Major lithostratigraphic units in land-outcrops of north-central Mexico and the subsurface along the northern rim of Gulf of Mexico Basin (Upper Jurassic-lowermost Cretaceous): a proposal for correlation of tectono-eustatic sequences

Abstract

The stratigraphic and geodynamic interpretation of Upper Jurassic lithostratigraphic units is revised in north-central Mexico and the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin through updated ammonite and calpionellid biochronostratigraphy. Significant events in the geodynamic evolution in these areas are evaluated and interpreted in terms of tectono-eustatic sequences (TES) of third and second orders. 3rd-TES-I and 2nd-TES-II/III in Mexico and 3rd-TES-I, 3rd-TES-II and 3rd-TES-III at the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico show the main traits of the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in these regions, allowing the identification of a combined 'Atlantic-Tethyan cachet' in the course of structuring/configuration of the Gulf of Mexico Basin during the Late Jurassic. The easy identification of 3rd-TES-I in north-central Mexico and at the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin shows no significant difference in geodynamic history during the Oxfordian, which contrasts with the increasing difference from the Kimmeridgian to the Early-Middle Berriasian. Shared trends in stratigraphic architecture with the European margin of the North Atlantic Basin, as well as with epicontinental shelves surrounding Iberia and other Tethyan areas, are interpreted to show phases of the geodynamic evolution in the central North Atlantic Basin, traces of which are recognizable also in western Africa. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.