Long-term deformation of the NE Caribbean plate boundary

Over several 100 ka, reef and carbonate plateforms are good markers of vertical movements. In the Lesser Antiles arc, resulting from the subduction of the American plates under the Caribbean one, reef systems grow since Upper-Pleistocene and settle with respect to eustatics and tectonics interplay. New high-resolution geophysical data (bathymetry, seismic reflection, etc) permits the study of the 3 submarine reef shelves of Les Saintes, Marie-Galante and Martinique islands. Their peculiar morphologies and structures are indicators of the tectonic context in which they formed. Reinforced by reef growth models, we evaluate uplift or subsidence rates which, combined with onland observations, allow us to display the plate-scale deformation style of these arc and forearc regions. Presenting the local to regional processes responsible for this NE Caribbean plate boundary deformation, we discuss implications for the subduction.