Guantánamo, neo-estructura atípica del Caribe Norte

Resumen

The work is a morphotectonic study of Guantánamo Province in Eastern Cuba. This territory is in the southern part of the North American plate. It differs mainly by seismic activity and the focal mechanisms of the adjacent segments of Santiago de Cuba, on the same plate, and the N of Haití, in the Caribbean plate. In this Cuban tectonic framework there is: a Geodynamic cell (C2) with clockwise movement, which includes 8 active blocks, 2 zones of coastal deformation arched and concave (Cc1= Baconao-Bahía de Guantánamo and Cc2= Maisí), 2 morphostructural articulation areas of 2nd order (IV and V), a S-N morphostructural escarpment (Punta Caleta-Punta del Fraile), and 3 seismic zones (Baracoa, Guantánamo and Maisí), but with lower level than in Santiago de Cuba and Haití. The main fault system is constituted by 4 active elements of 3 categories: 1) First: Oriente fault (E-W, the most important); 2) Second: Nortecubana fault; 3) Third A: Baconao fault; and 4) Third B: Purial fault. The 3 last elements have NW and NNW strikes. It has been determined, for the first time, a NNE tensor of efforts (T1-2) of transpressive type for the Baconao-Guantánamo segment. From the neotectonic point of view, the Guantánamo area is much less active than the adjacent territories of: 1) the Sierra Maestra and the Cauto basin, in Eastern Cuba; and 2) the N of Haití.