Our main goal is to explore the geology of remote and/or poorly studied areas of Panama and Colombia to provide an improved insight into the palaeogeographic evolution of the Panama Isthmus.
A summary of our on-going activities is illustrated on a poster, which was presented at an AAPG Hedberg Conference in Spain in July 2018.
The causal relationship of the formation of the Panama Isthmus with global oceanic/climatic changes and inter-American migration of terrestrial organisms (Great American Biotic Interchange, GABI) is generally considered to have played a significant role in shaping the Earth as we know it today[1-3]. Several scientific studies have suggested that the emergence of a land bridge between the Americas could have disrupted previous oceanographic patterns and triggered the onset of glaciations in the northern hemisphere ca. 3 million years ago[4-5]. Other studies suggest that the Isthmus could have played a much older and prolonged role in perturbing oceanographic conditions in the Caribbean and northern Atlantic back to approximately 16 million years ago[6]. The emergence of the Isthmus could have promoted exchanges of terrestrial organisms between North and South America [2, 7-8], yet it is increasingly clear that changes in climatic conditions along the Isthmus could also have played a significant role in terrestrial exchanges in the past 23 million years[9-11]. In essence, several models on the evolution of the global paleo-climate and American terrestrial organisms have been proposed, with contrasted views on the exact role of the emergence of Panama.
Collecting rock samples in Panama [Photo: David Buchs]
In this context, it is key to provide reliable geological and palaeogeographical constraints on the evolution of the Isthmus. Several geological mechanisms could have contributed to the uplift of the Isthmus between the Late Cretaceous (approximately 75 million years ago) and the Neogene (approximately 3 million years ago)[12-19], but their exact role in the formation of the Isthmus remains unclear. In addition, in the absence of direct palaeogeographical constraints from the geological record at the scale of the Isthmus, the exact timing of formation of the Isthmus is still intensely debated in the scientific community[20-23]. We believe that on-going debate has developed in part due to missing information in considerable areas of Panama; collecting relevant geological constraints at the scale of the Isthmus is in fact a significant challenge in the tropical environment. The main goal of the Geological Research on the Isthmus of Panama (GRIP) is to fill in observational gaps through geological exploration in remote and/or poorly studied areas of Panama and Colombia, to provide an improved insight into the palaeogeographic evolution of the area. New geological constraints will be provided using a multidisciplinary approach focused on the characterisation of the tectonic and paleo-environmental evolution of ancient volcanic chains in the region.
If you are interested in knowing more about our on-going activities, would like to support or join our project, or are interested in accessing our extensive collection of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, don’t hesitate to contact us. You can also register to our blog to receive notifications on our advances.
[last update: 2112.2021]
References
[1] Woodring, W.P., 1966. The Panama Land Bridge as a Sea Barrier. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 110, 425-433.
[2] Marshall, L.G., Webb, S.D., Sepkoski, J.J., Jr., Raup, D.M., 1982. Mammalian Evolution and the Great American Interchange. Science 215, 1351-1357.
[3] Keigwin, L., 1982. Isotopic Paleoceanography of the Caribbean and East Pacific: Role of Panama Uplift in Late Neogene Time. Science 217, 350-353.
[4] Haug, G.H., Tiedemann, R., 1998. Effect of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama on Atlantic Ocean thermohaline circulation. Nature 393, 673-676.
[5] Bartoli, G., Sarnthein, M., Weinelt, M., Erlenkeuser, H., Garbe-Schönberg, D., Lea, D.W., 2005. Final closure of Panama and the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 237, 33-44.
[6] Retallack, G.J., Kirby, M.X., 2007. Middle Miocene global change and paleogeography of Panama. PALAIOS 22, 667-679.
[7] Webb, S.D., 2006. The Great American Biotic Interchange: Patterns and Processes. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 93, 245-257.
[8] Leigh, E.G., O’Dea, A., Vermeij, G.J., 2013. Historical biogeography of the Isthmus of Panama. Biological Reviews.
[9] Molnar, P., 2008. Closing of the Central American Seaway and the Ice Age: A critical review. Paleoceanography 23, PA2201.
[10] Bacon, C.D., Silvestro, D., Jaramillo, C., Smith, B.T., Chakrabarty, P., Antonelli, A., 2015. Biological evidence supports an early and complex emergence of the Isthmus of Panama. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, 6110-6115.
