Major lithostratigraphic units in land-outcrops of north-central Mexico

and the subsurface along the northern rim of Gulf of Mexico Basin

(Upper Jurassic–lowermost Cretaceous): a proposal for correlation

of tectono-eustatic sequences

Federico Oloriza,*, Ana Bertha Villasenorb, Celestina Gonzalez-Arreolab

aDepartamento de Estratigrafıa y Paleontologıa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18002, Granada, SpainbDepartamento de Paleontologıa, Instituto de Geologıa, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

Received 1 May 2001; accepted 1 July 2001

Abstract

The stratigraphic and geodynamic interpretation of Upper Jurassic lithostratigraphic units is revised in north-central Mexico and the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin through updated ammonite and calpionellid biochronostratigraphy. Significant events in the

geodynamic evolution in these areas are evaluated and interpreted in terms of tectono-eustatic sequences (TES) of third and second orders.

3rd-TES-I and 2nd-TES-II/III in Mexico and 3rd-TES-I, 3rd-TES-II, and 3rd-TES-III at the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico show the

main traits of the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in these regions, allowing the identification of a combined ‘Atlantic-Tethyan cachet’ in the

course of structuring/configuration of the Gulf of Mexico Basin during the Late Jurassic. The easy identification of 3rd-TES-I in north-central

Mexico and at the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin shows no significant difference in geodynamic history during the Oxfordian,

which contrasts with the increasing difference from the Kimmeridgian to the Early-Middle Berriasian. Shared trends in stratigraphic

architecture with the European margin of the North Atlantic Basin, as well as with epicontinental shelves surrounding Iberia and other

Tethyan areas, are interpreted to show phases of the geodynamic evolution in the central North Atlantic Basin, traces of which are

recognizable also in western Africa.

q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Stratigraphy; Biostratigraphy; Correlation; Tectono-eustasy; Upper Jurassic; Lowermost cretaceous; North-central Mexico; Northern gulf rim

1. Introduction

The present consensus is that Jurassic geologic evolution

of Mexican areas, other than Pacific ones, was closely

related to that of the central North Atlantic Basin (‘Atlantic

Tethys’ or southern North Atlantic Basin in Lancelot, 1980).

However, the beginning of Jurassic marine deposition in

Mexico has been related to a transgression from the Pacific

(Salvador, 1987, 1991), recognized by the occurrence of

Sinemurian and Pliesbachian ammonites. This resulted from

a major eustatic rise, which is evident across/through the

North Atlantic Basin (Jansa, 1986) and identified in

southern central Mexico at the Huayacocotla Basin,

Tenango de Doria and Xochicoatlan, and Mazatepec

(Erben, 1956; Schmidt-Effing, 1980; Imlay, 1984; Schlatter

and Scmidt-Effing, 1984; Lopez-Ramos, 1985), as well as in

Sonora in northeastern Mexico (Burckhardt, 1930; Imlay,

1952, 1980; Roldan-Quintana and Rangin, 1978; Dowlen

and Castill, 1981; Buitron and Gonzalez-Leon, 1982;

Stinnesbeck et al., 1993 in Calmus and Sosson, 1995;

Calmus et al., 1997; Linares et al., 1997).

1.1. Tectono-eustasy during the Late Jurassic

in the southeastern North American plate

The overall transgressive trend of Jurassic deposition in

Mexico was punctuated by tectono-eustatic interactions that

determined relative sea-level fluctuations; one of the more

significant also affected the Gulf of Mexico Basin and the

Caribbean areas (see below). Emery and Uchupi (1984)

suggested that sea-floor spreading in the Gulf of Mexico

0895-9811/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/S0895-9811(03)00049-X

Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142

www.elsevier.com/locate/jsames

* Corresponding author. Fax: þ34-958-248528.

E-mail address: foloriz@goliat.ugr.es (F. Oloriz).

Basin began during the Callovian or Early Oxfordian.

Salvador and Green (1980); Salvador (1987) argued for a

Callovian-Early Oxfordian tectonic phase that ended in the

separation of the Yucatan block from the main North

American Plate; this preceded a significant increase in

distance from the South American Plate during the post-

Oxfordian Late Jurassic. In southwestern Mexico, the

Middle Jurassic deformation event identified by Centeno-

Garcıa et al. (1998) could be mainly Callovian in age. In

Cuba, the second magmatic episode (Cobiella-Reguera,

1996) was an event coeval with the beginning of spreading

in the Gulf area; the Kimmeridgian drift envisaged by

Alvarez Castro et al. (1998) is also in accordance with a

post-Oxfordian increasing separation of the North and South

American Plates.

All the above points to the early-Late Jurassic context in

which marked changes in the paleogeography of the

ancestral Gulf of Mexico were interpreted by Salvador

(1991). In related areas such as western Cuba, the

interpretation of geological features as evidence for the

beginning of a passive margin in the southeastern North

American Plate (Cobiella-Reguera, 1996) also implies

coeval events. In such a context, a trailing-plate-margin

situation determined the tectono-sedimentary context of

epicontinental shelves in the southern North American Plate

(Scott, 1984) and net back-stepping platform margins

(Winker and Buffler, 1988) combined with low carbonate

production during post-Oxfordian times (Michalzik and

Schumann, 1994).

1.2. Lithostratigraphy

The Callovian-Oxfordian was a time of major transgres-

sion affecting central Atlantic margins (Lancelot et al.,

1977; Lancelot, 1980; Lancelot and Winterer, 1980), with

local/regional variations (Winterer and Hinz, 1984). There

is broad consensus on the transgressive features of the lower

Upper Jurassic in Mexico and the Gulf Coast Rim (USA),

although lithologic correlations vary. In fact, depositional

conditions in closely related regions fluctuated in time,

commonly resulting in a pattern of lithofacies recurrence.

Moreover, environmental availability for the presence of

time-marker organisms fluctuated. Since sedimentation was

often forced by tectonics, correlations and interpretations of

sedimentary environments have often been somewhat

controversial in north-central Mexico. Controversial points

are deposition depths and major lithofacies relationships

(e.g. the Zuloaga, La Caja and La Casita Formations, and

lateral equivalents; see Longoria, 1984). In addition,

informal nomenclature concerning lithostratigraphic units

in Mexico, and, to a lesser extent, in southern USA (see

below), raises doubts about the precision of stratigraphic

interpretations. Thus, Humphrey (1956) in Longoria, 1984;

Humphrey and Dıaz, (1956) in Bracken, 1984) introduced

the Zuloaga Group to include the Zuloaga and Minas Viejas

Formations, and the La Casita Group for the overlying

Upper Jurassic strata, i.e. those rocks between his Zuloaga

and Durango Groups in NE Mexico (fide Lopez-Ramos,

1985). Rather informally, several authors have used the

terms ‘Zuloaga’ and/or ‘La Casita’ Groups (e.g. Bracken,

1984; Cabral in Moran Zenteno, 1984; Wilson et al., 1984;

Wilson, 1990; Lopez-Ramos, 1985; Gotte and Michalzik,

1992). Since these terms were used in general descriptions,

usually with low precision in their lithostratigraphic

subdivison, we will refer to these terms as the ‘Zuloaga

Group’ and ‘La Casita Group’. On the whole, the most

widely accepted models suggest the correlation between the

‘Zuloaga Group’ and ‘La Casita Group’ in Mexico with the

Louark and Cotton Valley Groups at the northern rim of the

Gulf of Mexico Basin, respectively.

The analysis presented here updates that of Oloriz et al.

(1990), and is based on field data obtained by the authors in

a research program focused on biostratigraphic and

lithostratigraphic revision of Upper Jurassic and lowermost

Cretaceous type-sections in Mexico. This is complemented

with re-interpretation and correlation of available infor-

mation from subsurface core-sections in the northern rim of

the Gulf of Mexico Basin. The results are then compared

with information from European regions, especially Iberia,

and DSDP sites in eastern North America and western

Africa (Fig. 1) that include haul-dredged material.

2. Revised Biochronostratigraphy: the Zuloaga–La

Casita ‘Groups’ (north-central Mexico) and the

Louark - Cotton Valley Groups (northern rim of Gulf

of Mexico Basin)

The biochronostratigraphic revision is based on the

Upper Jurassic and lowermost Cretaceous standard ammo-

nite scale in Europe (Cariou et al., 1991; Geyssant and Enay,

1991; Hantzpergue et al., 1991), and recommendations for

calpionellid biochronostratigraphy made by the Tithonian

Working Group Meeting in Summeg 1984 (Remane et al.,

1986). This latter was complemented, with only minor

changes, following Tavera et al. (1994) in the precise

interpretation of the calpionellid A/B Zone boundary and its

correlation with the Tithonian/Berriasian boundary based on

ammonites, and Oloriz et al. (1995), who provided the most

precise and westernmost reported calpionellid biostratigra-

phy known from the West-Tethys. Myczynski et al. (1998);

Oloriz et al. (1999) provided the correlation charts used

below for the Oxfordian to the Berriasian stages.

Since our analysis is based on biochronostratigraphic

control, it is restricted to deposits containing age-significant

biota. This limitation prevents an accurate biochronostrati-

graphic re-evaluation of terrigenous and evaporitic deposits

at the base of the Upper Jurassic sections both in northern-

central Mexico and in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin.

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142120

Fig. 1. (A): Location of the areas studied in the southern North American Plate (vertical and horizontal ruling for north-central Mexico and the northern rim of the

Gulf of Mexico Basin, respectively). (B): Present-day isochron map of the ocean basins, mainly Atlantic, with location of the areas depicted on the left (adapted

from Scotese et al., 1988). (C): Late Jurassic paleogeography, mainly Late Kimmeridgian–Early Tithonian, with location of areas cited in text. Numerical time

scale following Odin (1992), adapted to biochronostratigraphy from Marques et al. (1991). Paleogeography and site/area locations inspired on Enay (1972);

Salvador and Green (1980); Lancelot and Winterer (1980), Ogg et al. (1983), Azema and Jaffrezo (1984), Imlay (1984), Tucholke and Jansa (1986, see Jansa,

1986); Ziegler (1988); Salvador (1991); Rowley (1992), Fourcade et al. (1993a,b), and Enay and Cariou (1997). See text for the source of data from the Aaiun Basin

(CORC 15-1); Algarve and Prebetic shelves (ALG-PB); Cat Gap (DSDP site 100); Cuba (C); the Blake-Bahama Basin (DSDP sites 391c and 534); the

Haha/Essaouira Basin (Ha); the Iberian Range (Ib); Kachchh (K); the lower continental rise hills between New York and Bermuda (DSDP site 105); the Lusitanian

Basin (Ls); the Moroccan Basin (DSDP sites 416, 370); the Mazagan escarpment area (V30-RD38; DSDP sites 544, 545, 547B); the north-central Mexico

(Mexican Altiplano, MxA); the NewfoundlandBasin (NfB); the North-Sea Basin (NSB); the Northeastern Alps (NA); the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin

(nrGMx); North-West European shelves (NW-Es); the Cape Verde Basin (DSDP site 367); the Rif-Tell Basin (R-TB); the Scotian Basin (ScB); the Subbetic (SB);

the Trento Plateau (TP); Transdanubian (TrD); West Arctic Canadian Islands from the Amerasian Basin (wACI-AB); and the West-Iberia foreland (WIbf).

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 121

2.1. North-Central Mexico

The occurrence of ammonites and calpionellids in land-

outcrops from north-central Mexico (Fig. 1, vertical ruling

on the upper left; Fig. 2) makes it possible to establish

reliable biochronostratigraphy using bed-by-bed analysis,

and the revision of older (last-decade) data by Oloriz

(1992); Oloriz et al. (1990, 1998b, 1999); Adatte et al.

(1992, 1994a-c); Callomon (1992); Gonzalez-Arreola et al.

(1992); Stinnesbeck et al. (1993); Myczynski et al. (1998);

Oloriz and Villasenor (1999), and Villasenor et al. (2000).

Among the lateral equivalents of the Zuloaga and La Casita

‘Groups’, lithology and biostratigraphy are better known for

the Santiago, Taman, lower Malone and Pimienta For-

mations (e.g. Cantu-Chapa, 1967, 1976, 1984, 1998; see

Lopez-Ramos, 1985 for an overview). However, infor-

mation from sections sampled bed-by-bed is not available

and, therefore, correlations can be made only in general

terms. Hence, we focus on biochronostratigraphy based on

data recovered from Zuloaga carbonates and La Caja-La

Casita deposits, while commenting on their lateral equiva-

lents when appropriate.

2.1.1. The lower ‘Zuloaga Group’

Ammonites from the lower part of the ‘Zuloaga Group’

indicate mainly the Middle Oxfordian (Imlay, 1984), middle

rather than upper Plicatilis Zone (Myczynski et al., 1998).

The rarity of Late Callovian–Early Oxfordian ammonites in

wide areas of Mexico (Callomon, 1992; Westermann, 1992;

Cantu-Chapa, 1998) agrees with discontinuous deposition

(hiatuses) during the latest Middle to the beginning of the

Late Jurassic. Thus, unfavorable habitats for ammonoids

and other time-marker organisms are assumed to span a

major part of the Early to early-Middle Oxfordian. Wide-

spread continental to marine-marginal and shallow-marine

sediments (La Joya Formation and lateral equivalents)

represent this stratigraphic interval, hampering precise

placing of the lower boundary of the ‘Zuloaga Group’.

In the Tampico-Misantla area (eastern Sierra Madre), the

partly lateral equivalent of the Zuloaga carbonates is the

lower Santiago Formation. It deserves special attention

since Bathonian to Oxfordian ammonites (Lopez-Ramos,

1985; Cantu-Chapa, 1998) have been gathered from this

brownish to dark-gray siltstone and silty-limestone rhyth-

mite. The oldest ammonites recovered from the Oxfordian

at Taman (San Luıs Potosı; Cantu-Chapa, 1984) have been

reinterpreted biostratigraphically by Myczynski et al.

(1998), who concluded that their age is Middle Oxfordian,

probably middle to late Plicatilis Chron. Thus, on the basis

of current knowledge, the oldest Oxfordian ammonite

assemblages in the Santiago Formation and Zuloaga

carbonates are coeval. Further research in the lower

Santiago Formation is needed to clarify if discontinuous

ammonite assemblages of the Bathonian, Callovian and

Oxfordian are evidence of sampling failure, hiatal depo-

sition and/or ecologically restricted living conditions for

Fig. 2. Correlation chart for the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in north-central Mexico and the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. Geological Groups and

Formations (capitals); Members and informal units (others labellings); intercalation of Buckner-type deposits (‘B’). Early (E), Middle (M) and Late (L).

Biochronostratigraphy according to European standards for ammonites and calpionellids (see text). Unconclusive biochronostratigraphic boundary (broken

lines). Hiatuses (vertical ruling). Black for unnamed and poorly known (inconclusively dated) basinal-equivalent deposits. Second-order Supercycles and long-

term global eustatic curve adapted from Haq et al. (1987, 1988) (arrows). Relative sea-level curve for the region, especially for north-central Mexico (thin line).

Transgression (T) and Regression (R). Upper Jurassic Cycles in the northern Gulf Coast (J3.1, J3.2) according to Emery and Uchupi (1984). Tectono-eustatic

sequences/supersequences (TES-I, II, III). Ammonites: Berriasellidae (B), Dichotomosphinctes (DI), Durangites (DU), Gregoryceras (GR), microconchiate

Hybonoticeras (Hy), Idoceras (I), Mazapilites (MZ), Nebrodites (N), Praeataxioceras (PRX), Procraspedites (PRO), Salinites (S), Schneidia (SCHN),

Spiticeratinae (SP), Virgataxioceras-like ammonites under study (V). calpionellids (U).

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142122

ammonoids of the Tampico-Misantla area (eastern Sierra

Madre), irrespective of the apparently homogeneous

lithologic succession.

2.1.2. The boundary between the Zuloaga and La Casita

‘Groups’

The boundary between the ‘Groups’ Zuloaga (Zuloaga

Limestone ¼ Zuloaga Formation, and lateral equivalents)

and La Casita ( ¼ La Caja and La Casita Formations; other

assumed lateral equivalents are not considered here because

of the poorly known biostratigraphy) is usually interpreted

to be close to the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary,

without precise paleontological revision of existing data.

Some authors have placed the upper boundary of the

Zuloaga Formation (Zuloaga Limestone) within the Kim-

meridgian for some areas of the Mexican Altiplano

(Lopez-Ramos, 1985), northeastern Mexico (Salvador,

1991), and the Eastern Sierra Madre (Gotte and Michalzik,

1992; Michalzik and Schumann, 1994). These latter authors

suggested an Early Kimmeridgian age, but they did not

provide precise ammonite data. Gotte and Michalzik (1992)

referred to several studies, among which Weidie and

Wolleben (1969) gave the most accurate data on ammonite

biohorizons. These latter authors stated, however, that the

oldest Kimmeridgian haploceratids and perisphinctids from

the La Casita Formation s.str. were collected 8–9 m above

the contact with the Zuloaga limestone ( ¼ Zuloaga

Formation) in the Sierra de los Muertos, Nuevo Leon.

Callomon (1992) dated the youngest Oxfordian ammo-

nites in Mexico as Late Oxfordian, within the Bimammatum

Chron. Oloriz (1992); Oloriz et al. (1992) re-interpreted data

on latest Oxfordian ammonites in Mexico, and Myczynski

et al. (1998) concluded that the youngest ammonites

collected from the Zuloaga Formation (within the ‘Zuloaga

Group’) were lower Planula Zone, uppermost Oxfordian

according to the standard ammonite biochronostratigraphy

in Europe, or lowermost Kimmeridgian according to recent

proposals for revision of the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian

boundary (Wierzbowski, 1991; Atrops et al., 1993; Oloriz

et al., 1994; Matyja and Wierzbowski, 1995), which is

slightly younger than that interpreted by Callomon (1992).

Villasenor (1991); Callomon (1992); Oloriz (1992); Oloriz

et al. (1992) interpreted the oldest ammonites from the La

Casita and La Caja Formations as Early Kimmeridgian,

Platynota Chron (except its lower part), but they have

recently been re-interpreted as late Platynota-earliest

Hypselocyclum Chrons (Villasenor et al., 2000).

