Depositional and Paleoenvironmental Settings of the Early Albian Limestones in the Greater Antilles

Island arc tectonism in the Lower Cretaceous to middle Eocene has been well recorded in a series of volcano-sedimentary sequences in the Greater Antilles. Extensive deformation, associated with volcano-tectonic activity in an active margin, has led to chaotic and undifferentiated stratigraphic sequences, making difficult the detailed identification and correlation of those sedimentary units. Recent studies have focused on the recognition of carbonate depositional periods using rudistid bivalve associations. However, correlations of these fossil assemblages have not been accomplished throughout the Caribbean region. This study is undertaking an unprecedented high definition chemostratigraphic (δ¹³C_CARB and δ¹³C_org) analysis of limestones where the Coalcomana-Caprinuloidea rudistid bivalve assemblage (Early Albian) is exposed across the Greater Antilles (Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico). Preliminary chemostratigraphic profiles suggest that carbonate deposition was occurring synchronous in the Caribbean, at least in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, during the Early Albian. The chemostratigraphic framework is been used to constrain the timing and impact of ocean circulation of mid-Cretaceous carbonate deposition in the Caribbean region.