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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 50 (1966)

Issue: 3. (March)

First Page: 639

Last Page: 640

Title: Stratigraphy and Structure of Parras Basin and Adjacent Areas of Northeastern Mexico: ABSTRACT

Author(s): A. E. Weidie, G. E. Murray, C. P. Cameron, J. J. Long, Jr., E. J. Ritchie

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The Parras basin, in southern Coahuila and western Nuevo Leon, contains 15,000-20,000 feet of Upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary terrigenous clastic sediments. From 5,000-7,000 feet of Lower Cretaceous carbonate rocks and 6,000-10,000 feet of Triassic and (or) Jurassic evaporites, carbonate, and terrigenous clastic rocks flank parts of the basin and underlie large areas within the basin. The Triassic and (or) Jurassic sedimentary rocks exhibit complex facies relations. Lower Cretaceous carbonate rocks are remarkably uniform over large areas of northeastern Mexico. Most of the Upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary calcareous-arenaceous-argillaceous sediments were deposited in a boot-shaped, shallow, subsiding basin between the present-day Sierra Madre Oriental and the Coahu la Platform.

The Upper Cretaceous-lower Tertiary Difunta Group displays intertonguing relations between two distinct lithic types; red, non-marine, arenaceous-argillaceous

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strata alternate with gray to black, brackish, calcareous-arenaceous-argillaceous strata. The red formations pinch out or change facies toward the north and east in the basin. Marine deposition was continuous from Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary in the eastern part of the basin. A few redbeds grade down depositional dip into gray, marine strata. Red strata have been discovered in the Upper Cretaceous Parras Shale, which normally is a gray to black, calcareous shale, 4,000-5,000 feet thick.

During Paleocene or Eocene time, the sediments of the Parras basin were deformed contemporaneously with the adjacent Sierra Madre Oriental. Deformational intensity in the Lower Cretaceous carbonate rocks of the Sierra Madre appears related to the distribution and thickness of the Minas Viejas (Jurassic?) evaporites. The type and degree of deformation in the Upper Cretaceous Parras basin is not uniform as indicated by the following: (1) overturned folds and imbricate thrusts, which probably do not extend below the Parras Shale, characterize the constricted western part of the basin; (2) broad, elongate, open folds in the southeastern part extend downward to folds in Lower Cretaceous strata; and (3) broad, open, domal folds in the northeast are related to Lower Cretaceous uplifts on the surface and at depth.

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