Early Mesozoic tectonics of northern Gulf of Mexico coastal plain
Major events in the early Mesozoic development of the northern Gulf coast region are related to corresponding stages in the opening of the central North Atlantic Ocean from its southern end, as interpreted from three prominent lineaments on aeromagnetic maps of the southeastern United States and its offshore region. The start of spreading in the Blake Plateau basin signaled the final separation from South America of the silver of more or less continental material south of the Triassic rifts, and therefore the opening of the present Gulf of Mexico. All this was powered by a mantle plume located in the Blake Plateau basin, which was also responsible for continuing Jurassic compressional and right-lateral deformation in the southeatern states. Considering the rotations involved, the sequence of initial opening must have been: Gulf of Mexico, Blake Plateau basin, Carolina trough, and finally the northern central North Atlantic Ocean. The Triassic rift system localized the Interior salt basins of Jurassic age, whose southern rim is a continuous, gently curving trend of positive features that begins on the east with the Florida-Bahama Platform and continues west along the Wiggin arch to the Caldwell-Angelina flexure in the southeastern Texas. This composite feature, which defines the northern margin of the Gulf of Mexico structural basin, functioned as an outer basement high that determined the seaward edge of the Early Cretaceous carbonate platform. The western limit of the Interior rift-basin system is a right-lateral wrench fault, which transferred the extensional movement south-southwest to a riff beneath the present Rio Grande Embayment.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Houston, TX
- OSTI ID:
- 6797428
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8310301-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Vol. 67:9; ISSN AAPGB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
580201* -- Geophysics-- Seismology & Tectonics-- (1980-1989)
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
GULF COAST
MAGNETIC SURVEYS
MAGNETISM
MESOZOIC ERA
NORTH AMERICA
PALEOMAGNETISM
PLATE TECTONICS
RIFT ZONES
SURVEYS
TECTONICS
USA