A BRIEF GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN MEXICO © Richard C. Brusca Vers. 25 December 2019 (for references, see “A Bibliography for the Gulf of California” at http://rickbrusca.com/http___www.rickbrusca.com_index.html/Research.html) NOTE: This document is periodically updated as new information becomes available (see date stamp above). Photos by the author, unless otherwise indicated. This essay constitutes the draft of a chapter for the planned book, A Natural History of the Sea of Cortez, by R. Brusca; comments on this draft chapter are appreciated and can be sent to
[email protected]. References cited can be found in “A Bibliography for the Sea of Cortez” at rickbrusca.com. SECTIONS Pre-Gulf of California Tectonics and the Laramide Orogeny The Basin and Range Region and Opening of the Gulf of California Islands of the Sea of Cortez The Colorado River The Gran Desierto de Altar The Upper Gulf of California The Sierra Pinacate Rocks that Tell Stories Endnotes Glossary of Common Geological Terms 1 Beginning in the latest Paleozoic or early Pre-Gulf of California Tectonics and the Mesozoic, the Farallon Plate began Laramide Orogeny subducting under the western edge of the North American Plate. The Farallon Plate The Gulf of California (“the Gulf,” Sea of was spreading eastward from an active Cortez) provides an excellent example of seafloor spreading center called the East how ocean basins form. It is shallow, young Pacific Rise, or East Pacific Spreading (~7 Ma), and situated along a plate Ridge (Endnote 1). To the west of the East boundary (between the Pacific and North Pacific Rise, the gigantic Pacific Plate was American Plates).