Thus, new ammonite data and interpretations reduce

uncertainty about the age of the boundary between the

Zuloaga and La Casita Formations (and therefore between

the Zuloaga and La Casita ‘Groups’), supporting a latest

Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian ( ¼ Early Kimmeridgian

according to some authors) interval including this boundary.

However, the lowermost occurrence of ammonites in the La

Casita and La Caja Formations changes locally, as may be

confirmed by comparing the data in Contreras et al. (1988);

Villasenor (1991); Oloriz et al. (1999); Villasenor et al.

(2000). The latest Oxfordian–earliest Kimmeridgian guide-

fossils are unknown (extremely rare?), both in the Zuloaga

and La Casita Formations (and therefore in the Zuloaga and

La Casita ‘Groups’). Therefore, the boundary between the

Zuloaga Formation ( ¼ Zuloaga Limestone), and/or lateral

equivalents, and the La Casita-La Caja Formations may

include hiatuses (Verma and Westermann, 1973; Emery and

Uchupi, 1984; Oloriz et al., 1999) that are related to local

supratidal or restricted marine conditions unfavorable for

the occurrence of age-significant biota.

A lateral equivalent of the upper Zuloaga carbonates

(Zuloaga Formation) is the dark-gray siltstone and silty-

limestone rhythmite of the upper Santiago Formation

recognized from the eastern Sierra Madre in the Tampico-

Misantla area. The most recent biostratigraphic revision of

ammonite assemblages from the upper Santiago Formation

was made by Myczynski et al. (1998), who correlated them

with those known from the Zuloaga carbonates. However,

Cantu-Chapa (1984) recognized the progressive transition

from dark-gray siltstones and silty-limestones with no

calcareous concretions in the upper Santiago Formation to

dark-gray limestones of the Taman Formation. Since the

youngest ammonites (Praeataxioceras) in the Santiago

Formation are Late, not latest, Oxfordian, and the oldest

ones (Schneidia Assemblage) in the Taman Formation) are

Early, (not earliest) Kimmeridgian (European standard

biochronostratigraphy), no continuous ammonite record is

known within a stratigraphic interval with gradual change in

lithofacies. In conclusion, further research is necessary to

establish whether the discontinuities of the ammonite

assemblages indicate incomplete sampling, stratigraphic

gaps or poor ecologic conditions for horizons between

Praeataxioceras (the Zona con Discosphinctes in Cantu-

Chapa, 1969, 1979, 1984) in the Santiago Formation and the

Schneidia Assemblage (the Zona con Ataxioceras in

Cantu-Chapa, 1969, 1979, 1984) in the Taman Formation.

2.1.3. The upper boundary of the ‘La Casita Group’

On the assumption that the upper boundary of this

‘Group’ is the top of the La Casita Formation and its

envisaged lateral equivalents, this boundary was commonly

placed at the Tithonian/Berriasian (Jurassic/Cretaceous)

boundary, on the basis of informal interpretations of both

the Tithonian and Berriasian stages in Mexico. This

informality became evident when calpionellids were

considered (Cantu-Chapa, 1980, 1989; Longoria, 1984,

among others). However, Ortuno Arzate and Delfaud (1988)

placed the top of the La Casita deposits in Chihuahua within

the Lower Cretaceous.

The interpretation of ammonite and calpionellid data

made by Oloriz and Tavera (1989); Tavera et al. (1994);

Oloriz et al. (1995), as well as the results of recent studies in

north-central Mexico (Adatte et al. 1992, 1994a–c; Gonza-

lez-Arreola et al. 1992; Oloriz et al. 1992, 1996, 1999;

Michalzik and Schumann, 1994; Villasenor et al. 2000),

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 123

agree with the recommendations of the Tithonian Working

Group Meeting (Remane et al., 1986) and with the updated

Tithonian Standard biochronostratigraphy in Europe (Geys-

sant and Enay, 1991; see minor changes to calpionellid-

ammonite correlation in Oloriz et al., 1999). The above data

and interpretations place the uppermost horizons of La

Casita-La Caja Formations and their lateral equivalents in the

Early to early-Middle Berriasian. Recent studies by Blauser

and McNulty (1980); Gonzalez-Arreola et al. (1992); Adatte

et al. (1994a–c), and Michalzik and Schumann (1994)

provide the evidence for regional condensations and/or

hiatuses close to the boundary between the La Casita deposits

and the overlying Taraises Formation. Eguiluz and Aranda

(1984); Michalzik and Schumann (1994), interpreted a

comparatively restricted record of La Casita-type deposits

as extending into the Valanginian.

A lateral equivalent of the La Casita deposits is the so-

called Jurassic Pimienta Formation, the upper part of which

contains Himalayites, Kossmatia, Salinites, Proniceras,

Durangites and Corongoceras(Lopez-Ramos, 1985).

Assumed correlative deposits have yielded Paradontoceras

sp. aff. callistoides, Paradontoceras sp., Protancyloceras

hondense, Proniceras lerense and Protacanthodiscus sp.

(Cantu-Chapa, 1967, 1984). These two ammonite assem-

blages indicate Early Berriasian age, not Late Tithonian as

interpreted by these authors. This age re-interpretation agrees

with the content in calpionellids (Calpionella alpina,

Calpionella elliptica, Tintinnopsella longa) and the calcar-

eous nannofossils (Nannoconus steinmanii) reported by

Cantu-Chapa (1967), as well as with the record of

Calpionella elliptica and Tintinnopsella oblonga indicated

by Lopez-Ramos (1985). Current consensus on ammonite

and calpionellid biochronostratigraphy (see above) supports

our age interpretation.

2.2. Northern rim of Gulf of Mexico Basin

2.2.1. Smackover carbonates

In southeastern USA (Fig. 1, horizontal ruling on the

upper left; Fig. 2), Imlay and Herman (1984); Young and

Oloriz (1993) studied and illustrated ammonites from the

Smackover Formation.

In Louisiana and Texas, Imlay and Herman (1984)

indicated a Middle–Late Oxfordian age for ammonites from

the Smackover Formation. Their material from the middle

Smackover Formation yielded Dichotomosphinctes and so-

called Discosphinctes. Ammonites interpreted by these

authors as Ataxioceras and Idoceras (the latter recorded

from Smackover by Imlay and Herman, 1984, in fig. 5) are

known from the upper Smackover Formation, where they

occur in an upper assemblage containing the ammonites

cited as Discosphinctes by Imlay and Herman (1984). More

precisely, they (Imlay and Herman (1984), fig. 5) reported

Ataxioceras and Idoceras from shales and mudstones in the

upper Smackover Formation, below a probable lateral

equivalent of the Buckner deposits at the Philips Kendrick

no. 1 well (Louisiana). Imlay and Herman (1984) dated the

upper Smackover Formation as Late Oxfordian on the basis

of the supposed Discosphinctes. Oloriz et al. (1990)

discussed the use of Discosphinctes (and coeval assumed

Ataxioceras) by Imlay and Herman (1984), and concluded

that the upper assemblage of these ammonites could be

interpreted as Praeataxioceras, a genus known from the

Upper Oxfordian (Bimammatum and Planula Zones) mainly

in Submediterranean Europe. Myczynski et al. (1998)

interpreted the assemblage with Praeataxioceras, Euaspi-

doceras and Subnebrodites or Enayites as characteristic for

the youngest Oxfordian deposits in southern USA, including

the Cotton Valley Oilfield.

The upper Smackover ‘Idoceras-Ataxioceras assem-

blage’ has been re-interpreted, from data in Imlay and

Herman (1984), as the Passendorferiinae-Praeataxioceras

assemblage and compared with the uppermost Oxfordian

ammonite-bearing deposits in southern USA by Myczynski

et al. (1998). The traditional interpretation of Late

Oxfordian Idoceras from Sonora (Beauvais and Stump,

1976) has been proven wrong (Linares et al., 1997).

Furthermore, the presence of the Ataxioceras Assemblage

(in Cantu-Chapa, 1969) indicates the Lower Kimmeridgian

Platynota Zone in Mexico (Villasenor, 1991; Callomon,

1992; Oloriz, 1992; Oloriz et al., 1992), which has been

recently reinterpreted as the Schneidia Assemblage char-

acterizing the uppermost Platynota–lowermost Hypselocy-

clum Zone (Villasenor et al., 2000). Thus, the base of the

Kimmeridgian has not been recognized in Mexico from

ammonite occurrences, nor has Burckhardt (1930) record of

Sutneria platynota from Huayacocotla been confirmed.

Moreover, true Idoceras have been correctly dated as

Kimmeridgian in Mexico from Burckhardt (1906), with

only minor differences in age interpretation within the Early

and Middle Kimmeridgian (three-fold division).

In Louisiana, Young and Oloriz (1993) noted a relatively

continuous record of ammonites in the Smackover Limestone

from the A.J. Hodges no. 1 Pardee-Calloway borehole at the

Cotton Valley Oilfield. The presence of Middle Oxfordian

Gregoryceras (first report from North America) was

documented in horizons 100 m below the top of the

Smackover Limestone, and probable Late Oxfordian Praea-

taxioceras, Orthosphinctes and Euaspidoceras were reported

in horizons above the level containing Gregoryceras.

In conclusion, the revised biochronostratigraphy of the

Smackover Formation, yielding Perisphinctes (Dichotomo-

sphinctes) and Gregoryceras below, and Orthosphinctes

(Praeataxioceras) and Subnebrodites or Enayites

(¼ ?‘Idoceras’ in Imlay and Herman, 1984) near the top,

places the stratigraphic interval here analyzed in the

Middle-Upper Oxfordian (Young and Oloriz, 1993; Myc-

zynski et al., 1998), except for the uppermost Oxfordian

(considered as lowermost Kimmeridgian in recent propo-

sals; see above). Unfortunately, no ammonites were

recovered in cores of the uppermost Smackover Limestone

at Webster Parish, Louisiana (Young and Oloriz, 1993).

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142124

2.2.2. The Pre-Bossier deposits

In the cores studied by Imlay and Herman (1984), the

Smackover Formation is overlain by the unfossiliferous

Buckner deposits, making it difficult to improve the

biostratigraphic interpretation of the topmost Smackover

Fm. In the core sections studied by Imlay and Herman

(1984) between the Buckner and the base of the Bossier

Formation, which was considered to be Lower Kimmer-

idgian, lies what they referred to as the Gilmer Limestone.

Imlay and Herman (1984) suggested that the Oxfordian/

Kimmeridgian boundary could lie within their Gilmer

Limestone (now recognized as equivalent to, or a member

of, the upper part of the Haynesville Formation, and usually

referred to as the Cotton Valley Limestone; G. Wahlman

pers. comm. to FO, 1998; A. Salvador suggested to FO this

term should be avoided because it refers to strata that do not

belong to the Cotton Valley Group). True Idoceras

recovered by Imlay and Herman (1984) from the upper

part of their Gilmer Limestone indicate a late-Early to early-

Middle Kimmeridgian age. Based on ammonites, Young

and Oloriz (1993) recognized in Louisiana the Lower, but

not lowest, Kimmeridgian (upper Hypselocyclum-Divisum

Zones?) in the lower part of correlative shales from the

Haynesville Formation (which yielded no ammonites in

cores from its base). Thus, the precise biostratigraphy of the

base of Gilmer and Haynesville deposits in Louisiana

remains unknown. The youngest ammonite horizon in the

assumed equivalent ‘Cotton Valley Limestone’ (term

applied by G. Wahlman for core Amoco No. 1 Jimmy Hill

Gas Unit, East Texas; pers comm. to FO, 1998) contains

rare Virgataxioceras-like ammonites and therefore is close

to the Kimmeridgian/Tithonian boundary (Oloriz, in prep.).

2.2.3. The Cotton Valley Group

According to Imlay and Herman (1984), the lower part of

the overlying Bossier Formation contains Lower Kimmer-

idgian ammonites. The assumed correlations in the area

(discussed below) and data of Young and Oloriz (1993), as

well as unpublished records of Virgataxioceras-like ammo-

nites (Oloriz, in prep.) from the equivalent ‘Cotton Valley

Limestone’ (the Gilmer Member of the Haynesville

Formation), indicate that the base of the Bossier deposits,

i.e. the base of the Cotton Valley Group, is diachronous.

Ammonites recorded by Imlay and Herman (1984) from the

upper Bossier Formation are Berriasian (Salinites, ?Proni-

ceras, and probably Substeueroceras and ?Durangites),

while the youngest ammonites (Madeira, ‘Leopoldia’ ¼

Karakaschiceras, ‘Neocomites’) from the upper Schuler

Formation are of Valanginian age.

2.3. Concluding remarks on biochronostratigraphy

Middle Oxfordian ammonites typically mark the oldest

identified biohorizons in the Zuloaga and Smackover

deposits. The top of these two shallow carbonate-shelf

systems cannot be accurately dated, but the youngest

ammonites collected indicate Late, but not latest, Oxfordian

(early Planula Chron ¼ earliest Kimmeridgian in recent

proposals in Europe). The Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian bound-

ary has not been identified biostratigraphically in northern-

central Mexico or at the Gulf Coast Rim. The next

ammonite datum is Early Kimmeridgian, identified from

siliciclastic and limy deposits in both regions (late

Platynota-earliest Hypselocyclum Chron in north-central

Mexico and probable early Divisum Chron in the northern

rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin). No precise biochronos-

tratigraphy could be established for the top of the La Casita

deposits and the Cotton Valley Group, but their upper parts

include Berriasian deposits.

3. Biochronostratigraphic correlation of the Zuloaga

and La Casita ‘Groups’ (north-central Mexico) with theLouark and Cotton Valley Groups (northern rim of Gulf

of Mexico Basin)

Updated biochronostratigraphy provides the basis for our

correlations, and so our interpretations concern mainly

deposits yielding guide-fossils. On the other hand, dia-

chrony usually occurs in shallower epicontinental environ-

ments with complex lithofacies patterns, as documented by

subsurface data from the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico

Basin (e.g. Smackover Formation in Bradford, 1984;

Smackover-Buckner complex in Ferns and York, 1984;

Smackover-Buckner sequence in Vinet, 1984; Smackover-

Buckner in Montgomery, 1996; Gilmer Member in Moore

1984, fig. 11 non fig. 2; and Bossier Formation in McGraw,

1984, among others). Therefore, we have limited our study

to subtidal successions, and excluded innermost shelf sites,

i.e., very proximal and nearshore or tidal-supratidal

environments showing deposits poor or lacking in biostrati-

graphic data, such as those represented by the lower

‘Zuloaga Group’ and the lower Louark Group.

3.1. Northern-Central Mexico

3.1.1. The Zuloaga Group–carbonate section: Zuloaga

Formation (locally referred to as Zuloaga Limestone)

In Mexico, the Zuloaga Formation and ammonite-

yielding lateral equivalents range in age from the Middle

to the Late Oxfordian, i.e. middle-late Plicatilis to earliest

Bimammatum–early Planula Chron (Fig. 2) of the Medi-

terranean and Submediterranean ammonite standard bio-

chronostratigraphy (Cariou et al., 1991). Local records of

Lower Oxfordian deposits are dubious, but cannot be ruled

out. The discontinuous lower part of the Upper Jurassic

section is assumed to be Early, or more probably, Early to

early-Middle Oxfordian. This accords with the total range of

stratigraphic gaps and discontinuous records, at least in

terms of ammonite biochronostratigraphy identified else-

where in Tethyan regions that are epioceanic-oceanic

(Sequeiros, 1974; Sarti, 1988; Fozy, 1993a,b; Oloriz et al.,

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 125

1998a; Channell et al., 1990; Caracuel et al., 2000; and

references therein) or epicontinental (Wildi, 1983; Wilson,

1988; Bernardes and Corrochano, 1992; Atrops and Benest,

1994; Enay and Mangold, 1994; Aurell et al., 1994, 2000;

Krishna and Ojha, 1996; Kamoun et al., 1999; Gygi, 2000;

Pena dos Reis et al., 2000; and references therein), and even

correlates with northern European shelves (Fortwengler and

Marchand, 1994) and western Arctic Canadian islands of the

Amerasian Basin (Harrison et al., 2000). Thus, early to

middle-Late Jurassic transgressions over continental, mar-

ginal to shallow marine deposits of the La Joya Formation

and its lateral equivalents expanded widely in Mexico,

scattering components of the Tethyan biota. The Middle

Oxfordian peak transgression (‘Atlantic Transgression’ in

Lancelot and Winterer, 1980) has been used as a reference

event for correlation between western and eastern margins

of the central North Atlantic (Lancelot et al., 1977; Lancelot

and Winterer, 1980), as well as to identify the beginning of

the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in Iberia and other Tethyan

areas. Therefore, this transgressive event, which marks the

beginning of the ‘maturation’ of the Atlantic into a real

ocean (Lancelot and Winterer, 1980), is valuable for long-

distance correlations, including Mexico.

The missing record of ammonites from the top of the

Zuloaga Formation (thus from the top of the ‘Zuloaga

Group’), and from transitional deposits between the

Santiago and Taman Formations, corresponds to

the regressive trend that Salvador (1991) placed close to

the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary (Fig. 2). Factors

determining this trend of shallowing and shoaling (local

emersion/erosion included) would have forced ammonites

to move from previously colonized areas, thereby regionally

counteracting high-sea-level conditions at a global scale, as

proposed by Haq et al. (1987, 1988). Active salt tectonics in

the area, including faulting, has been attributed by Salvador

(1991) to these times.

3.1.2. The La Casita Group–the more or less

ammonite-rich La Casita and La Caja Formations

The record of ammonites from the base of the La Casita

Group is known from horizons close to the base of the La

Casita and La Caja Formations (Fig. 2), as well as from the

lower Taman Formation. The oldest record of ammonites in

the La Casita and La Caja Formations is diachronous within

the Lower Kimmeridgian section, ranging between the

upper Platynota-lowermost Hypselocyclum and the upper

Hypselocyclum–lower Divisum Zones (Oloriz et al., 1999;

Villasenor et al., 2000). The duration of the interval

involved in the turnover between Zuloaga carbonates and

La Casita-La Caja deposits is hard to estimate with

precision. The rather abrupt change from carbonate ramp

(Zuloaga) to siliciclastic shelf (La Casita) depositional

conditions has been related to tectonic reactivation with

change in the subsidence regime (Michalzik and Schumann,

1994). This event forced erosion and deposition that had no

Oxfordian equivalents in the area. Several events were more

or less coeval: subduction pulses in NW Mexico (Araujo

Mendieta and Estavillo Gonzalez, 1987); the beginning of a

rift phase in northern Mexico (Ortuno Arzate and Delfaud,

1988); and active faulting and salt movements (Salvador,

1991). Therefore, the shifts in lithofacies from Zuloaga to

La Casita Groups reflect regional, tectonically driven sea-

level changes. This interpretation agrees with the regional

tectonics as interpreted by Araujo Mendieta et al. (1982);

Araujo Mendieta and Estavillo Gonzalez (1987); Ortuno

Arzate and Delfaud (1988); Oloriz et al. (1990); Salvador

(1991); Michalzik and Schumann (1994).

