Nature and timing of faulting and synextensional magmatism in the

southern Basin and Range, central-eastern Durango, Mexico

GERARDO J. AGUIRRE-DIAZ*
Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
FRED W. MCDOWELL

ABSTRACT
The Nazas area, in the central-eastern por-
tion of the state of Durango, is within the
poorly studied southern half of the Basin and
Range province in Mexico. At Nazas, high-an-
gle normal faults that cut part of the mid-Ter-
tiary volcanic sequence strike between N 20°
and 70° W, with 40% of them between N 40°
and 50° W. Tilting of faulted blocks varies
from 5° to 35° to the northeast, most commonly
around 25° NE. A few blocks are tilted to the
southwest as much as 25°. Fault offsets range
from 40 m to nearly 300 m. The earliest fault-
ing occurred between 31 and 29 Ma, before the
emplacement of mid-Tertiary ash-flow tuffs
had ended. The Santa Inés Formation, a wide-
spread fanglomerate, was deposited after the
earliest faulting episode and is overlain by 24 to
20 Ma alkalic basalt flows. Although not cut by
faults* the flows are adjacent to or cover nor-
mal faults. Some of the mapped faults could
have been coeval with basalt eruption, as is
the case in Trans-Pecos Texas, where alkalic
basalt having similar age and composition to
that in the Nazas area erupted contemporane-
ously with normal faulting. The Nazas alkalic
basalt also has similar age and stratigraphic
position as, but is compositionally distinct
from, the Southern Cordilleran Basaltic An-
desite (SCORBA), a widespread mafic suite in
southwestern North America that has been
linked to regional extension.
INTRODUCTION
Approximately one-half of the total area of
the Basin and Range extensional province of
western North America lies within Mexico
(Hemy and Aranda-Gómez, 1992). There,
mid- to late Tertiary extension is prominent in
two elongate areas separated by the relatively
unfaulted plateau of the Sierra Madre Occi- ments of Basin and Range geology: the faults
dental (Stewart, 1978; Hemy, 1989) (Fig. 1). themselves, continental clastic sediments
Despite the vastness of the affected area, only that accumulated in fault-controlled basins,
a few brief descriptions exist of normal faults and mafic volcanism apparently contempora-
and associated magmatism (see Henry and neous with faulting. In this paper, we char-
Aranda-Gomez, 1992, for summary). Hence, acterize all three of these elements because
a meaningful regional picture of the nature any of them could provide a key for compar-
and timing of deformation cannot yet be ison to well-studied areas in the northern Ba-
drawn for the southern one-half of the sin and Range. An earlier paper (Aguirre-
province. Diaz and McDowell, 1991) gave a general
This study describes the faults and evi- description of the geology of the Nazas area
dence for the timing of faulting and provides emphasizing the older (Eocene) volcanic
a brief description of contemporary volcan- rocks there.
ism and sedimentation within a 900 km 2 area
located near the town of Nazas, in the state of GEOLOGY OF THE NAZAS AREA
Durango, about 100 km southwest of the city
of Torreon (Fig. 2). In addition to its location, The oldest rocks exposed in the Nazas area
the Nazas area is important because it con- consist of folded Cretaceous limestone and
tains good exposures of the three major ele- shale of the Cuesta del Cura and Indidura-
Figure 1. Extent of the
Basin and Range province
(stippled) in the United
States and Mexico, after
Stewart (1978), Elston
(1984), and Henry and
Aranda-Gomez (1992). G,
city of Guadalajara; C,
city of Chihuahua; M,
Mexico City; SMO, Sierra
Madre Occidental.

•Present address: Estación Regional del Centro,

Instituto de Geología, UNAM, Apartado Postal
376, Guanajuato, Gto. 36000, Mexico.

Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 105, p. 1435-1444, 7 figs., 2 tables, November 1993.

