40 The western equatorial Pangea: Geological, geophysical, geochronological, and paleoecological insights on the youngest supercontinent assembly and breakup on Earth (Part 2)
This session welcomes studies in Mexico, southwestern North America, and northwestern South America investigating the Pangea’s supercontinent cycle from tectonic, stratigraphic, paleoecologic, geophysical, geochronologic, and paleogeographic perspectives to offer insights into its assembly and breakup.
Friday, 24 April 2026
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
LMH, Isla Carmen
Tectono-sedimentary evolution of the Huayacocotla Basin, Mexico: insights into the kinematics of Western Pangea breakup
Paper number: 40-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:25 PM – 3:45 PM
Authors
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Juan Valencia-Gómez Presenting AuthorUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología, Ciudad de México, CDMX
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Michelangelo MartiniUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología, Ciudad de Mexico, CDMX
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Juan Casas-PeñaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología, Ciudad de México, CDMX
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Mildred Zepeda-MartínezUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geociencias, Querétaro, Querétaro
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Jorge Ruiz-UrueñaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología, Ciudad de México, CDMX
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Luigi SolariUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geociencias, Querétaro, Querétaro
Abstract
Clastic successions are probably the most complete archives of the Earth’s tectonic evolution; therefore, these successions are fundamental tools in reconstructing global tectonic events that shaped our planet, such as the breakup of supercontinents. The cyclicity of assembly and breakup of supercontinents is the main tectonic process that punctuated Earth’s evolution, shaping its geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Mexico is a key area for reconstructing the kinematics and dynamics of Pangea breakup, because it was located along the nascent divergent boundary between North and South America. However, despite their excellent exposure, the evolution of many Mesozoic rift basins in Mexico remains poorly understood.
We present here new stratigraphic, sedimentologic and provenance data from eastern Mexico, with the aim of reconstructing the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the early Mesozoic Huayacocotla Basin. We show that extension and continental attenuation started in this area from Middle Triassic time and lasted for several m.y. during most of the Mesozoic. Our data indicate that, during Middle Triassic-Early Jurassic time, sedimentation in the Huayacocotla Basin was mainly controlled by a ~ NE-SW- to ~ N-S-trending fault zone, which produced the formation of a basement high that bounded the basin to the east and that was drained by a set of alluvial fans transporting basement-derived detritus to the west. Based on its timing and strike, we interpret this major fault zone as a part of the Tamaulipas-Chiapas transform fault, a major lithospheric structure that opened the Gulf of Mexico during Middle-Late Jurassic time. According to this interpretation, the early evolution of the Huayacocotla Basin would represent the crustal attenuation history produced by the Tamaulipas-Chiapas transform fault before the opening of Gulf of Mexico.
Sedimentologic and provenance data indicate that the sediment dispersal pattern in the Huayacocotla Basin changed drastically by Middle Jurassic time. During that time, a large amount of detritus was transported from south to north by alluvial fans and major axial rivers that drained a topographic high formed in southern Mexico, mostly composed of Paleozoic metamorphic rocks of the Acatlán Complex. In this work, we discuss the possible scenarios that may explain such a provenance change and test the previously proposed tectonic models that are available in literature.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3
doi: 10.1130/abs/2026CD-410768
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