Biostratigraphic data from the top of the La Casita Group

(tops of the La Casita and La Caja Formations), and from

the top of the so-called Jurassic Pimienta Formation, need

improvement. A significative number of assignations to

Late Tithonian age (Imlay, 1943; Cantu-Chapa, 1967, 1984,

1989; Longoria 1984; Lopez-Ramos, 1985; Contreras et al.,

1988; Addate et al., 1992, 1994a–c; Stinnesbeck et al., 1993

to a lesser degree) might be corrected for Berriasian (Oloriz

and Tavera, 1989; Addate et al., 1992, 1994a–c; Gonzalez-

Arreola et al., 1992; Oloriz et al., 1999; Stinnesbeck et al.,

1993; Villasenor et al., 2000), and thus the placing of the

Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary at the top of the La Casita

deposits was incorrect (Fig. 2). Hiatuses and/or unfavorable

environmental conditions for time-marker biota during the

Early Cretaceous have been envisaged (Imlay, 1936;

Gonzalez-Arreola et al., 1992; Addate et al., 1994a–b;

Oloriz et al., 1999), but information is incomplete at present.

However, it is worth noting that Ortuno Arzate and Delfaud

(1988) identified the top of the La Casita deposits with the

boundary between their megasequences I and II, referring to

the rift series in the Chihuahua Basin and representing a part

of their Tethyan phase in the geodynamic evolution.

3.2. Northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin

In contrast to the general agreement on the composition

of the Zuloaga and La Casita Groups in Mexico (But see

Gotte and Michalzik, 1992), some controversy exists

concerning the interpretation of lithologic units comprising

the Louark and Cotton Valley Groups, at the northern rim of

the Gulf of Mexico Basin, as a result of limited subsurface

data (Salvador, 1991). Therefore, the age interpretation of

these stratigraphic sequences depends largely on the

acquisition of new subsurface data and on regional

correlation based on reliable data from surface outcrops in

Mexico, where biochronostratigraphy is becoming more and

more accurate.

3.2.1. The Louark Group

In accordance with the above treatment of Mexican data,

we exclude the mainly terrigenous or evaporitic deposits

underlying the oldest horizons identified biostratigraphi-

cally in Upper Jurassic carbonate facies. However, it is

significant for wide-regional stratigraphy and correlation to

note that, elsewhere in the world, ammonitiferous sections

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142126

commonly contain fossils with a more or less complex

taphonomic history, which is related to regionally discon-

tinuous deposition, at about the Middle-Upper Jurassic

boundary. In the Gulf of Mexico Basin the interpretation of

equivalent unfossiliferous deposits is controversial (Salva-

dor, 1991). This was a time of major paleogeographic

changes, including spreading in the Gulf (Emery and

Uchupi, 1984) with the break-up and separation of the

Yucatan block or platform, as interpreted by Salvador and

Green (1980); Salvador (1987) respectively. In southeastern

Mexico, this presumably forced discontinuous deposition in

the context of syn-rift tectonics interpreted by Michaud and

Fourcade (1989).

On the basis of ammonite biochronostratigraphy, we

identify one of the ‘datum planes’ by the occurrence of

Dichotomosphinctes and Gregoryceras (Middle Oxfordian

in age) in the lower Smackover Formation. Accordingly, the

base of the Smackover carbonates at the northern rim of

the Gulf of Mexico Basin correlates with the base of the

Zuloaga carbonate facies in Mexico (Fig. 2).

No diagnostic fossils other than those indicating Late

Oxfordian (not the latest) have been reported from the upper

(not the topmost) Smackover Formation and its lateral

equivalents. As at the top of the Zuloaga Formation, no

latest Oxfordian ammonites have been reported from the top

of the Smackover carbonates; the known ammonites (see

above, and Myczynski et al., 1998) permit biochronostrati-

graphic correlation between horizons containing the young-

est Oxfordian ammonites in the Zuloaga and Smackover

carbonates. This coincidence points to coeval damaging of

ammonite habitats during shallowing trends, both in Mexico

and in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (Fig. 2).

The time for restricted or even supratidal facies of the

post-Smackover–pre-Bossier, and pre-Bossier-type depos-

its, is considered as mainly latest Oxfordian–Early (not

earliest) Kimmeridgian (Standard European ammonite

biochronostratigraphy, Cariou et al., 1991; Hantzpergue

et al., 1991) by their stratigraphic position (Salvador, 1991)

and our biochronostratigraphic interpretation of the oldest

ammonites reported from the Haynesville Formation.

Salvador (1991) correlated Buckner evaporitic deposits

[Buckner Formation or Buckner Member of the Haynesville

Formation (Moore, 1984); Harwood and Fontana, 1984

among others] with the evaporites and red beds of the lower

Olvido Formation in Mexico. Therefore, Buckner and lower

Olvido deposits should correspond to the stratigraphic

interval lacking ammonites. This interval expands between

the youngest ammonitiferous horizon in the Zuloaga

Formation and that containing the oldest ammonites in the

lowermost La Casita-La Caja deposits in Mexico, and

between the Smackover and the base of the Haynesville

Formation or equivalents in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin (Fig. 2). We assume that, during this time

interval, significant changes in sedimentation and ecology

(at least for ammonites) occurred in relation to major

geodynamic processes in the area, such as: initial separation

of the North and South American Plates (Salvador and

Green, 1980); displacement of the Yucatan platform (Burke,

1988); spreading center in North America jumping south-

ward from the Gulf of Mexico Basin to the area between

Yucatan and northern South America (Ross and Scotese,

1988); abrupt changes in the thickness of Buckner and lower

Olvido evaporites, probably resulting from salt movement

forced by contemporaneous faulting (Salvador, 1991).

The overlying lower part of the Haynesville Formation,

conformed by terrigenous and evaporitic deposits, is

tentatively correlated with the lower La Caja and La Casita

Formations, which usually yield no ammonites in north-

central Mexico. Thus, these terrigenous and evaporitic

deposits would correlate with deposits below beds with

Idoceras in the La Caja and La Casita (and the Taman)

Formations, which locally carry the Early Kimmeridgian

Schneidia Assemblage of late Platynota-earliest Hypselo-

cyclum age (Villasenor et al., 2000) (Fig. 2).

Lower Bossier-type deposits and lateral equivalents

including carbonate packages (named Gilmer or Haynes-

ville Limestone, more or less informally) overlie the lower

Haynesville Formation, which in turn overlies Buckner

evaporites. As previously discussed, ammonite records

indicate an Early, but not earliest, Kimmeridgian age for

these deposits (Imlay and Herman, 1984; Young and Oloriz,

1993), and their correlation with the stratigraphic interval

with Idoceras in the lower “La Casita Group” in Mexico

(lower La Casita and La Caja Formations) (Fig. 2).

Upper Bossier-type deposits are correlated with mainly

carbonate deposits. This could better fit a more formal

definition of the Gilmer Limestone and correspond to the

upper Haynesville Formation and the so-called Cotton

Valley Limestone. Lithostratigraphic terminology is con-

fused, as recognized by Salvador (1991), referring to the

Gilmer Limestone (a member of the Haynesville Formation

in Moore, 1984) as either equivalent to both the Haynesville

Limestone (see Forgotson and Forgotson, 1976 for defi-

nition and correlation) and the Cotton Valley Lime that

marks the top of the Louark Group, or as underlying the

Cotton Valley Group, as interpreted by Todd and Mitchum

(1977); Benson and Mancini (1984); Bracken (1984); Cregg

and Ahr (1984); Faucette and Ahr (1984); Imlay and

Herman (1984); Moore (1984); Montgomery (1996).

Published ammonites from this stratigraphic interval (e.g.

Taramelliceras, Nebrodites, Procraspedites and ‘Virgato-

sphinctes’), which correlates with the upper Bossier-type

deposits, together with unpublished ataxioceratids from the

Cotton Valley Limestone (informal term, see p.7) in a

subsurface borehole in Leon County, Texas (Oloriz, in

prep), indicate the latest Kimmeridgian rather than earliest

Tithonian for the youngest horizons in the Louark Group

(Fig. 2). These data correlate with occurrences of atax-

ioceratid ammonites in the La Casita and La Caja

Formations in Mexico (Oloriz et al., 1993; Oloriz and

Villasenor, 1999; Villasenor et al., 2000) and indicate

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 127

diachrony for the earliest Bossier-type deposition in the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin.

3.2.2. The Cotton Valley Group

Above the Haynesville carbonates, shale-dominated

deposits, becoming coarser-grained and terrigenous land-

ward, serve to identify the Bossier Formation s.str.

(overlying Bossier-type deposits) and the Schuler For-

mation, respectively, as well as the base of the Cotton

Valley Group, which lies on older Louark Group deposits

basinward. Overlying the carbonate packages of the

Haynesville Formation, the lowermost part of the Bossier

Formation ranges in age from the middle-late Early

Kimmeridgian to the latest Kimmeridgian; the earliest

Tithonian was an age of widespread terrigenous influx in the

northern Gulf coast. Durangites, Salinites, Spiticeratinae

and Berriasellidae in higher horizons of the Bossier

Formation indicate Early Berriasian, whereas the oldest

record of Durangites may indicate the Late Tithonian.

The age of the top of the Cotton Valley Group, as usually

placed, has been dated by calpionellids from the reefal

Knowles Limestone as the Middle Berriasian-Valanginian

(Scott, 1984). Ammonites cited by Imlay and Herman

(1984) did not come from the top of the Bossier Formation

and, therefore, indicate earlier ages within the Berriasian

and the latest Tithonian. As noted previously, further

research is needed to determine hiatuses within the upper

Cotton Valley Group; some of them could be of crucial

importance for updated correlation (Fig. 2).

4. A proposal for tectono-eustatic sequences

Recent interpretations of the Smackover Formation and

related units (Buckner deposits, and Gilmer carbonates and

siliciclastics) in the north-western rim of the Gulf of Mexico

Basin have been made in terms of ‘major sequences’

(Moore and Druckman, 1991; Heydari et al., 1997; among

others). Though the duration of these sequences is variable,

it belongs to the lower range of the excessively wide and

variable one assumed for third-order depositional sequences

(Haq et al., 1987; 1988; Vail et al., 1984; Vail and Eisner,

1989; Miall, 1991; Ponsot and Vail, 1991; Kendall et al.,

1995). The sequence architecture that we interpret for Upper

Jurassic deposits in north-central Mexico and the northern

rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin resulted from higher-

hierarchy interactions between tectonics and eustasy. Thus,

we are concerned with the high range of third-order cycles

(4–6 Ma) and with a wider range corresponding to a set of

them (to slightly over 10 Ma). Hence, we interpret this

sequence architecture in terms of high-third-order Tectono-

Eustatic Sequences (3rd-TES) and a low-second-order

Tectono-Eustatic Supersequence (2nd-TES), following the

mean duration assumed by Mitchum (1977). Goldhammer

(1998) interpreted four major second-order supersequences

(,15 Ma approx.) for the Middle Jurassic-Lower

Cretaceous onshore in the Gulf of Mexico at the East

Texas Salt Basin, each of which exhibited subordinate third-

order sequences (1–3 Ma), but he did not give precise data

about third-order sequences. Thus, the sequences and

supersequences interpreted by Goldhammer (1998) are

hard to correlate with those that we interpret.

On the basis of ammonite biochronostratigraphy, com-

plemented with calpionellid data, we assume that major

stratigraphic features defining the Mexican Zuloaga and La

Casita “Groups”, as previously considered, can be corre-

lated with those identified in coeval deposits from the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. We interpret

these sedimentary packages in terms of Tectono-Eustatic

Sequences (TES) (Fig. 2). The new data we present here

update our earlier hypotheses on subsurface Groups in the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (Oloriz et al.,

1990).

The above controversial or rather intricate lithostrati-

graphic terminology for the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin results from the complex pattern of facies

relationships in shallow environments in the area. Salvador

(1991) gave complete and essentially correct correlation

charts of lithostratigraphic units. Depositional models by

Moore (1984); Montgomery (1996) show the distal margin

of the carbonate shelf to be a carbonate barrier, before

‘Bossier-time’, in which the Smackover Formation and the

Gilmer Limestone, or lateral equivalents, are identified only

where ‘Buckner-deposition’ developed. In Moore’s (1984)

model, the Gilmer Limestone is a diachronous facies,

including all deposits of the Louark Group above the

Smackover Formation, i.e., the Haynesville Formation. In

contrast to the usual interpretations, Gotte and Michalzik

(1992) correlated the Gilmer Member of the Haynesville

Formation at the top of the Louark Group with the Zuloaga

Limestone, which caps the Zuloaga Group in Mexico.

In the following analysis, we only refer to shelf areas,

excluding nearshore sites and those basinward from the

outer margin that show long-term homogeneous lithofacies

(black in Fig. 2).

4.1. 3rd-TES-I

The base of this sequence (3rd-TES-I) cannot be

established accurately. Its lower part is recognizable by

the occurrence of Middle Oxfordian ammonites, indicating

the oldest identified biohorizons in the Zuloaga and

Smackover carbonates (see above; Fig. 2), and lateral

equivalents. This datum plane indicates the end of the

Callovian-Early Oxfordian phase of the geodynamic

evolution in Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico Basin, and

the initial Late Jurassic flooding (shallow open-sea waters)

following the late Middle Jurassic major paleoceanographic

changes interpreted by Jansa (1986) in the central North

Atlantic. Hanisch (1983) recognized these events through an

erosional unconformity in the North Sea Graben (Tampen

Spur). The base of 3rd-TES-I is coeval with, and related to,

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142128

a major event in plate reorganization of the Atlantic-

Tethyan domain (e.g. Ziegler, 1988) forcing wide regional

and commonly composite (coalesced) unconformities in this

domain, especially well known from the Mediterranean

Tethys and surrounding areas. From north to south, this

event is recognized in the west-Canadian Arctic (Harrison

et al., 2000), in the NW Atlantic at Jameson Land (East

Greenland), and throughout the eastern North Atlantic

margin, from the southern end of the Viking Graben in the

NE Atlantic (Hanisch, 1983) to more southern areas in

the eastern central North Atlantic, such as the Celtic Sea, the

Bay of Biscay and the Lusitanian Basin, as well as in the

Betic Cordillera (southern Spain) and the Iberian Range

(eastern Iberia) at the western Tethys (e.g. Sequeiros, 1974;

Ziegler, 1988; Aurell et al., 2000; Bernardes and Corro-

chano, 1992; Caracuel et al., 2000). Marques et al. (1991)

recognized the composite character of the discontinuity at

the base of the Upper Jurassic (DIII) in southern and western

Iberia, and Aurell et al. (2000) gave data on associated

hiatuses in eastern Iberia. The discontinuity involves at least

3–4 Ma of discontinuous (hiatal) deposition according to

the cycle-chart proposed by Haq et al. (1987, 1988), and has

been interpreted as a composite unconformity related to the

major tectonic pulse, named by Marques et al. (1991) the

Callovian-Oxfordian Crisis.

At the same time, Mexican areas belonging to the

southern North American Plate were indirectly affected by

geodynamic events (Fig. 2) determining the plate’s break-

up, including the separation of the Yucatan shelf system and

the syn-rift tectonics undergone by the Gulf of Mexico

Basin (Salvador and Green, 1980; Emery and Uchupi, 1984;

Salvador, 1987; Michaud and Fourcade, 1989). Centeno--

Garcıa et al. (1998) estimated 158 ^ 4 Ma (U/Pb) for

volcanism in northern Zacatecas, and 156–152 Ma for the

pre-deformational event associated, which indicates a

mainly Callovian geodynamic activity ending close to the

Callovian/Oxfordian boundary. Emery and Uchupi (1984)

envisioned a tectonic event of Middle-Late Jurassic

boundary age in Cuba, and proposed the existence of a

seaway between Florida and Cuba connecting the Proto-

Gulf of Mexico with the central North Atlantic (see also

Jansa, 1986). The age of this marine connection could be

Oxfordian (Cobiella-Reguera pers. comm.,1998; Cobiella

and Oloriz this issue). Moreover, at the southern margin of

the North American Plate cropping out in northwestern

Cuba, Cobiella-Reguera (1995, 1996) has documented

significant intrusions of mafic tholeitic rocks of Oxfordian

age overlain by Middle Oxfordian carbonates, i.e. the

interpreted episode of magmatism related to the beginning

of a passive-margin situation under tensional conditions and

the turnover of terrigenous deposits by Middle Oxfordian

carbonates in the area. As demonstrated in Mexico and in

the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin, the oldest

ammonite assemblages in these transgressive deposits in

Cuba indicate Middle Oxfordian (middle-late Plicatilis

Chron) age (Myczynski et al., 1998), which essentially

correlates with the base of sequence J1 in the western

Lusitanian Basin (Bernardes and Corrochano, 1992). In

southern areas of the eastern Atlantic margin, this

transgression has been recognized in the western Morocco

Mazagan escarpment area, the Haha Basin, Cape Rhir and

the Aaiun Basin, as well as in Nova Scotia on the western

Atlantic margin (Renz et al., 1975; Lancelot et al., 1977;

Lancelot and Winterer, 1980; Steiger and Jansa, 1984). In

the latter area, a Mid-Oxfordian abrupt transgression is

recognizable from Nova Scotia to the Gulf Coast (Lancelot

and Winterer, 1980). Thus, it is possible to recognize an

‘isochronous’ event at the western and eastern margins of

the central North Atlantic Basin.

