Palaeogene-Neogene/present day(?) growth folding in the Bahamian foreland of the Cuban fold and thrust belt

The Santaren Anticline constitutes the frontal termination of the Cuban fol d and thrust belt within the Bahamian foreland. New well and seismic data a llow us to constrain in detail the evolution of this anticline. Pre-growth and syntectonic (partly post-tectonic?) units, separated by a major unconfo rmity, are associated with the Santaren Anticline. Their geometrical featur es are consistent with a detachment fold. The precise age of the beginning of fold growth remains unknown. However, the complete record of well-dated syntectonic sediments documents its kinematic evolution from Mid-Eocene to Pliocene/present day, and reveals an approximately constant and very slow g rowth rate from Early Miocene to Pliocene/present day. The tinting of evolu tion of the Santaren Anticline is not consistent with previous models that postulate that deformation associated with the Cuban fold and thrust belt e nded in the Eocene. Our data suggest that the most external part of the Cub an fold and thrust belt was still bring deformed under a compressional regi me during the late Palaeogene, Neogene and probably during the Quaternary. We propose that this folding may result from compressive stresses transmitt ed approximately 400 km northwards from the actual plate boundary, as a res ult of slow convergence between the N and S American plates.