The Basins, Orogens and Evolution of the Southern Gulf of Mexico and Northern Caribbean

Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 23, 2021 The basins, orogens and evolution of the southern Gulf of Mexico and Northern Caribbean Ian Davison1*, James Pindell2,3 and Jonathan Hull4 1Earthmoves Ltd, 38–42 Upper Park Road, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 2EF, UK 2Tectonic Analysis Ltd, Chestnut House, Duncton, West Sussex GU28 0LH, UK 3Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX 77001, USA 4Ophir Energy plc, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE, UK ID, 0000-0003-3703-707X Present Address: ERCE, Stephenson House, 2 Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon, CR0 6BA, UK. *Correspondence: [email protected] Our introduction to this volume highlights the most dating; Hernández-Vergara et al. 2020) and salt important aspects of the geology and evolution of depositional ages (using Sr isotope analysis, Pindell the southern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and the North- et al. 2019, 2020b, 2020c; Pulham et al. 2019; Sned- ern Caribbean. The onshore orogens of the Mexican den and Galloway 2019). Higher resolution satellite and Chiapas fold-and-thrust belts and the Northern altimeter-derived gravity (Sandwell et al. 2014) and Caribbean feature prominently in the book, along aeromagnetic data (Pindell et al. 2016, 2020c) have with a discussion of the tectonics of the Florida– been collected in the last decade, which have led to Bahamas peninsula (Fig. 1 and separate Enclosure a greater understanding of ocean–continent transition maps at the back of this volume, Steel and Davison zones, extinct and active mid-ocean ridges, transform (2020a, b), show the area covered). faults (Pindell et al. 2020c) and active tectonics and This is a particularly opportune time to focus on geomorphology (e.g. Sun et al. 2020). these regions, which have seen a recent surge in geo- The first section of papers in the volume is logical research and hydrocarbon exploration. Large focussed on the southern GoM. This is followed in amounts of high-quality seismic reflection data have the second section by a series of papers with studies been acquired offshore, especially in Mexico, but on the onshore orogenies of eastern and southern also in Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Mexico surrounding the GoM. We discuss the nam- Republic. Deregulation of the Mexican energy sector ing of several important tectonic features and basins and the introduction of a series of competitive in Mexico and give our reasoning for the preferred licence rounds has resulted in a new phase of hydro- names, in an effort to standardize nomenclature. carbon exploration drilling which has only just We also briefly summarize the petroleum elements begun. Several major hydrocarbon discoveries have of the southern GoM. The papers in the last section recently been made, foretelling the region’s huge of the book summarize the complex geology and future potential. There have not been any offshore evolution of the Northern Caribbean, focussing on wells drilled in the Northern Caribbean in the last the characterization of the Caribbean Plate basement four years, to our knowledge. and basins formed during the development of the Improvements in satellite and airborne data North America–Caribbean plate boundary since the acquisition and laboratory analytical techniques have Late Cretaceous. also provided an impetus for the collection of high- quality data which have contributed to a better under- Tectonic framework standing of the region. More rapid and accurate procedures are now available for isotope dating of The geology of the southern GoM and Northern magmatic events and sediment provenance (espe- Caribbean is the manifestation of complex plate cially using single zircon analysis; Erlich and Pin- interactions resulting from the breakup of western dell 2020; Pindell et al. 2020a; Snedden et al. Equatorial Pangea around 250–170 Ma, and, more 2020), denudational events (using fission track and specifically, the rifting and breakup of the continen- (U/Th)/He dating of apatite and zircon; Gray et al. tal crust of the North and South American plates, 2020), deformation events (using illite Ar40–Ar39 including the Yucatán Block. The region is further From: Davison, I., Hull, J. N. F. and Pindell, J. (eds) 2020. The Basins, Orogens and Evolution of the Southern Gulf of Mexico and Northern Caribbean. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 504, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP504-2020-218 © 2020 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Published by The Geological Society of London. Publishing disclaimer: www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 23, 2021 I. Davison et al. ck of the Location map showing the area of interest covered in this volume. Locations of two large fold-out maps provided by Earthmoves Ltd and included at the ba volume and as a digital pdf version are shown as rectangles. Fig. 1. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 23, 2021 Introduction to the southern Mexican GoM and the Northern Caribbean complicated by subduction and mantle-related follows the arcuate crystalline basement outcrop processes that resulted in either destruction of pre- and subsurface trend through eastern Mexico existing tectonic elements or uplift and non- (Fig. 2). This basement trend and adjacent curvilinear deposition. These plate-scale events exerted a domi- shear zones have also controlled many later Cenozoic nant control on the tectonostratigraphic development to Recent events. of the associated basins and orogens in the wider Rifting was initiated in the Triassic (c. 240 Ma) in region. Figure 2 and Enclosures 1 and 2 compiled the eastern USA and the GoM (Olsen 1997; Olsen by Steel and Davison (2020a, b) summarize the et al. 2005; Withjack et al. 2012). ‘Red bed’ conti- geological elements of the area of interest covered nental rift basins have been drilled along the US mar- in this volume. gin, where the Eagle Mills Formation in that location The key tectonic elements of this area are the at least is dated as Carnian (Figs 2 and 3; Wood and following: Benson 2000). However, the exact age of the ‘red ’ fi (1) GoM – extensional rift basin with widespread bed sediment in ll onshore Mexico (Plomosas For- salt deposition on the rifted margins, and mation in the North, Huizachal Group in the East, floored by oceanic crust in the deep Gulf. Todos Santos Group in the South) is not well dated fi (2) Mexican Fold-and-Thrust Belt – the southern owing to a lack of age-speci c fauna (Mixon et al. continuation of the North American Cordille- 1959; Lawton and Pindell 2017), and our under- ran Orogen. standing relies heavily on maximum depositional (3) Oaxaca, Chortis and Yucatán blocks – located ages from detrital zircon work (e.g. Godínez-Urban fi on the southern margin of the North American et al. 2011). The onshore Triassic rift ll reaches c. – plate which underwent large translations dur- 1 3 km in thickness. However, offshore seismic ing the Mesozoic and Cenozoic evolution of data along the NW Yucatán margin indicate a thick the GoM. pre-salt, syn-rift and sag basin sequence which can (4) Greater Antillean Arc and Caribbean Plate – a reach up to 8 km, where lacustrine or even marine largely intra-oceanic magmatic arc, fringing deposits may be expected (Steier 2018; Hudec and the oceanic Caribbean Plate which collided Norton 2019; Davison 2020; Kenning and Mann b diachronously from west to east with the rifted 2020 ; Miranda-Madrigal and Chavez-Cabello et al. c continental margins of North America (Cuba, 2020; Pindell 2020 ). Rifting continued into Nicaragua Rise–Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto the Middle to Late Jurassic for some 70 myr, which Rico–Virgin Islands) and South America (Lee- is an exceptionally long period for active rifting. ward Antilles, Margarita, Tobago). The Jurassic salt basin Regional geology of the southern GoM and The GoM is dominated by two major salt basins the surrounding orogens which were originally deposited as one contiguous basin in the Middle Jurassic (Humphries 1978). Sub- The main geological events of the southern GoM and sequent rifting and opening of the GoM and surrounding orogens are summarized in Figure 3 and emplacement of the oceanic crust separated the salt discussed in chronological order below. basin into its present two-part configuration (Fig. 2). The northern salt basin comprises much of the US The opening of the GoM sector of the GoM, the Mexican Salina Del Bravo and the Perdido Fold Belt which straddles the border The Precambrian and Paleozoic crystalline basement between the two countries (Fig. 1). The southeastern surrounding the GoM is highly complex. The Florida Mexican salt basin is referred to herein as the Sureste peninsula and western Bahamas are composed of an Basin, the name adopted by the Mexican Comisión amalgam of over 20 different basement blocks with Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH) and Pemex. The main structural contacts trending ENE to NE (see basin or parts of it have previously been named the map in Erlich and Pindell 2020). This strong base- Cuenca de Campeche (Campeche Basin, after the ment trend has conditioned the orientation of the Bay of Campeche), Cuenca de Salina del Istmo (Isth- adjacent rifting in the onshore Triassic basins in mian Salt Basin) and simply Cuenca Salina. The South Georgia, and the offshore rifts bordering west- northernmost part of the Sureste Basin has also ern Florida (see Fig. 12 of Erlich and Pindell 2020, been separately named both the Isthmian Salt and Fig. 2). Precambrian to Paleozoic crystalline Basin and the Yucatán Salt Basin (Hudec et al. basement rocks surround the southern GoM area, 2013), even though there is no geological separation the Yucatán Peninsula and Campeche Knoll (located between the main Sureste Basin and this northern on Fig.

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