Laramide Thrusting and Tertiary Deformation in Tierra Caliente, Michoacan and Guerrero States, Southwestern Mexico: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Field investigations and detailed interpretations of Landsat Thematic Mapper images are in progress to improve understanding of regional structure and tectonics of the southernmost extension of the North American cordillera. Two areas have been selected within the Ciudad Altamirano 1:250,000 topographical sheet for geologic mapping and structural interpretation at 1:50,000 scale. The authors results to date require modification of previous ideas concerning the style and timing of deformations, the role and timing of terrane accretion in the overall tectonic history of the region, and the importance of southern Mexico to investigations of the tectonic evolution of the plates in the region. The relative sequence of deformation in the area correlates well with variations in relative motion between North America and plates in the Pacific. Post-Campanian thrusts and generally eastward-verging folds deformed the Mesozoic sequence during the (Laramide equivalent) Hidalgoan orogeny, associated with high-velocity east-west convergence with the Farallon plate that began about 70 Ma. The resulting unconformity was covered by the Tertiary Balsas Formation, a thick sequence of mostly continental clastics. The Tertiary stratigraphy is regionally and sometimes locally variable, but it can be divided into two members. The lower member is relatively volcanic poor and more deformed, and itmore » lies below a regionally significant mid-Tertiary unconformity, which may mark a change to northeast-directed convergence with the Farallon plate sometime prior to 40 Ma. Continued mid-Tertiary deformation in southern Mexico may be related to eastward movement of the Chortis block and the resulting truncation of the Pacific margin of Mexico. The authors also suggest a tentative correlation between the volcaniclastic member of the Lower Cretaceous San Lucas Formation and the protolith of the Roca Verde metamorphics to the east.« less