1435

105
26 +
El Palmito
dom
Figure 2. Main physio-
graphic features in the vi-
cinity of Nazas. Lined pat-
tern indicates area of
Figure 4. SPG, San Pedro
v'. Sierra San
del Gallo; SLC, San Luis 25-|—N.
del Cordero. Inset con-
105
tains regional location of
main figure. SLP, city of
San Luis Potosi.
Y / 1 Area of Fig. 3
1. -j Ranges
^»(49^Federal Hwy.
-- Unpaved road
Caracol Formations (Enciso-De La Vega,
1963). A few plutons intrude these rocks, in-
cluding an 87.5 Ma diorite stock (Aguirre-
Diaz and McDowell, 1991). The Cretaceous
rocks are unconformably covered by early
Tertiary continental deposits of the Ahuichila
Formation (Rogers and others, 1961), and by
mid-Tertiary volcanic rock and fanglomerate
(Aguirre-Dfaz and McDowell, 1991). Many of
the ranges and valleys in the region are the
product of Laramide tectonism and/or Basin
and Range faulting, with folds present pre-
dominantly to the east of Nazas, and fault-
bounded ranges to the west. However, tilting
due to normal faulting is more recognizable in
originally flat-lying ash-flow tuff than in
folded limestone. Both the folds and faulted
blocks in the Nazas area are generally ori-
ented in a north-northwest-south-southeast
to northwest-southeast trend. The ranges are
separated by plains of variable width covered
by Quaternary alluvium (Fig. 2). The Nazas
area is entirely within a horst block whose
bounding structures are related to major
1436 Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993
AGUIRRE-DÍAZ AND MCDOWELL
104
to Parral 1
Mapimi
Sierra
•La Zarca-
-ABASOLO
Francisco
to Durongo
0 5 0 km
L J
DURAMGO
northwest-oriented scarps to the west of the
mapped area. Henry and Aranda-Gómez
(1992) mapped several normal faults consti-
tuting the Rodeo half graben, located about
50 km to the west of Nazas (Fig. 2). Farther
to the southwest, Reyes-Cortés (1985)
mapped the Sierra Coneto, a large and high-
standing northwest-oriented horst about 110
km from Nazas (Fig. 2).
The volcanic section in the Nazas area has
a composite thickness of —800 m, not includ-
ing as much as 110 m of an intercalated fan-
glomerate, the Santa Inés Formation (Pan-
toja-Alor, 1963) (Fig. 3). The volcanic rocks
include calc-ajkalic intermediate-composi-
tion lava flows and domes, felsic ash-flow
tuffs, and basaltic flows of alkalic affinity.
K-Ar ages range from 51 to 20 Ma, clustered
in three discrete episodes: 51-40 Ma, around
30 Ma, and 24-20 Ma. The 51-40 Ma epi-
sode, which is discussed in Aguirre-Diaz and
McDowell (1991), includes widespread silicic
ash-flow tuffs and intermediate-composition
lava flows and domes (Fig. 3). In this paper
to Jimenez
[Bermejillo
Nazas river
TORREON
to Zacatecas
SLP1
we focus on the magmatism that apparently
was coeval with normal faulting in the Nazas
area: voluminous ca. 30 Ma ash-flow tuffs
and 24-20 Ma basaltic flows.
THE OLIGOCENE ASH-FLOW TUFFS
AT NAZAS
Voluminous felsic ash-flow tuffs with K-Ar
ages between 32.2 and 29.5 Ma were em-
placed throughout the Nazas area (Fig. 4).
The tuffs have an aggregate thickness of
nearly 500 m and are divided into two major
units: the Cerro Prieto and Santa Clara tuffs
(Fig. 3). For the Cerro Prieto tuff, four K-Ar
age determinations range from 32.2 to 29.1
Ma with a weighted average of 29.9 ± 1.6 Ma
(Table 1). Two K-Ar ages for the overlying
Santa Clara tuff are 29.5 ± 0.6 Ma and 25.4 ±
1.1 Ma (Table 1). As discussed by Aguirre-
Diaz and McDowell (1991), the younger age
is considered to be spurious and the unit is
assigned an age of 29.5 ± 0.6 Ma. The —200-
m-thick Cerro Prieto tuff is composed of two
 FAULTING AND MAGMATISM, BASIN AND RANGE, MEXICO
1000 m
500
Figure 3. Composite stratigraphic column for the Nazas area, with assigned K-Ar ages (Ta-
ble 1 and Aguirre-Diaz and McDowell, 1991).
silicic ash-flow units, both containing quartz
(l%-8%, in modal volume %) and sanidine
(l%-7%). The Cerro Prieto tuff is generally
conformable with underlying Eocene volcan-
ic units and typically dips about 25° to the
northeast. The -300-m-thick Santa Clara tuff
is composed of a basal air-fall deposit and
four ash-flow units. It is nearly flat-lying ev-
crywhere. The air-fall deposit (unit A, Fig. 3)
is composed mostly of glass shards, with only
1% of skeletal plagioclase phenocrysts. The
lowermost ash-flow tuff (unit B, Fig. 3) in-
cludes plagioclase (2%-8%) and quartz (5%-
10%). The other three ash-flow tuffs contain
sanidine (1%-10%) and quartz (1%-11%).
The sources for the major tuff units were
somewhere north of the Nazas area; both
