Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.17,
No.4, pp. 429-444, 1994
©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press,
Ltd.
PROBABLE
CRETACEOUS-TO-RECENT RIFTING IN
THE GULF OF MEXICO BASIN
An answer to Callovian salt deformation
and distribution problems? Part 1
J. M. Reed*
* Texex Exploration Consultants,
1319 Jefferson Ave. New Orleans Louisiana 70115 USA.
Abstract
Abundant evidence from the Northern Gulf of
Mexico Basin suggests that late Early Cretaceous to Recent
sea-floor spreading is the principal factor in the formation of
the structural components of this basin. This would classify the
Gulf of Mexico Basin as an active tectonic basin as opposed to
the more accepted passive basin status. The following two-part
paper presents a model for this lithospheric plate adjustment
together with the geological evidence to support this movement.
Part I discusses the rift model and supporting evidence. Some of
this evidence is: a proposed triple junction rift zone radiating
from a large dome centered in the DeSoto Canyon area; the
division of the Gulf of Mexico Basin Jurassic salt province into
three salt basins (the Interior Exterior and Challenger Basins);
the linearity and structurally-positive attitude of the
Cretaceous Shelf Edge; an excessive Exterior Basin salt mass that
thickens towards the Sigsbee escarpment; large areas of
non-diapiric salt found within the Exterior Basin; an extensional
fault zone found underlying the Abyssal Plain; and the absence of
a Late Mesosoic section from the Exterior Basin a section that
would be needed to cover the salt until it was overlain by
younger Tertiary sediments.
