Tectónica Plio-Cuaternaria en la Bahía de Ocoa (La Española, NE del Caribe)
- Francisco José Fernández 1
- Javier Escuder-Viruete 2
- Fernando Pérez Valera 3
- Pablo Valverde Vaquero 2
- Mercedes Castillo Carrión 2
- Álvaro Rubio Ordóñez 1
- Alicia Medialdea 4
- 1 Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo. Oviedo
- 2 Instituto Geológico y Minero España - CSIC, Tres Cantos
- 3 Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra y del Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Alicante. Sant Vicent de Raspeig
- 4 CENIEH. Burgos
ISSN: 0213-683X
Year of publication: 2023
Issue: 74
Pages: 107-110
Type: Article
More publications in: Geogaceta
Abstract
The left-lateral Beata ridge (BR) and the right-lateral OcoaBonao-La Guacara (OB) fault zones transfer the Plio-Quaternary deformation that results from the NNE-indentation of the Beata oceanic escarpment under the southern margin of Hispaniola. An arcuate relief bound the Ocoa bay, and the current tectonic uplift accelerates the fluvial incision and modifies the fluvial network. Both are active seismic faults whose respective kilometric traces converge 20 km northeaster ward of Ocoa bay, under the San José de Ocoa basin and potentially might be generated large earthquakes. In detail, strain is accommodated by the brittle partition of the fault zones and segmentation of the main faults into minor faults that bounded kilometric blocks of a lozenge shape, with the development of two significant partitions: the Sabana Buey pull-apart basin and the extensional block southward the Azua area; according to the respective fault topology and the relative fault rate displacement. The avulsion of the Ocoa river by the Sabana Buey basin opening occurred during the late Pleistocene, according to the OSL age of a lower alluvial fan (ca. 16 ky) incised by the current floodplain into the river mouth.