Geophysical Modeling of the Surroundings of La Popa Basin, NE Mexico, with Gravity and Magnetic Data

Abstract

Northeast Mexico is in essence the juncture of two distinctly different tectono-stratigraphic provinces, the eastern Gulf of Mexico (Coastal Plane, Sierra Madre Oriental) province and the western Pacific Mexico (Rivera plate, Meso-American trench, Sierra Madre Occidental) province (Goldhammer & Johnson, 2001). Tectonic evolution of northeast Mexico was dominated by divergent-margin regime associated with the opening of the Gulf of Mexico and overprinted by non-igneous Laramide orogenic effects (Pindell et al., 1988). The structural grain of northeast Mexico consists of Triassic to Liassic fault-controlled basement blocks, the development of which reflects in part late Paleozoic orogenic patterns of metamorphism and igneous intrusion (Wilson, 1990). Several tectonic provinces may be recognized by interpretation of the basement and sediment cover: Coahuila Block, La Popa Basin, Sabinas Basin, Burgos Basin, Sierra Madre Oriental (Monterrey Trough), and Parras Basin (Yutsis et al., 2009, Fig. 1). Mojave-Sonora Megashear and San Marcos Fault (Chavez-Cabello et al., 2007) are two principal fault zones crossing the northeast Mexico in NW-SE direction. La Popa Basin is located on the foreland of the Sierra Madre Oriental, 85 km northwest of the city of Monterrey, N.L., northeast of Parras Basin and south of the Sabinas Basin (Fig. 2). The basin’s development is greatly defined by salt tectonics, and is of great interest to the petroleum industry (Hudec and Jackson, 2007; Jenchen, 2007), due to the fact that many of oil reservoirs in the world are located in salt basins (e.g. Gulf of Mexico, the Persian Gulf, the North Sea, Lower Congo Basin, Campos Basin, etc.) (Warren et al., 1999). La Popa Basin is the best analogue of the Gulf of Mexico (Willis, 2001). Although no oil or gas deposits were found in it so far, understanding of its structure and geological evolution can be applied to similar areas whether they are located in the continent or offshore. The Bouguer gravity and the total field aeromagnetic data were supplied by Geological Survey of Mexico (SGM), Pemex Exploration and Prospecting, published data (Mickus et al., 1999), and authors field works (Yutsis et al., 2009, Tamez et al., 2010, in press).