2008 Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM

Paper No. 2
Presentation Time: 8:20 AM

Evidence of Basement Inversion during the Laramide Orogeny in the Sabinas Basin Area, Coahuila, Mexico


CHÁVEZ, Gabriel1, ARANDA, Jorge2, IRIONDO, Alex3, ARANDA, Mario4, PETERSON, Rolando4 and EGUILUZ, Samuel5, (1)Facultad de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo León, km 8 Carretera Linares-Cerro Prieto, Ex-Hacienda de Guadalupe, Linares, N.L, Linares, N.L, 67700, Mexico, (2)Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Querétaro, 76230, Mexico, (3)Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla, Querétaro, C.P. 76230, Mexico, (4)PEMEX, Exploración y Producción, Villahermosa, Mexico, (5)Consultor, Independiente, Mexico, gabchave@hotmail.com

Major basin inversion in the southwestern margin of North America during the end of Cretaceous and beginning of Paleogene time (80-40 My), is one of several features that have been used as evidence of the Laramide deformation. Nevertheless, the extension of this orogenic belt towards Mexico is controversial.

Since the middle part of the last century, multiple works have focused on structural and tectonic analyzes in northeastern Mexico, having documented that the Laramide Orogeny shows typical features of thin skinned and not major evidences of thick skinned deformation as it was characterized for the Laramide region in North America. Recently, more detailed structural analysis in the southern part of the Sabinas and La Popa basins, in the hinterland region of the Sierra Madre Oriental fold thrust belt (Galeana and Aramberri areas), and through the San Marcos fault in central Coahuila, show strong evidence that inversion of basement blocks occurred at the end of the Laramide orogeny in northeastern Mexico. The inversion of basement blocks through reactivation of ancient Triassic-Jurassic faults in central Sabinas basin, has been dated using syn to post-tectonic pluton ages. The ages (40Ar-39Ar) constrain the inversion event to have occurred between 46-41 My, and the orogenic deformation also ended for this region at the same time.