The upper boundary of the 3rd-TES-I is placed close to

the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary (Fig. 2) overlain by

deposits belonging to the 3rd-TES-II (northern rim of the

Gulf of Mexico Basin) and the 2nd-TES-II/III (north-central

Mexico). Although the Middle and Late Oxfordian

corresponded to a transgressive period over the long term

(Haq et al., 1987, 1988), it included short-term fluctuations

in relative sea-level. One of these short-term fluctuations

occurred during the youngest Oxfordian and earliest

Kimmeridgian (close to the Planula-Platynota Chron

boundary, standard ammonite biochronostratigraphy in

Europe), or during the Early Kimmeridgian according to

recent reinterpretations of this stage. It has been recognized

in the Iberian Subplate and related areas (see Marques et al.,

1991 for regional updating of the global curve in Haq et al.,

1987, 1988). On this basis, shallowing trends during the

Late Oxfordian in Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico Basin

(slightly earlier in Cuba?) are interpreted as resulting from

significant and widespread interactions between tectonics

and eustasy, which are envisaged to be related to

environmental conditions determining the upper boundary

of 3rd-TES-I. Thus, the 3rd-TES-I is recognizable in north-

central Mexico and in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin. Future research in Cuba will determine the

significance of this tectono-eustatic sequence in the

Caribbean.

4.2. 3rd-TES-II

In this region, the base of the 3rd-TES-II sequence is

placed at the base of (within?) Buckner deposits and lateral

equivalents, and essentially correlates with the top of

Smackover carbonates (Fig. 2). Alternatively, it could be

placed between Buckner and Haynesville evaporites, but

emersion at the top of Smackover carbonates (Moore and

Druckman, 1991) during assumed high sea-levels over the

long term (Haq et al., 1987, 1988) does not favor this

hypothesis. The top of the shallow carbonate shelf systems

in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (Smackover

carbonates) and in north-central Mexico (Zuloaga carbon-

ates) cannot be accurately dated, but the youngest

ammonites identified indicate the Late, not latest, Oxfor-

dian. Therefore, and taking into consideration the oldest

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 129

ammonites known from the overlying deposits, the base of

the 3rd-TES-II should be close to the Oxfordian/Kimmer-

idgian boundary, and related to a major compressional event

along western Mexico (U/Pb: 145 Ma in Centeno-Garcıa

et al., 1998), a widespread tectonic pulse involving plate

readjustment identified in Mexico (Araujo Mendieta et al.,

1982; Araujo Mendieta and Estavillo Gonzalez, 1987;

Ortuno Arzate and Delfaud, 1988; Salvador, 1991), in the

Gulf of Mexico Basin (Salvador and Green, 1980; Burke,

1988; Ross and Scotese, 1988; Salvador, 1991), in the North

Atlantic [down-faulting in the eastern Greenland margin

(Emery and Uchupi, 1984), and tectonic pulses related to the

better-developed erosional unconformity in the northern

North Sea (Hallet, 1981 in Hanisch (1983), Rawson and

Riley (1982)] and in northwestern Europe (Rawson and

Riley, 1982). Marques et al. (1991); Salas and Casas (1993)

reported coeval changes in the rate of subsidence in the

West-Tethyan epicontinental areas surrounding Iberia, and

Pena dos Reis et al. (2000) in the Lusitanian Basin in

western Iberia. Unfortunately, accurate data on the Oxfor-

dian/Kimmeridgian boundary in Cuba are unavailable, but

the significant impoverishment in ammonites during the

youngest Oxfordian slightly precedes and then shares the

same trend with Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico Basin.

Therefore, ammonite-poor deposits in the region could be

related to ecological damage resulting from tectonically

induced low relative sea levels, as suggested by Myczynski

et al. (1998).

The base of 3rd-TES-II in the northern rim of the Gulf

of Mexico Basin does not coincide with the base of the

Cotton Valley Group (Fig. 2), the lower (but not

lowermost) horizons of which yielded Idoceras in the

lower Bossier or Bossier-type shales. Thus, the base of

the Bossier or Bossier-type deposits analyzed belongs to

the Lower Kimmeridgian, above the Platynota Zone.

Terrigenous-evaporite deposits (upper Buckner and Hay-

nesville evaporites included) between Bossier, or Bossier-

type, and Smackover deposits could embrace the strati-

graphic interval from horizons close to the Oxfordian/

Kimmeridgian boundary (the Planula-Platynota Chron

boundary, Standard Ammonite Biochronostratigraphy in

Europe) to the late Platynota-earliest Hypselocyclum

Chron (Early Kimmeridgian) included. The youngest

ammonite biohorizon recognized locally in the Cotton

Valley Limestone of the Haynesville Formation (Amoco

No. 1 Jimmy Hill Gas Unit, East Texas) is close to the

Kimmeridgian-Tithonian boundary (see above), and its

recognition within assumed carbonate equivalents in the

Haynesville Formation (Gilmer and/or Haynesville Lime-

stone) remains to be made.

According to our biochronostratigraphic interpretation,

local unconformities at the base and top of the Haynes-

ville Formation at the Gulf Rim Coast (Forgotson and

Forgotson, 1976; Todd and Mitchum, 1977) resulted from

eustatic and tectonic pulses, respectively. Thus, the

unconformity at the base of the Haynesville Formation

could correspond to the sequence boundary between third-

order cycles 4.4 and 4.5 in Marques et al. (1991), with

Haynesville evaporites being lowstand deposits of the 4.5

cycle. This interpretation agrees with evidence from the

oldest ammonites known from Haynesville carbonates,

and lateral equivalent Bossier or Bossier-type shales,

indicating transgressive deposition over evaporites during

the late-Early Kimmeridgian Divisum Chron. In contrast,

the unconformity at the top of the Haynesville Formation

occurred during deposition of the transgressive system

tract of cycle 4.6 in Marques et al. (1991) and a rising sea

level over the long term, thus showing the influence of

tectonic pulses.

Goldhammer (1998) placed his SS1/SS2 supersequence

boundary at the East Texas Salt Basin within the Buckner

deposits, estimating an age of 144 Ma. Although this

regional stratigraphic datum essentially coincides with the

base of our 3rd-TES-II, the age-interpretation made by

Goldhammer (1998) indicates the correlation of the SS1/

SS2 supersequence boundary with the Platynota/Hypselo-

cyclum Zone boundary in Marques et al. (1991). Therefore,

the SS1/SS2 supersequence boundary recognized by Gold-

hammer (1998) correlates with the sequence boundary

between eustatic cycles 4.4 and 4.5 in Marques et al. (1991),

which we interpret as coinciding with the base of

Haynesville evaporites. Hence, only a minor stratigraphic

difference exists between the SS1/SS2 supersequence

boundary interpreted by Goldhammer (1998) and the base

of our 3rd-TES-II, both these levels being dated as

belonging to the same age. However, distinguishing

between evaporites belonging to the upper Buckner (low-

stand system tract of SS1) and the Haynesville (transgres-

sive system tract of SS2) Formations could be difficult

within the sequence-stratigraphic interpretation made by

Goldhammer (1998). As commented above, we interpret

evaporite deposits from the upper Buckner and the lower

Haynesville Formations to be uppermost highstand system

tract and lowstand deposits, respectively. Concerning the

boundary between the Louark and the Cotton Valley

Groups, the irregular topography recognized by Gold-

hammer (1998) at the top of the Haynesville Formation

agrees with our interpretation of tectonic pulses during

rising sea levels.

The 3rd-TES-II spans a major part of the Kimmeridgian,

as confirmed by ammonites (Fig. 2), this being a time of

active structuring in the area, as deduced from patterns of

facies relationships far more complex than in the Oxfordian

(see Salvador, 1991, for overview). Hence, Kimmeridgian

instability followed the major geodynamic event that

occurred during the latest Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian

(see below). Like the 3rd-TES-I, the 3rd-TES-II in the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin developed during

long-term sea-level rising (Haq et al., 1987, 1988). At

present, the 3rd-TES-II in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin is not clearly recognized in Mexico, but its

stratigraphic interval broadly correlates with the drifting

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142130

period envisaged in the central Cuba Las Villas Domain by

Alvarez Castro et al. (1998).

4.3. 2nd-TES-II/III

The lower boundary of this supersequence (2nd-TES-

II/III) in north-central Mexico is placed at the top of the

Zuloaga Formation (top of the Zuloaga Limestone), and

correlated with the Lower Olvido Formation (or with a

poorly known horizon within it). The base of this super-

sequence is correlated with the base of the 3rd-TES-II in the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (Fig. 2). In

contrast, the upper boundary of this supersequence in north

central Mexico does not correlate with the top of the 3rd-

TES-II in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. In

fact, 2nd-TES-II/III in north-central Mexico is interpreted as

embracing the longer stratigraphic interval represented by

the “La Casita Group” (slightly longer than 10 Ma) and,

therefore, its upper boundary is assumed to correlate with

the top of the Cotton Valley Group (see below). The future

subdivision of the 2nd-TES-II/III in north-central Mexico is

envisaged according to preliminary data pointing to a Late

Kimmeridgian-earliest Tithonian low relative sea level

identified in San Luis Potosı (Oloriz et al., 1996). At

present, the 2nd-TES-II/III spans from the Early, though not

earliest, Kimmeridgian to a still poorly identified Berriasian

age (Fig. 2). According to preliminary biochronostrati-

graphic data, it may locally range into the Early Valangi-

nian.

4.4. 3rd-TES-III

The 3rd-TES-III is recognizable only in the northern rim

of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (Fig. 2). Its base is defined by

the youngest level at which the Louark Group (Haynesville

Formation) is overlain by the Cotton Valley Group, and

earliest Tithonian in age (the time of definitive influx of

terrigenous sediments into the area). As previously stated,

the unconformity related to the base of the 3rd-TES-III

(Dinkins, 1968; Forgotson and Forgotson, 1976; Todd and

Mitchum, 1977) was tectonically forced, a possibility not

discarded by Salvador (1991) and compatible with data in

Goldhammer (1998). The upper boundary, which corre-

sponds with the top of the Cotton Valley Group, determines

an important discontinuity (sequence boundary) within the

Berriasian (Todd and Mitchum 1977), according to

nannoplankton data. However, a major discontinuity at the

top of the Cotton Valley Group is not recorded seismically

in some areas of Texas (McGowen and Harris 1984), and

Valanginian-Hauterivian ammonites were recorded by

Imlay and Herman (1984) from the upper part of the Cotton

Valley Group in the Humble-Benevides No. 1 well in Webb

County, Texas. When present, the discontinuity at the top of

the Cotton Valley Group is undoubtedly Early Neocomian

in age (Fig. 2), but Berriasian-Valanginian hiatuses remain

to be dated accurately.

The upper boundaries of the 3rd-TES-III (mainly a

Tithonian to Early Berriasian sequence) in the northern rim

of the Gulf of Mexico Basin and the 2nd-TES-II/III (mainly

a Kimmeridgian to Early Berriasian supersequence) in

north-central Mexico are delimited by the lower boundary

of the Lower Cretaceous TESs, which are beyond the scope

of the present study. However, the lowermost boundary (the

real bottom) for TESs in the Lower Cretaceous is assumed

to be intra-Berriasian, although finer biochronostratigraphy

is necessary for the top of the “La Casita Group” and the

Cotton Valley Group (preliminary interpretation in Fig. 2).

As noted above, the interpretation of a Tethyan phase in

the geodynamic evolution of the Chihuahua Basin (Ortuno

Arzate and Delfaud, 1988) is relevant, especially as the

result of the identification of a megasequence boundary at

the top of the La Casita deposits. The interpretation by

Emery and Uchupi (1984) of the top of the uppermost cycle

(top of the Cotton Valley Group) in the Jurassic Supercycle

identified in eastern Texas is compatible with this

hypothesis.

Unconformities capping the uppermost Jurassic in

Atlantic areas have usually been referred to as the ‘Late

Cimmerian unconformity’. In fact, the latter has been

related to a major rifting pulse associated with an abrupt

sea-level fall (Ziegler, 1977; Vail et al., 1977) affecting the

North Atlantic rift system and related areas during the Late

Jurassic/Early Cretaceous transition (Ziegler, 1988 among

others). However, based on available biostratigraphic data,

we agree with Rawson and Riley (1982) that the term ‘Late

Cimmerian unconformity’ is an oversimplification. Data

from the Upper Jurassic of the NE Atlantic (North Sea)

given by Hanisch (1983) are of special relevance, showing

two major regional unconformities in the area, the better

developed being registered at the base of the Kimmeridgian

and the younger within the Berriasian. The age interpret-

ation for the latter agrees with the updated interpretation of

calpionellids reported by Jansa et al. (1980), partly

improved by Jansa (1981); Jansa et al. (1982). The updated

interpretation is based on ammonite-calpionellid correlation

in Tavera et al. (1994), and the most complete and updated

calpionellid biostratigraphy from the westernmost west-

Tethys (Oloriz et al., 1995). This, in turn, shows higher

potential for correlation of related tectonic disturbances and

hiatuses between the Canadian Atlantic Shelf and the North

Sea in the NE Atlantic.

The 3rd-TES-III in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin, as well as the Tithonian-Berriasian part of

the 2nd-TEM-II/III in north-central Mexico, developed

during a long-term sea-level low, before the eustatic sea-

level rise during the Late Berriasian (Haq et al., 1987, 1988;

Marques et al., 1991). Terrigenous deposition with shallow-

ing and coarse-upward sequences (Salvador, 1991) is

consistent with such an eustatic context, but see Gold-

hammer (1998) for the East Texas Salt Basin. However, the

abrupt ending of the uppermost carbonates in the Louark

Group used to place the boundary between the 3rd-TES-II

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 131

and 3rd-TES-III in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico

Basin, together with evidence for tectonic pulses in Mexico

(Oloriz et al., 1996, 1998c, 1999), indicate interactions

between tectonics and eustasy. In areas where these tectono-

eustatic events severely affected deposition (northern rim of

the Gulf of Mexico Basin), the recognition of the 3rd-TES-

III in the Upper Jurassic is strengthened. In contrast, where

the influence of tectono-eustatic interactions was more

restricted, or less known, (north-central Mexico) further

research is necessary to interpret stratigraphic sequences

and their meaning on the basis of updated ammonite

biochronostratigraphy and correlation.

Gotte and Michalzik (1992) inferred the existence of

two megasequences in Mexico and the northern rim of

the Gulf of Mexico Basin, referring to tectonic control at

least for their lower megasequence. This megasequence

embraced a “Zuloaga Group” composed of the La Joya,

Minas Viejas and Zuloaga Formations in the Eastern

Sierra Madre (its correlative in the northern rim of the

Gulf being the Louark Group as reinterpreted by Gotte

and Michalzik, 1992). However, this megasequence is

rather difficult to correlate, since it includes lower

terrigenous and evaporite units lacking biostratigraphic

control for reliable stratigraphic interpretation (cf. Moran

Zenteno, 1984; Longoria, 1984; Meyer and Ward, 1984;

Moore, 1984; Lopez-Ramos, 1985; Salvador, 1991).

Moreover, the upper boundary of the lower megase-

quence proposed by Gotte and Michalzik (1992), which

includes their “Zuloaga Group” and their correlative

Louark Group, should be latest Kimmeridgian-earliest

Tithonian in age, according to recent data from the

Haynesville carbonates. However, this hypothesis is

untenable for the Zuloaga Limestone and lateral equiva-

lents in Mexico. In addition, the top of the upper

megasequence in Gotte and Michalzik (1992), which

includes the La Casita deposits and the assumed

correlative Cotton Valley Group, represents neither the

top of the Tithonian nor, therefore, the Jurassic/Cretac-

eous (Tithonian/Berriasian) boundary.

5. Discussion

The lithostratigraphic units analyzed (Mexican “Groups”

in land outcrops and formal subsurface Groups in the

northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin) and the tectono-

eustatic sequences and supersequences interpreted are not

correlative. The Mexican Zuloaga and La Casita “Groups”

comprise the Mexican 3rd-TES-I (mainly Middle-Late

Oxfordian) and 2nd-TES-II/III (mainly Kimmeridgian to

partly Berriasian). In contrast, the Louark and Cotton Valley

Groups cannot be correlated with the 3rd-TES-I (mainly

Middle-Late Oxfordian), 3rd-TES-II (mainly Kimmerid-

gian) and 3rd-TES-III (mainly Tithonian-Early Berriasian)

interpreted in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin.

The lack of correlation between these major

lithostratigraphic units in north-central Mexico and the

Gulf of Mexico Basin indicates differential responses to

geodynamic evolution in these regions.

The Oxfordian 3rd-TES-I embraces the interpreted

“Zuloaga Group”, including lower Olvido deposits in

north-central Mexico. In the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin this sequence is represented by Smackover

carbonates and, probably, a lower part of Buckner evaporites,

the extent of which is difficult to specify (Fig. 2). The

correlation of the Buckner Member with the lower part of the

Mexican Olvido Formation (Imlay, 1942, 1945, 1952;

Wilson et al., 1984) has been tentatively interpreted as

ranging from Late Oxfordian to Early Kimmeridgian (Imlay,

1942, 1945, 1953; Wilson et al. 1984). Salvador (1991)

correlated Buckner evaporites with the terrigenous-evapori-

tic deposits of the lower Olvido Formation, and considered

the upper carbonate Olvido as roughly equivalent to the

upper part of the Haynesville Formation ( ¼ Gilmer Lime-

stone and its informal equivalent termed Cotton Valley

Limestone), a correlation also admitted by Goldhammer

(1998) for the East Texas Salt Basin. Gotte and Michalzik

(1992) proposed the correlation of the Lower Olvido with the

Minas Viejas Formation and interpreted the upper Olvido

limestones as a time marker and lateral equivalent to the

Gilmer Limestone.

