50 km/Ma during the Cretaceous, while the American plates have drifted west much further and faster and thus are responsible for most Caribbean–American relative motion history. The Caribbean oceanic lithosphere has moved little relative to the hot spots in the Cenozoic, but moved north at c. 90 Ma, from more recent ‘moving hot spot’ reference frames. ( Geology 21: 275–278, 1993) reference frame because the motions of the Americas are smoothest in this reference frame, and because it does not differ significantly, at least since c. Aptian and younger maps are presented in an Indo-Atlantic hot spot reference frame which demonstrates the surprising simplicity of Caribbean–American interaction. Pre-Aptian maps are presented in a North American reference frame. Fourteen palaeogeographic maps through time integrate new concepts and alterations to earlier models. We present an updated synthesis of the widely accepted ‘single-arc Pacific-origin’ and ‘Yucatán-rotation’ models for Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico evolution, respectively.
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