Plate Tectonics and Western North America

Magnetic Stripes off Pacific Coast

Evolution of the Eastern Pacific

Western U.S. and the Andes

How the West Was Stretched

The Plate Tectonics Model

Geology of the Caribbean

Fit of Continents Across the

Atlantic

The Caribbean

The Caribbean Plate

How the Plates are Moving

Some Mysteries

• What was between North and South America?• How did Central America form?• Where did the Greater Antilles come from?• Why is the Caribbean shallower than the

Atlantic?• Why is there a plate between North and South

America at all?

A Subduction Zone

How Arcs Grow

Exotic Terranes

Fit of Continents Across the

Atlantic

The Caribbean

Before Breakup

Opening of the North Atlantic

150 m.y.

Yucatan Rifts Away

130 m.y.

120 m.y.

110 m.y.

100 m.y.

Volcanic Plateau Begins to Form

80 m.y.

Plateau Encounters Subduction Zone

70 m.y.

60 m.y.

Yucatan Basin Opens

40 m.y.

30 m.y.

East Pacific Rise Approaches

10 m.y.

Now