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Geology

Late Ordovician−Early Silurian continental collisional orogeny in southern

Mexico and its bearing on Gondwana-Laurentia connections
Fernando Ortega-Gutiérrez, Mariano Elías-Herrera, Margarita Reyes-Salas, Consuelo Macías-Romo
and Robert López

Geology 1999;27;719-722
doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0719:LOESCC>2.3.CO;2

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Notes

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 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on 21 October 2009
Late Ordovician–Early Silurian continental collisional orogeny in
southern Mexico and its bearing on Gondwana-Laurentia connections
Fernando Ortega-Gutiérrez
Mariano Elías-Herrera
Margarita Reyes-Salas Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán 04510, México, D.F., México
Consuelo Macías-Romo
Robert López

ABSTRACT an almost complete record of pre-Mississippian

New zircon and monazite U-Pb data, tectonic mapping, and petrologic studies in key units Paleozoic ocean closure and its consequent conti-
of the Acatlán Complex show a previously undocumented phase of continental collision orogeny nental interactions. The Acatlán Complex (Ortega-
of Late Ordovician–Early Silurian age in southern Mexico. The event involved the partial eclogi- Gutiérrez, 1993; Yañez et al., 1991) forms the
tization of oceanic lithosphere and continental crust, which traveled westward more than basement of the Mixteco terrane and with the
200 km over siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks of the trench-forearc of an opposing continental Grenvillian Oaxacan Complex on the east define a
margin. The overriding eastern margin was the Oaxaquia microplate attached to Gondwana, continental block about which younger Paleozoic
and the western overridden margin is considered to have been the eastern margin of Laurentia. and Mesozoic terranes accreted to southern
This event, which we name the Acatecan orogeny, was roughly synchronous with the possible Mexico (Fig. 1). Regional stratigraphic relation-
closure of Iapetus along the Appalachian margin, which involved, according to current models, ships of continental and marine deposits of Early
either the docking of peri-Gondwanan terranes such as Avalonia and Carolina or the direct colli- Mississippian–middle Permian age, which uncon-
sion between Gondwana and Laurentia. The permanence of Oaxaquia in northwestern Gond- formably cover Devonian granitoids stitching the
wana until the end of the Silurian, as suggested by Tremadocian to Silurian marine faunas in the contact between the Oaxacan (Grenvillian) and
cover of Oaxaquia, is more consistent with the direct collision of Gondwana and Laurentia at Acatlán Complexes, support a pre-late Paleozoic
the end of the Ordovician, forming the Acatlán Complex between. age for their tectonic juxtaposition. These data,
together with the presence of (1) eclogitized conti-
INTRODUCTION geographic evolution of this major episode of geo- nental and ophiolitic rocks in the Acatlán Complex
The birth and closure of Iapetus have been in- logic history have remained elusive (e.g., Mac and (2) a major thrust nappe that implies long-
tensely scrutinized since Wilson (1966) asked the Niocaill et al., 1997; Dalziel, 1997). Southern range tectonic transport, led Ortega-Gutiérrez
question “Did the Atlantic close and then Mexico contains a small and yet probably critical (1993) to propose that an early to middle Paleozoic
re-open?” However, the nature, timing, and paleo- piece of the world’s Paleozoic orogens, containing continent-continent collisional orogeny occurred

Figure 1. Tectonostrati-
graphic setting of Acatlán
Complex of southern Mex-
ico. Guerrero, Cuicateco, and
Chatino terranes are Meso-
zoic in age, whereas Zapo-
teco and Maya terranes
have Grevillian granulitic
basement. In index map,
Oligocene and Pliocene-
Quaternary volcanic rocks
of Sierra Madre Occidental
(SMOCC) and Trans-Mexi-
can volcanic belt (TMVB),
respectively, are included.

Data Repository item 9960 contains additional material related to this article.

