Curasao lsland's contribution to the Caribbean Basin problem (a geomorphological essay)

Abstract

Analysis of geomorphic features of the Curacao Island reveals the controlling influence of the neotectonic (post-Lararnian) stage of its development, when striped system of block morphostructures came into being. Differentiated movements of the blocks as well as the marine abrasion processes predetermined the type of the recent relief of the island. Comparative geomorphological analysis of the Curacao and other islands of the Great and Small Antillean arc is considered as a crucial to the understanding of geological and geomorphic development of the Caribbean Basin as a whole.