Transtensional basins are sparsely described in the literature compared with other basin types. The oblique‐divergent plate boundary in the southern Gulf of California has many transtensional basins: we have studied those on San Jose island and two other transtensional basins in the region. One major type of transtensional basin common in the southern Gulf of California region is a fault‐termination basin formed where normal faults splay off of strike‐slip faults. These basins suggest a model for transtensional fault‐termination basins that includes traits that show a hybrid nature between classic rift and strike‐slip (pull‐apart) basins. The traits include combinations of oblique, strike‐slip and normal faults with common steps and bends, buttress unconformities between the fault steps and beyond the ends of faults, a common facies pattern of terrestrial strata changing upward and away from the faults into marine strata, small fault blocks within the basin that result in complex lateral facies relations, common Gilbert deltas, dramatic termination of the margin of the basin by means of fault reorganization and boundary faults dying and an overall short basin history (few million years). Similar transtensional fault‐termination basins are present in Death Valley and other parts of the Eastern California shear zone of the western United States, northern Aegean Sea and along ancient strike‐slip faults.
The late Oligocene–early Miocene interval records a discernable episode of phosphorite formation, which is considered as the first of four main phosphogenic episodes during the late early and late Cenozoic. In order to better constrain the processes leading to widespread phosphorite formation we present new radiometric, geochemical, palynological, and sedimentological data from a drill core of the Roca Fosfórica Mexicana phosphorite mine at San Juan de la Costa, Baja California Sur (Mexico). In this region, phosphogenesis was enabled by the combination of high productivity and low sediment-accumulation rates due to enhanced upwelling and low detrital input related to regionally dry climate conditions. Phosphatic particles were formed in a shallow and well-oxygenated setting, subsequently concentrated by winnowing, and transported by gravity currents, which were mostly triggered by seismic activity. Following their deposition in a deeper and less well oxygenated setting pervasive phosphogenesis contributed to cementing the accumulated phosphatic grains. Correlation with global paleoclimate records suggests that this phosphogenic episode was linked to the expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet. Glacial weathering and the establishment of large-amplitude glacio-eustatic variations enhanced phosphorus supply on a global scale. Both glacial and interglacial phases participated in enhancing primary productivity in oceans, increasing the phosphorus flux into sediments, and favoring phosphogenesis, with glaciation being the prime cause. In addition, radiometric ages obtained in this study (28.62, 28.1, 27.19, 27.08, and 26.94 Ma) indicate that the onset of the late Oligocene–early Miocene phosphogenic episode was diachronous on a global scale with 2–3 m.y. older ages in the eastern Pacific in comparison to the Mediterranean and central Atlantic. This delay is explained by regional differences in paleoenvironmental and paleoceanographic conditions.
ResumenUn análisis estratigráfico efectuado en el arroyo San Dionisio, aportó datos sobre la evolución del margen occidental de la cuenca San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur. Esta cuenca forma parte de la Provincia Extensional del Golfo de California y su evolución inició en el Mioceno tardío. La cuenca, con estructura de medio graben, está limitada en su margen oeste por la falla lístrica San José del Cabo. En el arroyo San Dionisio están expuestas la falla marginal y tres formaciones estratigráficas divididas informalmente en dos unidades (inferior y superior), con orientación perpendicular a la margen de la cuenca y separadas por una discordancia angular. La unidad inferior está integrada por las formaciones Trinidad y Los Barriles, mientras que la unidad superior está constituida por la Formación El Chorro. En la parte oeste del arroyo, junto a la falla San José del Cabo y debido a la rotación a lo largo de la misma, aflora solamente la Formación El Chorro, la cual está compuesta por conglomerado y arenisca conglomerádica depositados en un ambiente de abanico aluvial. En afloramientos localizados más al este, arenisca conglomerádica y conglomerado de la Formación Los Barriles, depositados también en un ambiente de abanico aluvial, subyacen a la Formación El Chorro. Los sedimentos de ambas formaciones provienen del basamento expuesto en la sierra La Victoria. Aproximadamente 7 km al este de la falla marginal, se encuentra una interdigitación entre las formaciones Los Barriles y Trinidad; ésta última conformada por arenisca gruesa, arenisca arcillosa y lutita, de ambiente marino somero. La interdigitación muestra la contemporaneidad de ambas formaciones, probablemente en el Plioceno, además de que pone en evidencia la existencia de una zona costera con abanicos deltaicos durante el depósito de los sedimentos. En este abanico deltaico no se desarrollaron clinoformas, probablemente debido a la falta de espacio en una posición alejada de la falla marginal. La discordancia angular entre las secuencias superior e inferior marca un evento de reorganización de la cuenca; como consecuencia, se erosionó una parte de la unidad inferior en el Plioceno o inicios del Pleistoceno. Posteriormente, la rotación a lo largo de la falla confinó los depósitos aluviales de la Formación El Chorro a la parte occidental de la cuenca. Los depósitos más jóvenes de la Formación El Chorro cubren a la falla San José del Cabo y además muestran su disposición original, lo que sugiere la escasa o nula actividad de la misma desde finales del Pleistoceno.
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