Trench Bending Initiation: Upper Plate Strain Pattern and Volcanism. Insights From the Lesser Antilles Arc, St. Barthelemy Island, French West Indies

Abstract In this paper we present and discuss new investigations performed on both the magmatic basement and the sedimentary formations of La Désirade. We report structural and sedimentary evidences for several episodes of deformation and displacement occurring prior to the present day tectonics. The main faults, respectively N130 ± 10°, N040 ± 10° and N090 ± 10°, previously considered as marker of the current tectonic regime corresponds to reactivated tectonic structures developed first during late Cretaceous compression and second during Pliocene to early Pleistocene extension. We demonstrate also the importance of late Pliocene-early Pleistocene and middle-late Pleistocene vertical movements in this part of the Lesser Antilles fore-arc as well as the role of compressive tectonics in the over thickened character of the arc basement in the Guadeloupe archipelago.

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Study of the Bouillante Bay (West Basse-Terre Island shelf): contribution of geophysical surveys to the understanding of the structural context of Guadeloupe (French West Indies - Lesser Antilles)

BSGF - Earth Sciences Bulletin ◽

10.2113/gssgfbull.181.1.51 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 181 (1) ◽

pp. 51-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Isabelle Thinon ◽

Pol Guennoc ◽

Adnand Bitri ◽

Catherine Truffert

Keyword(s):

West Indies ◽

Sedimentary Cover ◽

High Energy ◽

Geothermal Field ◽

Fault System ◽

Lesser Antilles ◽

French West Indies ◽

Reflection Seismic ◽

Structural Context ◽

Geophysical Surveys

Abstract The need to understand the structural context of the Bouillante geothermal field (West Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies) has led to onshore and offshore studies in the “high-energy geothermal fields” project, carried out by ADEME and BRGM. To ascertain the structural context of the island and the offshore continuation of the structures identified onshore, bathymetric, high-resolution reflection seismic and magnetic surveys were conducted on the shelf. The analyses of these detailed data show that the width of the present-day northwestern Basse-Terre shelf has been built by the accumulation of the Pleistocene detrital sediments over a volcanic substratum representing the prolongation on the shelf of an onshore volcanic edifice that bounds the Bouillante Bay on the south. The sedimentary cover has recorded two important regressive phases. Deciphering the structural frame has confirmed that the Bouillante sector is a key geodynamic area where the major tectonic and volcanic structures of the inner arc of the Lesser Antilles join. In this area, the N160° Basse-Terre volcanic axis, the N140° Montserrat-Bouillante volcanic and fault system, the EW Bouillante-Capesterre fault system, linked to the E-W-trending Marie-Galante graben, join up and their relationships have been specified. The N140°E Montserrat-Bouillante fault system ends on a N160° escarpment and basement high which would represent the relay of a major NNW-SSE- strike-slip fault system along the inner arc of the Lesser Antilles, linking the Montserrat-Bouillante fault to that of Les Saintes.

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Utilizing cores for characterising the temperature and permeability regimes in a litho-stratigraphic model of the Montserrat geothermal system, Montserrat (Lesser Antilles arc, West Indies)

Geothermics ◽

10.1016/j.geothermics.2021.102341 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 100 ◽

pp. 102341

Author(s):

Racine A. Basant ◽

Bridget Y. Lynne ◽

Ryan Ramsook ◽

Graham A. Ryan ◽

Oshaine O. Blake ◽

...

Keyword(s):

West Indies ◽

Lesser Antilles ◽

Geothermal System ◽

Stratigraphic Model ◽

Lesser Antilles Arc

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Significant technical advances in broadband seismic stations in the Lesser Antilles

Advances in Geosciences ◽

10.5194/adgeo-40-43-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 43-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A. Anglade ◽

A. Lemarchand ◽

J.-M. Saurel ◽

V. Clouard ◽

M.-P. Bouin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

West Indies ◽

Satellite Communication ◽

Deformation Monitoring ◽

Global Network ◽

Quality Data ◽

Lesser Antilles ◽

Research Centre ◽

Time Data ◽

Tsunami Warning System ◽

Lesser Antilles Arc

Abstract. In the last few years, French West Indies observatories from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), in collaboration with The UWI Seismic Research Centre (SRC, University of West Indies), have modernized the Lesser Antilles Arc seismic and deformation monitoring network. 15 new, permanent stations have been installed that strengthen and expand its detection capabilities. The global network of the IPGP-SRC consortium is now composed of 20 modernized stations, all equipped with broadband seismometers, strong motion sensors, Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors and satellite communication for real-time data transfer. To enhance the sensitivity and reduce ambient noise, special efforts were made to improve the design of the seismic vault and the original Stuttgart shielding of the broadband seismometers (240 and 120s corner period). Tests were conducted for several months, involving different types of countermeasures, to achieve the highest performance level of the seismometers. GPS data, realtime and validated seismic data (only broadband) are now available from the IPGP data centre (http://centrededonnees.ipgp.fr/index.php?&lang=EN). This upgraded network feeds the Caribbean Tsunami Warning System supported by UNESCO and establishes a monitoring tool that produces high quality data for studying subduction and volcanic processes in the Lesser Antilles arc.

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Gerald H. Thayer's ornithological work in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.2018.0480 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 21-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James W. Wiley

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New York City ◽

West Indies ◽

The United States ◽

Lesser Antilles ◽

American Museum ◽

The West ◽

Comparative Zoology ◽

North And South America ◽

North And South

Gerald Handerson Thayer (1883–1939) was an artist, writer and naturalist who worked in North and South America, Europe and the West Indies. In the Lesser Antilles, Thayer made substantial contributions to the knowledge and conservation of birds in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Thayer observed and collected birds throughout much of St Vincent and on many of the Grenadines from January 1924 through to December 1925. Although he produced a preliminary manuscript containing interesting distributional notes and which is an early record of the region's ornithology, Thayer never published the results of his work in the islands. Some 413 bird and bird egg specimens have survived from his work in St Vincent and the Grenadines and are now housed in the American Museum of Natural History (New York City) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Four hundred and fifty eight specimens of birds and eggs collected by Gerald and his father, Abbott, from other countries are held in museums in the United States.

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‘Colonial livery’ and the chemise à la reine, 1779–1784

Costume ◽

10.3366/cost.2018.0069 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 217-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jane Ashelford

Keyword(s):

West Indies ◽

Jane Austen ◽

French West Indies ◽

Cotton Industry ◽

Saint Domingue ◽

Marie Antoinette ◽

White Elite

When Jane Austen wrote in January 1801 that ‘Mrs Powlett was at once expensively and nakedly dressed’, the fashion for muslin dresses had existed for some eighteen years. This article examines the crucial period between 1779 and 1784 when the muslin garment, which became known as the chemise à la reine, was developed and refined. Originating in the French West Indies, the gaulle was the ‘colonial livery’ worn by the wives of the white elite, the ‘grands blancs’, and first appeared as a costume in a ballet performed in Paris in 1779. The version worn by Queen Marie Antoinette in Vigée Le Brun's controversial portrait of 1783 provoked, according to the Baron de Frénilly, ‘a revolution in dress’ which eventually destabilized society. The article focuses on the role played by Saint-Domingue, France's most valuable overseas possession, in the transference of the gaulle from colonial to metropolitan fashion, and how the colony became one of the major providers of unprocessed cotton to the French cotton industry.

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