On the basis of our data and revision of ammonites, we

agree with the correlation of Olvido evaporites (lower

Olvido) with Buckner deposits. However, we cannot support

the complete correlation proposed by Salvador (1991), given

the tectonic context that we envisage, since it could have

resulted in a period of instability and shallow-water

environments, hampering the precise correlation of shifting

lithofacies without biochronostratigraphic control. This is

especially true for the correlation of the Upper Olvido with

the entire Haynesville carbonate interval, an interpretation

not supported by current paleontological data but assumed by

A. Salvador based on electric logs (pers. comm. to FO,1998).

Goldhammer (1998) also interpreted the Upper Olvido and

the entire Haynesville carbonate intervals as correlative,

based on sequence stratigraphy and composite accommo-

dation models. However, the only paleontological support

for interpreting the uppermost Olvido deposits could perhaps

be the indirect interpretation made by Imlay (1943), who

interpreted the Olvido Formation as Lower Kimmeridgian,

below horizons with Idoceras balderum. Imlay’s (1943)

interpretation has been supported by subsurface data in the

Burgos Basin (NE Mexico) showing Olvido deposits below

La Casita horizons with Idoceras (Cantu-Chapa, 1998). The

undefined top for Olvido deposits in Fig. 2 reflects the

inconclusive stratigraphy available, especially if the typical

diachrony at the top of the Haynesville Formation is taken

into account.

Despite the difficulty in the precise identification of a

sequence boundary within or between terrigenous-evapor-

ite successions, especially in a context of tectono-eustatic

interactions (see above), the easy correlation of

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142132

the 3rd-TES-I in north-central Mexico and the northern rim

of the Gulf of Mexico Basin points to a time of minor

differentiation in geodynamic evolution during the Middle

and Late Oxfordian in these regions.

According to our biochronostratigraphic correlation of

American and European margins of the North Atlantic

Basin (Fig. 1), the 3rd-TES-I (Fig. 2) spans a clearly

evidenced Middle-Late Oxfordian (earliest Kimmeridgian?)

tectono-eustatic cycle in the central North Atlantic. Data

available from western Africa recovered from the Moroccan

to the Senegal Basins agree with this interpretation. The

Atlantic transgression during the early-Middle Oxfordian,

used to place the lower boundary of the 3rd-TES-I, is well

documented in southwestern Morocco, the Essaouira and

Aaiun-Tarfaya Basins, and at Cape Rhir in the Western

High Atlas (Lancelot and Winterer, 1980). More reliable

data have been obtained from the Mazagan escarpment area

and DSDP site 367 in the Cape Verde Basin (Renz et al.,

1975; Lancelot et al., 1977; Jansa et al., 1977; Renz, 1977).

In the Mazagan escarpment, Renz et al. (1975) dated the

lower yellow-brown limestone at the dredge haul V30-

RD38 as Middle Oxfordian, and later confirmed this age in

close highs (DSDP sites 544A and 545) of the Mazagan

escarpment area (Renz, 1984). Southwards, in the Cape

Verde Basin (DSDP site 367), the radiometric age of basalts

(Jansa et al., 1977) correlates with the stratigraphic location

interpreted for the lower boundary of the 3rd TES-I

discussed. On the assumption of the similarity in deposi-

tional conditions between the central North Atlantic and

western Tethys (Bernoulli, 1972; Lancelot et al., 1977;

Jansa et al., 1984), and the age of common changes in

lithofacies in the epicontinental Upper Oxfordian from

southern Spain (Prebetic), shifts between ammonitico rosso

type facies and gray mudstones containing Oxfordian-

Kimmeridgian aptychi at DSDP site 367 (implicitly

interpreted as close to the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian bound-

ary by Renz, 1977) could be reinterpreted as Late

Oxfordian, at least that recorded from sample 35. Thus, it

could be correlative with the upper boundary of the 3rd-

TES-I. This interpretation agrees with the Late Oxfordian-

earliest Kimmeridgian age interpreted by Renz et al. (1975)

for ammonites recovered from the white limestone over-

lying the Middle Oxfordian yellow-brown limestone at the

Mazagan escarpment (West Morocco), thus assuming,

implicitly, a Late Oxfordian shift in lithofacies at dredge

haul V30-RD38.

The aforementioned stratigraphic interval, embracing the

3rd-TES-I in north-central Mexico and in the northern rim

of the Gulf of Mexico Basin, correlates with the part of the

S1 supersequence in the South Iberian paleomargin

(Marques et al., 1991) between its base and the top of the

tectono-eustatic sequence KI. In eastern Iberia the correla-

tives are the majority of sequence J8 in Salas and Casas

(1993), except its hiatal lowermost part, and the J3.3 and

J3.4 sequences of Aurell et al. (2000). In western Iberia, this

stratigraphic interval basically correlates with sequences J1

and J2 in the western Lusitanian Basin (Bernardes and

Corrochano, 1992) and with the tectono-sedimentary stage

interpreted by Pena dos Reis et al. (2000) in relation with

the onset of rifting (rift initiation) throughout the Lusitanian

Basin.

In the central Cuba Las Villas Domain, drifting began

during the Early Kimmeridgian (Alvarez Castro et al., 1998)

after the turnover from ammonite-rich to ammonite-barren

deposits during Late, not latest, Oxfordian. Thus, with

minor uncertainty, it is possible to identify a structuring

phase affecting the Mexico-Caribbean region, the central

North Atlantic Basin and northwestern Tethys epicontinen-

tal shelves, i.e. a tectonic event undergone by the central

North Atlantic, according to the stratigraphic imprint on

areas close to the western and eastern margins of the basin.

After the latest Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian tec-

tonic phase, fine-grained terrigenous sedimentation over-

whelmingly dominated in the north-central Mexico and

basinward sites in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico

Basin, resulting in a renewed phase of sedimentation

interpreted as the 2nd-TES-II/III and 3rd-TES-II in these

areas, respectively. However, a more restricted carbonate

deposition persisted in the northern rim of the Gulf, with

episodic terrigenous inputs during the Kimmeridgian. This

pattern is evidenced by diachronous boundaries between

Louark carbonates and Bossier (or Bossier-type) shales,

thus determining the diachronous boundary between the

Louark and the Cotton Valley Groups. Relatively homo-

geneous deposition in the “La Casita Group” during the

Kimmeridgian and earliest Tithonian contrasts with the

intricate pattern of facies characteristic of the Kimmeridgian

part of the Louark Group. This demonstrates the differences

in geodynamic evolution, such as greater basin stability in

north-central Mexico, than in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin, which progressively and episodically

deepened.

The sharp decrease in carbonate deposition close to the

Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary, together with the

dominance of terrigenous sedimentation during the Kim-

meridgian, indicates tectonic influence: a tilting that caused

rejuvenation, changes in depositional conditions; and

ecological stress during high but fluctuating relative sea

levels in Mexico (clastics of the “La Casita Group”).

McGowen and Harris (1984) related the terrigenous input in

the southeastern USA to a tilt-reversal phase affecting the

rift margins along the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico

Basin, which was probably coeval with the beginning of

differential subsidence of the central Gulf as suggested by

Salvador (1987). According to our biochronostratigraphic

interpretation, the tilt-reversal phase began during the Early

Kimmeridgian, then continued episodically during the

Kimmeridgian, and ended close to the Kimmeridgian/

Tithonian boundary. The Kimmeridgian/Tithonian bound-

ary is correlated with the sequence boundary between 3rd-

TES-II and 3rd-TES-III in the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin. This might correlate with the change from

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 133

green-gray interbedded calcareous claystones and lime-

stones to the grayish-red calcareous claystones of the Cat

Gap Formation at DSDP site 534 (dated by Habib and

Drugg, 1983), which could be related to a hiatus according

to Ogg et al. (1983). The ages interpreted for the boundaries

of the 3rd-TES-II in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico

Basin correlate with the main events of shallowing and

deepening in the Guaniguanico Cordillera (Myczynski,

1994), which span the period for drifting in central Cuba as

suggested by Alvarez Castro et al. (1998).

In north-central Mexico, Kimmeridgian to Early Berria-

sian deposits of the La Casita Group show the 2nd-TES-

II/III. Relatively homogeneous deposition, indicating inter-

actions between tectonics and eustasy, makes it difficult to

identify shorter stratigraphic intervals. However, deposi-

tional events in the Middle (three-fold division) Kimmer-

idgian (Oloriz et al., 1988, 1998b,c) and the Late

Kimmeridgian to Early, or Early-Middle, Tithonian (Oloriz

et al., 1996, 1999) could be informative and will be

investigated on the basis of improved ammonite

biochronostratigraphy.

Biochronostratigraphic data from eastern Mexico, closer

to the western rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin, show the

turnover between the Taman and Pimienta Formations

occurring early, but diachronically, during the Tithonian

(Cantu-Chapa, 1967, 1984). This fact indicates changing

geodynamic history in intermediate areas between the Gulf

of Mexico Basin and north-central Mexico.

In northern Chihuahua and southwestern Texas, Cantu-

Chapa (1976) recognized an Early Kimmeridgian transgres-

sion followed by increased drowning during the Tithonian

and then regression during the Late Tithonian, which in fact

is Early Berriasian. Combined biochronostratigraphic and

lithologic data given by Cantu-Chapa (1976) are valuable,

but too limited for a conclusive interpretation. Despite this

shortcoming, Cantu-Chapa’s (1976) data demonstrate the

late-Early Kimmeridgian age for the widely known record

of Idoceras in Mexico related to the progressive homogen-

ization in depositional conditions following a southeastern-

northwestern trend, from Sierra de Almagre to Sierra de

Chorreras and Placer de Guadalupe, during the Late

Kimmeridgian and Tithonian. The lack of data about

depositional discontinuities and/or precise changes in

lithofacies, impedes the identification and/or correlation of

stratigraphic intervals between the initial transgression and

final regression recognized by Cantu-Chapa (1998). The

base and top of this Late Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous marine

flooding in northern Chihuahua and SW Texas correlate

with the 2nd-TES-II/III that we propose for north-central

Mexico, especially in areas where it was slightly delayed (in

terms of ammonite biochronostratigraphy) during the Early

Kimmeridgian. In addition, the beginning of the Tithonian

drowning interpreted by Cantu-Chapa (1998) could be

roughly correlative with the 3rd-TES-II/TES-III boundary

proposed for the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin.

The duration of the drowning would then be equivalent to

the time-span interpreted for 3rd-TES-III. Thus, in a strictly

transitional area between these two major regions, evidence

exists to support our interpretations.

For the Tethys–North Atlantic Rift System, Late

Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous data indicate significant phases

of individualization during this time-interval of clear

separation between Europe and the North American Plate,

as stated by Rehault and Mauffret (1979). Updated

biochronostratigraphy supports a Middle Oxfordian age

for the lower boundary of the Zuloaga and the Louark Group

analyzed, while tops of the La Casita Group and the Cotton

Valley Group are commonly placed within the Berriasian,

and locally within the Early Valanginian. Between these

age-limits the second and fourth Upper Jurassic cycles have

been identified within the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in the

Gulf of Mexico Basin, and have been interpreted as natural

divisions of the Drift Supersequence (Emery and Uchupi,

1984). In addition, this Late Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous

interval represents one of the significant events in the

Mesozoic evolution of the North Atlantic, determining

the second sequence bounded by major unconformities in

the Lusitanian Basin (Wilson, 1988). These unconformities

correlate with the base of J1 and the top of J6 sequences in

the succession of lower-order depositional sequences

identified by Bernardes and Corrochano (1992) in the

western Lusitanian Basin. The Upper Jurassic Supercycle

proposed by Emery and Uchupi (1984) embraces cycles and

the respective second and third megasequences (Lopez-

Garrido and Garcıa-Hernandez, 1988) within the so-called

Jurassic Cycle in the Prebetic Zone of southern Iberia

(Garcıa-Hernandez and Lopez-Garrido, 1988). The uncon-

formity-related lower boundary assumed by Emery and

Uchupi (1984) for the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in the Gulf

of Mexico correlates with the beginning of the second-phase

of rifting in west Iberia (Mougenot et al., 1979; Rehault and

Mauffret, 1979). This unconformity is known from the west-

Canadian Arctic Amerasian Basin (Harrison et al., 2000)

and is widely recognized in the North Atlantic Basin (Todd

and Mitchum, 1977), especially on the European margin

(Ziegler, 1988), as well as in westernmost Tethyan southern

Europe (Ramalho, 1985; Marques et al., 1991). Emery and

Uchupi (1984) established a ‘Valanginian/earliest Cretac-

eous’ age for the top of the Upper Jurassic Supercycle in

eastern Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. According to

available updated biochronostratigraphy, the age of this

boundary appears to be intra-Berriassian and, therefore,

correlative with unconformities in epicontinental shelves

surrounding Iberia.

In western Iberia, earliest Cretaceous unconformities

were related to local emersion and erosion capping the Late

Jurassic carbonate platform bordering the western Iberia

foreland and its marginal uplifted blocks. This extended

westwards to form part of a great carbonate-shelf system

reaching the conjugate Canadian protomargin, according to

Comas et al. (1988). Data about Anchyspirocyclina

lusitanica provided by these authors support this

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142134

interpretation, showing close correlation with the upper part

of the third cycle and the widespread emersion recognized

by Garcıa-Hernandez and Lopez-Garrido (1988) at

the Portlandian/Berriasian boundary in the Prebetic Zone

(southern Spain). This interpretation agrees with the placing

of the top of J6 sequence by Bernardes and Corrochano

(1992) and with evidence for distensive pulses during the

Late Tithonian/Berriasian transition (Pena dos Reis et al.,

2000) within the so-called Upper Jurassic-Berriasian Cycle

identified on land outcrops from the Lusitanian Basin

(western Iberia). Northwestwards, there is evidence

(Groupe Galice et al., 1979; Sibuet and Ryan, 1979)

indicating a Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous tectonic episode

responsible for major trends in the configuration of the

continental margin in the Galicia Bank and the Vigo

Seamount areas (northwestern Iberia), involving rotating

fault activity in both the Iberian and the Armorican margins.

Groupe Galice et al. (1979) interpreted important epeiro-

genic movements at the end of the Jurassic in the northern

part of the Portuguese Basin. These movements forced a

marked regression with deposition of red sandstones, which

correlates with widespread continental deposition in

Western Europe. In eastern Iberia, Aurell et al. (2000)

have reported a widespread discontinuity at the end of the

Berriasian, preceded by a more restricted one at the

Tithonian/Berriasian boundary, but biostratigraphic data

are scant, as is usual in very shallow environments. Salas

and Casas (1993) interpreted a regional unconformity

capping the so-called Jurassic Supersequence in eastern

Iberia, and an intra-Berriasian unconformity bounding their

‘Jurassic’ sequences J10 and J11. Paleomargin instability

(calciturbidites) during the widespread latest Jurassic-

Neocomian regression in northwestern Africa (DSDP sites

370 and 416) is correlative on the basis of updated

biochronostratigraphy, mainly the calpionellids reported

by Vincent et al. (1980a,b).

Between the Middle Oxfordian and the Early-Middle

Berriasian, Marques et al. (1991) recognized four major

events of interaction between tectonics and eustasy

affecting the Iberian Subplate: (1) The Callovian-Oxfor-

dian Crisis, which led to coalesced unconformities

embracing more than two low-third-order eustatic cycles

at the Middle-Upper Jurassic transition; (2) The Final-

Oxfordian Crisis, which played a significant role in the re-

structuring of epicontinental shelves surrounding Iberia

close to the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary, and

brought about a low-third-order tectono-eustatic sequence

(KI) in the South Iberian paleomargin (in relation to a

tectonic pulse also recognized in eastern and western

epicontinental shelves in Iberia and northwestern Africa);

(3) The Middle Kimmeridgian Event, related to a slow but

persistent uplift of epicontinental shelves favoring the

typical growth of carbonate shelves during more than 3

third-order eustatic cycles; and (4) The Early-Middle

Berriasian Crisis, a wide regional event commonly

identified through an unconformity within Cycle 1.4

in the Supercycle LZB-1 proposed by Haq et al. (1987,

1988) and revised by Marques et al. (1991) for

southern Iberia.

According to the interpretation of the Tithonian/Berria-

sian boundary in southern Spain by Tavera et al. (1994) and

the most accurate calpionellid biostratigraphy known from

the westernmost west-Tethys at the Sierra Norte (Mallorca

Island, eastern Spain; Oloriz et al., 1995), the following

geologic traits recognized in Atlantic margins other than

Iberian ones, and geologically related areas, correlate with

the Early-Middle Berriasian Crisis interpreted by Marques

et al. (1991): (1) early phases of seafloor spreading in the

Amerasian Basin, as dated by Rowley and Lottes (1988) and

correlated with the best interim evaluation for the Jurassic

time-scale considered by Odin (1992) and the European

ammonite biochronostratigraphic standard scale for the

Tithonian (Geyssant and Enay, 1991); (2) tectonic disturb-

ances, hiatuses and related unconformities reported for the

Scotian and East Newfoundland Basins (Jansa et al., 1980,

1982; Jansa, 1981); (3) the bottom of the white chalky

limestone in the Atlantic margin of North America at the

DSDP site 105 (lower continental rise hills between New

York and Bermuda; Lehman, 1972), DSDP site 391c

(Blake-Bahama Basin; Wind, 1978), and DSDP site 534

(Blake-Bahama Basin; Habib and Drugg, 1983; Roth 1983;

Roth et al., 1983), though Remane (1983) interpreted an

apparently older age for the bottom of the Blake-Bahama

Formation, considering the basal Berriasian as indicated by

the upper part of the Calpionellid Zone B. Remane’s (1983)

interpretation resulted in an excessively extended Tithonian

stage in Hole 543A; (4) increased subsidence of Atlantic

margins in the Florida-Bahamas and Yucatan shelves,

affecting northern Cuba (Myczynski and Pszczokowski,

1994); (5) the third episode of magmatism in western Cuba

(Cobiella-Reguera, 1996), but see Cobiella-Reguera and

Oloriz (in progress); (6) the oceanic crust (ophiolites) in the

central Cuba Las Villas province (Llanes Castro and Garcıa

Delgado, 1998); (7) distal turbidite deposition in the

Moroccan Basin at DSDP site 416 (Vincent et al., 1980a,

b); (8) the Berriasian unconformity at the Mazagan

escarpment (DSDP site 547B) with associated deposits

containing Remaniella ferasini (Azema and Jaffrezo, 1984),

although the related hiatus was interpreted to be post-

Berriasian by Jansa et al. (1984). Note that Remaniella

cadishiana (FAD placed at the mid-Zone B ¼ middle-Early

Berriasian in Mallorca according to Oloriz et al., 1995) was

the first record of calpionellids reported by Vincent et al.

