Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-13 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of South American Earth Sciences |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2009 |
Abstract
The back-arc area of the southern Central American arc-trench system in East Costa Rica is characterized by a complex basin system. An extensional back-arc area (the North Limón Basin) and a compressional retro-arc foreland basin (the South Limón Basin) are closely related. Both basins are separated by an approximately 50 km long and 30 km wide mound-shaped structure referred to as Moín High, which evolved in Eocene times. The Moín High has previously been interpreted as a basement structure or paleo-high. The modern geothermal gradient is 3 °C/100 m. There is no evidence for thermal anomaly or higher heat flow in that area. A mean heat flow of 56-60 mW/m2 implies that an origin as a volcanic seamount or magmatic intrusion is unlikely. 3D static models show that the Moín High trends NNE-SSW and has an antiformal shape in cross-section and an elliptic outline in map view. The trend of the Moín High coincides with the orientation of folds in West Costa Rica that formed in response to an Eocene deformation phase. The seismic lines show that Miocene reflectors onlap against the structure. Based on this data set it is likely that the Moín High is an anticline formed due to contraction.
Keywords
- Central America, Contractional structure, Costa Rica, Limón Basin, Moín High
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Geology
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Earth-Surface Processes
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In: Journal of South American Earth Sciences, Vol. 28, No. 1, 07.2009, p. 1-13.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Moín High, East Costa Rica
T2 - Seamount, laccolith or contractional structure?
AU - Brandes, Christian
AU - Astorga, Allan
AU - Winsemann, Jutta
N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) for providing the data base. Special thanks to Alvaro Aguilar and Gustavo Segura for logistic help. Financial support was provided from the German Research Foundation (DFG) Project Wi 1844/6-1 and a graduate scholarship from the University of Hannover. Seismic Micro Technology Inc. is gratefully acknowledged for the sponsoring of Kingdom Suite © . We would like to thank James Kellogg for editorial work and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful reviews, which helped to improved the manuscript. Ralf Littke is greatly thanked for help with basin modelling. We would like to thank Ulrich Asprion, Stefan Back, Franz Binot, Lolita Campos, Christoph Gaedicke, Daniel Le Heron, Andreas Mende and Imke Struß for discussion and help with seismic interpretation.
PY - 2009/7
Y1 - 2009/7
N2 - The back-arc area of the southern Central American arc-trench system in East Costa Rica is characterized by a complex basin system. An extensional back-arc area (the North Limón Basin) and a compressional retro-arc foreland basin (the South Limón Basin) are closely related. Both basins are separated by an approximately 50 km long and 30 km wide mound-shaped structure referred to as Moín High, which evolved in Eocene times. The Moín High has previously been interpreted as a basement structure or paleo-high. The modern geothermal gradient is 3 °C/100 m. There is no evidence for thermal anomaly or higher heat flow in that area. A mean heat flow of 56-60 mW/m2 implies that an origin as a volcanic seamount or magmatic intrusion is unlikely. 3D static models show that the Moín High trends NNE-SSW and has an antiformal shape in cross-section and an elliptic outline in map view. The trend of the Moín High coincides with the orientation of folds in West Costa Rica that formed in response to an Eocene deformation phase. The seismic lines show that Miocene reflectors onlap against the structure. Based on this data set it is likely that the Moín High is an anticline formed due to contraction.
AB - The back-arc area of the southern Central American arc-trench system in East Costa Rica is characterized by a complex basin system. An extensional back-arc area (the North Limón Basin) and a compressional retro-arc foreland basin (the South Limón Basin) are closely related. Both basins are separated by an approximately 50 km long and 30 km wide mound-shaped structure referred to as Moín High, which evolved in Eocene times. The Moín High has previously been interpreted as a basement structure or paleo-high. The modern geothermal gradient is 3 °C/100 m. There is no evidence for thermal anomaly or higher heat flow in that area. A mean heat flow of 56-60 mW/m2 implies that an origin as a volcanic seamount or magmatic intrusion is unlikely. 3D static models show that the Moín High trends NNE-SSW and has an antiformal shape in cross-section and an elliptic outline in map view. The trend of the Moín High coincides with the orientation of folds in West Costa Rica that formed in response to an Eocene deformation phase. The seismic lines show that Miocene reflectors onlap against the structure. Based on this data set it is likely that the Moín High is an anticline formed due to contraction.
KW - Central America
KW - Contractional structure
KW - Costa Rica
KW - Limón Basin
KW - Moín High
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67649088058&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jsames.2009.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jsames.2009.02.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67649088058
VL - 28
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - Journal of South American Earth Sciences
JF - Journal of South American Earth Sciences
SN - 0895-9811
IS - 1
ER -