--> ABSTRACT: The Buenavista-San Jose Del Cabo Basin: A Classical Extensional Basin associated with the Proto-Gulf of California, by Genaro Martinez-Gutierrez; #91019 (1996)
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The Buenavista-San Jose Del Cabo Basin: A Classical Extensional Basin associated with the Proto-Gulf of California

Genaro Martinez-Gutierrez

The Buenavista-San Jose del Cabo basin is a fault-bounded basin, which contains sedimentary strata that range from alluvial to marine-dominated lithofacies.

A block faulting episode of the Cretaceous-Tertiary batholitic basement and the volcanic sequence represents the onset of the basin formation. The tectonic activity presumably is related to the development of penecontemporaneous marine basins along the western Mexican coast during the middle Miocene.

During the middle Miocene [~12 Ma], the subsidence of the Buenavista-San Jose del Cabo basin caused a marine transgression because of a basin-and-range extensional phase along the Mexican and Californian coasts. The subsidence and transgression continued through the early late Miocene.

By the late Miocene, a regressive phase began within the Buenavista-San Jose del Cabo basin. An outer shelf marine muddy-sandy facies and inner shelf marine sandy facies represent the regressive phase.

The regressive phase continued through Pliocene and a clastic sedimentation within the basin predominated. The regressive phase is associated with the uplift of the Sierra La Trinidad and Sierra La Previous HitVictoriaNext Hit complexes as result presumably by the rifting of the Gulf of California.

The late stage of deposition within the basin [~late Pliocene-Pleistocene] is characterized by a high-gradient alluvial fan deposits as a result of uplifting and faulting along both margins of the basin (Sierra La Trinidad, and Sierra La Previous HitVictoriaTop complexes).

AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California