Cerro Prieto and Santa Clara tuffs thicken
northward, and the Cerro Prieto tuffs ponded
against the northern flanks of high-standing
Eocene lava domes. Although detailed vol-
ume estimates were not attempted, it is clear
that the ca. 30 Ma volcanic episode at Nazas
was very intense. Its timing coincided with
the final part of the ash-flow tuff flare-up
throughout the region (McDowell and Cla-
Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993
Qal : alluvial and talus deposits
Tmf: basalt flows [ 22.3 Ma ]
Tsi : Santa Inés Formation
E ical appearance (color, degree of welding,
— Tsc : Santa Clara tuff [ 29.5 Ma ]
Tcp: Cerro Prieto tuff [ 29.9 Ma ]
Red sandstone
Trd: rhyolitic dome [ 34.0 Ma ]
Ta : Almagre andesite [ 40.3 Ma ]
Tbc:Boquillas Coloradas tuff [ 42.9 Ma ]
Tan: Agua Nueva domes [ 45.2 Ma ]
Tp: Playas andesite [48.8 Ma ]
Tah: Ahuichila Formation
Kh: Higueras sequence
Ki: Intrusive rocks [ 87.5 Ma ]
K: Cretaceous sedimentary rocks
baugh, 1979; Aguirre-Diaz and McDowell,
1991).
Santa Inés Formation
Santa Inés Formation was originally de-
fined by Pantoja-Alor (1963) as a sequence of
continental clastic deposits as much as 300 m
thick in the vicinity of San Pedro del Gallo,
about 60 km north of Nazas (Fig. 2). The best
exposures in the Nazas area are south of San
Luis del Cordero (Fig. 4). The thickness of
the unit is highly variable, ranging from 0 to
110 m. It was deposited as alluvial fans on a
rough terrain, yet strata within the fanglom-
erate are nearly flat-lying. The fanglomerate
lies uncomformably upon folded Cretaceous
limestone and tilted Eocene-Oligocene tuffs,
and it is disconformably overlain by Holo-
cene alluvium and 24-20 Ma basalt flows.
Nine kilometers north of Mesa el Mesteno
(Fig. 4), at least 60 m of Santa Inés Formation
is present beneath basalt flows. The fanglom-
erates were deposited mostly on the eastern
flanks of tilted blocks (Fig. 4), but in some
cases, deposition occurred on the eastern
flanks of anticlines. The fanglomerate does
not directly overlie the Santa Clara tuff,
which is exposed west of the Santa Inés For-
mation outcrops (Fig. 4). Several clasts of
welded tuff found in the fanglomerate have
similar mineralogy, crystal content, and phys-
fiamme content) to welded units of Santa
Clara tuff. Thus, we infer that Santa Inés
fanglomerate is younger than the Santa Clara
tuff.
Santa Inés fanglomerate is mainly com-
posed of locally derived fragments of lime-
stone and welded ash-flow tuff, with minor
amounts of chert, agate, and andesite. Clast
sizes range from a few millimeters to 40 cm.
The matrix is a fine to coarse sand, com-
monly comprising 30%-40% of the total vol-
ume of the fanglomerate. The fanglomerate is
poorly stratified in its upper part and grades
downward to a massive conglomerate.
Santa Inés Formation is difficult to distin-
guish from younger alluvial deposits in the
area. Where basalt flows are absent and
younger alluvium directly overlies the fan-
glomerate, their contact appears to be con-
formable and indistinct. The Santa Inés fan-
glomerate, however, does not contain clasts
of basalt and tends to be slightly more con-
solidated. Near Cuencamé, about 75 km
southeast of Nazas (Fig. 2), Enciso-De La
Vega (1968) defined Los Llanos Formation,
a widespread conglomerate with intercalated
mafic lava flows. We infer that the Los
Llanos Formation is stratigraphically equiv-
alent to Santa Inés Formation, the overlying
mafic lavas, and the much younger alluvium
in the Nazas area.
BASALTS
Mafic lava flows are widespread in the Na-
zas area overlying units as young as the Santa
Inés Formation (Fig. 4). The basalts are pre-
served on remarkably flat plateaus and in
deeply eroded cones, a few of which connect
to short lava flows. Several necks of eroded
cones are scattered throughout the area and
form hills as much as 140 m high with smooth
tops. These generally consist of vertically col-
umnar-jointed basalt. In a few cases, vesicu-
lar lava flows and/or volcanic breccias rich in
scoriaceous material are found next to the
vents. Among the plateaus, the Mesa El Mes-
teño is the largest, covering an area of —15
km 2 (Fig. 4). This plateau and several other
elongated plateaus to the north of it lack as-
sociated cones; apparently the lavas were
erupted from fissures, although associated
dikes were not found.
Petrographically the basalts are rather uni-
form. They are porphyritic, with phenocrysts
1437
1438 Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993
 FAULTING AND MAGMATISM, BASIN AND RANGE, MEXICO

