Tectonic and Climatic Controls on Landscape Development of Puerto Rico

The northeastern Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is an exhumed Cenozoic island arc situated between the inactive Muertos trench to the south and the highly oblique Puerto Rican Trench to the north that forms the left- lateral strike-slip plate margin with North America. The rectangular island's long axis of 175 km parallels the east trending strike of the trenches with a near constant width of between 50 and 60 km. Puerto Rico receives the NE trade winds and has a tropical monsoonal climate. Puerto Rico has a distinct midline asymmetry with north draining watershed about twice the length and five times as large as south draining watershed. This midline asymmetry is more pronounced along the islands eastern third than the central or western thirds. River outlet spacing, mountain front sinuosity, and comparative hypsometry display similar east to west variability consistent with greater denudation in the eastern parts of the island. The southwestern fifth of the island is underlain by serpentinized ocean crust that forms the large diapiric Monte del Estado uplift. Active diapirism is indicated by highly asymmetric watersheds of the surrounding rivers and tributaries. Stream length gradient index calculated from 1:20,000 scale map data and compared to fault locations show little correlation suggesting that active faults does not significantly control Puerto Rico's landscape. Quantified morphologic data from the eastern two-thirds of Puerto Rico are consistent with a landscape developed in response to the precipitation derived from NE trade winds while serpentinite diapirism dominates the western third of the island. Individual active faults of Puerto Rico do not control the landscape development.