Long-term plate tectonic evolution of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico as marginal seas of the Central Atlantic Ocean
The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are two marginals seas of the Atlantic Ocean that developed in direct relation to the opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean as a consequence of the breakup of Pangea during the Mesozoic. The opening of the Gulf of Mexico started in the Early Jurassic and ceased in Early Cretaceous times when the spreading axis shifted towards SE resulting in the opening of the Proto-Caribbean Sea. Sedimentary deposits comparable to the Central European Basin of the Permian developed in particular in the Gulf of Mexico forming the hydrocarbon resources in this region. With the opening of the Southern Atlantic the spreading axis shifted again. The Caribbean Sea became an independent plate as a result of lateral movements and the evolution of subduction zones since the middle Cretaceous.