Figure 4. Geologic sketch map of the Nazas modified by crystal fractionation in addition from 5° to 35° for the northeast-tilted blocks,
area emphasizing the distribution of normal to crustal assimilation. and as much as 25° for the few southwest-
faults. For clarity, only those units relevant to tilted blocks. The most common inclination is
this study are shown. Thus, Cretaceous lime- NATURE OF FAULTING IN THE 25° to the northeast. We believe that all faults
stone and Quaternary alluvium are not delin- NAZAS AREA are high-angle at the surface, but their geom-
eated. Trd, Tertiary (34 Ma) rhyolitic dome; etry at depth is unknown and we can not rule
DDA, Diez de Abril; M, Magueyes; LN, La The Nazas area has been affected by major out the possibility that some are listric. Ro-
Nopalera; SC, Santa Clara; MM, Mesa El normal faulting, as recognized from scarps tation of blocks to >20° and close fault spac-
Mesteno; MC, Mesa El Caracol; CB, Ceiro and offsets (observed and inferred) of tilted ing are characteristics of listric faulting else-
Blanco; J, La Jarita; Mo, Morteros. Lines a, strata. Slickensides are difficult to find be- where in the Basin and Range province
b, c, and d locate the cross sections of Figure 7. cause most fault surfaces have been eroded. (Zoback and others, 1981).
There are not enough measurements of slick-
M ensides for statistical analysis; nevertheless, Santa Clara Fault Cluster
those that we do have indicate vertical dip
slip with a small horizontal component This set of six closely spaced (200-700 m)
(<5%), and a high-angle fault geometry faults has created an area of rough relief con-
(slickensided surfaces have dips of 60°-80°). sisting of cliffs and steep walls (Fig. 7a). Off-
of plagioclase (7%-10%, by volume) and oli- The following discussion is based mainly on set could not be measured on any of these
vine (5%-7%), in a groundmass of plagioclase the geometry of the faulted and tilted blocks faults. There is clear morphological evidence
laths, Fe-Ti oxides, olivine, clinopyroxene, rather than the sparse slickenside data. (scarps and tilted blocks) for all but the west-
and with a dusty interstitial material that orig- Normal faults are found in closely spaced ernmost fault, which is inferred from the ge-
inally may have been glass. The grain size of clusters, with as many as six faults in < 2 km. ometry of tilting (Figs. 4 and 7a). This fault
the groundmass varies; groundmass plagio- Some faults may be followed for nearly 10 km and the next one to the east are down to the
clase laths can be as much as 0.3 mm. Plagi- (Fig. 4), but most are partly covered by east, whereas the remaining faults of the clus-
oclase glomerocrysts are common, with sizes younger volcanic rocks or obscured by allu- ter are down to the west. Although all faults
of 6 to 20 mm, but single phenocrysts of pla- vium and/or talus. Faults range in orientation are high-angle at the surface, there is also the
gioclase are generally 2 to 3 mm and less com- from N 20° to 70° W, with a dominant strike possibility that the two western faults are lis-
monly as much as 5 mm. Most plagioclase between N 40° and 50° W (Fig. 6). Faulting tric and the others are antithetic. The west-
phenocrysts are subhedral and equidimen- produced elongate narrow half grabens and ernmost block is tilted 25° to the southwest.
sional, with rounded corners, oscillatory zon- high-standing horsts. Generally, faults have
ing, and fritted cores and/or margins. Olivine down-dropped blocks to the west, although a Boquillas Coloradas Cluster and
iscommonlyO.l to 0.5 mm in size but maybe few blocks are down to the east. Offsets Mesa El Caracol
as much as 2 mm. Olivine lacks reaction tex- range from 40 m to nearly 300 m. All faults
tures and is mostly euhedral and free of in- bound tilted elongated blocks that are gener- This cluster of faults is located just north of
clusions. Some of the basalts have conspic- ally inclined to the northeast. Tilting varies Diez de Abril and consists of four large faults
uous evidence for some assimilation of
crustal material, including quartz xenocrysts
with surrounding reaction coronas, partially
digested small felsic xenoliths, and rare xe-
TABLE 1. K-Ar AGES OF THE NAZAS AREA, DURANGO
nocrysts of zircon. The magnitude of this as-
similation was not assessed, but the basaltic Unit Sample Min.
Coordinates K «"AT «•Ar Age Assigned
composition of the lavas was preserved. 2S°N, 104°W (%) (%) (x IO - 6 scc/g) (Ma ± ICT) age
(Ma ± la)
Four samples, all of fresh rocks from the
eroded cones, were chosen for K-Ar dating Basalts Na-55a 12'38"N WR 1.308 61 1.134 22.1 ± 0.4 22.3 ± 1.6
11'35"W 1.316 63 1.130
and chemical analysis. Four whole-rock ages Na-55a Plag 0.4766 30 0.4383 21.2 + 3.6*
0.4683 25 0.3447
range from 20.3 to 24.3 Ma and average 22.3 SL-29 15'32"N WR 1.695 68 1.596 24.3 ± 0.5
± 1 . 6 Ma (Table 1). On the basis of petro- 12'2"W 1.718 72 1.643
R-14 7'8"N WR 1.528 68 1.356 22.4 ± 0.4
graphic homogeneity of all basalts examined 29'43"W 1.530 63 1.318
Na-41 25'32"N WR 0.8382 39 0.6643 20.3 ± 0.4
and clustering of the chemical analyses, we 18'7-W 0.8425 39 0.6662
assume that their compositions are represen- Santa Clara tuff Na-86b 9'28"N Plag 0.9652 55 0.9350 25.4 ± 1.1* 29.5 ± 0.6
16'ZT-W 0.8925 41 0.9209
tative of all basalt in the Nazas area. The 0.9417
Na-33 24'35"N Ksp 6.996 83 7.930 29.5 ± 0.6
rocks are alkalic and plot as trachybasalt in 23'10"W 6.997 91 8.225
the Total Alkali-Silica diagram (solid dots in Cerro Prieto tuff
Upper member SL-56 23'0"N Ksp 6.602 79 7.861 29.1 ± 1.8 29.9 ± 1.6s
Fig. 5a). Alkali indices (Table 2) identify them 19'32"W 6.599 84 7.204
SL-53b 23'40"N Ksp 6.027 80 7.144 29.3 ± 1.2
as sodic trachybasalt, and the rocks are there- 19'16"W 6.088 78 6.744
fore classified as hawaiite according to the Lower member Na4 12'29"N Ksp 6.644 82 7.403 28.8 ± 1.9
11'16"W 6.723 88 7.108
recommendations of the IUGS Subcommis- 90 8.092
Na-81a 9'26"N Ksp 7.280 84 9.149 32.2 ± 0.7
sion on Systematics of Igneous Rocks (Le 16'13"W 7.347 92 9.292
Bas and others, 1986). Mg numbers (Table 2)
Note: Xp = 4.963 X 10"10 yr" 1 ; \e + e" = 0.581 x 10"10 yr" 1 ; 40 K/K = 1.167 x 10" 4 mol/mol. Min., mineral used; WR, whole rock;
range from 56 to 64, which, along with low Ksp, K-feldspar; P!ag, plagioclase; see, standard cubic centimeter; *Ar, radiogenic argon.
+
nickel (37-88 ppm) and chromium (56-183 Age not considered in age assignment (see text for explanation).
^Assigned age refers to all members of unit. Sample R-14 is located outside the mapped area of Figure 4.
ppm) contents, indicate mantle-derived melts

Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993 1439

 AGUIRRE-DÍAZ AND MCDOWELL

Al 2 03

Figure 5. Plots comparing chemical compositions for the Nazas basalts (dots), with SCORBA suite (squares), and the Trans-Pecos Texas basaltic
dikes (triangles). SCORBA data are from Cameron and others (1989) and Trans-Pecos data are from Hemy and Price (1986). All plots use
normalized volatile-free values, (a) Total Alkali-Silica (Le Bas and others, 1986). Fields in plot are: B, basalt; BA, basaltic andesite; TB, trachy-
basalt; BAS, basanlte and tephrite; PT, phonotephrite; TA, trachyandesite. The shaded area in the TB field gives the distribution of analyses from
Trans-Pecos lavas (C. Henry, personal commun., 1992). (b) K 2 0-Si0 2 . Field limits after Middlemost (1975). (c) Alkali Index-Alumina (Mid-
dlemost, 1975). Alkali Index is defined in Table 2. (d) Ti0 2 -Si0 2 .

between the western flank of the Mesa El
Caracol and the eastern flank of the Cerro
Blanco (Figs. 4 and 7b). Except for the west-
ernmost fault, all have dropped blocks down
to the west. Offsets could be measured only
along the westernmost (150 m) and the east-
ernmost (60 m) faults. To the east, steep cliffs
bounding the east side of Mesa el Caracol
suggest the presence of a large northwest-
striking fault beneath alluvium and talus that
produced a relief of 250 m between the top of
the mesa and the adjacent Las Hormigas
valley.
Nopalera Faults
Two parallel normal faults were mapped in
the northern part of the area, about 1 km west
of La Nopalera village (Figs. 4 and 7c). A
third, westernmost fault buried beneath the
flat-lying Santa Clara tuff is inferred from the
geometry of the stepped blocks. In addition,
the middle and eastern faults are poorly ex-
posed because the Santa Clara tuff almost to-
tally conceals the faulted and tilted Cerro
Prieto tuff (Figs. 4 and 7c). These faults form
half grabens, with blocks down to the west
(Fig. 7c). The offset for the middle fault can-
not be greater than the 80-m local thickness of
the upper cooling unit of Cerro Prieto tuff,
because the base of the tuff is not exposed.
From the geometry of the tilted blocks, we
infer the offset for the eastern fault at —270 m
(Fig. 7c).
Cerro Prieto Cluster
The faults located near Cerro Prieto are
also closely spaced (six faults in <2 km) and
cause a repetitive stepping of the Cerro Prieto
tuff (Fig. 7d). The offsets do not exceed 50 to
70 m. Tilting of Cerro Prieto and older tuffs
requires a fault to the west, but its location is
uncertain. Contact between the Cretaceous
limestone and the tuff is obscured by talus
deposits; it may be a fault, or more likely, an
erosional contact. An eroded volcanic cone
and associated flows cover two of these faults
(Fig. 7d), one of which may have been the
conduit for basaltic magma.
Timing of Faulting
Normal faulting was initiated between dep-
osition of the 29.5 ± 0.6 Ma Santa Clara tuff,
which is horizontal and apparently has not
been tilted by normal faulting, and the under-
lying 29.9 ± 1.6 Ma Cerro Prieto tuff, which
is faulted and tilted (Figs. 4 and 7c). Locali-
ties that display this angular unconformity are

