--> The Tamaulipas-Chiapas Connection – Precambrian-Paleozoic history of the Tamaulipas Arch and the Chiapas Massif

2020 AAPG Hedberg Conference:
Geology and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Circum-Gulf of Mexico Pre-salt Section

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The Tamaulipas-Chiapas Connection – Precambrian-Paleozoic history of the Tamaulipas Arch and the Chiapas Massif

Abstract

Early Triassic reconstructions of western equatorial Pangea place the Mexican continental blocks, namely Oaxaquia, Acatlán and Maya on the Gondwana side of the Ouachita-Marthon belt. Oaxaquia, the Late Mesoproterozoic backbone of Mexico, is defined by the Oaxacan Complex and a number of smaller granulite exposures, namely the Huiznopala Gneiss (Hidalgo) and the Novillo Gneiss (Tamaulipas), all of which share ~1.2 Ga magmatic arc protoliths, ~1010 Ma anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite suites (AMC) and ~990 Ma granulite facies metamorphism. Similarly, the Guichicovi Complex in the southwestern Maya Block (to the west of the Tehuantepec Isthmus) is constituted of granulites indistinguishable from other “Oaxaquia-type” basement. All these metamorphic rocks are related to the Amazonia-Baltica collision and amalgamation of the Rodinia supercontinent.