Late Quaternary Fault-Related Folding, Uplifted Paleoshoreline, and
Liquefaction Structures: Clues About Transpressional Activity Along the
North America - Caribbean Plate Boundary From a Comprehensive Seismic
Reflection Survey of Lake Azuei, Haiti
Abstract
The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault (EPGF), one of two left-lateral
transforms that define the Caribbean-North American plate boundary in
Haiti, plunges beneath Lake Azuei in the eastern part of the country. In
2017, we acquired 220 km of sub-bottom and multichannel seismic
reflection profiles (CHIRP and MCS) in a 1.2 km grid pattern across the
lake. The two seismic methods achieved subbottom penetration of up to 15
m and 200 m, respectively. CHIRP and MCS data reveal folded turbidites
across the expected extension of the EPGF fault zone at the south end of
the lake, although direct evidence for faulting is lacking. Along the
west side of the lake, however, MCS data image a broad NW-SE monoclinal
fold whose geometry is compatible with an underlying SW-dipping blind
thrust fault. CHIRP profiles image patches of soft- sediment
deformations above the monoclinal fold; they also image a distinctive 11
m-deep paleoshoreline all around the lake that is uplifted by 1-2 m
above that fold. These results are compatible with a scenario where some
large slip event(s) on the presumed blind thrust occurred after
formation of the paleoshoreline, locally uplifting the lakebed and
causing liquefaction. Two short sediment cores sampled a layer
correlatable to a reflection in the CHIRP profiles. That reflection
extends laterally below the 11m shoreline, and thus predates its
formation. On-going 14C dating of material from the two cores are
expected to provide a maximum age for the shoreline, and thus for some
hypothetical slip event(s) on the presumed blind thrust fault. The
prominent character of the paleoshoreline suggests that it was stable,
something best achieved if the lake level was controlled by the sill
depth of an outlet. Presently, no such outlet exists and the lake level
fluctuates. Pending results from radiometric dating, we propose that,
earlier in the Holocene, the lake overflowed eastward into adjacent Lake
Enriquillo along the narrow valley marking the extension of the EPGF
fault zone - a valley that is presently blocked by an alluvial fan.
Regardless of the relevance of that model, the uplifted shoreline
implies a significant uplift rate on a structure extending up to 10 km
north of the EPGF fault zone and striking oblique to it, confirming that
transpressional tectonics is partitioned over an area at least as broad
as Lake Azuei.