Misinterpreting by localism: transposing European geology and tectonics onto Jamaica and the Antilles

‘Localism’ occurs when geologists are most influenced by data with which they are familiar, applying it to new, but not necessarily appropriate, areas of study. Jamaica has been particularly prone to localist interpretations. Henry T. De la Beche (1796–1855) mapped eastern Jamaica in 1823–1824, and made lithostratigraphic comparisons between Jamaica and Europe that were the first attempt at intercontinental correlation. He correlated the Jamaican succession on the basis of lithological similarity to rocks in Europe. Charles A. Matley (1866–1947) is best remembered for his mapping in North Wales. He was geologist to the second geological survey of Jamaica in 1921 and developed the Basal Complex hypothesis which envisaged a geological structure analogous to that of North Wales, where the deformed Mona Complex underlies the Lower Palaeozoic succession. Matley thus provided a ‘factual’ basis for theories that the Antillean islands were the peaks of a foundered continent. Charles T. Trechmann (1885–1964) was the principal opponent of the Basal Complex hypothesis, not recognising evidence for old basement in Jamaica. His ‘answer’ was the Theory of Mountain Uplift, based on gravitational tectonics, but Trechmannʹs theory was comparable to the earlier fixist theories of tectonics that he learnt as a student.