In February 2020 I joined French PhD student Leny Montheil (University of Montpellier) and friends Jean-Jacques Cornée and Mélody Philippon (University of Guadeloupe) on a paleomagnetic sampling campaign to Sint Maarten and Anguilla in the NE Lesser Antilles. Aim of the research is to kinematically restore Caribbean intraplate deformation associated with slab dragging and absolute plate motion change. Sampling targets were the Oligocene to Pliocene platform carbonate sequences. Below some nice field pictures!
From left to right, Mélo, Leny, and Jean-Jacques, the field crew…
…and me
and a Stihl drill that refused duty…so we had to collect oriented hand samples while Mélo was moving heaven and earth to get a new drill on a plane from Guadeloupe…Sampling was mostly along coastal exposures, here in Miocene of SW Sint MaartenOriented hand sample, still within the rock.On the boat to the islet of Tintamarre, off NE St. Martin.A victim of Hurricane IrmaNice arrival! St. Martin in the distance.
This wreck has been there for some time…
Leny and Jean-Jacques arriving on TintamarreAlong the eastern cliff coast exposing Miocene mass wasting depositsJean-Jacques explaining the stratigraphyLeny, ready to sampleMiocene section of Tintamarre
I like these uninhabited Caribbean islands!
Major burrrows on the NW coast of the islet
Jean-Jacques, living on the edgeView from our appartmentSt. Barthelemy in the rain, in the distanceMe, enjoying the Caribbean winter sun
On Anguilla we had a working drill again!
Sections on Anguilla were also concentrated along the coast. Sint Maarten in the distance.
Where St. Maarten is an old volcano with rugged relief, Anguilla is an uplifted carbonate platform with much less topography…probably that’s why they realize better that they’re vulnerable to tsunamis.
Mélo reading, Jean-Jacques writing
Me, reading the compass
Jean-Jacques and Leny roaming the Anguilla coastA nice coast it is!
…with nice fossils…
…blocks of coral…
…big shells…
…more big shells…
…fossil sea urchins…
…crabs…
…views……and end-of-field-day-bars!
Caribbean wildlife: hermite crabs
The Anguilla Bank Tree Lizard
Brown Pelicans
Green Iguana
Lesser Antilliean Iguana
Corals
…and a bunch of geologists digging through quarries
