ABSTRACT The Gulf of Mexico is best understood as a subsidiary basin to the Atlantic, resulting from breakup of Pangea. The rifting process and stratigraphy preceding opening of the gulf are, however, not fully understood. We present new stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and provenance data for the Todos Santos Formation (now Todos Santos Group) in southern Mexico. The new data support a two-stage model for rifting in the Gulf of Mexico. Field and analytical evidence demonstrate that strata assigned to the Todos Santos Group in Mexico belong to two unrelated successions that were juxtaposed after rotation of the Yucatán block. An Upper Triassic fluvial siliciclastic succession in the western Veracruz basin is intruded by the San Juan del Río pluton (194 Ma, U-Pb) along the Valle Nacional fault. We refer to this succession as the Valle Nacional formation (informal) of the Todos Santos Group, and correlate it with El Alamar Formation of northeast Mexico and the Eagle Mills Formation of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Triassic red beds register an early rifting phase in western equatorial Pangea. Sandstone composition indicates that the Valle Nacional formation is mostly arkoses derived from multiple sources. Paleocurrent indicators in fluvial strata of the Valle Nacional formation are S-SW directed, but restoration of paleomagnetically determined counterclockwise rotation indicates a W-SW–flowing fluvial system. Triassic rifting in the Valle Nacional formation and the Central Cordillera of Colombia Triassic extensional event, the record of which is preserved in mid-crustal levels, may represent conjugate margins. The Early–Middle Jurassic Nazas continental volcanic arc predated the Jurassic rifting phase that led to opening of the gulf. A record of arc magmatism is present in eastern Mexico underlying Middle Jurassic synrift successions, and it is present in La Boca and Cahuasas formations in the Sierra Madre Oriental and La Silla Formation north of the Chiapas Massif. These units have a similar age range between ca. 195 and 170 Ma. Arc magmatism in eastern Mexico is correlated with the Jurassic Cordilleran arc of Sonora, California, and Arizona, as well as the Jurassic arc of the Central Cordillera of Colombia. La Boca and La Silla units record intra-arc extension driven by slab rollback. The Jurassic rifting phase is recorded in the Jiquipilas formation of the Todos Santos Group and is younger than ca. 170 Ma, based on young zircon ages at multiple locations. The informal El Diamante member of the Jiquipilas formation records the maximum displacement rift stage (rift climax). Coarse-grained, pebbly, arkosic sandstones with thin siltstone intercalations and thick conglomerate packages of the Jericó member of the Jiquipilas formation are interpreted as deposits of a high-gradient, axial rift fluvial system fed by transverse alluvial fans. These rivers flowed north to northeast (restored for ~35° rotation of Yucatán). The Concordia member of the Jiquipilas formation records the postrift stage. Thick synrift successions are preserved in the subsurface in the Tampico-Misantla basin, but they cannot be easily assigned to the Triassic or the Jurassic rifting stages because of insufficient study. The Todos Santos Group at its type locality in Guatemala marks the base of the Lower Cretaceous transgression. Overall, three regional extensional events are recognized in the western Gulf of Mexico Mesozoic margin. These include Upper Triassic early rifting, an extensional continental arc, and Middle Jurassic main rifting events that culminated with rotation of Yucatán and formation of oceanic crust in the gulf.

Abstract The magmatic history and tectonic evolution of the Valle del Cura region has received the attention of several studies in recent years, particularly as part of a larger area of interest named the Indio Belt. These studies have suggested an Eocene volcanic sequence known as the Valle del Cura Formation. The present study, based on extensive field work, robust geochronological and geochemical datasets, shows an Oligocene to early Miocene age for this unit, similar to the Doña Ana Group. The tectonic setting that controlled the volcanism of the Valle del Cura Formation was extensional and corresponds to a retro-arc position of the main arc volcanism of the Doña Ana Group. The field evidence combined with radiometric and geochemical data demonstrate the synextensional characteristic of the volcanic sequence of the Valle del Cura Formation and the Doña Ana Group at these latitudes. This characteristic was dominant at the central part of the Pampean Flat Slab (29°–30°S).

