Greater Antilles Deformed Belt

Commentary

Offshore exploration of the GADB remains embryonic, and the onshore is underexplored by modern standards. The country faces its deepest economic crisis in decades, with the loss of Venezuelan oil supply, and comprehensive US sanctions leave access to technology and finance negligible. Outlook: Negative.

Updated

October 12, 2026

Location

Description

The GADB has been recognised as a series of north-verging thrust-fault-bounded tectonostratigraphic units ("TSUs"), the definition of which has been the focus of the majority of the investigation into the GADB. Detailed work has demonstrated that the TSUs were the product of the collision between shelf, slope, and basinal sediments of the Mesozoic passive margin of the Yucatan and Bahama Platforms and the arc-forearc rocks of the leading edge of the Pacific-derived Caribbean plate as the Yucatan Basin opened in the Paleogene.

Summary

The Greater Antilles Deformed Belt (GADB) has been explored onshore, albeit it remains underexplored by modern standards, and the offshore exploration is still embryonic.