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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

New Orleans Geological Society

Abstract


Carbonate Rocks and Hydrogeology of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, May 24-26, 1976
Pages 18-31

Stratigraphy and Depositional History of Subsurface Mesozoic Strata of the Yucatan Peninsula1

Robert H. Marshall, William C. Ward, A. E. Weidie

ABSTRACT

Mesozoic strata underlying the northern Yucatan Peninsula can be divided into at least 16 terrigenous, carbonate, and evaporite lithofacies, based on the study of cores from Pemex Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5A, and 6 Yucatan.

Jurassic shale, anhydrite, and dolomite overlie Paleozoic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks. The shale probably was derived from a topographically high metamorphic complex on the northeastern part of the Yucatan platform. Further uplift of this ridge during Late Jurassic time supplied an influx of coarser terrigenous material to the interior of the shallow platform, where Upper Jurassic fluvial and beach-dune sandstones were deposited.

An Early Cretaceous eastward transgression of sea level is recorded in the lowermost Cretaceous silty dolomite and dolomitized miliolid biosparite. Later the entire northern platform was inundated by a shallow hypersaline sea, and thick sections of anhydrite and dolomite were deposited.

Following this, more-normal marine waters flooded the platform, and laminated and pelleted carbonate muds accumulated in somewhat restricted subtidal areas, quiet intertidal zones, and supratidal flats. Uppermost Lower Creataceous beds include pelleted rudist biomicrites and biosparites, suggesting that reefs may have developed along the northern and

1 This paper is taken from Marshall, R. H., 1974, Petrology of Subsurface Mesozoic Rocks of the Yucatan Platform, Mexico: Master's Thesis, University of New Orleans, 97 p.

End_Page 18-------------------------

eastern margins of the peninsula during late Early Cretaceous.

Upper Cretaceous limestones and dolomites accumulated on a shallow, generally open shelf, which was more restricted toward the east. Uppermost Cretaceous strata are dolomitic micrites containing poorly sorted, angular to round lithoclasts of anhydrite, dolomite and limestone. This section suggests that at the close of the Cretaceous the east-central part of the platform underwent uplift or faulting, which exposed the Lower Cretaceous anhydrite section.


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