geology

Neogene Carbonate platform depositional and diagenesis (Geology)

Project description 

Title: Neogene Carbonate platform depositional and diagenesis (Geology)

Time: 2015 - 2018

Project leaders:  Juan Carlos Laya and  Fiona Whitaker

Project summary: This project aimed to study the geology of Bonaire and focused on demonstrating how the stratigraphy and depositional styles on Bonaire Island serve to understand the dynamic of sedimentation and environmental changes in the Caribbean region during the Neogene. The initial work produced two research publications with graduate students (Bowling et al., 2018, and Laya et al., 2018). Later, additional research questions were proposed to continue the project further with a focus on the geological evolution of the rocks. Those questions involved a fundamental topic in geology referred to “dolomite problem” as it is known throughout the scientific community. This subject is one of the most exciting problems in carbonate geology. With our robust dataset, we significantly advanced in the understanding of the dolomite problem by challenging different models of dolomite formation and proposing alternative conceptual approaches. Fieldwork was carried out in 2015 and 2016. The outcome of this research is three peer-reviewed publications with graduate students (See below). To achieve the project objectives, we applied innovative technology, including a digital outcrop model (DOM’s), computer flow simulation, and experimental approaches in the laboratory. As further evidence of the impact in this field, the results of this project were presented at conferences and department seminars at several universities. The following is a list of publications associated with this project including Master's and PhD thesis. 

Date
2024
Data type
Research report
Theme
Research and monitoring
Geographic location
Bonaire

Communicating the Geologic History of Aruba: Contextualizing Gold and Incorporating Human Activity

Aruba is well-known for its beautiful beaches fueling a prominent tourist industry, however it was not always so. The oil refinery is in recent memory for the island but what has faded is its predecessor, the nearly 100-year gold industry, running from 1824, when Willem Rasmijn is said to have found the first gold nugget, until 1916, when the Great War made gold processing a waste of resources.

Date
2022
Data type
Research report
Theme
Research and monitoring
Report number
Utrecht University
Geographic location
Aruba

Caribisch Nederland: Bonaire, eiland met een bewogen geologische geschiedenis.

De oudste gesteenten van Bonaire stammen uit het Midden-Krijt (Albien en Cenomanien). Ze hebben de magmatische signatuur van een vulkanische eilandboog als het gevolg van subductie van een oceanische plaat onder een andere oceanische plaat. Gezien de huidige geografische ligging zou men op het eerste gezicht verwachten dat Bonaire samen met de zustereilanden Aruba en Curaçao ontstaan is.

De oudste kalksteenformatie op Bonaire stamt uit het Eoceen. De fossielinhoud van deze Vroeg-Tertiaire kalken laat zien dat Bonaire toen onder water lag. In de periode daarna is het eiland weer boven water gekomen, tot aan het Laat-Mioceen. De zeespiegel stond toen weer zo hoog dat alleen de hoogste toppen van de eilanden boven water uitstaken. Rondom deze toppen groeiden koraalriffen.

Date
2011
Data type
Research report
Theme
Research and monitoring
Tags
Report number
GEA, december 2011, nummer 4
Geographic location
Bonaire
Image

Neogene–Quaternary tectonic evolution of the Leeward Antilles islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) from fault kinematic analysis

Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are islands aligned along the crest of a 200-km-long segment of the east–west-trending Leeward Antilles ridge within the broad Caribbean–South America plate boundary zone presently characterized by east–west, right-lateral strike-slip motion. The crust of the Leeward Antilles ridge represents the western segment of the Cretaceous–early Cenozoic Great Arc of the Caribbean, which obliquely collided, with the continental margin of northern South America in early Cenozoic time. Following the collision, the ridge was affected by folding and was segmented by oblique, northwest-striking normal faults that have produced steep-sided, northwest-trending, elongate islands and narrow shelves separated by deepwater, sediment-filled and fault-controlled basins. In this paper, we present the first fault slip observations on the Neogene carbonate rocks that cover large areas of all three islands. Our main objective is to quantify the timing and nature of Neogene to Quaternary phases of faulting and folding that have affected the structure and topography of this area including offshore sedimentary basins that are being explored for their petroleum potential. These data constrain three fault phases that have affected Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao and likely the adjacent offshore areas: 1) NW–SE-directed late Paleogene compression; 2) middle Miocene syndepositional NNW–SSE to NNE–SSW extension that produced deep rift basins transverse to the east–west-trending Leeward Antilles ridge; and 3) Pliocene–Quaternary NNE-trending compression that produced NW–SE-trending anticlines present on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire islands. Our new observations – that include detailed relationships between striated fault planes, paleostress tensors, and bedding planes – show that prominent bedding dips of Neogene limestone on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao were produced by regional tectonic shortening across the entire Leeward Antilles ridge rather than by localized, syndepositional effects as proposed by previous workers. We interpret Pliocene–Quaternary NNE-directed shortening effects on the Leeward Antilles ridge as the result of northeastward extrusion or “tectonic escape” of continental areas of western Venezuela combined with southeastward shallow subduction of the Caribbean plate beneath the ridge.