1440 Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993

 FAULTING AND MAGMATISM, BASIN AND RANGE, MEXICO

TABLE 2. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NAZAS BASALT, AND AVERAGE COMPOSITIONS OF WEST TEXAS Santa Clara tuff (Fig. 4); however, other
BASALT* AND SCORBA SUITE*
faults covered by basalt could be younger.
Sample SL-29 Na- Na-41 R-14 Ave Nazas Ave Texas Ave SCORBA In summary, Basin and Range-style,
SSa n= 4 n= 8 n= 9 northwest-oriented faulting was underway in
Si0 2 48.73 48.60 46.68 47.93 47.99 47.61 54.16
the Nazas area at 30 Ma. A much later (that
TiOj 2.16 2.30 2.22 2.30 2.25 2.17 1.64 is, <20 Ma) faulting episode is required on a
A120, 16.34 16.69 16.17 15.94 16.29 16.69 16.46
Fe 2 0 3 2.70 5.08 2.63 2.74 3.29 3.74 2.73§ regional scale to explain the present-day ge-
FeO 7.79 6.78 7.44 7.52 7.38 6.56 6.37s ometry of ranges and valleys that contain Hol-
MnO 0.18 0.16 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.16 0.15
MgO 5.64 5.93 7.51 6.63 6.43 5.95 4.69 ocene alluvium. No direct evidence for this
CaO 7.94 8.15 9.62 9.16 8.72 7.21 8.03
Na 2 0 3.94 3.56 4.00 3.64 3.79 4.59 3.21 later faulting is evident in the study area
K20 2.17 1.78 1.14 1.96 1.76 2.55 1.83 (Fig. 4). The Santa Clara tuff and all younger
P205 0.57 0.50 0.66 0.68 0.60 1.12 0.70
H20+ 1.31 1.07 1.88 1.24 1.38 1.58 n/a rocks are not significantly rotated. Left un-
H20" 0.17 0.17 0.20 0.15 0.17 n/a n/a
co2 0.06 0.09 0.05 0.05 0.06 n/a n/a resolved is the amount of fault movement
SUM 99.70 100.86 100.38 100.12 100.27 100.11 100.02
Sr 575 653 585 657 618 657 652
that occurred between ca. 29 and 24 Ma, dur-
Ba 754 645 836 642 719 968 969 ing deposition of the Santa Inés fanglomer-
V 182 272 248 250 238 n/a n/a
Cr 105 56 183 123 117 n/a n/a ate, and between 24 and 20 Ma, during
Ni 49 37 88 71 61 n/a n/a
Zn 92 100 97 101 98 n/a n/a
eruption of the alkali basalt.
Li 53 27 26 36 36 n/a n/a
Sc 20 21 26 24 23 n/a n/a
Mg# 56.35 60.93 64.28 61.12 60.67 61.83 56.66 COMPARISON OF NAZAS BASALTS
A.I. 5.51 5.41 6.82 5.99 5.87 7.90 2.65
WITH SCORBA AND THE ALKALIC
Mg# = tOOMgO/(MgO FeO), molecular, using volatile-free normalized values. BASALTS OF TRANS-PECOS TEXAS
A.I., Alkali Index of Middlemost (1975); A.I. = (Na 2 0 + K 2 0)/[(Si0 2 - 43) x 0.17], using volatile-free normalized values.
Ave, average values; n, number of analyses to compute average; n/a, no data available; locations given in Table 1. Nazas samples
were analyzed by Scott Thieben in the Department of Geological Sciences of the University of Texas at Austin, using Inductively The basaltic rocks at Nazas are in the same
Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy, the Penfield method for total water determination, and the acid-evolution-gravimetric
method for CO2 (modified after Johnson and Maxwell, 1981). Ferrous iron was determined titrimetrically using Wilson's method stratigraphic position as two regionally sig-
(Johnson and Maxwell, 1981). nificant mafic suites that postdate felsic vol-
"Heniy and Price, 1986.
* Cameron and others, 1989. canism throughout the southwestern Cordil-
®FeO and Fe 2 0 3 after correcting the FeO total value (9.10) using a ferric/ferrous = 0.3 as suggested by Middlemost (1989). lera. Cameron and others (1989) have defined
SCORBA (Southern Cordilleran Basaltic
Andesite), a widespread suite of mid-Ceno-
zoic basaltic andesite in southwestern North
5 km north of Morteros (Fig. 4), where Cerro fanglomerate deposition during active fault- America. According to Cameron and others
Prieto tuff is dipping 15° to the northeast and ing in the Nazas area. (1989), SCORBA lavas are phenocryst poor
the overlying Santa Clara tuff is flat-lying, and Several 24.3 to 20.3 Ma alkalic basalt flows (<2%), including plagioclase, augite, and
near La Jarita (Fig. 4), where a normal fault cover, or are adjacent to, normal faults (Figs. 4 olivine, in a groundmass mainly composed of
that tilted the Cerro Prieto tuff by 20° to the and 7c) and may have used them as conduits fine-grained plagioclase laths. Apparently the
southwest is covered by the flat-lying Santa to the surface. No evidence of fault move- absence of orthopyroxene in these rocks is
Clara tuff. In addition, at Santa Clara canyon ment coeval with the eruption of the basalt diagnostic, particularly when compared with
(Fig. 4), severed faults of the Santa Clara fault was found in the Nazas area, and the basalt pre-SCORBA mafic rocks in the Sierra
cluster (Fig. 7a) bound tilted blocks with flows are not cut by faults. Any evidence of Madre Occidental. Although they described
Cerro Prieto tuff as their youngest unit. Just faulting contemporaneous with basalt no direct tectonic relationships, Cameron
to the south of the canyon the faults and tilted eruption is concealed beneath the flows and others (1989) postulated that SCORBA
blocks are covered by unfaulted and flat-lying themselves. The basalt plateaus cover a wide was emplaced in a more extensional environ-
Santa Clara tuff. area and are remarkably flat-lying. Some of ment than that for the pre-SCORBA volcanic
Our most precise estimate for the timing of the faults close to the basalts are at least 29 rocks. They also included the Nazas area
this faulting episode is 29.7 +1.6 - 0 . 6 Ma, Ma old, because they are also covered by the mafic rocks within their SCORBA suite.
using the weighted average of the assigned
ages of Cerro Prieto and Santa Clara tuffs. A
more conservative estimate for the allowable
time range for the faulting is between 31 and N
29 Ma.
The stratigraphic position of Santa Inés
fanglomerate above rotated tuffs, its original
fan-like geometry (now partly eroded), and Figure 6. Rose plot of
its nature as a high-energy continental clastic strikes of major normal
deposit are common characteristics of fan- faults in the Nazas area,
glomerates related to uplift (Reading, 1986). based on exposed faults
The deposit is nearly flat-lying, however, and only.
no evidence of fan segmentation due to uplift
episodes during deposition was found (Bull,
1964), thus suggesting that the fanglomerate
cumulative fault length: 8 5 k m
was deposited subsequent to motion along
adjacent faults. We observed no evidence for

Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993 1441

£
SW
2000-,

1500-

1000

SW
2000 - I
O
CT
0

1
o

vi 1500-
o
o
S' Figure 7. Cross sections
of the geometry of faults in
the Nazas area. For loca- 1000
a tion of the section lines see
3. Figure 4. (a) Santa Clara
o
» WSW ENE
«e fault cluster. (b) Boquillas 2000-i
Coloradas fault cluster. (c)
Nopalera faults. (d) Cerro
Prieto fault cluster. ^ QQQ _ EXPLANATION

I
n
1600-
QUATERNARY- Qal Alluvium

MIOCENE Miocene mafic lava

Tmt
VO flows: 22.3 M a
VO
Tsc Santa Clara tuff: 29.5 Ma
OLIGOCENE
1400
Tcp Cerro Prieto tuft: 29.9 M a

EOCENEH Tbc Boquillas Coloradas

SW NE tuff: 42.9 M a
2000-.
Cretacous sedimentary rocks

Cerro Prieto (Tmf)

