A NATURAL MODEL OF ACTIVE TRANSPRESSIONAL TECTONICS - THE EN-ECHELON STRUCTURES OF THE ORIENTE DEEP ALONG THE NORTHERN CARIBBEAN TRANSCURRENT PLATE BOUNDARY (SOUTHERN CUBAN MARGIN)

A Seabeam and seismic reflection structural study of the Oriente Deep, located along the northern Caribbean transcurrent plate boundary, allows the imaging in three dimensions of the active transpressional structures. These structures are folds and reverse faults. The folds display an en echelon arrangement, are set within three E-W trending alignments, and appear with an axis trending 30° to 40° to the shear direction. Their axes have undergone a rotation which gives them in plan a sigmoidal "Z' shape. The reverse faults formed after the folds and are located at the bases of the anticlines. The folding occurs outside the main strike-fault, above inactive buried faults affecting the basement of the Oriente Deep. The Oriente Deep is a exceptional natural model for the study of active transpressional deformation along a major strike-slip fault. -Authors