View source for Cayman Trough

{{short description|Transform fault zone pull-apart basin on the floor of the Caribbean Sea}}
[[Image:Cayman Trough.jpg|thumb|right|250px|False-color image of the Cayman Trough, created from digital databases of seafloor and land elevations.]]
[[Image:Gonâve microplate.png|thumb|right|250px|Mid-Cayman spreading centre as part of the trough, on the western edge of the [[Gonâve Microplate]]. ]]
The '''Cayman Trough''' (also known as the '''Cayman Trench''', '''Bartlett Deep''' and '''Bartlett Trough''') is a complex [[transform fault]] zone [[pull-apart basin]] which contains a small [[Divergent boundary|spreading ridge]], the [[Mid-Cayman Rise]], on the floor of the western [[Caribbean Sea]] between [[Jamaica]] and the [[Cayman Islands]].<ref>{{cite book| author=Einsele, Gerhard| title=Sedimentary Basins: Evolution, Facies, and Sediment Budget| url=https://archive.org/details/sedimentarybasin00eins| url-access=limited| publisher=Springer |edition=2nd |year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/sedimentarybasin00eins/page/n631 630] |isbn=978-3-540-66193-1}}</ref> It is the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea and forms part of the [[tectonics|tectonic]] boundary between the [[North American Plate]] and the [[Caribbean Plate]].  It extends from the [[Windward Passage]], going south of the [[Sierra Maestra]] of [[Cuba]] toward [[Guatemala]]. The transform fault continues onshore as the Polochic-Motagua fault system, which consists of the [[Chixoy-Polochic Fault|Polochic]] and [[Motagua Fault|Motagua]] faults.<ref name="Lyon-Caen_ea_2006">{{Cite journal |first1=H. |last1=Lyon-Caen |first2=E. |last2=Barrier |first3=C. |last3=Lasserre |first4=A. |last4=Fraco |first5=I. |last5=Arzu |first6=L. |last6=Chiquin |first7=M. |last7=Chiquin |first8=T. |last8=Duquesnoy |first9=O. |last9=Flores |first10=O. |last10=Galicia |first11=J. |last11=Luna |first12=E. |last12=Molina |first13=O. |last13=Porras |first14=J. |last14=Requena |first15=V. |last15=Robles |first16=J. |last16=Romero |first17=R. |last17=Wolf |title=Kinematics of the North American-Caribbean-Cocos plates in Central America from new GPS measurements across the Polochic-Motagua fault system |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=33 |issue=L19309 |doi=10.1029/2006GL027694 |year=2006 |bibcode=2006GeoRL..3319309L |s2cid=3161221 |doi-access=free }}</ref> This system continues on until the Chiapas massif where it is part of the diffuse [[triple junction]] of the [[North American Plate|North American]], [[Caribbean Plate|Caribbean]] and [[Cocos Plate|Cocos]] plates.<ref name="Guzman-Speziale_2010">{{Cite journal |first1=Marco |last1=Guzmán-Speziale |title=Beyond the Motagua and Polochic faults: Active strike-slip faulting along the Western North America-Caribbean plate boundary zone |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040195110004245 |journal=Tectonophysics |volume=496 |issue=1–4|pages=17–27 |doi=10.1016/j.tecto.2010.10.002 |year=2010 |bibcode=2010Tectp.496...17G |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The relatively narrow trough trends east-northeast to west-southwest and has a maximum depth of {{convert|7686|m}}. Within the trough is a slowly spreading north–south [[Mid-ocean ridge|ridge]] which may be the result of an offset or gap of approximately {{convert|420|km}} along the main fault trace. The Cayman spreading ridge shows a long-term opening rate of {{nowrap|11–12 mm/yr.}}<ref name=DeMets/> The eastern section of the trough has been named the [[Gonâve Microplate]]. The Gonâve plate extends from the spreading ridge east to the island of [[Hispaniola]]. It is bounded on the north by the Oriente and Septentrional fault zones. On the south the Gonâve is bounded by the [[Walton fault zone]], the [[Jamaica]] restraining bend and the [[Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone]]. The two bounding [[strike slip fault]] zones are left lateral. The motion relative to the [[North American Plate]] is {{nowrap|11 mm/yr}} to the east and the motion relative to the Caribbean Plate is {{nowrap|8 mm/yr}}.<ref name=DeMets>{{cite journal| first1=C.|last1=DeMets|first2=M. |last2=Wiggins-Grandison|title=Deformation of Jamaica and motion of the Gonâve microplate from GPS and seismic data |journal=Geophys. J. Int. |year=2007 |volume=168 |issue=1|pages=375–6 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-246x.2006.03236.x|bibcode=2007GeoJI.168..362D|doi-access=free}}</ref> The western section of the trough is bounded to its south by the [[Swan Islands Transform Fault]].<ref name="Rosencrantz&Mann_1991">{{Cite journal |last1=Rosencrantz M. |last2=Mann P. |title=SeaMARC II mapping of transform faults in the Cayman Trough, Caribbean Sea |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234047237 |journal=Geology |volume=19 |issue=7 |pages=690–691 |doi=10.1130/0091-7613(1991)019<0690:SIMOTF>2.3.CO;2|year=1991 |bibcode=1991Geo....19..690R }}</ref>