Santa Clara 1 km
stream (Qal) Tcp I
1500-
Elevation in meters above sea level

1000
 FAULTING AND MAGMATISM, BASIN AND RANGE, MEXICO
The second comparison is to mafic dikes
and lava flows capping the volcanic sequence
in Trans-Pecos Texas (Barker, 1979; Henry
and Price, 1986), consisting of trachybasalt
(hawaiite), basanite, and phonotephrite, ac-
cording to the IUGS classification scheme
(Le Bas and others, 1986). The Trans-Pecos
dikes contain plagioclase (including mega-
crysts), anorthoclase, biotite, kaersutite, ap-
atite, and magnetite, and a groundmass of pla-
gioclase, olivine, titanaugite, and magnetite
(Henry and Price, 1986; Barker, 1987). The
corresponding flows are fine grained and may
be either nonporphyritic or porphyritic. The
porphyritic variety generally has a few per-
cent of phenocrysts of plagioclase, augite, id-
dingsitized olivine, and opaques, but it may
contain as much as 40% of plagioclase phe-
nocrysts as large as 5 mm (St. John, 1966;
McKnight, 1969). The groundmass is com-
posed of plagioclase, augite, opaques, and id-
dingsitized olivine.
In addition to their similar stratigraphic po-
sitions, the SCORBA, Trans-Pecos, and Na-
zas mafic rocks overlap in age. SCORBA
ranges from 29 to 20 Ma (Cameron and oth-
ers, 1989), Trans-Pecos mafic rocks range
from 24 to 17 Ma (Dasch and others, 1969;
Heniy and Price, 1986), and Nazas hawaiite
ranges from 24 to 20 Ma. All three suites con-
tain clinopyroxene, plagioclase, olivine, and
lack orthopyroxene. Thus, a discrimination
among lavas of the three suites based upon
stratigraphic position, age, or petrography
cannot be readily made.
In contrast, chemical composition pro-
vides a clear distinction among the three
suites (Table 2 and Fig. 5). Complete analy-
ses are published only for the megacrystic
dikes of Trans-Pecos (Henry and Price,
1986), but unpublished data (C. Henry, per-
sonal commun., 1992) are available for their
corresponding lavas, which have lower alkali
contents (Fig. 5a). The mafic lavas from Na-
zas and Trans-Pecos Texas are alkalic basalt,
and those of SCORBA are primarily basaltic
andesite. Lavas of all three suites have sim-
ilar total alkali contents despite the fact that
SCORBA is higher in silica (Fig. 5a). In Fig-
ure 5b a strong correlation of K 2 0 and Si0 2
is observed for SCORBA, with most of the
samples falling within the subalkalic field. In
contrast, the mafic rocks of Trans-Pecos and
Nazas cluster within the alkalic field. In a plot
of alkali index versus alumina (Fig. 5c), all
three suites plot separately, with the Nazas
and Trans-Pecos rocks falling within the field
of high-alumina basalt, and SCORBA within
the tholeiite field. Ti0 2 contents are similar
for Nazas and Trans-Pecos basalts and dis-
tinctly lower for the SCORBA suite (Fig. 5d).
This depletion in T i 0 2 is common for orogen-
Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993
ic basaltic andesite (Gill, 1981), whereas rel-
atively higher Ti0 2 values are common in in-
traplate alkalic basalt (Ringwood, 1990).
In summary, the Nazas and Trans-Pecos
rocks have similar compositions consistent
with an intraplate continental association
(Wilson, 1989; Ringwood, 1990), whereas the
SCORBA suite lacks these characteristics.
From this comparison, we infer that the Na-
zas basalt flows were erupted during active
extensional faulting, as is clear for the Trans-
Pecos mafic rocks, based upon their field
relationships.
REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE
Throughout much of the northern Basin
and Range province, early east to northeast
extension was followed in late Tertiary time
by northwest extension (Zoback and others,
1981). In contrast, orientation of extension
has remained dominantly east-northeast in
the southern Basin and Range (Henry and
Price, 1986; Henry, 1989). Similarly, two
contrasting styles of extension have been rec-
ognized in the province. One is characterized
by low-angle faulting that apparently affected
the uppermost 5 km of the crust and that oc-
curred contemporaneously with silicic to in-
termediate calc-alkalic magmatism (Zoback
and others, 1981). Amounts of extension are
estimated to have been 50%-100% and lo-
cally as much as 200%, presumably allowing
passive emplacement of large intrusions (Zo-
back and others, 1981; Meyer and Foland,
1991). The second style is generally consid-
ered to be the classic Basin and Range block
faulting event (for example, Christiansen and
Lipman, 1972; Stewart, 1978; Elston, 1976,
1984; Zoback and others, 1981; Eaton, 1982;
Morgan and others, 1986; Henry and Price,
1986). It is characterized by high-angle faults
that bound elongated blocks and that affected
the uppermost 10-15 km of the crust (Zoback
and others, 1981). Zoback and others (1981)
concluded that this faulting was generally as-
sociated with bimodal basalt-rhyolite mag-
matism. However, more recent studies have
shown that basaltic volcanism was dominant
in many parts of the southern Basin and
Range, and that it occurred after block fault-
ing, rather than coincident with it (Taylor and
others, 1989; Glazner and Ussier, 1989). This
style has been dominant throughout the
southern Basin and Range, including most
areas of northern Mexico, where there is little
documentation for the high degree of exten-
sion produced by low-angle listric faulting,
except possibly on a local scale.
Evidence for initiation of extension as
early as the mid-Tertiary throughout the Ba-
sin and Range province has been accumulat-
ing from recent studies. For an area in north-
eastern Nevada, Palmer and others (1991)
presented fault relationships that are very
similar to those at Nazas. They placed the
timing for faulting to be between 35.8 and
30.8 Ma from K-Ar ages of tilted and non-
tilted ash-flow tuffs. Also in the northern Ba-
sin and Range, Gans and others (1989) re-
ported major normal faults as old as 36 Ma in
eastern Nevada. For the southern Basin and
Range (west Texas and northern Mexico),
Price and Henry (1984), Henry and Price
(1986), Henry (1989), Henry and others
(1991), and Henry and Aranda-Gómez (1992)
did not recognize active faulting prior to 24
Ma, but they found evidence from dikes and
veins as old as 30 Ma for a least principal
stress oriented east-northeast that would be
consistent with extension at that time. In
Mexico, Lang and others (1988) mapped a
major normal fault older than 29.1 Ma near
Fresnillo, Zacatecas, about 250 km to the
southeast of Nazas. This fault tilted 38.3 Ma
ash-flow tuffs and is "relatively low-angle"
with an offset of at least 300 m (Lang and
others, 1988). Farther to the south, near Gua-
najuato city, about 500 km to the southeast of
Nazas, Gross (1975) reported northwest-ori-
ented normal faults that were active between
32 and 28 Ma. Aranda-Gómez and others (1983,
1989) described several northwest- and
northeast-oriented grabens between Guana-
juato and the city of San Luis Potosí, about
400 km to the southeast of Nazas. One of
these contains a 27 Ma tuff. Another major
northwest-striking fault may have been ac-
tive during the Eocene epoch (Aranda-Gó-
mez and others, 1989).
Faulting that affected the Nazas region at
31-29 Ma occurred before emplacement of
voluminous ash-flow tuffs of the Sierra
Madre Occidental volcanic field was com-
pleted. Thus, discrete faulting there was con-
temporaneous with calc-alkalic magmatism.
Although they have not been chemically an-
alyzed at Nazas, the Oligoccne ash-flow tuffs
include quartz, sanidine, and plagioclase as
common phases. Petrographically similar
and contemporaneous ash-flow tuffs ana-
lyzed from other areas in the Sierra Madre
Occidental have calc-alkalic to alkali-calcic
compositions (McDowell and Clabaugh,
1979). We suggest that these structures
formed during an early faulting event that was
not registered in Trans-Pecos Texas but is
known from other sites in the southern
Cordillera.
Timing of high-angle faulting is between 23
and 17 Ma in west Texas (Henry and Price,
1986). At Nazas, basalt does not appear to be
cut by faults, but it is very similar in compo-
sition and in age to that in Trans-Pecos
1443