(1980b) from calciturbidites at DSDP site 416; and finally

(9) the significant shift in lithofacies within the Cape Verde

Basin (DSDP site 367; Jansa et al., 1977), and probably that

recognized by Arthur et al. (1979) in drill hole CORC 15-1

at the Aaiun Basin, onshore southwestern Morocco (former

Spanish Sahara). Thus, these data point to a rather

isochronous tectono-eustatic pulse in the central North

Atlantic and geodynamically related areas, which correlates

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 135

with tectonic events known from distant northern regions

such as the Canadian Arctic.

In north-central Mexico and the northern rim of the Gulf

of Mexico Basin (and western Cuba in terms of ammonite

paleobiogeography according to Myczynski, 1994), the

Middle Oxfordian-Berriasian/Lower Valanginian strati-

graphic interval identified is broadly coeval with the

Supercycles LZA-4 þ LZB-1 þ lowermost LZB-2 of Haq

et al. (1987, 1988) in the western Tethys. A long-term rising

sea level during the lower LZA-4 (Early-early Middle

Oxfordian–Early Kimmeridgian) was tectonically punctu-

ated in Mexico and the ancestral Gulf of Mexico region

during the youngest Oxfordian to the Early Kimmeridgian

up to the late Platynota or earliest Hypselocyclum Chron.

Active faulting, salt movement, and supratidal conditions in

the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin (Buckner

deposits), are assumed to be coeval with the general erosion

and/or non-deposition together with local shallow subtidal-

supratidal evaporite deposition in Mexico. These events

ended the Late Jurassic carbonate-shelf deposition phase

(Zuloaga and mainly lower Olvido deposits). The hiatus that

Medd (in Ogg et al., 1983) envisaged and related to the

beginning of the lower green-gray interbedded calcareous

claystone and limestone of the Cat Gap Formation at DSDP

site 534 (Habib and Drugg, 1983), and the better-expressed

unconformity identified by Hanisch (1983) at the base of the

Kimmeridgian in the northern North Sea, could be useful for

correlation.

The end of the tilt-reversal phase in the ancestral Gulf

area caused the exclusiveness of the terrigenous deposition

during the Tithonian and Berriasian, which characterizes the

Cotton Valley Group before Early-Middle Berriasian

transgressive pulses favoring reefal growth (Knowles

Limestone). The tectonic imprint during the latest Jur-

assic-earliest Cretaceous in the area is clearly shown by the

regressive trend recognized by Salvador (1991) for Cotton

Valley deposits, the context of increasing accommodation

interpreted by Goldhammer (1998) at the East Texas Salt

Basin, and the assumed global sea-level fall over the long

term (Haq et al., 1987, 1988; Marques et al., 1991). In the

absence of precise ammonite biochronostratigraphy, calpio-

nellid data together with a careful analysis of depositional

features of the Knowles facies should improve the

interpretation of depositional history during the Berriasian.

According to the above interpretation, the geodynamic

structuring of the ancestral Gulf of Mexico during the Late

Jurassic, as recorded in its northern rim, was causally related

to that occurring in north-central Mexico, although partly

diachronous. The combined “Atlantic-Tethyan cachet” of

this structuring is recognized through shared trends with

some northwestern margins of the Tethys. Hence, an Upper

Jurassic Supercycle can be recognized, including latest

Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian tectonic pulses within the

Late Mesozoic Break-up Phase of plate reorganization, as

interpreted by Ziegler (1988) for the North Atlantic and

Tethys. Reliable data from the Iberian Plate have been

provided by Garcıa-Hernandez and Lopez-Garrido (1988);

Lopez-Garrido and Garcıa-Hernandez (1988); Wilson

(1988); Marques et al. (1991); Bernandes and Corrochano

(1992); Salas and Casas (1993); Aurell et al. (2000); Pena

dos Reis et al. (2000). Salas and Casas (1993) emphasized

the close correlation between the course of geodynamic

evolution in the North Atlantic and Iberia during the Late

Jurassic and the Early Cretaceous. In a wider regional

context, Lemoine (1983) recognized ‘good agreement’ (lit.

translation) between the evolution of the central North

Atlantic and the Ligurian Tethys, which he interpreted as

following nearly the same timing for transition from rifting

to drifting.

In the Mexican-Gulf-Caribbean region, very shallow

waters and local supratidal conditions prevailed, probably as

a consequence of the differential uplift induced by

progressive separation of the North and South American

Plate during the Oxfordian (3rd-TES-I), reaching substantial

separation from latest Oxfordian-earliest Kimmeridgian

onwards. The episodic deepening of the central Gulf region,

with a final Jurassic phase close to the Kimmeridgian/-

Tithonian boundary, marked a significant difference in the

geologic evolution between the northern rim of the Gulf of

Mexico Basin (and probably western Cuba) and north

central Mexico. This resulted in the possibility for

recognition of the 3rd-TES-II and, therefore, the overlying

3rd-TES-III in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin

before the significant fluctuations in relative sea level,

which marked the end of the latter sequence during the

Berriasian.

In the regional cycle chart proposed by Todd and

Mitchum (1977) for the Texas Gulf Coast (slightly adapted

by Emery and Uchupi, 1984), the lower boundary of J3.1

might be placed within the Middle Oxfordian (probably

intra-Plicatilis Zone). The boundary between cycles J3.1

and J3.2 is reinterpreted as close to the Kimmeridgian/

Tithonian boundary, assuming local variation. Available but

inconclusive biochronostratigraphic data indicate diachron-

ism of the upper boundary of the J3.2 cycle related to

differential topography and subsidence in this region. A

detailed study of the uppermost beds of the J3.2 cycle and

the lowermost beds of the K1.2 cycle is needed. The

reinterpreted J3.2 cycle fits well with the 3rd-TES-III

interpreted in the area (doubts persist for its comparatively

poorly-known upper part; see Fig. 2), but the J3.1 cycle

cannot be correlated at the scale we used. The recognition of

three TESs in the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico Basin

could be consistent with a subdivision of the Kimmeridgian-

Berriasian 2nd-TES-II/III in north central Mexico (prelimi-

nary data in Oloriz et al., 1999).

More research based on updated ammonite and calpio-

nellid biochronostratigraphy is necessary to understand the

preserved features of the geo-biological evolution in

Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico Basin during the Late

Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous. This evolution determined the

Upper Jurassic Supercycle, also identified in the Iberian

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142136

Subplate, showing significant geologic traits within a

suitable stratigraphic framework for understanding of the

Late Jurassic evolution of the central North Atlantic.

We agree with previous authors who argue for an

Atlantic–Western Tethys System during the Late Jurassic,

emphasizing that ‘synchronism’ could be higher than

suspected, at least in terms of current ammonite and

calpionellid biochronostratigraphy, which is not contra-

dicted by autocyclic factors forcing local deviations.

We envision the future subdivision of Mexican TESs into

lower-order sequences, especially within widely distributed

Kimmeridgian-Tithonian deposits containing time-marker

fossils enabling differentiation between eustatically and

tectonically driven sedimentation. A similar treatment could

be applied, more locally, to Oxfordian deposits. In such a

context, improved stratigraphy in the northern rim of the

Gulf of Mexico Basin, Mexico and Cuba will provide new

insights into the geological, and then geobiological,

evolution in the Mexico-Caribbean area and its relation to

the development of the central North Atlantic Basin and the

Atlantic-Pacific connection.

Acknowledgements

This research was made under financial support from

DGAPA (UNAM, Mexico), Project PB97-0803 DGICYT

(Spain) and the EMMI Group (RNM 0178 Junta de

Andalucıa, Spain). This paper benefited from insightful

comments and suggestions made by A. Salvador (University

of Texas at Austin, USA) and L. Jansa (Geological Survey

of Canada; Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth,

Nova Scotia) on an early draft of the manuscript. Final

revision by Jansa and G.E.G. Westermann (McMaster

University, Canada), as well as editorial suggestions are

acknowledged. We are indebted to Houston BP-Amoco for

permission to advance ammonite data from core-sections in

East Texas.

References

Adatte, T., Stinnesbeck, W., Hubberten, H., Remane, J., 1992. The

Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary in Northeastern and Central Mexico. A

Multistratigraphical approach. Actas III Congreso Geologico de Espana

y VIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Geologıa 4, 23–29.

Adatte, T., Stinnesbeck, W., Hubberten, H., Remane, J., 1994a.

Correlaciones multiestratigraficas en el lımite Jurasico–Cretacico en

el noreste de Mexico. Boletın de la Sociedad Geologica Mexicana 51

(1/2), 23–51.1991.

Adatte, T., Stinnesbeck, W., Hubberten, H., Remane, J., 1994b. Nuevos

datos sobre el lımite Jurasico–Cretacico en el noreste de Mexico.

Boletın de la Sociedad Geologica Mexicana 52 (1/2), 11–14. 1993–

1994.

Adatte, T., Stinnesbeck, W., Remane, J., 1994c. The Jurassic–Cretaceous

boundary in Northeastern Mexico. Confrontation and correlations by

microfacies, clay minerals mineralogy, calpionellids and ammonites.

Geobios Memoire Special 17, 37–56.

Alvarez Castro, J., Garcıa Sanchez, R., Segura Soto, R., Valladares Amaro,

S., 1998. Historia geologica del desarrollo de las rocas del margen

continental del Dominio Las Villas basada en la evolucion sedimentaria

de la paleocuenca. Geologıa y Mineria ‘98, La Habana, Memorias I,

20–23.

Araujo Mendieta, J., Estavillo Gonzalez, C.J., 1987. Evolucion tectonica

sedimentaria del Jurasico Superior y Cretacico Inferior en el NE de

Sonora, Mexico. Revista del Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo 19 (3),

4–37.

Araujo Mendieta, J., Ortuno Arzate, F., Casar Gonzalez, R., 1982. Estudio

estratigrafico-sedimentologico del Jurasico, Prospecto Placer de

Guadalupe, Edo. de Chihuahua, N de Mexico. Instituto Mexicano del

Petroleo, Subdireccion de Tecnologıa de Exploracion, Proyecto C-

1117, 1–59.

Arthur, M.A., von Rad, U., Conford, C., McCoy, F.W., Sarnthein, M., 1979.

Evolution and sedimentary history of the Cape Bojador continental

margin, Northwestern Africa, In: von Rad, U., Ryan, W.B.F. (Eds.),

Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLVII, U.S.

Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 773–816.

Atrops, F., Benest, M., 1994. Les formations a ammonites du Malm dans le

basin tellien, au Nord de Tiaret: leur importance pour les correlations

avec le series de l’avant-pays de l’Ouest algerien. Geobios Memoire

Special 17, 79–92.

Atrops, F., Gygi, R., Matyja, B.A., Wierzbowski, A., 1993. The

Amoeboceras faunas in the Middle Oxfordian-lowermost Kimmerid-

gian. Submediterranean succession, and their correlation value. Acta

Geologica Polonica 43 (3–4), 213–227.

Aurell, M., Fernandez-Lopez, S., Melendez, G., 1994. The Middle–Upper

Jurassic oolitic ironstone level in the Iberian Range (Spain): eustatic

implications. Geobios Memoire Special 17, 549–561.

Aurell, M., Melendez, G., Badenas, B., Perez-Urresti, I., Ramajo, J., 2000.

Sequence Stratigraphy of the Callovian-Berriasian (Middle Jurassic–

Lower Cretaceous) of the Iberian Peninsula (NE Spain). GeoResearch

Forum 6, 281–292.

Azema, J., Jaffrezo, M., 1984. Calpionellid stratigraphy in sediments across

the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary offshore Morocco (Deep Sea Drilling

Project Leg 79) and their distribution in the North Atlantic Ocean. In:

Hinz, K., Winterer, E.L. et al., (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea

Drilling Project, vol. LXXIX, U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington, D.C., pp. 651–656.

Beauvais, L., Stump, T.E., 1976. Corals, Molluscs and Paleogeography of

Late Jurassic strata of the Cerro Pozo Serna, Sonora, Mexico.

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 19, 301–375.

Benson, J., Mancini, E.A., 1984. Porosity Development and Reservoir

Characteristic of the Smackover Formation in Southwest Alabama. In:

Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The

Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual

Research Conference Proceedings, pp. 1–18.

Bernardes, C.A., Corrochano, A., 1992. Sequencias deposicionais do

Jurassico superior no sector occidental da Bacia Lusitanica. Third

Congreso Geologico de Espana, Salamanca Tomo I, 81–85.

Bernoulli, D., 1972. North Atlantic and Mediterranean Mesozoic facies: A

comparison. In: Hollister, D.C., Ewing, J.I. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the

Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XI, U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington, D.C., pp. 801–871.

Blauser, W.H., McNulty, C.L., 1980. Calpionellids and nannoconids of the

Taraises Formation (Early Cretaceous) in Santa Rosa Canyon. Sierra de

Santa Rosa, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Transactions—Gulf Coast Associ-

ation of Geological Societies 30, 263–272.

Bracken, B., 1984. Enviroments of deposition and Early diagenesis La Joya

Formation, Huizachal Group Red Beds, Northeastern Mexico. In:

Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The

Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual

Research Conference Proceedings, pp. 19–26.

Bradford, C.A., 1984. Transgressive-Regressive Carbonate Facies of the

Smackover Formation, Escambia County, Alabama. In: Ventress,

W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 137

of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research

Conference Proceedings, pp. 27–40.

Buitron, B., Gonzalez-Leon, C., 1982. Bioestratigrafıa de la Sierra del

Alamo (Permico-Jurasico) noroeste de Sonora, Mexico. VI Convencion

Geologica Nacional, Programa y Resumenes, Mexico, 38.

Burckhardt, C., 1906. La faune jurassique de Mazapil avec un appendice

sur le Cretace inferieur. Boletın del Instituto Geologico de Mexico 23,

1–217.

Burckhardt, C., 1930. Etude synthetique sur le mesozoique mexicain.

Memoires de la Societe Paleontologique Suisse 49–50, 1–280.

Burke, K., 1988. Tectonic evolution of the Caribbean. Annual Review of

Earth and Planetary Sciences 16, 201–230.

Callomon, J.H., (1992). Upper Jurassic, especially of Mexico. In:

Westermann G.E.G. (Ed.), The Jurassic of the Circum-Pacific, Cam-

bridge Univ. Press, Part IV: Biochronology, 12. Ammonite zones of the

Circum-Pacific region (Hillebrandt, v. A., Smith, P., Westermann,

G.E.G., Callomon, J.H.), pp. 261-273

Calmus, T., Perez-Segura, E., Stinnesbeck, W., 1997. La structuration de la

marge pacifique nord-americaine et du “terraned” Caborca: apports de

la decouverte d’une faune de Jurassique inferieur et moyen dans la serie

de Pozos de Serna (Sonora, Mexique). Comptes Rendus de l’Academie

des Sciences, Paris 325, 257–263.

Calmus, T., Sosson, M., 1995. Southern extension of the Papago Terrane

into Altar Desert region, northwestern Sonora, Mexico, and its

implication. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 301,

99–109.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1967. El lımite Jurasico-Cretacico en Mazatepec, Puebla

(Mexico). Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Seccion Geologıa, Mono-

grafıa 1, 3–24.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1969. Estratigrafıa del Jurasico Medio-Superior del

Subsuelo de Poza Rica, Ver. (Area de Soledad-Miquetla). Revista del

Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo 1 (1), 3–44.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1976. Nuevas localidades del Kimeridgiano y Titoniano

en Chihuahua (Norte de Mexico). Revista del Instituto Mexicano del

Petroleo 8 (2), 38–49.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1979. Bioestratigrafıa de la Serie Huasteca (Jurasico

Medio y Superior) en el subsuelo de Poza Rica, Veracruz. Revista del

Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo 11 (2), 14–24.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1980. El lımite Jurasico–Cretacico en Mexico. I

Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontologıa. Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tomo V, 177–184.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1984. El Jurasico superior de Taman, San Luıs Potosı,

Este de Mexico. Memoria III Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleonto-

logıa, Oaxtepec, Morelos, 207–215.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1989. Precisiones sobre el lımite Jurasico-Cretacico en el

subsuelo del Este de Mexico. Revista de la Sociedad Mexicana de

Paleontologıa 2 (1), 26–70.

Cantu-Chapa, A., 1998. Las transgresiones jurasicas en Mexico. Revista

Mexicana de Ciencias Geologicas 15 (1), 25–37.

Caracuel, J.E., Oloriz, F., Rodrıguez-Tovar, F.J., 2000. Oxfordian

biostratigraphy from the Lugar Section (External Subbetic, Southern

Spain). GeoResearch Forum 6, 55–64.

Cariou, E. (coord.), Atrops, F., Hantzpergue, P., Enay, R., Rioult, M., 1991.

Oxfordien. Third International Symposium on Jurassic Stratigraphy,

Poitiers, Abstracts, pp. 132

Centeno-Garcıa, E., Gehrels, G.E., Grajales-Nishimura, M., 1998. Exten-

sion and scope of a Middle Jurassic deformation event in Mexico. Fifth

International Symposium on the Jurassic System, IUGS, Vancouver,

Abstracts and Program, 15.

Channell, J.E.T., Massari, F., Benetti, A., Pezzoni, N., 1990. Magnetos-

tratigraphy and biostratigraphy of Callovian–Oxfordian limestones

from the Trento Plateau (Monti Lessini, northern Italy). Palaeogeo-

graphy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 79, 289–303.

Cobiella-Reguera, J.L., 1995. Jurassic sediments and events in Guanigua-

nico Mountains, western Cuba. The First SEPM Congress on

Sedimentary Geology, St. Pete Beach, Florida, Congress Program and

Abstracts, 39–40.

Cobiella-Reguera, J.L., 1996. El magmatismo jurasico (Caloviano?-

Oxfordiano) de Cuba occidental: ambiente de formacion e implica-

ciones regionales. Revista de la Sociedad Geologica Argentina 51 (1),

15–28.

Comas, M.C., Jansa, L., Sarti, M., 1988. The Late Jurassic Carbonate

Platform of the Atlantic Western Iberian Margin. II Congreso

Geologico de Espana, Granada. Simposio Nuevas tendencias en el

analisis de cuencas, Simposios, 333–342.

Contreras, B., Cortes, A., Gomez, M.E., 1988. Bioestratigrafıa y

sedimentologıa del Jurasico Superior en San Pedro del Gallo, Durango,

Mexico. Revista del Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo 20 (3), 5–49.

