Late Cretaceous to Eocene denudation history of the Tolimán area, southern Sierra Madre Oriental, central Mexico

Abstract

This study presents the first apatite fission-track results from the Tolimán area, which is located in the western portion of the southern Sierra Madre Oriental, central Mexico. In total, six rock samples from different lithostratigraphic units were dated, adding new results to the thermochronological data set of the Sierra de los Cuarzos–San Joaquín–Tamazunchale transect in the Mexican fold-and-thrust belt. The apatite fission-track ages vary from 84 ± 4 Ma to 52 ± 2 Ma, indicating that the main denudation period of the Tolimán area lasted until the Eocene. Combining our results with previous geological data, we suggest that the western part of the southern Sierra Madre Oriental was uplifted and undergoing erosion during the whole period of development of the Campanian–Ypresian Mexican orogenic system. Therefore, the Tolimán area may be considered as one of the source areas from which clastic materials of the Campanian–Maastrichtian Méndez and Paleocene–Eocene Velasco and Chicontepec Formations were partially derived. Older cooling ages recording the latest Aptian accretion of the Guerrero terrane with the Mexican continental interior were not detected in samples from the Tolimán area.

Detecting the Laramide event in southern Mexico by means of apatite fission-track thermochronology

“…the Sierra de los Cuarzos area) of the Sierra Madre Oriental started in Campanian time. Radiometric data compiled inGuerrero-Paz et al (2020) for the Sierra Madre Oriental as well as our AFT data obtained from the Sierra Madre del Sur support that the deformation initiated in Campanian time, because K-Ar and 40 Ar-39 Ar dates of authigenic illite determined in shear zones and folds from the Sierra Madre Oriental(Fitz-Díaz et al 2014;Garduño-Martínez et al 2015;Martini et al 2016), along with the AFT ages obtained in the Sierra Madre del Sur (this study), are younger than 85 Ma. Further, M. G. Ramírez-Calderón (unpub.…”

“…The spatial and temporal distribution of foredeep deposits suggests that the shortening migrated from west to east in the Sierra Madre Oriental during Late Cretaceous to Eocene times (e.g. Martini et al 2016;Guerrero-Paz et al 2020). Furthermore, this progressive and episodic eastward migration of the deformation was also proposed by detailed structural analyses and geochronological studies carried out by Fitz-Díaz et al (2012.…”

“…Following Fitz-Díaz et al (2018), the kinematics, chronology and deformation style of thick-skinned structures of the Mexican Orogen may be correlated with those belonging to the Laramide structures of the United States. Most previous geochronological studies about the timing of the shortening across the Mexican Orogen were performed in the Sierra Madre Oriental physiographic province (Gray et al 2001;Fitz-Díaz et al 2014;Garduño-Martínez et al 2015;Martini et al 2016;Guerrero-Paz et al 2020). The spatial and temporal distribution of foredeep deposits suggests that the shortening migrated from west to east in the Sierra Madre Oriental during Late Cretaceous to Eocene times (e.g.…”

“…2016; Guerrero-Paz et al . 2020). The spatial and temporal distribution of foredeep deposits suggests that the shortening migrated from west to east in the Sierra Madre Oriental during Late Cretaceous to Eocene times (e.g.…”

“…2016; Guerrero-Paz et al . 2020). Furthermore, this progressive and episodic eastward migration of the deformation was also proposed by detailed structural analyses and geochronological studies carried out by Fitz-Díaz et al .…”