Fig. 9

Comparison of the age of the Mariquita Formation and the ages of the oldest known post-rift sediments of the Proto-Caribbean and the Central Atlantic. The age of the radiolarian faunas is no longer an evidence for a Pacific origin of the Bermeja Complex. Whereas, the presence of the radiolarite facies in Mesozoic oceanic terranes of the Caribbean plate is a good indication for a Pacific origin, because this facies has never been observed in neither the sediments of the Proto-Caribbean and the Central Atlantic. Initiation of the sea-floor spreading for the Proto-Caribbean after Sisson et al. (Tinaquillo Complex, 2005) and for the central Atlantic (Fuerteventura, Canary Islands) after Huon et al. (1993) and Steiner et al. (1998). Geological time scale after Gradstein et al. (2004)