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Notes
ABSTRACT
The eastern margin of the Cretaceous
Valles-San Luis Potosi carbonate platform
(Hidalgo, Queretaro, and San Luis Potosi
States) became activated during the formation of the Sierra Madre Oriental fold-thrust
belt. A series of thrust sheets, with a minimum linear shortening of 3 to 4 km each and
10 to 12 km in total, formed where the platform edge was approximately normal to the
greatest principal stress trajectories, as deduced from fold axes. A tear fault developed
where the platform edge formed an acute
angle with the same stress trajectories. The
overthrusts cut across the competent layers of
the Lower Cretaceous on tectonic ramps that
dip >10 and became partly steepened by
subsequent imbrication or folding. In the mechanically weak Upper Cretaceous rocks, the
thrust faults are nearly parallel to bedding for
several kilometres. The location of the thrusts
is controlled mainly by the lithological and
thickness change of the middle Cretaceous
rocks from an orthotropically layered basin
facies into a two to five times thicker homogeneous platform-edge assemblage. The bank
margin was a zone of stress concentration.
The magnitude of the horizontal tectonic
components which caused the deformation
may have changed by a factor of two to five
across the platform margin, due to the change
in cross-sectional area. Oblique and layerparallel discrete shears and subordinate tectonic stylolites appear to have been the
dominant deformational mechanisms. The
rocks did not suffer any measurable penetrative ductile deformation; ooids present at the
base of the Xilitla Thrust are unflattened but
are marked by a closely spaced stylolitic
cleavage perpendicular to bedding. The de-
formations are bracketed by the paleontological age of the youngest strata affected by the
overthrusts (Globotruncana contusa planktonic foraminiferal zone) and by the isotopic
age of a post-tectonic pluton (62.2 Ma) and
are thus of late Maastrichtian/Paleocene age.
INTRODUCTION
The Sierra Madre Oriental is a physiographic
province that is tectonically made up of the outermost outcropping segment of the Cordilleran
fold belt (King, 1969) in central Mexico. The
orogenic belt trends north-northwest and is
bounded on the north by the east-trending
Monterrey-Torren transverse zone (de Cserna,
1956) and on the east by the flysch-filled
Tampico-Misantla foredeep (Busch and Gavela,
1978). It becomes covered by the late MioceneQuaternary Trans-Mexican Neovolcanic belt
(Thorpe, 1977; Demant, 1978; Nixon, 1982) on
the south, and by the basin-range-type, faultbounded, and debris-filled basins of the Central
Mesa and the ignimbrite sheets of the Sierra
Madre Occidental (McDowell and Clabaugh,
1979) on the west.
A structural traverse across the Sierra Madre
Oriental fold-thrust belt at approximately latitude 21N in southern San Luis Potos, northern
Hidalgo, and eastern Quertaro States was made
in a research study by the Mexican National
University. The research revealed that the style
of deformation is principally controlled by the
lithology and thickness of the middle Cretaceous
rocks. Large overthrusts developed along the
edges of massive carbonate platforms, whereas
the synchronal basin facies and the interior of
the platforms are characterized by chiefly upright, open to closed flexural-slip folds (Suter,
1983).
This paper describes the Cordilleran structures on the eastern edge of the Valles-San Luis
Potos (VSP) Platform over a distance of 70 km
between Huichihuayn and Cerro del Aguila
(Fig. 1). The over-all geometry of this major
M. SUTER
2T30"
21'00
20"45'
99"00'
Figure 1. Outline map showing the location and generalized structure of the study area.
Dotted: Cretaceous Valles-San Luis Potosi carbonate platform. Framed: Figure 3.
cama Formation). The bank forms a thick, isolated, competent layer that in the study area is
sandwiched by thinner, incompetent layers
composed of argillaceous limestone and shale
(Soyatal and Pimienta Formations) (Fig. 2).
The basinal facies to the east of the platform
measures 300 to 1,200 m and is composed
of parallel-bedded, 30-cm- to 2-m-thick lime
mudstone-wackesione strata with shale partings
and intercalated chert and bentonite layers. Near
the toe of slope, platform-derived, graded,
platform
interior
edge
San Juanito Thrust, which brings El Abra limestone in tectonic contact with Tanlajs flysch of
the foreland near San Juanito (Bonet, 1956) and
with Mndez beds at the Huichihuayn-San
Pedro trail (Fig. 3). South of the lineament, the
shortening is taken up in a box fold (Huayacocotla Anticline), and there is no frontal thrust. The
east limb of the fold is located ~ 1,200 m west of
the front of the San Juanito thrust plate. The
more internally located Xilitla Thrust (Fig. 1)
has a linear shortening of ~10 km and terminates laterally as it reaches the projected western
continuation of the lineament. Across the lineament, the Xilitla Thrust is replaced by folds,
which accounts for only a fraction of the thrust
shortening.
