Abstract Detrital zircon age populations from Palaeozoic sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks in Mexico support palinspastic linkages to the northwestern margin of Gondwana (Amazonia) during the late Proterozoic–Palaeozoic. Age data from: (1) the latest Cambrian-Pennsylvanian cover of the c . 1 Ga Oaxacan Complex of southern Mexico; (2) the ?Cambro-Ordovician to Triassic Acatlán Complex of southern Mexico's Mixteca terrane; and (3) the ?Silurian Granjeno Schist of northeastern Mexico's Sierra Madre terrane, collectively suggest Precambrian provenances in: (1) the c . 500–650 Ma Brasiliano orogens and c . 600–950 Ma Goias magmatic arc of South America, the Pan-African Maya terrane of the Yucatan Peninsula, and/or the c . 550–600 Ma basement that potentially underlies parts of the Acatlán Complex; (2) the Oaxaquia terrane or other c . 1 Ga basement complexes of the northern Andes; and (3) c . 1.4–3.0 Ga cratonic provinces that most closely match those of Amazonia. Exhumation within the Acatlán Complex of c . 440–480 Ma granitoids prior to the Late Devonian–early Mississippian, and c . 290 Ma granitoids in the early Permian, likely provided additional sources in the Palaeozoic. The detrital age data support the broad correlation of Palaeozoic strata in the Mixteca and Sierra Madre terranes, and suggest that, rather than representing vestiges of Iapetus or earlier oceanic tracts as has previously been proposed, both were deposited along the southern, Gondwanan (Oaxaquia) margin of the Rheic Ocean and were accreted to Laurentia during the assembly of Pangaea in the late Palaeozoic.

Abstract New structural, geochronological, and petrological data highlight which crustal sections of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary in Guatemala and Honduras accommodated the large-scale sinistral offset. We develop the chronological and kinematic framework for these interactions and test for Palaeozoic to Recent geological correlations among the Maya Block, the Chortís Block, and the terranes of southern Mexico and the northern Caribbean. Our principal findings relate to how the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary partitioned deformation; whereas the southern Maya Block and the southern Chortís Block record the Late Cretaceous–Early Cenozoic collision and eastward sinistral translation of the Greater Antilles arc, the northern Chortís Block preserves evidence for northward stepping of the plate boundary with the translation of this block to its present position since the Late Eocene. Collision and translation are recorded in the ophiolite and subduction–accretion complex (North El Tambor complex), the continental margin (Rabinal and Chuacús complexes), and the Laramide foreland fold–thrust belt of the Maya Block as well as the overriding Greater Antilles arc complex. The Las Ovejas complex of the northern Chortís Block contains a significant part of the history of the eastward migration of the Chortís Block; it constitutes the southern part of the arc that facilitated the breakaway of the Chortís Block from the Xolapa complex of southern Mexico. While the Late Cretaceous collision is spectacularly sinistral transpressional, the Eocene–Recent translation of the Chortís Block is by sinistral wrenching with transtensional and transpressional episodes. Our reconstruction of the Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic evolution of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary identified Proterozoic to Mesozoic connections among the southern Maya Block, the Chortís Block, and the terranes of southern Mexico: (i) in the Early–Middle Palaeozoic, the Acatlán complex of the southern Mexican Mixteca terrane, the Rabinal complex of the southern Maya Block, the Chuacús complex, and the Chortís Block were part of the Taconic–Acadian orogen along the northern margin of South America; (ii) after final amalgamation of Pangaea, an arc developed along its western margin, causing magmatism and regional amphibolite–facies metamorphism in southern Mexico, the Maya Block (including Rabinal complex), the Chuacús complex and the Chortís Block. The separation of North and South America also rifted the Chortís Block from southern Mexico. Rifting ultimately resulted in the formation of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous oceanic crust of the South El Tambor complex; rifting and spreading terminated before the Hauterivian ( c . 135 Ma). Remnants of the southwestern Mexican Guerrero complex, which also rifted from southern Mexico, remain in the Chortís Block (Sanarate complex); these complexes share Jurassic metamorphism. The South El Tambor subduction–accretion complex was emplaced onto the Chortís Block probably in the late Early Cretaceous and the Chortís Block collided with southern Mexico. Related arc magmatism and high- T /low- P metamorphism (Taxco–Viejo–Xolapa arc) of the Mixteca terrane spans all of southern Mexico. The Chortís Block shows continuous Early Cretaceous–Recent arc magmatism. Supplementary material: Analytical methods and data, and sample description are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18360.