4, Early Cretaceous Carbonate Platforms of Northeastern and East-Central Mexico 45 Golden Lane (Tuxpan) Platform Tectonic Setting The isolated carbonate platform of the Faja del Oro or Golden Lane (Figures 1 and 9), also known as the Tuxpan platform, developed on a horst block of schist, and granodiorite of Permian—Triassic(?) age. This fault block formed during the Liassic rifting that initiated the Gulf of Mexico. The carbonate platform is bordered on the west by the narrow Chicontepec-Misantla basin in front of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The classic reference in English on the Golden Lane platform is Viniegra-O. and Castillo-Tejero (1970). This platform is a 145 by 65 km epicratonic bank oriented roughly north-south (Figure 9). Most of the great topographic relief of the bank (about 1000 m) is considered to be depositional, although some faulting on its margins has been suspected (Coogan et al., 1972). The platform was tilted gultward during middle Tertiary subsidence of the Gulf, of Mexico; its eastern edge is now about 2000+ m struc- turally lower than its western margin. Stratigraphy and Geologic History ‘The Jurassic and Early Cretaceous history of carbonate accumulation over the Golden Lane horst block is poorly understood. The time of major carbonate deposition was during the Albian—Ceno- manian. The lower part of the bank section is dolomite, but most of the platform is composed of shallow water limestone constituting the El Abra Formation. Total thickness of the El Abra is 1200-1500 m (Figure 10). Bank interior strata contain several anhydrite beds. The edge of the platform has a string of individual paleo- ‘morphologic or structural knobs in which oil has accu- mulated under an effective seal of Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary shales, These highs discontinuously encircle the bank (Figure 9), lying along the eroded top of the thick El Abra. Thus they may be erosional rather than depositional or structural. If so, their resistance to erosion may reflect accumulations of thick-shelled rudists. It is difficult to ascertain precisely when the important erosional unconformities occurred on the Golden Lane platform, In the “old Golden Lane” (northern and northwestern parts of the bank), upper Oligocene overlies the El Abra. Lower Tertiary strata were probably never deposited over this northern area after Upper Cretaceous beds were removed by erosion. Evidence for this is that parts of the platform to the south and west have thin but persistent Upper Creta- ceous beds overlain by a thick and nearly complete section of Lower and middle Cretaceous strata. The line of oil fields, the “Golden Lane,” along the ‘western margin of this platform was discovered before World War I. No accurate figures are available for cumulative production from the Faja del Oro, but it has Figure 9, Map of El Abra and Tamabra facies of Golden Lane and Poza Rica. Dashed line indicates major facies boundaries. Black areas are oll fields. Dotted pattern includes breccia and conglomerates of Cretaceous age along the Poza Rica trend and of Eocene age above the El ‘Abra on the Golden Lane bank. Note outcropping eastern ‘edge of Valles-San Luis Potosi platform in northwestern corner. of map. Atrows indicate northeast and southwest ends of cross section of Figure 10. (From Wilson, 1975, ater Coogan et al., 1972, and Lopez-Ramos, 955.) been estimated as several billion barrels (Boyd, 1963). Golden Lane hydrocarbon production is clearly related, to enhanced porosity and permeability that resulted from karsting and cavern development at or near the top of the El Abra. During the early drilling of the Golden Lane platform rim, some wells flowed with initial potentials of as much as 200,000 b.o.p.d. (Muir, 1936)! Facies of the Golden Lane Bank Because of early drilling practices, the Golden Lane facies of the El Abra Formation is poorly known Presumably, it is chiefly proximal backreef facies but includes interbedded caprinid-rich reefy facies as well (Viniegra-O. and Castillo-Tejero, 1970). Outeropping Fl Abra near Valles (Figures 1 and 7) contains both reef and back reef facies, and presumably the Golden Lane bank edge is similar. Detailed description of the various rock types of the middle Cretaceous platforms is given by Enos (1974, 1983, 1985).