Cregg, A.K., Ahr, W.M., 1984. Paleoenvironment of an upper cotton valley

(knowles limestones) patch reef, Milam County, Texas. In: Ventress,

W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic

of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research

Conference Proceedings, pp. 41–56.

Dinkins, T.H. Jr., 1968. Jurassic stratigraphy of central and southern

Mississippi. Mississippi Geologic Economic and Topographic Survey

Bulletin 109, 9–37.

Dowlen, R.J., Castill, G.R., 1981. Reconnaissance geology of Cerro Pozo

Serna, western Sonora, Mexico. Geology of the northwestern Mexico

and southern Arizona, Field Guides and Papers, UNAM, Instituto de

Geologıa, pp. 431–435.

Eguiluz, A., Aranda, M., 1984. Economic oil possibilities in clastic rocks of

the Neocomian along the southern margin of the Coahuila Island. In:

Wilson, J.L., Wrad, W.C., Finneran, J.M., (Eds.), A Feild Guide to

Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous carbonate platforms and basin

systems, Monterrey-Saltillo area, Northeast Mexico, GCSSEPM

Foundation, pp. 43–51.

Emery, K.O., Uchupi, E., 1984. The geology of the Atlantic Ocean,

Springer, New York.

Enay, R., 1972. Paleobiogeographie des ammonites du Jurassique terminal

(Tithonien/Volgien/Portlandien s.l.) et mobilite continentale. Geobios 5

(4), 355–407.

Enay, R., Cariou, E., 1997. Ammonite faunas and palaeobiogeography of

the Himalayan belt during the Jurassic: Initiation of a Late Jurassic

austral ammonite fauna. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoe-

cology 134, 1–38.

Enay, R., Mangold, C., 1994. Premiere zonation par ammonites du

Jurassique d’Arabia Seoudite, une reference pour la province arabique.

Geobios Memoire Special 17, 161–174.

Erben, H.K., 1956. El Jurasico Inferior de Mexico y sus Amonitas. 20th

International Geological Congress, Mexico, D.F, p. 393.

Faucette, R.C., Ahr, W.M., 1984. Depositional and diagenetic history of

Upper Jurassic Haynesville Formation. In: Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout,

D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the Gulf Rim,

GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research Conference Proceed-

ings, pp. 103–120.

Ferns, C.K., York, M.E., 1984. Bayou Middle Fork (Smackover) Field,

Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, A Case History: Discovery to

Waterflod. In: Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore,

C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation,

Third Annual Research Conference Proceedings, pp. 121–124.

Forgotson, J.M., Forgotson, J.M. Jr., 1976. Definition of Gilmer Limestone,

Upper Jurassic formation, northeastern Texas. American Association of

Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 60, 1119–1123.

Fortwengler, D., Marchand, D., 1994. Nouvelles unites biochronologiques

de la zone a Mariae (Oxfordien inferieur). Geobios Memoire Special 17,

203–210.

Fourcade, E., Azema, J., Cecca, F., Dercourt, J., Guiraud, R., Sandulescu,

M., Ricou, L.E., Vrielynck, B., Cottereau, N., Petzold, M., 1993a. Late

Tithonian (138 to 135Ma). In: Dercourt, J., Ricou, L.E., Vrielynck, B.

(Eds.), Atlas Tethys Palaeoenvironmental Maps, Explanatory Notes.

Gauthier-Villars, Paris, pp. 113–134.

Fourcade E., Azema, J., Cecca F., Dercourt J., Vrielynck B., Bellion Y.,

Sandulescu M., Ricou L.E., 1993b. Late Tithonian Palaeoenviron-

ments; map 1/20.000.000. BEICIP-FRAN-LAB, Rueil-Malmaison.

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142138

Fozy, I., 1993a. Upper Jurassic ammonite biostratigraphy of the Mecsek

Mts., southern Hungary. Foldtani Kozlony 123 (2), 195–205.

Fozy, I., 1993b. Upper Jurassic ammonite biostratigraphy in the Gerecse

and Pilis Mts. (Transdanubian Central range, Hungary). Foldtani

Kozlony 123 (4), 441–464.

Garcıa-Hernandez, M., Lopez-Garrido, A.C., 1988. The Prebetic platform

during the Jurassic: a sedimentary evolution upon a distensive margin.

In: Rocha, R.B., Soares, A.F. (Eds.), Second International Symposium

on Jurassic Stratigraphy, Lisboa, pp. 1017–1030.

Geyssant, G., Enay, R., 1991. Tithonique. Third International Symposium

on Jurassic Stratigraphy, Poitiers, Abstracs, p. 134.

Goldhammer, R.K., 1998. Second-Order Accommodation Cycles and

Points of ‘Stratigraphic Turnaround’: Implications for High-Resolution

Sequence Stratigraphy and Facies Architecture of the Haynesville and

Cotton Valley Lime ‘Pinnacle Reefs’ of the East Texas Basin. West

Texas Geological Bulletin 37 (3), 5–9.

Gonzalez-Arreola, C., Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Lara, L., 1992.

Precisiones bioestratigraficas sobre la Formacion Taraises en el area

tipo (Sierra de Parras, Coahuila, Mexico). Actas III Congreso

Geologico de Espana y VIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Geologıa,

4, pp. 260–265.

Gotte, M., Michalzik, D., 1992. Stratigraphic relations and facies sequences

of an Upper Jurassic evaporitic ramp in the Sierra Madre Oriental

(Mexico). Zentralblatt fur Geologie und Palaontologie Teil1 (6),

1445–1466. 1991.

Groupe Galice, Auzende, J.P., Jonquet, H., Olivet, J.L., Sibuet, J.-C.,

Auxietre, J.L., Boillot, G., Durand, J.P., Mauffret, A., de Charpal, O.,

Apostolescu, V., Montadert, L., 1979. The continental margin off

Galicia and Portugal: acoustical stratigraphy, dredge stratigraphy, and

structural evolution. In: Sibuet, J.-C., Ryan, W.B.F., et al. (Eds.), Initial

Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Part 2, XLVII. U.S.

Government printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 633–662.

Gygi, R., 2000. Zone boundaries and Subzones of the Transversarium

Ammonite Zone (Oxfordian, Late Jurassic) in the reference Section of

the Zone, Northern Switzerland. GeoResearch Forum 6, 77–84.

Habib, D., Drugg, W.S., 1983. Dinoflagellate age of Middle Jurassic—

Early Cretaceous sediments in the Blake-Bahama Basin. In: Sheridan,

R.E., Gradstein, F.M., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the DSDP,

vol. LXXVI. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,

pp. 623–635.

Hanisch, J., 1983. The structural Evolution of the NE Atlantic Region.

Geologische Jahrbuch Reihe B 52, 3–37.

Hantzpergue, P. (coord.), Atrops, F., Enay, R., (1991). Kimmeridgien. In:

3rd International Symposium on Jurassic Stratigraphy, Poitiers,

Abstracs, pp.133.

Haq, B.U., Hardenbol, J., Vail, P.R., 1987. Chronology of fluctuating sea

levels since the Triassic. Science 235, 1156–1167.

Haq, B.U., Hardenbol, J., Vail, P.R., 1988. Mesozoic and Cenozoic

chronostratigraphy and cycles of sea-level change. Sea-level changes—

An integrated approach, SEPM Special Publication, vol. 42.,

pp. 71–108.

Harrison, J.C., Wall, J.H., Brent, T.A., Poulton, T.P., Davies, E.H., 2000. A

Jurassic Rift System in the Canadian Arctic Islands. GeoResearch

Forum 6, 427–436.

Harwood, G., Fontana, C., 1984. Smackover Deposition and Diagenesis

and Structural History of the Bryan’s Mill Area, Cass and Bowie

Counties, Texas. In: Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F.,

Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM

Foundation, Third Annual Research Conference Proceedings,

pp. 135–148.

Heydari, E., Wade, W.J., Anderson, L.C., 1997. Depositional Environ-

ments, Organic Carbon Accumulation, and Solar-forcing Cyclicity in

Smackover Formation Lime Mudstones, Northern Gulf Coast.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 81 (5),

760–774.

Humphrey, W.E., 1956. Tectonic framework of northeast Mexico. Gulf

Coast Association of Geological Societies, Transactions 6, 25–30.

Humphrey W.E., Dıaz T., 1956. Tectonic framework of northeast Mexico.

[unpublished manuscript].

Imlay, R.W., 1936. Evolution of the Coahuila Peninsula, Mexico; Part 4,

Geology of the western part of the Sierra de Parras. Bulletin of the

Geological Society of America 47, 1091–1152.

Imlay, R.W., 1942. Late Jurassic fossil from Cuba and their economic

significance. Geological Society of America Bulletin 53, 1417–1477.

Imlay, R.W., 1943. Upper Jurassic ammonites from the Placer de

Guadalupe district, Chihuahua, Mexico. Journal of Paleontology 17

(5), 527–543.

Imlay, R.W., 1945. Jurassic Fossils from the Southern States, no. 2. Journal

of Paleontology 19 (3), 253–276.

Imlay, R.W., 1952. Correlation of the Jurassic formations of North America

exclusive of Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 63 (9),

953–992.

Imlay, R.W., 1953. Las formaciones Jurasicas de Mexico. Boletın de la

Sociedad Geologica Mexicana 16 (1), 1–65.

Imlay, R.W., 1980. Jurassic Paleobiogeography of the Conterminous

United States in Its Continental Setting. U.S. Geological Survey

Professional Paper 1062, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing-

ton, pp. 1–134.

Imlay, R.W., 1984. Jurassic ammonite successions in North America and

Biogeographic implications. In: Westermann, G.E.G., (Ed.), Jurassic

Cretaceous Biochronology and Paleogeography of North America,

Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper, vol. 27., pp. 1–12.

Imlay, R.W., Herman, G., 1984. Upper Jurassic Ammonites from the

subsurface of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. In: Ventress, W.P.S.,

Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the

Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research Conference

Proceedings, pp. 149–170.

Jansa, L.F., 1981. Mesozoic carbonate platforms and banks of the eastern

North American margin. Marine Geology 44, 97–117.

Jansa, L.F., 1986. Paleoceanography and evolution of the North Atlantic

Ocean Basin during the Jurassic. In: Vogt, P.R., Tucholke, B.E. (Eds.),

The Geology of North America. The Western North Atlantic Region,

Geological Society of America, vol. M., pp. 603–616.

Jansa, L.F., Gardner, J.V., Dean, W.E., 1977. Mesozoic sequences of the

central North Atlantic. In: Lancelot, Y., Seibold, E., et al. (Eds.), Initial

Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, v, vol. XLI. U.S. Government

Printing Office, Washington, pp. 991–1010.

Jansa, L.F., Remane, J., Ascoli, P., 1980. Calpionellid and foraminiferal-

ostracod biostratigraphy at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, offshore

eastern Canada. Rivista Italiana de Paleontologia 86 (1), 67–121.

Jansa, L.F., Termier, G., Termier, H., 1982. Les biohermes a algues,

spongiaries et coraux des series carbonatees de la flexure bordiere du

‘paleoshelf’ au large du Canada oriental. Revue de Micropaleontologie

23 (3), 181–219.

Jansa, L.F., Steiger, T.H., Bradshaw, M., 1984. Mesozoic carbonate

deposition on the outer continental margin off Morocco. In: Hinz, K.,

Winterer, E.L., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling

Project, v, vol. LXXIX. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,

pp. 857–981.

Kamoun, F., Peybernes, B., Faure, P., 1999. Evolution paleogeographique

de la Tunisie saharienne et atlasique au cours du Jurassique. Comptes

Rendus de l’Academie des Sciences, Paris 328, 547–552.

Kendall, C.G.St.C., Levine, P.A., Ehrlich, R., 1995. The Enigma of Third-

Order Sea Level Cycles: A Cosmic Connection? . In: Haq, U.B., (Ed.),

Sequence Stratigraphy and Depositional Response to Eustatic, Tectonic

and Climatic Forcing, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht,

pp. 367–376.

Krishna, J., Ojha, J.R., 1996. The Callovian Ammonoid Chronology in

Kachchh (India). GeoResearch Forum 1/2, 151–166.

Lancelot, I., 1980. Birth and evolution of the Atlantic Tethys

(Central North Atlantic). In: Auboin, J., Debelmas, J., Latrelle, M.

(Coords.), Geology of the Alpine chains born of the Tethys, Memoire

du Boureau de Reserches Geologiques et Minieres no. 115,

pp. 215–223.

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 139

Lancelot, Y., Seibold, E., Bukry, D., 1977. The Shipboard Scientific Party,

3. Site 367: Cape Verde Basin. In: Lancelot, Y., Seibold, E., (Eds.),

Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLI. U.S.

Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 163–189.

Lancelot, Y., Winterer, E.L., 1980. Evolution of the Moroccan oceanic

Basin and adjacent continental margin—a synthesis. In: Lancelot, Y.,

Seibold, E., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling

Project, vol. L. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp.

801–821.

Lehman, R., 1972. Microfossils in thin sections from the Mesozoic deposits

of Leg XI, DSDP. In: Hollister, D.C., Ewing, J.I., et al. (Eds.), Initial

Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XI. U.S. Government

Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 659–666.

Lemoine, M., 1983. Rifting and early drifting: Mesozoic central Atlantic

and Ligurian Tethys. In: Sheridan, R.E., Gradstein, F.M., et al. (Eds.),

Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. LXXVI. U.S.

Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 885–895.

Linares, A., Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., 1997. Presencia de Tropidoceras

flandrini (Dumortier) en Pozo Serna, Sonora (Mexico). Revista de la

Sociedad Espanola de Paleontologıa 12 (2), 257–264.

Llanes Castro, A.I., Garcıa Delgado, D.E., 1998. Hallazgo de fauna jurasica

(Tithoniano) en ofiolitas de Cuba central. Geologıa y Mineria ‘98, La

Habana, Memorias II, pp. 241–244.

Longoria, J.F., 1984. Stratigraphic studies in the Jurassic of Northeastern

Mexico: Evidence for the origin of the Sabinas Basin. In: Ventress,

W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic

of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research

Conference Proceedings, pp. 171–193.

Lopez-Garrido, A.C., Garcıa-Hernandez, M., 1988. Ciclos sedimentarios

mayores en la primera fase carbonatada de la plataforma prebetica

(Lias-Valanginiense inferior). II Congreso Geologico de Espana,

Granada, vol. 1., pp. 107–110.

Lopez-Ramos E., 1985. Geologıa de Mexico, vol. 2. Edicion Escolar (3a.

Edicion), Mexico, D.F

Marques, B., Oloriz, F., Rodrıguez-Tovar, F.J., 1991. Interactions between

tectonics and eustasy during the Upper Jurassic and lowermost

Cretaceous. Examples from the South of Iberia. Bulletin de la Societe

Geologique de France 162 (6), 1109–1124.

Matyja, B.A., Wierzbowski, A., 1995. Biogeographic differentiation of

the Oxfordian and Early Kimmeridgian ammonite faunas of

Europe, and its stratigraphic consequences. Acta Geologica

Polonica 45 (1/2), 1–8.

McGowen, M.K., Harris, D.W., 1984. Cotton Valley (Upper Jurassic) and

Hosston (Lower Cretaceous) depositional systems and their influence

on salt tectonics in the East Texas Basin. In: Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout,

D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the Gulf Rim,

GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research Conference Proceed-

ings, pp. 213–254.

McGraw, M.M., 1984. Carbonate facies of the Upper Smackover

Formation (Jurassic). Paup Spur Mandeville, Miller County, Arkansas.

In: Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.),

The Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual

Research Conference Proceedings, pp. 255–274.

Meyer, M.G., Ward, W.C., 1984. Outer-Ramp Limestones of the Zuloaga

Formation, Astillero Canyon, Zacatecas, Mexico. In: Ventress, W.P.S.,

Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the

Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research Conference

Proceedings, pp. 275–282.

Miall, A.B., 1991. Stratigraphic sequences and their chronostratigraphic

correlation. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 61, 497–505.

Michalzik, D., Schumann, D., 1994. Lithofacies relations and palaeoecol-

ogy of a Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous fan delta to shelf depositional

system in the Sierra Madre oriental of north-east Mexico. Sedimentol-

ogy 41, 463–477.

Michaud, F., Fourcade, E., 1989. Stratigraphie et paleogeographie du

Jurassique et du Cretace du Chiapas (Sud-Est du Mexique). Bulletin de

la Societe geologique de France [8] 5 (3), 639–650.

Mitchum, R.M. Jr., 1977. Seismic Stratigraphy and Global Changes of Sea

Level, Part 11: Glossary of Terms used in Seismic Stratigraphy. Seismic

Stratigraphy-applicatins to hydrocarbon exploration, American Associ-

ation of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, 26., pp. 205–212.

Montgomery, S.L., 1996. Cotton Valley Lime Pinnacle Reef Play: Branton

Field. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 80,

617–629.

Moore, C.H., 1984. The Upper Smackover of the Gulf Rim. Depoisitional

systems, diagenesis, porosity evolution and hydrocarbon poduction. In:

Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The

Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual

Research Conference Proceedings, pp. 283–308.

Moore, C.H., Druckman, Y., 1991. Sequence Stratigraphic Framework of

the Upper Jurassic Smackover and Related Units, western Gulf of

Mexico. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bullein 75,

639.

Moran Zenteno, D., 1984. Geologıa de la Republica Mexicana, Instituto

Nacional de Estadıstica, Geografıa e Informatica, UNAM, Mexico, D.F.

Mougenot, D., Monteiro, J.H., Deupueble, P.A., Malod, J.A., 1979. La

marge continentale Sud-portugaise: evolution structurale et sedimen-

taire. Ciencas da Terra 5, 223–246.

Myczynski, R., 1994. Caribbean ammonite assemblages from Upper

Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous sequences of Cuba. Studia Geologica

Polonica 105, 91–108.

Myczynski, R., Pszczokowski, A., 1994. Tithonian stratigraphy and

microfacies in the Sierra del Rosario, western Cuba. Studia Geologica

Polonica 105, 7–38.

Myczynski, R., Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., 1998. Revised biostratigraphy

and correlations of the Middle-Upper Oxfordian in the Americas

(southern USA, Mexico, Cuba, and northern Chile). Neues Jahrbuch fur

Geologie und Palaontologie Abhandlungen 207 (2), 185–206.