Resurgent cauldrons are defined as cauldrons (calderas) in which the cauldron block, following subsidence, has been uplifted, usually in the form of a structural dome. Seven of the best known resurgent cauldrons are: Valles, Toba, Creede, San Juan, Silverton, Lake City, and Timber Mountain. Geologic summaries of these and Long Valley, California, a probable resurgent caldera, are presented. Using the Valles caldera as a model, but augmented by information from other cauldrons, seven stages of volcanic, structural, sedimentary, and plutonic events are recognized in the development of resurgent cauldrons. They are: (I) Regional tumescence and generation of ring fractures; (II) Caldera-forming eruptions; (III) Caldera collapse; (IV) Preresurgence volcanism and sedimentation; (V) Resurgent doming; (VI) Major ring-fracture volcanism; (VII) Terminal solfatara and hot-spring activity. These stages define the terminal cycle of resurgent cauldrons, which in the Valles caldera spanned more than 1 million years. The known and inferred occurrence of the seven stages in the eight cauldrons discussed, together with some time control in four cauldrons, indicates that resurgent doming is early in the postcollapse history; hence, it seems part of a pattern and not fortuitous. Doming of the cauldron block by magma pressure is preferred to doming by stock or laccolithic intrusion, although these processes may be subsidiary. Magma rise that produces doming may be explained in several ways, but the principal cause is not known. Nor is it known why some otherwise similar calderas do not have resurgent domes, although size and thickness of the cauldron block and the degree to which it was deformed during caldera collapse may be factors. All known resurgent structures are larger than 8 miles in diameter and are associated with silicic and, presumably, high-viscosity magmas. Genetically, resurgent cauldrons belong to a cauldron group in which subsidence of a central mass takes place along ring fractures and is related to eruption of voluminous ash flows, thereby differing from Kilauean-type calderas. It is proposed that typical Krakatoan-type calderas differ in that collapse is chaotic and ring fractures are not essential to their formation. Krakatoan calderas typically occur in the andesitic volcanoes of island arcs or the eugeosynclinal environment, and their sub-volcanic analogues are not known, whereas resurgent and related Glen Coe-type cauldrons are more common in cratonic or post-orogenic environments as are their sub-volcanic analogues — granitic ring complexes. Granitic ring complexes, such as Lirue, Sande, Ossipee, and Alnsjø, are probably the closest sub-volcanic analogues of resurgent calderas. The source areas of most of the ash-flow sheets of western United States and Mexico are yet to be found. It is suggested that many of them will prove to be resurgent structures. Present evidence suggests that ore deposits are more commonly associated with resurgent cauldrons than with other cauldron types.

The Valle de Bravo Volcanic Field is one of four monogenetic volcanic fields identified in the central sector of the Mexican Volcanic Belt. Michoacán-Guanajuato, Jilotepec, and Chichinautzin are the other three. The Valle de Bravo Volcanic Field is located at the southern front of the belt where it covers the western flank of the Pleistocene-Holocene Nevado de Toluca volcano. It covers an area of 3703 km 2 and includes at least 120 cinder cones, one shield volcano, a few lava domes, and two lava dome complexes. It overlies a rough paleotopography of Mesozoic metamorphic rocks (schists, metalimestones, and pillow lavas), Paleocene-Eocene granitic rocks, and Eocene-Oligocene ignimbrites. Based upon morphometric parameters that were calibrated with reported isotopic ages, four groups of cinder cones were identified, older than 40 ka, 40–25 ka, 25–10 ka, and younger than 10 ka. Lava domes occur sporadically as high domes, low domes, and coulees, with ages between Pliocene to Pleistocene. We also observed several mafic lava flows that lack a cone source, suggesting that they erupted from fissures. A geomorphologic analysis of the cinder cones indicates a relatively young age for most of them, since craters are still evident and flanks are little eroded. Many lava flows still show levees and some of them are little vegetated and lack soil, which is significant for this densely forested and humid area. An analysis of the distribution of the cinder cones shows that most vents follow a NE alignment. By contrast, the domes tend to be aligned in a NW trend. This suggests that emplacement of cinder cones follows the maximum horizontal compressional stress direction, parallel to the Cocos–North America plate convergence (NE), whereas the lava domes are better developed along the minimum horizontal stress direction, perpendicular to convergence (i.e., NW).