ABSTRACT Sandstone petrography, detrital zircon geochronology, and sedimentology of Lower Cretaceous to Paleocene strata in the Cuicateco terrane of southern Mexico indicate an evolution from extensional basin formation to foreland basin development. The Early Cretaceous extensional basin is characterized by deposition of deep-marine fans and channels, which were mainly sourced from Mesoproterozoic and Permian crystalline rocks of the western shoulder of the rift basin. Some submarine fans, especially in the northern Cuicateco terrane, record an additional source in the Early Cretaceous (ca. 130 Ma) continental arc. The fans were fed by fluvial systems in updip parts of the extensional basin system. The transition from middle Cretaceous tectonic quiescence to Late Cretaceous shortening is recorded by the Turonian–Coniacian Tecamalucan Formation. The Tecamalucan Formation is interpreted as pre-orogenic deposits that represent submarine-fan deposits sourced from Aptian–Albian carbonate platform and pre-Mesozoic basement. The foreland basin in the Cuicateco terrane was established by the Maastrichtian, when foredeep strata of the Méndez Formation were deposited in the Cuicateco terrane, Veracruz basin, and across the western Gulf of Mexico, from Tampico to Tabasco. In the Zongolica region, these strata were derived from a contemporaneous volcanic arc (100–65 Ma) located to the west of the basin, the accreted Guerrero terrane (145–120 Ma), and the fold belt itself. By the Paleocene, sediments were transported to the foreland basin by drainages sourced in southwestern Mexico, such as the Late Cretaceous magmatic rocks of the Sierra Madre del Sur, and the Chortis block.

ABSTRACT New low-temperature thermochronological data analyses (apatite fission track and apatite and zircon [U-Th]/He) on rocks from the southern (Pacific) margin of Mexico between Acapulco and the western Gulf of Tehuantepec, where pre–middle Eocene arc and forearc complexes are expected but missing, show that this continental margin was subjected to an important Tertiary exhumational event. Exhumation is constrained to ca. 32–20 Ma in the west (Acapulco) and to ca. 19–11 Ma in the east (Puerto Angel) and was thus eastwardly diachronous. The diachroneity is interpreted as relating to the migration of the Chortis block, representing the western end of the Caribbean plate. The amount of exhumation along the trend is constrained to roughly 4–5 km (~0.3–0.6 km/m.y.). These magnitudes and rates are much less than previous estimates of 2.5–4 km/m.y. during the Oligocene, which are likely overestimated. These faster rates have been employed in a competing model for arc removal by orthogonal subduction erosion (i.e., Chortis block not involved), which is accordingly questioned. The exhumation was not due to shearing or fault-related uplift as the Chortis block migrated, but rather to the inception of subduction along Mexico in the wake of Chortis block migration. A four-part history applies to southern Mexico that is eastwardly diachronous: (1) inception of arc magmatism as the Chortis block first moved over the ~150 km depth contour of the Farallon/Cocos Benioff zone; (2) uplift and exhumation of basement as southern Mexico encountered and overrode the site of the Farallon/Cocos Benioff zone; (3) northward migration of arc magmatism as the Chortis block left the cross section and North America continued to advance further onto the Cocos plate, producing flat slab subduction geometry; and (4) resumption of forearc subsidence once the Mexican margin had acquired a subduction zone hanging-wall geometry. The missing arc terrane along southern Mexico is the Chortis block.