AAPG Memoir 75, Chapter 3: Middle
Jurassic-Upper Cretaceous Paleogeographic Evolution and Sequence-stratigraphic Framework
of the Northwest Gulf of Mexico Rim, by R. K. Goldhammer and C. A. Johnson
, Pages 45 - 81
from:
AAPG Memoir 75: The Western Gulf of Mexico Basin: Tectonics, Sedimentary
Basins, and Petroleum Systems, Edited by Claudio Bartolini, Richard T. Buffler, and
Abelardo Cant
-Chapa
Copyright 
2001 by The American Association
of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
Middle Jurassic-Upper Cretaceous Paleogeographic
Evolution and Sequence-stratigraphic Framework of the Northwest Gulf of Mexico Rim
R. K. Goldhammer
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas,
U.S.A.
C. A. Johnson
ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
The area of northern Mexico and Texas combines elements from two different
tectonostratigraphic provinces--(a) the Gulf of Mexico province (GOM province), located
along the northwest rim of the present-day Gulf of Mexico in northeast Mexico and south
Texas, and (b) the western Pacific Mexico province (WPM province), located in northwest
Mexico and west Texas--and thereby enables one to compare and contrast Gulf of
Mexico-driven versus Pacific-driven tectonostratigraphic processes. The area addressed in
this paper (that is, the northwest rim of the Gulf of Mexico) contains elements related to
both Gulf of Mexico passive-margin development (principally the stratigraphy) and to the
Pacific-related convergent margin (arc) tectonism (chiefly the structure). The emphasis in
the paper is on the GOM province, with particular reference made to the Sierra Madre
Oriental region in the vicinity of the cities of Monterrey and Saltillo, in northeast
Mexico.
