No stable coastline in the Monterrey Trough during Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous! - Comment on Ocampo-Díaz et al. (2022): doi: 10.1016/j.jsames.2022.103759

Abstract

The following is a comment on the paper: “A wave to tidal influenced deltaic coastline in a carbonate environment: The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous La Casita Formation, northeastern Mexico” by Ocampo-Díaz et al. (2022). The authors presented a sedimentological and paleogeographical study of the La Casita Formation, Monterrey Salient, Sierra Madre Oriental. Although this study offers a detailed facies analysis, it shows some need for discussion regarding the study area's stratigraphic and regional geological classification. The article mentions missing or insufficiently treated geological units such as the Carbonera Formation, San Juan Lentil, and Galeana Member. The Coahuila Block, Sabinas Basin, and Tamaulipas Arch are in an erroneous stratigraphic and regional geological context. This comment takes up these weak points and tries to correct them. This comment offers the missing stratigraphic table of the La Casita/Carbonera and the La Casita/Taraises boundary. The siliciclastic deposition of the La Casita Formation ends in the Early Berriasian. Finally, the faulty paleogeographical reconstructions of the authors are countered by an alternative model which shows the pro- and retrograding sedimentation of the La Casita Formation during Tithonian to Berriasian, the development of the San Juan Lentil at Late Berriassian, and the development of the open shelf carbonates of the Taraises Formation, such as the contemporary Carbonera Formation and Galeana Sandstone Member (Valanginian to Hauterivian).