Geology; August 1999; v. 27; no. 8; p. 719–722; 5 figures. 719

 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on 21 October 2009
Gutiérrez, 1993); the complex can be subdivided
into two principal tectonic units separated by a
major thrust overlapped by a weakly metamor-
phosed and strongly deformed Devonian vol-
canosedimentary sequence known as the Teco-
mate Formation (Fig. 3). The lower plate consists
of a thick package of metasedimentary rocks
(Cosoltepec, Chazumba, and Magdalena Forma-
tions), here interpreted as trench and forearc
deposits of a convergent continental margin. The
lithotectonic interpretation of this lower package
was mainly based on its siliciclastic composition,
extreme thickness, and the presence of ocean-floor
fragments in the Cosoltepec Formation (Fig. 3),
preliminarily dated as 452 ± 22 Ma (whole-rock
Rb-Sr minimal age; Richard Armstrong, 1979,
written commun.). The upper plate (Xayacatlán
Formation and Esperanza Granitoids) is formed
by eclogitized mafic and ultramafic rocks inter-
layered with pelitic and siliceous metasedimen-
tary rocks, structurally overlain by high-pressure
granites and migmatites. Virtually the entire
allochthon was mylonitized and retrogressed dur-
ing its low-angle emplacement, but the major
thrust that separates the plates was subsequently
folded twice along northeast- to northwest-trend-
ing recumbent and upright structures (Fig. 2). The
two tectonically superposed units were exhumed
and covered by the Tecomate Formation, and
intruded by the La Noria (371 ± 34 Ma) and Totol-
tepec (287 ± 2 Ma) plutons (Yañez et al., 1991)
(Fig. 2). The Acatlán Complex was then covered
with profound unconformity by shallow-marine
rocks as old as Early Mississippian (Fig. 3).

Esperanza Granitoids
This unit best preserves the age, metamorphic,
and structural elements that represent the main
Figure 2. Geology of northern half of Acatlán Complex. Cross-section A-B is ~130 km long and orogenic event that shaped the Acatlán Complex.
drawn from Grenvillian Oaxacan Complex in east to westernmost limits of Paleozoic terrane just It consists of megacrystic K-feldspar augen
south of Izúcar de Matamoros. If unfolded, thrust nappe documents minimum overlap exceed- gneiss and extensive packets of migmatite, schist,
ing 200 km. Magdalena migmatite was projected onto section from exposures about 20 km to and minor amphibolite. Most rocks of the Esper-
south. Folded thrust nappe, extending along entire length of section, was exhumed from depths
in excess of 45 km. During Late Ordovician–Silurian, nappe probably rooted under Precambrian anza unit are rich in metamorphic albite, epidote,
crust near present Caltepec fault zone, as suggested by presence there of common serpentinite phengite, garnet, tourmaline, and rare rutile. All
bodies and relict high-pressure minerals. lithologies are retrogressed, intensely folded, and
mylonitized. We infer that schist and migmatite
in southern Mexico and that the Acatlán Complex we propose a Late Ordovician–Early Silurian, formed the host rock from which the granitic
essentially represented the suture. instead of Devonian, age for the main tectonic megacrystic facies developed by anatexis asso-
However, the position of the Paleozoic Acatlán phase that affected the Acatlán Complex, and ciated with the early Paleozoic event. Although
Complex west of the Grenvillian Oaxacan Com- interpret the event as a collisional orogeny related no jadeite has been found in the Esperanza Gran-
plex, which is opposite to the Appalachian- to the closure of Iapetus and terrane transfer itoids, its common contents of high-silica phen-
Grenville relationship of eastern North America, between Gondwana and Laurentia. Although the gite, grossular-rich garnet, pseudomorphs of
was explained by a Cordilleran (Pacific terrane Acatlán Complex underwent deformation, intru- zoisite or epidote + phengite + albite ± garnet
accretion) evolution of southern Mexico or, alter- sion, and metamorphism in Devonian time, we after plagioclase, and relict rutile, suggest eclogite
natively, by the transfer of the Acatlán terrane focus this work on the Late Ordovician–Early facies for granitic rocks (Le Goff and Bellévre,
from the Colombian Andes (Gondwana) to Lau- Silurian event, and we discuss two contrasting 1990). The Esperanza Granitoids unit is therefore
rentia during a late Paleozoic orogeny (Ruiz paleogeographic scenarios for its evolution. interpreted as part of a continental slab composed
et al., 1988). Although the possibility of previous of granite and pelitic rocks that underwent ana-
orogeny was not precluded, this major episode in ACATLÁN COMPLEX texis and high-pressure metamorphism during a
the tectonic history of southern Mexico and of The Acatlán Complex forms the basement of collisional orogeny dated here as Late Ordovi-
the Appalachian margin was considered to be the Mixteco terrane in southern Mexico (Figs. 1 cian–Early Silurian. The peraluminous composi-
Devonian in age (Yañez et al., 1991). On the basis and 2). The stratigraphic and tectonostratigraphic tion, high initial 87Sr/ 86Sr ratio (0.7172), εNd(0) =
of new U-Pb data and the structural and petrologic units that compose the complex were described in –10.0, and TDM of 1.59 Ga (Yañez et al., 1991)
study of the high-pressure Esperanza Granitoids, detail elsewhere (Yañez et al., 1991; Ortega- support a Precambrian source for the granitoids.

