Pacific geology and biogeography

[John Grehan]

As a follow on from earlier discussion about biogeography and Pacific geology
some on this list may be interested in the following papers that present
a deep Pacific island arc model, including the former existence of a
distinct Pacific
plate between a western and eastern island arc system proposed as the
origin for
various terranes of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South
America.

In what the principal author refers to as an "outrageous hypothesis", it
is proposed that much of the tectonic development of the Pacific and
Caribbean margins
is the result of the interaction of North and South America with a
Philippine-like
plate that existed west of the Americas during Mesozoic-early Tertiary time.

Moores, E. M. 1998. Ophiolites, the Serra Nevada, "Cordilleria," and
orogeny along the Pacific and Caribbean margins of North and South America.
International Geology Review 40, 40-54.

Moores, E. M., Dilek, Y., Wakabayashi, J. 1999. The Assembly of California.
Geological Society of America Special Paper. 338, pp. 837-842.

John Grehan