ARTÍCULO

Geochronology and correlation of the Todos Santos Group, western Veracruz and eastern Oaxaca States, Mexico: Implications for regional stratigraphic relations and the rift history of the Gulf of Mexico,

Molina-Garza, R. S., Lawton, T. F., Barboza-Gudiño, J. R., Sierra-Rojas, M. I.,Figueroa- Guadarrama, A., Pindell, J., J.,
in Martens, U., and Molina Garza, R.S., eds., Southern and Central Mexico: Basement Framework, Tectonic Evolution, and Provenance of Mesozoic-Cenozoic Basins: Geological Society of America Special Paper 546, 2020.

ABSTRACT:

The Gulf of Mexico is best understood as a subsidiary basin to the Atlantic, resulting from breakup of Pangea. The rifting process and stratigraphy preceding opening of the gulf are, however, not fully understood. We present new stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and provenance data for the Todos Santos Formation in southern Mexico. The new data support a two-stage model for rifting in the Gulf of Mexico. Field and analytical evidence demonstrate that strata assigned to the Todos Santos Group in Mexico belong to two unrelated successions that were juxtaposed after rotation of the Yucatán block. An Upper Triassic fluvial siliciclastic succession in the western Veracruz basin is intruded by the San Juan del Río pluton (194 Ma, U-Pb) along the Valle Nacional fault.