Late Triassic-Jurassic Paleogeography and Origin of Gulf of Mexico Basin

Abstract

The basic structural and stratigraphic framework of the Gulf of Mexico Basin was established during the Late Triassic and the Jurassic. During the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, as the North American plate started to separate from the South American and African plates, the area of the future basin was part of an extensive landmass broken by tensional grabens that were filled by red beds and volcanics. Marine deposition was restricted to embayments of the Pacific Ocean in northwestern and central Mexico. These marine embayments persisted during the early Middle Jurassic, but seawater did not reach the future Gulf of Mexico Basin until the Callovian. Widespread salt deposits known today from two separate areas of the basin resulted from this initial flooding. During the ate Jurassic, marine conditions progressively extended over increasingly larger parts of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. However, the basin was not connected to the Atlantic Ocean until late in the Jurassic. This paleogeographic reconstruction suggests that the Gulf of Mexico Basin formed as a result of the southward drift of the Yucatan continental block away from the remainder of the North American plate. The separation began in the Late Triassic, continued slowly and sporadically during the Early and Middle Jurassic, and quickened after the Middle Jurassic salt formed. As a result, the salt deposits were split into the two segments known today, and oceanic crust formed in the center of the basin. Early in the Late Jurassic, the Yucatan platform reached its present position and the Gulf of M xico Basin was born.