720 GEOLOGY, August 1999

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However, the syntectonic character of the dated
pluton is clearly indicated by its sheet geometry,
similar high-pressure structural and metamorphic
fabrics in the granitoids and wall rocks, and
gradational contacts commonly seen between
granitic and migmatitic facies.

U-Pb Zircon and Monazite Ages

Probably the most controversial aspect of the
Acatlán Complex has been the timing of the
orogeny that produced such an amazing variety
of tectonostratigraphic units. A comprehensive
attempt to date the Acatlán Complex was made
by Yañez et al. (1991), but failed to find events in
the Ordovician. Our study of the Esperanza
augen granitoid at its type locality (Fig. 2) yielded
a lower intercept age of 440 ± 14 Ma and an
upper intercept age of 1161 ± 30 Ma (Fig. 4). The
data are given in Table 11. The lower intercept is
interpreted as the magmatic age of the rock; the
zircon fractions constraining the intersection are
colorless, elongated, and euhedral grains without
visible inclusions, and plot lower and near con-
cordia. The upper intercept is better interpreted as
Figure 3. Composite
Grenvillian inherited radiogenic Pb in cores of tectonostratigraphic col-
the multifaceted zircons. A nearly concordant umn of Acatlán Complex
U-Pb monazite age of 418 ± 18 Ma was also ob- representative of currently
tained from the granitoid sample (Fig. 4), provid- exposed structural relief
of more than 20 km of
ing independent support for the lower intercept as
continental crust.
the magmatic age of the granitoid. The syntec-
tonic character of the intrusion, as argued here,
and the Devonian age of the crosscutting La Noria
granite, imply that deformation and high-pres-
sure metamorphism accompanied or followed
closely the anatectic magmatism, the age of
which therefore probably dates the main oro-
genic event registered by the Acatlán Complex as
Late Ordovician–Early Silurian. The uncon-
formable relationships of the Esperanza Gran-
itoids with the overlying Tecomate Formation Figure 4. U-Pb concordia
and the crosscutting La Noria granite, both of diagrams for zircon and
Devonian age, further support the early Paleozoic monazite of Esperanza
Granitoids, Acatlán Com-
isotopic age obtained here. plex.

DISCUSSION
Because no early Paleozoic paleomagnetic or
paleontologic data from the Acatlán Complex are
available, its paleogeographic evolution is very
poorly understood. Nevertheless, the new data pre-
sented in this paper, fixing better the timing and
styles of deformation and metamorphism in the
complex, may help to constrain that problem and
its role in Gondwana-Laurentia connections. Be- near the Ordovician-Silurian boundary. The west- of western Avalonia and Carolina terranes to Lau-
cause the eastern block now in contact with the ern plate onto which the Acatlán Complex and rentia (van Staal, 1994; Keppie et al., 1996).
Acatlan Complex is the Oaxacan Complex, the Oaxaquia were thrusted is unfortunately not Recent models for the closure of Iapetus and
Oaxaquia microcontinent (Ortega-Gutiérrez et al., exposed, and was essentially truncated during the widening of the Rheic ocean in the Appalachian
1995) of apparent Gondwanan affinity is consid- Paleozoic initiation of the present Pacific basin. margin require docking of peri-Gondwanan ter-
ered to be the eastern overriding plate in the herein The Acatecan orogeny is roughly coeval with ranes such as western Avalonia and Carolina by
proposed collisional Acatecan orogeny, dated as major collisional events recorded in several seg- the end of the Ordovician (Keppie et al., 1996;
ments of the Appalachian and Andean margins of Mac Niocaill et al., 1997; Dalziel, 1997) or, alter-
1GSA Data Repository item 9960, Table 1, U-Pb
Iapetus, including the Ocloyic collisional orogeny natively, the full collision of the Andean margin
Analytical Results, is available on request from
Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, of the Argentinian Andes (Dalla-Salda et al., of Gondwana against eastern Laurentia (Miller
Boulder, CO 80301, editing@geosociety.org, or at 1992), the Caparonensis orogenic event in Colom- and Kent, 1988; Dalla-Salda et al., 1992; Dalziel
www.geosociety.org/pubs/drpint.htm. bia (Restrepo-Pace et al., 1997), and the accretion et al., 1994). In the first scenario (Fig. 5A), the

