Evolution of Subsidence Styles in Forearc Basin: Example from Cretaceous of Southern Vizcaino Peninsula, Baja California, Mexico: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous arc magmatism is represented by volcaniclastic rocks of the Eugenia Formation in the northern Vizcaino Peninsula and by the metamorphosed Cedros-San Andres volcanoplutonic complex, with a dismembered ophiolitic basement, in the southern peninsula. The Vizcaino Peninsula became the site of forearc sedimentation by the Aptian-Albian (late Early Cretaceous), when arc magmatism moved abruptly eastward to the present-day Peninsular Range. On the southern Vizcaino Peninsula, a conformable stratigraphic section, complicated by later faulting, records a gradual transition from a ridged forearc, broken by basement uplifts and grabens (the Aptian-Albian Asunction Formation), to a broadly subsiding, deep marine forearc basin (the Cenomanian Valle Formation). The basal contact of the Asunction formation has irregular relief caused by brecciated basement rocks and talus accumulated along fault zones. An upward-fining sequence several hundred meters thick records abrupt uplift and gradual denudation of adjacent metamorphic basement. Contemporaneous andesite arc volcanism to the east supplied ash and fresh volcanic detritus to the grabens. Angular sand to boulder-size detritus of the Asunction Formation was derived locally, and includes basic to intermediate meta-igneous rock fragments, with epidote, actinolite, and chlorite, as well as serpentine. Abundant calcareous fossils are commonly unbroken, suggesting local sources formore » these as well. Angular to subrounded, sand to cobble-sized, intermediate to mafic volcanic rock fragments were derived from a more distant island arc to the east, which occasionally provided intermediate to felsic tuffs to the basin. This source is probably represented by the Aptian-Albian Alisitos Group, which forms much of the western wall of the Late Cretaceous Peninsular Range batholith.« less