oceanic Caribbean arc Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 428(0): 129 - 149. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B.R. Jordan, H. Sigurdsson, S. Carey, S. Lundin, R.D. Rogers, B. Singer, and M. Barquero-Molina Petrogenesis of Central American Tertiary ignimbrites and associated Caribbean Sea tephra Geological Society of America Special Papers, January 1, 2007; 428(0): 151 - 179. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. E. Harlow, S. R. Hemming, H. G. A. Lallemant, V. B. Sisson, and S. S. Sorensen Two high-pressure-low-temperature serpentinite-matrix melange belts, Motagua fault zone, Guatemala: A record of Aptian and Maastrichtian collisions Geology, January 1, 2004; 32(1): 17 - 20. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. Ferrari Slab detachment control on mafic volcanic pulse and mantle heterogeneity in central Mexico Geology, January 1, 2004; 32(1): 77 - 80. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]