The Role of Structural Inheritance in the Tectonic Evolution of E and S Mexico – From Paleozoic Pangea Assembly to Mesozoic Rifting and Cenozoic Shortening and Basin Inversion

Abstract

The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is one of the most petroliferous basins in the world and has been the subject of onshore and offshore geological and geophysical studies due to its key importance for the tectonic evolution of North America. It is widely believed that the GOM opened as part of the Early Mesozoic breakup of the Late Paleozoic super-continent Pangea, when South America separated from North America as part of the Triassic-Jurassic rifting and opening of the central Atlantic. Previous studies have invoked varied tectonic models to explain the Early Mesozoic rifting in Mexico. However, detailed stratigraphic and structural understanding of the initial phases of rifting and GOM opening remain limited due to limited constraints of the stratigraphic, temporal and kinematic development of onshore rift basins in eastern and southern Mexico as well as limited accessibility to offshore stratigraphic records. This study focuses on the reconstruction of the structural rift architecture and syn-rift stratigraphic record of Early Mesozoic basins exposed along the west margin of GOM in eastern and southern Mexico in order to constrain the paleogeographic, tectonic, and stratigraphic evolution of both individual Mexican rift basins and the overall Jurassic pre-salt GOM domain. New structural, stratigraphic, and provenance data help elucidate extensional basin formation as well as the subsequent basin inversion.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90369 © 2020 AAPG Hedberg Conference, Geology and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Circum-Gulf of Mexico Pre-salt Section, Mexico City, Mexico, February 4-6, 2020