Principal Characteristics of Cuban Neogene Stratigraphy

The Neogene (Miocene and Pliocene) rocks of Cuba occupy large areas of the island. Those which overlie the deformed Cretaceous eugeosyncline are described in this paper. Because most of Cuba is underlain by eugeosynclinal rocks, only a small part of the Neogene rocks is not described. I divide the Cuban Neogene rocks geographically into five lithofacies complexes. In all of the complexes, the strata are principally Miocene. Lithofacies complex I (Pinar del Rio Province) is a carbonate, sandstone-shale, and conglomerate sequence deposited in shallow neritic water. Lithofacies complex II (mainly Habana and Matanzas Provinces) is separated from complex I on the west and complex IV on the east by major north-trending faults. The rocks are largely marl, shale, and limestone of deep-water deposition and local neritic sandstone and limestone. Lithofacies complex III (southern Isle of Pines) is a carbonate sequence of shallow neritic deposition. Lithofacies complex IV (Las Villas, Camaguey, and western Oriente) consists mainly of carbonate and terrigenous-clastic rocks of shallow neritic deposition. Lithofacies complex V (rest of Oriente Province) comprises a varied group of conglomerate, sandstone, shale, marl, limestone, and dolomite beds deposited in diverse environments. Tectonically, the Cuban Neogene rocks are divisible into (1) transgressive cover rocks (thin deposits, mainly carbonates, and generally flat lying); (2) transgressive-regressive strata of subsiding, deep basins (up to 1,000–1,500 m thick, varied lithologic types, and dips as great as 40°); and (3) transgressive deposits of shallow neritic basins (up to 600 m of carbonate and terrigenous-clastic rocks, dips gentle, but locally as great as 20°). The overall Cuban Neogene history indicates gradual shallowing of the sea from earliest Miocene through Pliocene time, and emergence of the island.