Odin, G.S., 1992. Numerical time scale in 1988. In: Westermann, G.E.G.,

(Ed.), The Jurassic of the Circum-Pacific, Part I, Time scales, 1.

Numerical time scale in 1988. Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 3–11.

Ogg, J.G., Roberston, A.H.F., Jansa, L.F., 1983. Jurassic sedimentation

history of site 534 (western North Atlantic) and of the Atlantic-Tethys

Seaway. In: Sheridan, R.E., Gradstein, F.M. (Eds.), Initial Reports of

the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. LXXVI. U.S. Government Printing

Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 829–884.

Oloriz, F., 1992. North-central and eastern Mexico. In: Westermann,

G.E.G., (Ed.), The Jurassic of the Circum-Pacific, Part III: Regional

geology and stratigraphy, Meso-America, 5, Salvador, A., Oloriz, F.,

Gordon, M.B., Gursky, H.-J. Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 100–107.

Oloriz, F., Tavera, J.M., 1989. Significance of Mediterranean ammonites

for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. Cretaceous Research 10,

221–237.

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., 1999. New microconchiate Hybonoticeras

from Mexico. Geobios 32 (4), 561–573.

Oloriz, F., Lopez-Galindo, A., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C.,

1988. Analisis isotopicos y consideraciones paleoecologicas en el

Jurasico superior de Mexico (Fm. La Casita, Cuencame, Durango).

Datos preliminares, II Congreso Geologico de Espana, Granada, vol. 1.,

pp. 144–148.

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., Westermann, G.E.G.,

1990. Problems of lithocorrelation in the Mexico-Caribbean area and

the significance of Upper Oxfordian ‘Discosphinctes’. In: Metendez,

G., (Ed.), First Oxfordian Working Group Meeting, Zaragoza,

Publicaciones del Seminario de Paleontologıa de Zaragoza 2, 191–204.

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., Westermann, G.E.G.,

1992. Significant ammonites and calpionellids for correlations within

the Upper Jurassic-Lowermost Cretaceous in the southern margin of the

North-American Plate. In: Gayet, M., Racheboeuf, P. (Coords.),

Paleontologie et Stratigraphie d’Amerique Latine, Table Ronde

Europeenne, Lyon, Resumes, p. 38.

Oloriz, F., Lara, L., De La Mora, A., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola,

C., 1993. The Kimmeridgian/Tithonian boundary in the ‘Barranquito

del Alacran’ section at Cuencame (Durango, Mexico); its

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142140

biostratigraphy and ecostratigraphic interpretation. Acta Geologica

Polonica 43 (3/4), 273–288.

Oloriz, F., Caracuel, J.E., Rodrıguez-Tovar, F.J., 1994. The Oxfordian-

Kimmeridgian boundary revisited: A mediterranean proposal, IV Joint

Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian Group Meeting, Lyon, add. doc..

Oloriz F., Caracuel J.E., Marques B., Rodrıguez-Tovar F.J., 1995.

Asociaciones de tintinnoides en facies ammonitico rosso de la Sierra

Norte (Mallorca). Revista Espanola de Paleontologıa, N8 Homenaje al

Dr. Guillermo Colom, pp. 77–93

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., Westermann, G.E.G.,

1996. Interpreting updated ammonite biostratigraphy. In: Oloriz, F.,

Rodrıguez-Tovar, F.J. (Eds.), The Upper Jurassic–Lowermost Cretac-

eous in the Alamitos area, Sierra de Catorce, San Luis Potosı (North-

Central Mexico), IV International Symposium Cephalopods—Present

and Past, Granada, Abstracts Volume, pp. 134–136.

Oloriz, F., Marques, B., Caracuel, J.E., 1998a. The Middle–Upper

Oxfordian of central Sierra Norte (Mallorca, Spain), and progressing

ecostratigraphic approach in western Tethys. Geobios 31 (3), 319–336.

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., 1998b. Re-evaluation of

Procraspedites Spath, 1930 (Ammonitina) from the Upper Kimmer-

idgian of Mexico. Bulletin de la Societe geologique de France 169 (2),

243–254.

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., 1998c. Factors

controlling Upper Jurassic ammonite assemblages in north-central

Mexico. Lethaia 30, 337–351.

Oloriz, F., Villasenor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., Westermann, G.E.G.,

1999. Ammonite biostratigraphy and correlations in the Latest

Jurassic–Earliest Cretaceous La Caja Formation of North-Central

Mexico (Sierra de Catorce, San Luis Potosı). In: Oloriz, F., Rodrıguez-

Tovar, F.J. (Eds.), Advancing Research on Living and Fossil

Cephalopods, Plenum Press, London, pp. 463–492.

Ortuno Arzate, F., Delfaud, J., 1988. Estadios geodinamicos de evolucion

de la Cuenca Mesozoica de Chihuahua en el Norte de Mexico. II

Congreso Geologico de Espana, Granada, vol. 2., pp. 309–326.

Pena dos Reis, R.P.B., Proenca Cuhna, P., Dinis, J.L., Trincao, P.R., 2000.

Geologic Evolution of the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal) during the Late

Jurassic. GeoResearch Forum 6, 345–356.

Ponsot, C.M., Vail, P.R., 1991. Sequence stratigraphy of the Jurassic: new

data from the Paris–London Basin. Terra Abstracts 3, 308.

Ramalho, M., 1985. Considerations sur la biostratigraphie du Jurassique

Superieur de l’Algarve Oriental (Portugal). Comunicacoes dos Servicos

Geologicos de Portugal 71 (1), 41–50.

Rawson, P., Riley, L.A., 1982. Latest Jurassic–Early Cretaceous events and

the ‘Late Cimmerian Unconformity’ in North Sea Area. American

Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 66 (12), 2628–2648.

Rehault, J.P., Mauffret, A., 1979. Relations between tectonics and

sedimentation around the northwestern Iberian margin. In: Sibuet,

J.-C., Ryan, W.B.F., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea

Drilling Project, Part 2, vol. XLVII. US Government Printing Office,

Washington, DC, pp. 663–681.

Remane, J., 1983. Calpionellids and the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary at

Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 534, western North Atlantic Ocean. In:

Sheridan, R.E., Gradstein, F.M., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep

Sea Drilling Project, Part 2, vol. XLVII. US Government Printing

Office, Washington, DC, pp. 561–567.

Remane, J., Bakalova-Ivanova, D., Borza, K., Knauer, J., Nagy, I., Pop, G.,

Tardi-Filacz, E., 1986. Agreement on the subdivision of the standard

calpionellid zones defined at the 2nd Planktonic Conference, Roma

1970. Acta Geologica Hungarica 29, 5–13.

Renz, O., 1977. Aptychi (Ammonoidea) from the Late Jurassic and Early

Cretaceous of the Eastern Atlantic, DSDP Site 367. In: Lancelot, Y.,

Seibold, E., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling

Project, vol. XLI. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC,

pp. 499–513.

Renz, O., 1984. Jurassic Ammonoidea from the Mazagan slope, Moroccan

continental margin, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 79. In: Hinz, K.,

Winterer, E.L., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling

Project, vol. LXXIX. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC,

pp. 711–713.

Renz, O., Imlay, R., Lancelot, Y., Ryan, W.B.F., 1975. Ammonite-rich

Oxfordian limestones from the base of the continental slope off

northwest Africa. Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae 68 (2), 431–448.

Roldan-Quintana, J., Rangin, C., 1978. Las rocas volcanicas jurasicas en el

norte del estado de Sonora, Mexico. Ier Simposio sobre la Geologıa y

Potencial Minero del Estado de Sonora, Resumenes, pp. 103–105.

Ross, M.I., Scotese, C.R., 1988. A hierarchical tectonic model of the Gulf

of Mexico and Caribbean region. Tectonophysics 155, 139–168.

Roth, P., 1983. Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous calcareous nannofossils in

the western North Atlantic (site 534): biostratigraphy, preservation, and

some observations on biogeography and paleoceanography. In:

Sheridan, R.E., Gradstein, F.M., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the

Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. LXXVI. US Government Printing

Office, Washington, DC, pp. 587–621.

Roth, P., Medd, A.W., Watkins, D.K., 1983. Jurassic Calcareous

Nannofossil Zonation, an overwiew with new evidence from Deep

Sea Drilling Project site 534. In: Sheridan, R.E., Gradstein, F.M., et al.

(Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. LXXVI. US

Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, pp. 573–579.

Rowley, D.B., 1992. Reconstructions of the circum-Pacific region. In:

Westermann, G.E.G., (Ed.), The Jurassic of the Circum-Pacific, Part II:

Circum-Pacific Base Map, 3, Reconstructions of the Circum-Pacific

Region. Cambridge University Press, pp. 15–27.

Rowley, D.B., Lottes, A.L., 1988. Plate-kinematic reconstructions of the

North Atlantic and Arctic: Late Jurassic to Present. Tectonophysics

155, 73–120.

Salas, R., Casas, A., 1993. Mesozoic extensional tectonics, stratigraphy and

crustal evolution during the Alpine cycle of the eastern Iberian Basin.

Tectonophysics 228, 33–55.

Salvador, A., 1987. Late Triassic–Jurassic paleogeography and origin of

Gulf of Mexico Basin. American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Bulletin 71 (4), 419–451.

Salvador, A., 1991. Triassic–Jurassic. In: Salvador, A., (Ed.), The Gulf of

Mexico Basin, Boulder, Colorado, The Geology of North America, vol.

J. Geological Society of America, pp. 131–180.

Salvador, A., Green, A.R., 1980. Opening of the Caribbean Tethys

(origin and development of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico).

Memoire du Bureau des Recherches Geologiques et Minieres 115,

224–229.

Sarti, C., 1988. Biostratigraphic subdivision of the Upper Jurassic of the

Venetian Alps (Northern Italy) on the base of ammonites. Second

International Symposium on Jurassic Stratigraphy, Lisboa, vol. 1.,

pp. 459–476.

Schlatter, R.V., Scmidt-Effing, R., 1984. Bioestratigrafıa y fauna de

ammonites del Jurasico Inferior (Sinemuriano) del area de Tenango de

Doria (Estado de Hidalgo, Mexico). In: Perrilliat, C., (Ed.), 3er

Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontologıa, Instituto de Geologıa,

UNAM, Mexico, pp. 154–155.

Schmidt-Effing, R., 1980. The Huayacocotla Aulacogen in Mexico (Lower

Jurassic) and the origin of the Gulf of Mexico. In: Pilger, R.H. Jr., (Ed.),

The Origin of the Gulf of Mexico and the Early Opening of the Central

North Atlantic Ocean, Louisiana State University and Louisiana

Geological Survey, Baton Rouge, pp. 79–86.

Scotese, C.R., Gahagan, L.M., Larson, R.L., 1988. Plate tectonic

reconstruction of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic ocean basins. Tectono-

physics 155, 27–48.

Scott, R.W., 1984. Mesozoic biota and depositional systems of the Gulf of

Mexico-Caribbean Region. Geological Association of Canada, Special

Paper 27, 49–64.

Sequeiros, L., 1974. Paleogeografıa del Calloviense y Oxfordense en el

sector central de la Zona Subbetica. Tesis Doctorales de la Universidad

de Granada 65, pp. 1–355

Sibuet, J.-C., Ryan, W.B.F., 1979. Evolution of the West Iberian passive

continental margin in the framework of the early evolution of the North

Atlantic Ocean. In: Sibuet, J.-C., Ryan, W.B.F., et al. (Eds.), Initial

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142 141

Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Part 2, vol. XLVII. US

Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, pp. 761–775.

Steiger, T., Jansa, L.F., 1984. Jurassic limestones of the seaward edge of the

Mazagan carbonate platform, northwest African continental margin,

Morocco. In: Hinz, K., Winterer, E.L., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the

Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. LXXIX. US Government Printing

Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 449–491.

Stinnesbeck, W., Adatte, T., Remane, J., 1993. Mazatepec (Estado de

Puebla, Mexico)—Reevaluacion de su valor como estratotipo del lımite

Jurasico–Cretacico. Revista Espanola de Micropaleontologıa 25 (2),

63–79.

Tavera, J.M., Aguado, R., Company, M., Oloriz, F., 1994. Integrated

biostratigraphy of the Durangites and Jacobi Zones (J/K boundary) at

the Puerto Escano section in southern Spain (Province of Cordoba).

Geobios, Memoire Special 17, 469–476.

Todd, R.C., Mitchum, R.M. Jr., 1977. Seismic stratigraphy and global

changes of sea level, part. 8: identification of Upper Triassic, Jurassic

and Lower Cretaceous Seismic sequences in Gulf of Mexico and

Offshore West Africa. American Association of Petroleum Geologists,

Memoir 26, 145–163.

Vail, P.R., Eisner, P.N., 1989. Stratigraphic signature separating tectonic,

eustatic and sedimentologic effects on sedimentary sections. 2eme

Congress Francais de Sedimentologie, Mesozoic Eustacy Record on

Western Tethyan Margins, Lyon, pp. 62–64.

Vail, P.R., Hardenbol, J., Todd, R.G., 1984. Jurassic unconformities,

chronostratigraphy and sea level changes from seismic stratigraphy and

biostratigraphy. In: Ventress, W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F.,

Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM

Foundation, Third Annual Research Conference Proceedings,

pp. 347–364.

Vail, P.R., Mitchum, R.M. Jr., Todd, R.G., 1977. Eustatic model for the

North Sea during the Mesozoic. Mesozoic northern North Sea

Symposium Proceedings, Oslo, Norwegian Petroleum Society, Oslo,

pp. 12.1–12.35.

Verma, J., Westermann, G.E.G., 1973. The Tithonian (Jurassic) ammonite

fauna and stratigraphy of Sierra Catorce, San Luıs Potosı, Mexico.

Bulletin of American Paleontology 63 (277), 107–320.

Villasenor, A.B., 1991. Aportaciones a la bioestratigrafıa, basada en fauna

de ammonites, de la sucesion del Jurasico Superior (Kimmeridgiano–

Tithoniano) del area de Mazapil, Zacatecas, Mexico. PhD Thesis,

Mexico, UNAM, pp. 1–154 [unpublished]

Villasenor, A.B., Oloriz, F., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., 2000. Recent advances

in Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian) ammonite biostratigra-

phy of North-Central Mexico based on recently collected ammonite

assemblages. GeoResearch Forum 6, 249–262.

Vincent, E., Cepek, P., Sliter, W.V., Westberg, M.J., Gartner, S., 1980a.

Biostratigraphy and depositional history of the Moroccan Basin,

Eastern North Atlantic, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 50. In: Lancelot,

Y., Seibold, E., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling

Project, vol. L. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC,

pp. 775–800.

Vincent, E., Lehmann, R., Sliter, W.V., Westberg, M.J., 1980b.

Calpionellids from the Upper Jurassic and Neocomian of Deep Sea

Drilling Project Site 416, Moroccan Basin, Eastern North Atlantic. In:

Lancelot, Y., Seibold, E., et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea

Drilling Project, vol. L. US Government Printing Office, Washington,

DC, pp. 439–465.

Vinet, M.J., 1984. Geochemistry and Origin of Smackover and Buckner

Dolomites (Upper Jurassic), Jay Field Area, Alabama. In: Ventress,

W.P.S., Bebout, D.G., Perkins, B.F., Moore, C.H. (Eds.), The Jurassic

of the Gulf Rim, GCSSEPM Foundation, Third Annual Research

Conference Proceedings, pp. 365–374.

Weidie, A.E., Wolleben, J.A., 1969. Upper Jurassic Stratigraphic Relations

Near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. American Association of

Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 53 (12), 2418–2420.

Westermann, G.E.G., 1992. Middle Jurassic. In: Westermann, G.E.G. (Ed.),

The Jurassic of the Circum-Pacific, Cambridge University Press, Part

IV: Biochronology, 12. Ammonite zones of the circum-Pacific region

(Hillebrandt, A. von, Smith, P., Westermann, G.E.G., Callomon, J.H.),

pp. 253–261

Wierzbowski, A., 1991. Biostratigraphical correlations around the

Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary. Acta Geologica Polonica 41

(3–4), 149–155.

Wildi, W., 1983. La chaıne tello-rifaine (Algerie, Maroc, Tunisia);

stratigraphie et evolution du Trias au Miocene. Revue de Geographie

physique et de Geologie Dynamique 24 (3), 201–297.

Wilson, R.C.L., 1988. Mesozoic development of the Lusitanian Basin,

Portugal. Revista de la Sociedad Geologica de Espana 1 (3/4),

393–407.

Wilson, J.L., 1990. Basement structural controls on Mesozoic carbonate

facies in northeastern Mexico—a review. Special Publications of the

International Association of Sedimentologists 9, 235–255.

Wilson, J.L., Ward, W.C., Finneran, J., 1984. A field guide to Upper

Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous carbonate platform and basin systems,

Monterrey-Saltillo area, northeast Mexico. Annual Meeting of the

American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Gulf Coast Section

SEPM, pp. 1–76.

Wind, F., 1978. Western North Atlantic Upper Jurassic calcareous

nannofossil biostatigraphy. In: Benson, W.E., Sheridan, R.E. (Eds.),

Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol. XLIV. US

Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, pp. 761–774.

Winker, C.D., Buffler, R.T., 1988. Paleogeographic evolution of early deep-

water Gulf of Mexico and margins, Jurassic to Middle Cretaceous

(Comanchean). Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum

Geologists 72, 318–346.

Winterer, E.L., Hinz, K., 1984. The evolution of the Mazagan continental

margin: a synthesis of geophysical and geological data with results of

drilling during Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 79. In: Hinz, K., Winterer,

E.L. et al. (Eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, vol.

LXXIX. US Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,

pp. 893–919.

Young, K., Oloriz, F., 1993. Ammonites from the Smackover Limestone,

Cotton Valley Field, Webster Parish, Lousiana, U.S.A. Geobios.

Memoire Special 15, 401–409.

Ziegler, P.A., 1977. Geology and hydrocarbon provinces of the North Sea.

Geological Journal 1, 7–31.

Ziegler, P.A., 1988. Evolution of the Arctic-North Atlantic and the Western

Tethys. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, 43.

F. Oloriz et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16 (2003) 119–142142