Oceanic wind-driven currents such as the Gulf Stream have shaped immense depositional anticlines at the distal edges of detrital source areas along the present and past continental margins. These currents generally parallel the continents with high velocities, commonly sweeping to the base of the slopes. In contrast, the deeper geostrophic currents shape the continental rises as they move slowly along topographic strike. Occasionally, both systems are intersected by turbidity currents flowing down the margins at extremely high velocities.

A striking example of wind-driven current deposition occurs in the Florida Strait where calcareous sands from the Florida reef vicinity are swept along a trough by the Gulf Stream and then onto a broad anticlinal rise. A similar slope-trough-rise profile is observed at the Anton Dohrn Seamount where the North Atlantic Current has shaped another rise from the available sediments as it veers around this buttress.

A wind-driven current origin can plausibly explain the Poza Rica trend in Mexico. As the Golden Lane reef contributed its Tamabra talus downslope into swift currents of the Chicontepec foredeep, anticlines were shaped at the base of the slope, simulating the Anton Dohrn Seamount.

Significant reserves in anticlines formed by wind-driven currents will be found beyond the reefs and laterally away from the deltas in the "poor" environment where the subtle slope-trough-rise has been unrecognized. Reservoirs such as Poza Rica attest to the excellent structural, reservoir, and source qualities which can be realized in an inspired search for such targets.

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