In November 2023, I joined a geological sampling expedition to the Grenadines Islands, which in part belong to the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and in part to Grenada, both in the Lesser Antilles islands of the eastern Caribbean region. This fieldwork is part of continued research after the successful PhD research of Leny Montheil who showed that the northeastern and northern Caribbean are part of a forearc sliver that moved over large distances relative to the Caribbean Plate interior. In the MSc research of Jadie Sauerbier, we will trace the sliver to the south. Our next targets are Barbados, which we expect to be part of the rotating forearc sliver, and the Grenadines, which expose the Eocene rocks of the Caribbean Plate, and that we expect are not significantly rotated relative to the plate interior. In addition, we studied the structure of the islands, which form an upthrusted portion of the Tobago back-arc basin. Below you will find a picture impression of this fantastic fieldwork under the Caribbean sun!.
The Grenadines is an archipelago of small islets between the volcanoes of St Vincent and Grenada.
Fieldwork in archipelagoes is best done by boat…and this was ours! A great sailing ship that had room for the skipper, Olivier, plus a crew of 6 geologists.
The crew consisted, from right to left, of my PhD student Jadie Sauerbier, Arya, a MSc student at the University of the Antilles at Guadelupe, skipper Olivier, Guillaume, a BSc student at Guadelipe, Mélodie Philippon, Associate Prof at Guadelupe, and me…
…and Jean-Jacques Cornée, of the University of Montpellier and a key member of our Caribbean research crew. Here with Jadie and me.
On the first evening, chewing away at our jetlag, in the harbor of St. Vincent!
First stop: Mayreau, where we dropped our anchor in Salt Whistle Bay
Landing at the beach for our first field day
Climbing the hill of Mayreau on our way to pillow lavas from the Eocene
Jadie, between the pillow lavas, attacked by a jealous wave.
Jadie and me crawling over the pillow lava section that we collected samples from.
Jadie, drilling pillow lava
Jadie, measuring samples in beautiful pillows on the beach
Mélo and me, making plans
Olivier and Jadie, enjoying the cruise
Mélo, Jean-Jacques, Jadie, Arya, and I, discussing sampling targets
Next stop: the Tobago Cays. Well-known from Captain Jack Sparrow and his friends. Here: the islet of Baradal.
Fieldwork on Baradal, sampling Eocene cherts.
Crew, sampling cherts on Baradal
On our way back to the boat.
That one.
The Tobago Cays in the sunset.
Iguana on Jamesby Islet
En route to the Grenada Grenadines, to the island of Carriacou!
Crew, getting ready
Beach landing by dingy
Me, drilling limestones
Jadie, drilling some more
Mélo in a Christmassy taxi on Carriacou
Jungle bells…
Nice section of limestones and lapilli-bearing volcaniclastics on Carriacou
The team, sampling the section
Jadie and Guillaume, orienting samples
Jadie, orienting some more
Millipod, checking out some pyroxene phenoxrysts
Teamwork
Me, gettin’ at it
The team, sampling an igneous intrusion at Union Island, back in the St Vincent Grenadines
Final stop on our way back to St Vincent: a night in the bay of Bequia. This was an amazing fieldwork, and my first by sailing boat. Can’t wait for the next one!
