The Caribbean plate is located between the North and South American continents and its tectonic margins consist of subduction zones with magmatic arcs to the west and the east, and of strike-slip major faults with subsidiary transpression or transtension zones to the north and the south. The geodynamic evolution toward this present-day tectonic configuration has been complex and researchers have not come to a consensus on a geodynamic model capable of integrating the abundant geological data available.

Among the main issues still open to debate are: (1) how the Farallon/Caribbean plate interacted with the Americas in the Early Cretaceous, including the site, timing, and mechanism of origin of the Caribbean arc(s) along the American Cordillera; (2) how the Pacific-derived Caribbean lithosphere inserted between the westward-drifting American continents from the Late Cretaceous to present time, and how this relative motion related with large-scale processes such as plume activity; (3) how and when the northern and southern Caribbean suture zones developed, and in particular which crustal sections and transcurrent fault systems accommodated the large-scale offsets along the plate boundaries.

The general aim of this session is to contribute to a better understanding of the geology of the Caribbean by promoting exchange and interaction between researchers in different disciplines. We encourage the presentation of new petrological, geophysical, geochemical, mineralogical, structural and geochronological studies aimed to constrain the tectonic evolution of the Caribbean plate, particularly focusing on subduction and collision processes and how they relate to the generation of natural resources and hazards.