Date
2009
Data type
Scientific article
Theme
Research and monitoring
Geographic location
Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao

Landscape map Bonaire

Landscape map that depicts the intersections of biophysical, cultural and aesthetic characteristics, delineating landscape types to which coherent sets of nature-inclusive measures are assigned. This landscape map was developed using clusters of nature-inclusive measures that were spatially located by local experts on a map of Bonaire, in combination with geological, soil , elevation , vegetation , planning and high resolution land cover maps.

See this report for more information.

Date
2020
Data type
Maps and Charts
Theme
Research and monitoring
Geographic location
Bonaire
Image

Overzicht van de geologische en mijnbouwkundige kennis der Nederlandse Antillen

Overview of knowledge regarding geology and mining of the Netherlands Antilles

Date
1949
Data type
Other resources
Geographic location
Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao
Saba
St. Eustatius
St. Maarten

Geologie en Geohydrologie van het eiland Curacao

Geology and Geohydrology of the island of Curacao

 

Geology

Chapter 1: the geological history of Curacao

Chapter 2: Petrography and genesis of the sediments

Chapter 3: Petrography and genesis of igneous rocks and contact metamorphism

Chapter 4:Correlatiosn of stones and formations

Chapter 5: Geotectonics of the West Indies

Chapter 6: Description of the echinoids

 

Geohydrology

Chapter 1: Rain measurements

Chapter 2: Geohydrology sources

Chapter 3: Geohydrology of groundwater

 

Date
1929
Data type
Other resources
Theme
Research and monitoring
Tags
Geographic location
Curacao

Influence of karst denudation on the northwest coast of Curaçao

The northwest coast of Curaçao is characterized by a series of Pleistocene-age reef terraces at four discrete elevations with dissolutional caves formed in the terraces at specific elevations (highest to lowest terraces, in meters above sea level: 90-175 m, 50-85 m, 10-45 m, and 5-10 m). Large scale rectilinear coastal reentrants called bokas occur in the lowest terrace, and are hundreds of meters long perpendicular to the coast, tens of meters wide, and have steep, vertical walls of up to more than ten meters height. Prominent coastline erosional features formed by a combination of cave collapse and wave erosion are also present in the lowest terrace. Reconnaissance field mapping in March of 2011 and 2012 documented 17 bokas and identified and surveyed numerous flank margin caves related to the reef terraces and the bokas. Quaternary uplift is evident by the position of the four elevated reef terraces adjacent to the coast. Eustatic sea-level changes, interacting with tectonic uplift, played an important role in the development of flank margin caves associated with the reef terraces. The flank margin caves in the inland cliffs fronting the terraces have been exposed by cliff retreat. As the caves form at sea level, and the coral terrace was at wave base when alive, the difference in elevation between the caves today and the terrace today (commonly 2 to 6 m) is an indication of the degree of dissolutional denudation of the terraces since terrace deposition and exposure. A widespread system of fluvial valleys, formed on interior Cretaceous volcanic rocks, has eroded through the limestone terraces into the underlying basaltic bedrock. Large bokas are developed where these inland streams have incised through the lowest limestone terrace. Waves penetrate into the lower portions of the bokas. Their inland termini open to broad valleys on the volcanics. The bokas contain flank margin caves exposed along their vertical walls, including within the broad inland termini, which have facilitated boka wall collapse. Caves located in the lowest reef terrace that are not associated with ephemeral fluvial drainage are exposed by ceiling collapse and are eventually breached by sea-cliff retreat. As wave-influenced coastal erosion proceeds, these flank margin caves are degraded to natural bridges that parallel the coastline and eventually evolve to short coastal reentrants. The assortment of karst, marine, and fluvial features signify polygenetic processes contributing to boka formation and the erosional degradation of the coastline. 

Date
2015
Data type
Other resources
Theme
Research and monitoring
Geographic location
Curacao