[11] Bacon, C.D., Molnar, P., Antonelli, A., Crawford, A.J., Montes, C., Vallejo-Pareja, M.C., 2016. Quaternary glaciation and the Great American Biotic Interchange. Geology, doi:10.1130/G37624.1.
[12] Barat, F., Mercier de Lépinay, B., Sosson, M., Müller, C., Baumgartner, P.O., Baumgartner-Mora, C., 2014. Transition from the Farallon Plate subduction to the collision between South and Central America: Geological evolution of the Panama Isthmus. Tectonophysics 622, 145-167.
[13] Buchs, D.M., Arculus, R.J., Baumgartner, P.O., Baumgartner-Mora, C., Ulianov, A., 2010. Late Cretaceous arc development on the SW margin of the Caribbean Plate: Insights from the Golfito, Costa Rica, and Azuero, Panama, complexes. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 11, Q07S24.
[14] Coates, A.G., Collins, L.S., Aubry, M.P., Berggren, W.A., 2004. The geology of the Darien, Panama, and the late Miocene-Pliocene collision of the Panama arc with northwestern South America. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116, 1327-1344.
[15] Coates, A.G., Stallard, R.F., 2013. How old is the Isthmus of Panama? Bulletin of Marine Science 89, 801-813.
[16] Collins, L.S., Coates, A.G., Berggren, W.A., Aubry, M.-P., Zhang, J., 1996. The late Miocene Panama isthmian strait. Geology 24, 687-690.
[17] Farris, D.W., Jaramillo, C., Bayona, G., Restrepo-Moreno, S.A., Montes, C., Cardona, A., Mora, A., Speakman, R.J., Glascock, M.D., Valencia, V., 2011. Fracturing of the Panamanian Isthmus during initial collision with South America. Geology 39, 1007-1010.
[18] Kennan, L., Pindell, J., 2009. Dextral shear, terrane accretion and basin formation in the Northern Andes: explained only by interaction with a Pacific-derived Caribbean Plate, in: James, K.H., Lorente, M.A., Pindell, J. (Eds.), The Origin and Evolution of the Caribbean Plate. The Geological Society of London, pp. 487-531.
[19] Montes, C., Bayona, G., Cardona, A., Buchs, D.M., Silva, C.A., Morón, S., Hoyos, N., Ramírez, D.A., Jaramillo, C.A., Valencia, V., 2012. Arc-continent collision and orocline formation: Closing of the Central American seaway. Journal of Geophysical Research 117, B04105.
[20] Montes, C., Cardona, A., Jaramillo, C., Pardo, A., Silva, J.C., Valencia, V., Ayala, C., Pérez-Angel, L.C., Rodriguez-Parra, L.A., Ramirez, V., Niño, H., 2015. Middle Miocene closure of the Central American Seaway. Science 348, 226-229.
[21] O’Dea, A., Lessios, H.A., Coates, A.G., Eytan, R.I., Restrepo-Moreno, S.A., Cione, A.L., Collins, L.S., de Queiroz, A., Farris, D.W., Norris, R.D., Stallard, R.F., Woodburne, M.O., Aguilera, O., Aubry, M.-P., Berggren, W.A., Budd, A.F., Cozzuol, M.A., Coppard, S.E., Duque-Caro, H., Finnegan, S., Gasparini, G.M., Grossman, E.L., Johnson, K.G., Keigwin, L.D., Knowlton, N., Leigh, E.G., Leonard-Pingel, J.S., Marko, P.B., Pyenson, N.D., Rachello-Dolmen, P.G., Soibelzon, E., Soibelzon, L., Todd, J.A., Vermeij, G.J., Jackson, J.B.C., 2016. Formation of the Isthmus of Panama. Science Advances 2, e1600883.
[22] Jaramillo, C., Montes, C., Cardona, A., Silvestro, D., Antonelli, A., Bacon, C.D., 2017. Comment (1) on “Formation of the Isthmus of Panama” by O’Dea et al. Science Advances 3.
[23] Molnar, P., 2017. Comment (2) on “Formation of the Isthmus of Panama” by O’Dea et al. Science Advances 3.
Geological Research on the Isthmus of Panama 