ABSTRACT

An Upper Jurassic (?) - Lower Cretaceous basin in the eastern deep Gulf of Mexico, referred to as the West Florida Basin, is described using University of Texas Institute for Geophysics multi-channel seismic profiles, DSDP wells, and some gravity and magnetic data. The basin is found to extend beyond the limits of Middle Jurassic salt deposition. The basin is possibly a westward extension of the Tampa Embayment, implying a relatively continuous westward dipping basement below the central portion of the Florida Escarpment. The Lower Cretaceous sequence within the basin is thought to be the Valanginian section missing from the Gulf coast shelf stratigraphy. The early geologic history of the West Florida Basin, inferred from this study, favors the evolutionary models for the Gulf of Mexico that rotate the Yucatan peninsula counter-clockwise from a closed Gulf position to its present location.