--> ABSTRACT: Folded Belts of the Western Gulf of Mexico, by Albert W. Bally, Gorgonio Garcia Molina, and Guillermo Perez Cruz; #91019 (1996)

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Folded Belts of the Western Gulf of Mexico

Albert W. Bally, Gorgonio Garcia Molina, and Guillermo Perez Cruz

The western Gulf of Mexico is bounded by the folded belts of the Laramide Sierra Madre Oriental, and the Neogene Sierra de Chiapas-Reforma-Campeche folds. These folded belts are characterized by a mid-Jurassic evaporitic decollement level and by deep intra-basement decoupling levels.

Both orogenic systems are superposed by Tertiary gravitational extensional-compressional growth faults and decollement folds. To the north and offshore Central Mexico the growth fault systems are related to Paleogene-Neogene (Rio Grande) depocenters interacting with the uplift of the Mexican plateau. To the south the growth fault system is related to dominantly Neogene (Usumacinta-Grijalva) depocenters overlying the Neogene folded belt and to the "escaping" salt now accumulated in the allochthonous Campeche salt masses.

The Neogene Sierra de Chiapas folded belt appears to be a compressional transfer zone between a sinistral transtensional system underlying the Trans Mexican volcanic belts and the sinistral Polochic-Motagua strike slip system.

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