This arrangement of structures with different
geometries and shortening amounts on either
side of the lineament implies its activation as a
tear fault. Dextral relative movement along the
frontal part of the fault presumably equals approximately the unknown magnitude of the
shortening of the San Juanito Thrust to the west
of Huichihuayn. The existence of a dextral
transcurrent fault is also supported by the orientation of the lineament with reference to the
regional compressive stress field causing the
Cordilleran deformations, as deduced from fold
axes (Fig. 3). Although the Cordilleran activation of the lineament is compatible with the
structural evidence on a kilometre scale, it could
not be substantiated by smaller-scale features,
due to karst morphology, tropical vegetation,
and the absence of marker horizons.
Xilitla Thrust
The Xilitla Thrust, first recognized by Heim
(1940), is situated where the orientation of the
VSP bank edge changes gradually from a N45E
foreslope
basin
1389
M. SUTER
Pea de S a n A n t o n i o
Xilitla
Xalcuayo
A'
2000
1000
Om
C e r r o de S a n A g u s t n
g '
2000
Om
Cerro
Macangui
2000
1000
Om
O i -
M n d e z and
Soyatal Formations
V V
I J L I
San Felipe F o r m a t i o n
A g u a Nueva
Formation
l y r
aTA
r-rr
-t 2 k m
El A b r a F o r m a t i o n
platform-interior member
J,I A h u a c a t l n F o r m a t i o n
El A b r a F o r m a t i o n
platform-edge member
Chapulhuacn F o r m a t i o n
Tamabra Formation
Pimienta
Formation
Figure 4. Sections across the eastern margin of the Valles-San Luis Potos carbonate bank. The traces are marked on Figure 3. 1 = Xilitla
Thrust. 2 = Misin Thrust. 3 = Lobo-Cinega Thrust. 4 = Agua Zarca Thrust. Symbols used for the geometry description of the Xilitla Thrust:
a = cutoff angles; y = axial angle; h = ramp height; Ax = outcropping length of the layer-parallel fault segment.
M. SUTER
Figure 5. Xilitla Thrust and ramp anticline in the Arroyo Seco valley; view from the south. 1 = Chapulhuac&i Formation. 2 = Ahuacatl&n
Formation. 3 = Tamabra Formation. 4 = El Abra Formation, platform-edge member. 5 = Agua Nueva Formation. 6 = San Felipe Formation. * = Highway 120. The fault parallels beds in the lower plate, whereas bedding in the upper plate is truncated at an angle of 8 in the interval
Tamabra-Ahuacatl&i Formations and at an angle of <2.5 below. The upper-plate layers form a fold with an angle of 85.5 between the axial
plane and bedding. The fold is probably caused by the transport of the hanging wall over a tectonic ramp, the inclination of which is given by the
cutoff angle of the frontal part of the thrust sheet. The visible horizontal displacement component measures 3,600 m.
fault. The trace of the thrust is difficult to pinpoint north of Federal Highway 120, where the
fault plane has a dip component toward the
north. Here, the thrust surface crosses the El
Abra-Soyatal contact and passes into bedding
within the El Abra Formation. A thrust fault
mapped in the western flank of the; Cerro
Grande Anticline (Suter, 1980, Figs. 2 and 3)
could be the northern continuation of the LoboCinega Thrust.
Between the Moctezuma River and Federal
Highway 85 (Figs. 3 and 4c), the Lobo-Cinega
Thrust has a throw of 1,300 m, dips 26W,
and is subparallel to bedding. Given the shear
angle of 7 and the vertical displacement
component of 1,300 m, a linear shortening of
10,590 m results. The fault was mapped by
Bodenlos (1956b) where it is crossed by Federal
Highway 85.
In the Upper Cretaceous rocks, twe repetitions of platform-edge fades can be found (Fig.
10). The lower one follows the Lobo-Cinega
thrust fault in the El Lobo half-window (Fig. 3)
along the entire outcropping layer-parallel
thrust segment. It is not clear whether the repetition is caused by migration of the facies belts, or
whether it is of tectonic nature, which would
increase the shortening considerably. Microfossils sampled directly below (SM 74 and 75) and
above (SM 76 to 78) the repetition of platform
sediments inside the Soyatal Formation along
Highway 120 (Fig. 10, section A) belong to the
Globotruncana elevata planktonic foraminiferal
zone s.s. (early Campanian), but only SM 75
contains the zone index fossil.
