Late Paleocene-Early Eocene sedimentary history in western Cuba: Implications for the LPTM and for regional tectonic history

The San Agustine and San Francisco de Paula sections constitute two complementary, albeit incomplete, records of late Paleocene-early Eocene history of western Cuba (Bahia Honda tectonic unit). The San Agustine section is of exceptional value because it is the only definitive known record of the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (LPTM) in the Caribbean. This extends the geographic distribution of the LPTM calcareous nannofossil assemblage from the western Indian Ocean to the Caribbean through the Tethys and North Atlantic Ocean. The fact that this assemblage has not yet been documented outside this area may reflect provincialism or, alternatively, broadly distributed unconformities. The San Francisco de Paula section, sampled with the hope that it would constitute a suitable reference section for the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, yields a valuable record of successive latest Paleocene-earliest Eocene erosional events, that may reflect regional tectonic in the Caribbean or may be part of a global pattern of sedimentary history.