Chapter 5 Stratigraphic evidence for northwest to southeast tectonic transport of jurassic terranes in central Mexico and the caribbean (western Cuba)

Jurassic and Early Cretaceous stratigraphic data from terranes in Central Mexico situated southwest of the Walper Megashear demonstrate similar records of paleobathymetry and tectonic transport. In general, each of these terranes shows the same paleobathymetric fingerprint: (1) marine deposition at inner neritic depths during the Callovian to early Oxfordian (Middle to Late Jurassic); (2) marine deposition at outer neritic depths during the late Oxfordian (Late Jurassic); (3) sudden deepening to bathyal or upper abyssal depths (ACD = aragonite compensation level) from the early Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) until the end of the Cretaceous. This paleobathymetric fingerprint differs markedly from that occurring to the east-northeast of the Walper Megashear in the Coahuiltecano terrane (emended herein: Sierra Madre Oriental terrane). In the Coahuiltecano terrane (e.g., Peregrina Canyon near C. Victoria, Tamps.), no Mesozoic marine deposits older than late Oxfordian occur. The paleobathymetric fingerprint of this terrane was (1) inner neritic during the late Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) to Barremian (Early Cretaceous) and (2) bathyal to abyssal during the remainder of the Cretaceous (Aptian to Maastrichtian). Though varying in detail, each succession that has been examined in the mosaic of suspect terranes to the southwest of the Walper Megashear shows evidence of tectonic transport from higher latitudes to lower latitudes during the late Middle Jurassic, the Late Jurassic, and the Early Cretaceous. For example, the paleolatitudinal signature of the San Pedro del Gallo terrane (Durango) supplied by faunal data (radiolarians and megafossils) and preliminary paleomagnetic data indicates that this terrane was transported tectonically from higher paleolatitudes (Southern Boreal Province: 40°N) during the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) to lower paleolatitudes (Tethyan Realm: Northern Tethyan Province) by the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian). The Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous successions at Mazapil (Zacatecas), Sierra de la Caja (Zacatecas), Sierra de Zuloaga (Zacatecas), Symon (Durango), and Sierra de Catorce (San Luis Potosi) are all genetically related to that at San Pedro del Gallo. They are regarded as representing dismembered remnants of the San Pedro del Gallo terrane. Faunal data (radiolarians and megafossils) from the Mazapil succession (Sierra Santa Rosa) indicate that this remnant of the San Pedro del Gallo terrane was situated at Southern Boreal paleolatitudes (>30°N) during the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian and at Northern Tethyan paleolatitudes (22 to 29°N) during the Tithonian and Berriasian. Preliminary paleomagnetic data from the upper Tithonian to Berriasian part of the Mazapil succession indicates 25°N. Farther to the southeast (San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla) in the Huayacocotla segment of the Sierra Madre Oriental, previous investigations indicate tectonic transport from Southern Boreal paleolatitudes (>30°N) during the Callovian to Northern Tethyan paleolatitudes (22° to 29°N) during the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian and to Central Tethyan paleolatitudes (<22°N) during the latest Tithonian (Late Jurassic) and the Berriasian (Early Cretaceous). Jurassic and Early Cretaceous successions in western Cuba (Sierra del Rosario and Sierra de los Organos, Piñar del Río Province) show lithostratigraphic, paleobathymetric, and paleolatitudinal signatures which are nearly identical to those of San Pedro del Gallo terrane remnants in central Mexico. They clearly represent portions of the North American Plate and are treated as remnants of the San Pedro del Gallo terrane herein. The Cuban remnants of the San Pedro del Gallo terrane were carried to eastern Yucatán by the Walper Megashear. By the Middle Cretaceous terrane amalgamation had occurred between the San Pedro del Gallo and Coahuiltecana terranes and all movement along the Walper Megashear had ceased. Subsequent southwest to northeast movement of the Caribbean Plate during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary bulldozed the Cuban remnants of the San Pedro del Gallo terrane into their present position. Once the Cuban San Pedro del Gallo remnants were carried northward by the advancing Caribbean Plate, it is likely that they became part of an Atlantic-type margin.