Paleogeographic reconstruction of the northern Caribbean region from Late Cretaceous to the Recent

Master's thesis in Petroleum engineeringThe northern Caribbean region is geologically complex region and is located between two large hydrocarbon provinces (Gulf of Mexico and the South American continental margins). Using a mega-regional dataset that includes over 12000 km of offshore 2D seismic lines, well reports of 160 wells and published data, this study is presenting a series of detailed paleogeographic maps for the northern Caribbean region. Seven different time intervals within Late Mesozoic and the Cenozoic were built: 1) Late Cretaceous (80Ma), 2) Middle Paleocene (60Ma), 3) Early Eocene (52Ma), 4) Middle Eocene (46Ma), 5) Middle Oligocene (30Ma), 6) Middle Miocene (14Ma) and 7) Early Pliocene (05Ma). These maps are reconstructed based on the original locations of the tectonic provinces using Paleogis software, and provide: 1) Spatial record of lithostratigraphic units in response to the continental, shallow and deep marine paleoenvironments; 2) Location of the Caribbean and the Central American magmatic provinces through time; 3) Structural and the tectonic developments in response to the relative motion of the plates. Based on the paleogeographic maps, locations of source and the reservoir rocks were identified. These intervals are: 1) Late Cretaceous source rocks: These units are identified along the passive margin of the southern North America, northern Jamaica and the Caribbean plate; 2) Early to middle Eocene age source and reservoir rocks: These intervals are located along the Nicaraguan rise platform which are mainly characterized by shallow marine carbonates, pro-deltaic shales and the submarine fans; 3) Middle Miocene age source rocks: These units are mainly located along the Nicaraguan rise and the southern Hispaniola. The sediments are mainly dominated of terrigenous clastics and deep marine carbonates. To define the spatial distribution of these elements in relation with the current configuration of the tectonic provinces, forward modeling of these source and reservoir rock intervals was performed to better constrain the current distribution of these units at present