The Chihuahua tectonic belt is a Laramide foreland fold and thrust belt that is in the initial phase of exploration. It can be compared to the Southern Overthrust belt prior to the Pineview discovery in 1975. The part within the United States is approximately 300 mi (483 km) long and extends from southeast of El Paso to Presidio, Texas. The frontal thrusts of the belt lie against the Diablo platform.

The stratigraphic sequence involved in thrusting is Permian to Lower Cretaceous. Thrusting has been accomplished by decollement of Jurassic and Permian evaporates. The Malone Formation (Jurassic) is the proximal part of a fan-delta complex and contains marine, subtidal, intertidal, and supratidal facies.

Two distinctive locally derived conglomerate facies are present: (1) clast-supported, bimodal, dolomite-pebble conglomerate (sheet-flood facies); and (2) a matrix-supported, dolomite-pebble conglomerate that lacks sorting (debris-flow facies). Probable correlatives of the Malone Formation occur at Sierra del Kilo and Sierra de la Alcaparra in Chihuahua 60 mi (97 km) to the southwest.

By using new surface-mapping and surface-sampling plus interpretation of seismic and gravity data, a sequence of tectonic events can be inferred: (1) Late Triassic(?) faulting and formation of the Chihuahua trough; (2) Laramide folding and thrusting; (3) late Laramide en echelon left-lateral strike-slip folding; and (4) basin-and-range faulting.

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