During the [[Eocene]] the trough was the site of a [[subduction zone]] which formed the [[volcanic arc]] of the [[Cayman Ridge]] and the [[Sierra Maestra]] [[volcanic]] [[terrain]] of Cuba to the north, as the northeastward-moving [[Caribbean Plate]] was subducted beneath the southwest-moving [[North American Plate]], or as some researchers contend, beneath a plate fragment dubbed the East Cuban Microplate.<ref>{{cite book|issn=1096-7451 |author=Sigurdsson, H |author2=S. Kelley |author3=R.M. Leckie |author4=S. Carey |author5=T. Bralower |author6=J. King|year=2000|volume=165|chapter=Chapter 20: History of circum-Caribbean explosive volcanism: 40Ar/39Ar dating of tephra layers|series=Proc. ODP|title=Sci. Results|editor=Leckie, R.M. |editor2=Sigurdsson, H. |editor3=Acton, G.D. |editor4=Draper, G.|publisher=Ocean Drilling Program|location=College Station, Texas|doi=10.2973/odp.proc.sr.165.2000}}<!--|access-date=January 14, 2012--></ref>{{Failed verification|date=December 2019|reason=Source does not mention East Cuban Mircroplate}}

In 2010 a [[UK]] team from the [[National Oceanography Centre]] in [[Southampton]] (NOCS), equipped with an autonomously controlled robot submarine, began mapping the full extent of the trench and discovered [[black smokers]] on the ocean floor at a depth of {{convert|5|km|ft|abbr=on}}, the deepest yet found.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7547695.stm |publisher=BBC Science News |last=Carpenter |first=Jennifer |title=Sub to make deep Caribbean dive |date=August 9, 2008| access-date=August 9, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.livescience.com/environment/deepest-undersea-vent-volcano-100411.html |publisher=LiveScience.com |title=World's deepest undersea vents discovered |date=April 11, 2010 |access-date=April 12, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thesearethevoyages.net/jc44/diary.html |work=RRS James Cook Voyage 44 |title=Latest news |access-date=January 14, 2012}}</ref> In January 2012, the researchers announced that water exits the vents at a temperature possibly exceeding {{convert|450|°C|°F|abbr=on}}, making them among the hottest known undersea vents. They also announced the discovery of new species, including an eyeless [[shrimp]] with a light-sensing organ on its back.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16493787 |date=January 12, 2012 |title=Cayman vents are world's hottest |last=McGrath |first=Matt |access-date=January 14, 2012 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Oceanic trench]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Goreau, P. D. E.  1983 Tectonic Evolution of the North Central Caribbean Plate Margin.  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA.; Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge. Sponsor: National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Sep 1983. 248p. Report: WHOI-83-34.
*Ten Brink, Uri S., ''et al.'', 2001, ''Asymmetric seafloor spreading: crustal thickness variations and transitional crust in Cayman Trough from gravity", [https://web.archive.org/web/20080908033245/http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_19727.htm GSA Meeting Abstract]
*Roberts, H. H.  1994 ''Reefs and lagoons of Grand Cayman''   Monographiae biologicae (Brunt, MA; Davies, JE eds).  Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, Ma The Hague. {{ISBN|0-7923-2462-5}}
* Ruellan, E. et al., 2003, ''Morphology and Tectonics of the Mid-Cayman Spreading Center'', [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003EAEJA....12580R EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstract]
*Scotese, Christopher R. 1999.  Evolution of the Caribbean Sea (100 mya - Present) Collision of Cuba with Florida Platform and Opening of the Cayman Trough. PALEOMAP Project http://www.scotese.com/caribanim.htm

{{Borders of the United Kingdom}}

{{Geographical extremities of Jamaica}}
{{Faults}}

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[[Category:Landforms of Cuba]]
[[Category:Extreme points of Jamaica]]
[[Category:Landforms of the Cayman Islands]]
[[Category:Oceanic trenches of the Caribbean Sea]]
[[Category:Plate tectonics]]
[[Category:Cuba–Jamaica border]]
[[Category:Borders of the Cayman Islands]]
[[Category:Pull-apart basins]]
[[Category:Structural basins]]
[[Category:Tectonic landforms]]
[[Category:Seismic faults of North America]]