GEOLOGY, August 1999 721

 Downloaded from geology.gsapubs.org on 21 October 2009
Figure 5. Paleogeographic mod-
els for Late Ordovician–Early
Silurian orogeny on margins of
Iapetus. A: Closure of Iapetus is
achieved by docking of peri-
Gondwanan terranes western
Avalonia-Carolina onto Lauren-
tian Appalachian margin (modi-
fied from Mac Niocaill et al.,
1997). Oaxaquia plate (O) is
shown docking somewhere near
central Appalachian forming
Acatlán Complex in suture. B:
Closure of Iapetus is ascribed
here to Middle to Late Ordovi-
cian collision of Gondwana and
Laurentia; in this case, Oaxaquia
formed edge of Gondwana that
overrode northern Laurentian
margin (modified from Dalziel
et al., 1994). Acatlán Complex
formed in collisional suture.
Acatlán Complex could have been part of the
Iapetus suture formed by the docking of an inde-
pendent Oaxaquia microplate against the south-
eastern margin of Laurentia, south of the Ava-
lonian terranes. In the second scenario (Fig. 5B),
Oaxaquia may have formed part of the Colom-
bian margin of Gondwana that collided with Lau-
rentia, causing the Acatecan orogeny in southern
Mexico. The first model would be more con-
sistent with recent Late Ordovician–Silurian re-
constructions (e.g., Mac Niocaill et al., 1997;
Dalziel, 1997) wherein Gondwana and Laurentia
are shown separated by a wide ocean in Late
Ordovician–Early Silurian time. We argue, how-
ever, that the presence of early-middle Paleozoic
faunas with Gondwanan affinities in rocks over-
lying Grenvillian gneisses of Oaxaquia (Robison
and Pantoja-Alor, 1968; Boucot et al., 1997) and
early Paleozoic orogeny in Colombia strongly
support the permanence of Oaxaquia in Gond-
wana probably until the Silurian.
It is clear that supportive insights on any of the
models proposed here could readily come from
rigorous paleomagnetic, paleontologic, and addi-
tional geochronologic studies of early Paleozoic
rocks in southern Mexico, and in Colombia. Our
ongoing studies of the younger (Devonian) trans-
current boundary between the Acatlán and Oaxa-
can complexes will better constrain the complex
evolution of this region.
CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of U-Pb zircon and monazite dat-
ing of a key tectonite (Esperanza Granitoids) of
the Acatlán Complex, a Late Ordovician–Early
Silurian orogenic phase (Acatecan orogeny) is
documented in southern Mexico. The high-pres-
sure and continental characterization of their
granites and migmatites, which with large
eclogitic mafic and ultramafic bodies form a far-
traveled thrust nappe apparently rooted beneath
Precambrian crust in the east, and the westward
thrusting of the nappe over siliciclastic forearc
rocks, strongly suggest a collisional orogeny clos-
ing an ocean basin probably related to Iapetus. We
722
further interpret the Acatecan orogeny as a full Mac Niocaill, C., van der Pluijm, B. A., and Van der
collision between northwestern Gondwana and Voo, R., 1997, Ordovician paleogeography and
the evolution of the Iapetus ocean: Geology, v. 25,
eastern Laurentia. Given the strong northwestern p. 159–162.
South American affinity of Silurian faunas of Miller, J. D., and Kent, D. V., 1988, Paleomagnetism of
northern Oaxaquia, as documented in northeast- the Silurian-Devonian Andreas redbeds: Evi-
ern Mexico (Boucot et al., 1997), we are more in- dence for an Early Devonian supercontinent?:
clined to follow a closed Silurian Iapetus model. Geology, v. 16, p. 195–198.
Ortega-Gutiérrez, F., 1993, Tectonostratigraphic analy-
sis and significance of the Paleozoic Acatlán
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Complex of southern México, in Ortega-Gutiérrez,
This research was funded by Consejo Nacional de
F., et al., eds., First circum-Pacific and circum-
Ciencia y Tecnología grant 0101PT. J. Tomás Vázquez
Atlantic terrane conference, Guanajuato, México:
prepared polished thin sections for microprobe analy-
México, D.F., Universidad Nacional Autónoma
ses. Careful and constructive criticisms of an earlier
de México, Instituto de Geología, p. 54–60.
version of this manuscript were made by Ian W. D.
Ortega-Gutiérrez, F., Ruiz, J., and Centeno-García, E.,
Dalziel, and we thank Victor A. Ramos and Ben A. van
der Pluijm for helpful reviews.
1995, Oaxaquia, a Proterozoic microcontinent
accreted to North America during the late Paleo-
zoic: Geology, v. 23, p. 1127–1130.
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