Texas, where the normal faulting was con-
temporaneous with basaltic volcanism (Hen-
ly and Price, 1986; Price and others, 1987).
Although we are unable to provide field doc-
umentation for fault movement at that time,
we suggest that the 24 to 20 Ma alkalic basalts
in the Nazas area reflect the same regional
faulting and magmatic event that affected
Trans-Pecos Texas at 23-17 Ma. A final ep-
isode of faulting younger than 20 Ma is re-
quired at Nazas to produce the horst and gra-
ben structure. Thus, extensional faulting in
the Nazas area may have occurred in at least
three episodes, with no apparent change in
style or orientation of the faulting.
CONCLUSIONS
In the Nazas area, normal faulting began
at 31-29 Ma, before termination of volumi-
nous mid-Tertiary ash-flow tuff emplace-
ment. Normal faulting of similar age that also
offsets mid-Tertiaiy felsic ash-flow tuff has
been reported from other localities within the
Basin and Range province, including some in
northern Mexico.
Santa Inés Formation, a widespread fan-
glomerate, was deposited after this faulting
event, but before eruption of alkalic basalts at
24-20 Ma.
The 24-20 Ma alkalic basalt is very similar
in composition and in age to that in Trans-
Pecos Texas, where basalt was erupted con-
temporaneously with high-angle Basin and
Range normal faulting. No normal faults con-
temporaneous with the 24-20 Ma basalts
have been documented at Nazas, but faulting
during that time is inferred.
The presence of high-standing blocks
capped by basalt flows as young as 24-20 Ma
requires normal faulting of that age or
younger in the vicinity of the Nazas area.
This faulting was apparently more widely
spaced than earlier faulting, because normal
faults that cut the 29 Ma Santa Clara tuff, the
Santa Inés fanglomerate units, or the 24-20
Ma alkalic basalt flows have not been ob-
served. Also, these units have not been sig-
nificantly rotated.
Normal faulting in the Nazas area occurred
at two times: between 31 and 29 Ma and after
20 Ma, and it is inferred at 24 to 20 Ma. The
amount of faulting between these times re-
mains unresolved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Daniel S. Barker, James F.
Luhr, and Christopher D. Henry for their
helpful reviews of a preliminary version of
the manuscript, and Kenneth Cameron and
1444 Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1993
AGUIRRE-DÍAZ AND MCDOWELL
David Wark for thorough reviews of the sub-
mitted manuscript. José Guerrero and
Fernando Ortega-Gutiérrez, directors of the
Instituto de Geología of the Universidad Na-
cional Autónoma de México, kindly provided
a field vehicle to carry out the mapping for
this study. Jeffrey Horowitz drafted the fig-
ures. This work was supported in part by the
Geology Foundation of the Department of
Geological Sciences of the University of
Texas at Austin, by National Science Foun-
dation Grant EAR-8720380 to McDowell,
and by a scholarship from the Mexican
agency CONACYT to Aguirre-Diaz.
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