Late Neogene stratigraphy and tectonic control on facies evolution in the Laguna Salada Basin, northern Baja California, Mexico

Quaternary alluvial-fan development, climate and morphologic dating of fault scarps in Laguna Salada, Baja California, Mexico

“…Activity along the CDD is believed to have begun~12 Ma and has accommodated 10-12 km of horizontal extension as indicated by low-temperature thermochronology of footwall rocks (Axen et al, 2000). This timing is consistent with the age of the syn-rift sedimentary sequence in the Laguna Salada basin, which includes the Late Miocene Imperial Formation, Pliocene-Pleistocene Palm Spring Formation, and younger, locally-derived deposits (Siem and Gastil, 1994;VazquezHernandez et al,1996;Axen and Fletcher,1998;Dorsey and Martin-Barajas, 1999;Martín-Barajas et al, 2001). Like most largeoffset normal faults, the CDD is corrugated and shows a strongly curvilinear trace with two major antiform-synform megamullion pairs (i.e., the larger grooves on the footwall, oriented parallel to the direction of fault displacement).…”

A Crustal Velocity Model for the Southern Mexicali Valley, Baja California, Mexico

“…Average velocities of these layers are 2.9, 5.6, and 6:9 km=s on layer boundaries at depths of 1.23 and 5.60 km. We supplemented our refraction data with results of studies by Gallardo-Mata (2013) and Martín-Barajas et al (2001) to model the Laguna Salada basin. On the basis of modeling the Pn arrivals, we propose that the Moho is at 15 km depth under the Mexicali Valley basin, reaching a depth of 19 km under Laguna Salada basin.…”

“…1), due to access problems, was improved (to set only the depth limit of the first layer; see Fig. 5) with information from the following studies: (1) a seismic reflection study by GallardoMata (2013), in which one of the seismic profiles of his study (4965) is parallel and close (10 km distance) to our refraction profile, and (2) a stratigraphic study by Martín-Barajas et al (2001) that was based on a well log (ELS-3) made by the Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad [CFE], in Spanish). This well log is located just 3 km away from the study profile.…”

“…According to García-Abdeslem et al (2001), the thickness of the sedimentary blanket in the Laguna Salada basin increases eastward, reaching a maximum depth of 3 km. Sedimentation began during the Pleistocene when uplift of the Cucapah and El Mayor mountain ranges cut off this region from the Colorado River delta (Martín-Barajas et al, 2001;Contreras et al, 2005). The Mexicali Valley basin is located to the east of the Cucapah and El Mayor Mountains.…”

Evolución estratigráfica de la cuenca Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, México

“…En la porción peninsular de esta provincia existe una serie de cuencas marginales levantadas, las cuales se formaron desde el Mioceno tardío, incluyendo las cuencas de Laguna Salada (Martín-Barajas et al, 2001), Santa Rosalía (Wilson y Rocha, 1955;Holt et al, 2000), Loreto (Zanchi, 1994;Dorsey y Umhoefer, 2000;Umhoefer et al, 2002), Punta Colorada (Umhoefer et al, 2007) y San José del Cabo (Martínez-Gutiérrez y Sethi, 1997;Busch et al, 2011;Arreguín-Rodríguez y Schwennicke, 2013) (Figura 1). Cada una de estas cuencas presenta su propio desarrollo lo que limita la correlación de eventos geológicos.…”