The bedrock strata of the northern Sierra Las Pintas are approximately 520 m thick and are here divided into six informal units of formational rank: unit SP1, calcareous sandy siltstone and calcareous siltstone; unit SP2, siltstone interbedded with calcareous siltstones, crinoidal grainstone, and granule conglomerates; unit SP3, graded crinoidal grainstone; unit SP4, massive and normally graded beds of coarse sandstone and granule to cobble conglomerate; unit SP5, basalt flows with pillow breccia and hyalotuffs; and unit SP6, bedded chert and calcareous argillite in thrust contact with underlying units. Lophyophyllid corals and brachiopods from unit SP3 suggest a Carboniferous age. The bedrock strata of the southern Sierra Las Pintas are approximately 720 m thick and divided into four informal units of formational rank: unit AG1, bedded chert and argillite; unit AG2, sandstone, siltstone, and debris flow; unit AG3, limestone and shale; and unit AG4, pillow basalt and basalt flows. Based on conodonts recovered from unit AG1 and conodont fragments recovered from unit AG3, the section is bracketed between Early Devonian and Early Mississippian. Thin-section analysis suggests that the terrigenous rocks from the two areas were derived from similar terranes with cratonal source areas. Minor- and trace-element analyses of basalt indicates eruption during a rifting event, perhaps near a continental margin. The basement exposures of the northern and southern Sierra Las Pintas are separated by a cover of Miocene volcanic strata and can not be correlated on a unit-to-unit basis, but could have been deposited in the same basin. Rocks of similar provenance, age, and lithologic associations are found elsewhere in Baja California Norte, Sonora, Sinaloa, and the Havallah and Schoonover sequences of Nevada.

Workers in Sonora recognize two distinct provinces of Upper Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata; one of shallow-water origin and one of deeper-water origin. The shallow-water miogeoclinal strata are best known in areas west and southwest of Caborca, and range in age from late Proterozoic to Permian. These correlate with strata in the Sierra Agua Verde-Cerro Cobachi area east of Hermosillo. Strong stratigraphic similarities between these rocks and those of Nevada have fueled hypotheses that they were adjacent in Paleozoic time and have been separated 800 km by left-lateral strike-slip displacement of mid-Jurassic age. Deeper-water strata occur farther to the south and southeast in Sonora where rocks of Ordovician to Permian age contain bedded cherts and carbonate turbidites. These rocks in the Sierra Cobachi and at Barita de Sonora resemble similar-age slope- and basinal-facies rocks in Nevada, and in like fashion appear to be thrust northward or eastward over the miogeoclinal facies. Both of these fades also occur in the basement strata of peninsular California. Carbonate rock, quartzite, amphibolite, and subordinate argillaceous strata crop out from the San Jacinto Mountains of southern California to the southeastern Sierra San Pedro Martir (Baja California Norte). The only age control on these rocks are the Early Ordovician conodonts found on Coyote Mountain, Imperial County, California. Deep-water strata with pillow basalt and a cratonal sedimentary contribution are found in the Sierra las Pinta and along the Gulf Coast of Baja California between Puerto Calamujue and Bahia Los Angeles. Ages based on poorly preserved conodonts and corals range from Devonian to Mississippian, but the rocks may not be limited to this age span. Similar strata, dominated by bedded chert, occur on Isla Angel de la Guarda, at the southeastern tip of Isla Tiburón and on the adjacent coast of Sonora, thus effectively connecting across the Gulf of California. Analogous deep-water-facies strata, dominated by bedded chert, occur in northern Sinaloa. Conodonts from San José de Gracia, Sinaloa, indicate a Pennsylvanian age. If the apparent correlations of both miogeoclinal and deeper-water facies of Paleozoic strata across the Gulf of California are correct, they put constraints on the paleomagnetic reconstructions that place peninsular California in southern Mexico in Late Cretaceous time.

Mapping along the eastern coast of Baja California adjacent to the Canal de Las Ballenas (lat. 29°30′ to 29°40′) reveals over 4,000 m of complexly folded and faulted, metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic strata, locally intruded by tonalite and gabbro of Cretaceous age. Protoliths include lime mudstone, coarse-grained bioclastic packstone, bedded black chert and shale, thin-bedded flysch-type sandstone-shale, thick boulder and cobble conglomerates, minor quartz arenite, and pillowed alkaline basalt. The depositional environment was anoxic slope to basin. The entire sequence is here named the Canal de Las Ballenas Group. Conodont fragments and favositid corals indicate a Devonian age, suggesting correlation with rocks in the Sierra Las Pinta to the northwest, and to southern Sonora to the east. The recognition of these rocks adds an important link to our understanding of the southwestern edge of North America in mid-Paleozoic time. The area has been pervasively deformed, first by tight, isoclinal folding and shearing, which produced large recumbent folds with axes dipping gently to the northeast and verging east-southeast; and second by large synforms with steep, east-trending axes.