KINEMATIC DECONSTRUCTIONS/RECONSTRUCTIONS FROM RODINIA TO THE PRESENT GULF OF MEXICO BASIN

I use scissor cuts and tape to illustrate my ideas of the kinematics of development of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (GoMB) from the Pre-Cambrian breakup of Rodinia, through the Paleozoic construction of Pangea, to the Mesozoic rifting of the northern GoMB and ending with the rotational drift of the Yucatan Peninsula which resulted in the present Gulf of Mexico. The tectonic features and boundaries represented by the cuts and those which constrain the motions are documented with available geophysical and geological data.

The key assumption is “thin slab rifting” of the northern GoMB resulting in the East Texas, Northern Louisiana and Mississippi Salt Basins. This rifting moves the Yucatan Block, still attached to the Louisiana/Mississippi slab, away from Texas resulting in a volcanic rifted margin and moves Florida southeast by “thin slab rifting” away from Georgia. This latter rifting allows the southeastward motion, parallel to the late Pre-Cambrian – Paleozoic transform margin, without requiring a strike-slip fault through Florida.

The rifting of the Yucatan Block away from Southern Louisiana may offer an explanation for the initiation of the Terrebonne Trough of Southernmost Louisiana.