Pena P r i e t a
1393
C e r r o de la Yesca W
Figure 7. Stack of imbrcate thrust slices on the eastern edge of the Valles-San Luis Potos Platform, view from the El Lobo-Agua Zarca
road, looking south. Agua Zarca is located in the saddle east of the Agua Zarca Thrust, and the visible road connects Agua Zarca with El Lobo
and Highway 120. A = Agua Zarca Thrust. B = Lobo-Cinega Thrust. C = Misin Thrust. 1 = Ahuacatln Formation. 2 =Tamabra Formation. 3 = El Abra Formation, platform-edge member. 4 = Agua Nueva Formation. 5 = San Felipe Formation. 6 = Mndez Formation.
The outcrops to the south of Federal Highway 120 reveal two more thrusts (Figs. 3 and 7)
on the edge of the VSP Platform: (1) the more
internal and steeper Misin Thrust (Fig. 1),
which is characterized by a linear shortening of
at least 1,300 m, a mean dip of 41, and a mean
angle of the thrust fault of 6 with regard to
bedding of the upper plate (Fig. 4b); its throw is
indeterminate, because no correlative strata crop
out on either side of the thrust, due to the facies
change of the middle Cretaceous; and (2) the
Agua Zarca Thrust (Fig. 1), which has, between
the Moctezuma River and Federal Highway 85, a
structural relief of somewhat more than 1,000 m
(Fig. 4c), dips ~30W, and also forms a low
angle with bedding.
W C e r r o de la Yesca
Valle de G u a d a l u p e
Figure 8. Thrust plates along the eastern margin of the Valles-San Luis Potos Platform, to the north of the Moctezuma River. View from
Cerro Fro, looking north-northwest. 1 = Ahuacatln Formation. 2 = Tamabra Formation. 3 = El Abra Formation, platform-edge member. 4 =
Agua Nueva Formation. 5 = San Felipe Formation. 6 = Mndez Formation. A = Aqua Zarca Thrust. B = Lobo-Cinega Thrust. C = Misin
Thrust. The Lobo-Cinega thrust fault is composed of a 3,500-m-long near-surface dcollement and an inclined segment that is caused by the
rotation, subsequent to folding, of both the upper and the lower plates. This is in contrast to the Xilitla Thrust, the style of which is caused by a
stepped geometry of the fault.
sw
C e r r o Sapo
NE
Argillaceous limestone
shale and sandstone
N
UJ
Q
UJ
5
o
P a r t i a l Bouma
cycles with graded and
convolute bedding
Bioclastic
grainstone
Platformfacies
exoclasts
Figure 10. Lithology of the Upper Cretaceous across the eastern edge of the Valles-San
Luis Potos Platform, in the lower plate of the
Lobo-Cinega Thiust. Section A is located on
the platform edge (El Abra Formation) and
consists of the pelagic Soyatal Formation.
Section B is located 1.5 km farther southeast o n foreslope deposits (Tamabra
Formation) and is made up of a pelagic
sequence ( A g u a Nueva, San Felipe, and
M n d e z Formaitions) that b e c o m e s increasingly clastic t o w a r d its upper part.
Repetitions of platform-edge facies in the
Soyatal, A g u a Nueva, and San Felipe
Formations could be due to faulting, or
they may be sedimentary repetitions due
to migrating facies boundaries.
?
i
i:
i ir
i
Shale
and
subordinate
pelagic lime
mudstone
1
1
l-l
M
l-l
1 1 1
l-l
1.
Bioclastic
grainstone
Pelagic lime mudstone,
wackestone,
subordinate
shale and chert
_[_' i l l 1 i l l
1 1 1 1
Bioclastic
cot< <
->
p a r t l y dolomitized
LOBO
A) EL
VILLAGE
t O
et p
03
<
: *
oc
<t o
_ tc
bJ o
li.
microbreccia
and grainstone
V- li.
LOBO-AGUA
B) EL
ZARCA ROAD
Piedra Blanca
Figure 11. Lobo-Cinega Thrust in the Amajac canyon. 1 = Chapulhuacn Formation. 2 = Ahuacatln Formation. 3 = Soyatal Formation (Upper Cretaceous). The thrust fault is located in the western
limb of a major anticlinorium. It nearly parallels bedding and dips
subvertically, due to subsequent rotation.
1395
W S W
Figure 12. Misin Thrust in the Amajac canyon (southwestern continuation of Fig. 11). 1 = Chapulhuacn Formation. 2 = Ahuacatln
Formation. 3 = El Abra Formation, platform-edge member. 4 =
Soyatal Formation (Upper Cretaceous).
M. SUTER
and southern Arizona (Drewes, 1981) and connects along the western edge of the Colorado
Plateau with the Idaho-Wyoming fold-thrust
belt.
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