TECTONIC EVOLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF A REGIONAL FAULT IN SOUTHEAST HIDALGO, MÉXICO

New exposures of rocks within the Mexican Volcanic Belt (MVB) and the Faults and Folds Province (FFP) identified in recent mapping efforts help to constrain the trace and deformation history of a regional ± 150 km-long NW-SE trending fault in the southeast region of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The mostly brittle behavior of the fault affects Mesozoic rocks of the FFP, Eocene-Oligocene continental deposits, and Pliocene-Oligocene volcanic complexes of the MVB. In the MVB, the trace of the fault significantly influences the distribution of plutonic xenoliths, domes, and other related volcanic structures. Subordinated SW50°NE, SW80°NE, and E-W trending sets of faults complete the zigzag pattern of the fault. Crosscutting relationships of the fault with the 2-2.6 Ma Acoculco caldera postdate the most recent left lateral and down slip displacements in the fault. Digital elevation models and soils, weather, and vegetation distribution maps show a remarkably strong lineament coincident with the trace of the fault, suggesting that the kinematics of the fault and the resultant physiographic pattern govern, in part, the weather, vegetation, hydrography, and soil formation in southeast Hidalgo.