Attributes and evolution of an exhumed salt weld, La Popa basin, northeastern Mexico

Katherine A. Giles Timothy F. Lawton

Department of Geological Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003, USA

ABSTRACT An elongate, arcuate structure consisting of a fault-like displacement surface, previously regarded as a reverse fault, and parallel synclines within the Late CretaceousEocene La Popa basin of northeastern Mexico are herein reinterpreted as a salt weld and its flanking withdrawal synclines. The structure resulted from hanging-wall subsidence during evacuation of salt along a formerly diapiric salt wall. The La Popa weld has an exposed length of ~25 km and superficially resembles a growth fault. The displacement surface is convex to the southwest and dips south to southwest. Stratigraphic displacement at the surface is zero at either end and increases to ~5 km halfway along the trace of the structure. The La Popa structure had a two-phase history: (1) a diapiric phase marked by rise of an elongate salt wall flanked by parallel withdrawal synclines and (2) a subsequent evacuation phase recorded by hanging-wall subsidence and stratigraphic welding of footwall and hanging wall as salt evacuated from the former diapir. During diapirism, thick siliciclastic strata accumulated in the salt-withdrawal synclines that formed by downbuilding adjacent to the rising salt wall. Siliciclastic units thinned toward the salt wall, near which they were upturned and developed numerous angular unconformities. Thick biohermal carbonate lentils accumulated episodically on topographic highs associated with the rising salt wall. Evacuation of the salt wall caused lateral migration of the hanging-wall synclinal hinge and a consequent shift of thickest synkinematic strata toward the developing weld. This is the first exposed example of a secondary salt weld described as such in the literature. INTRODUCTION In the La Popa basin of northeastern Mexico, exceptional exposures of salt stocks, salt-withdrawal basins, and secondary salt welds create a complex map pattern and demonstrate an interplay of diapirism and evacuation with synkinematic deposition. The scale and geometry of structural and stratigraphic features created by salt movement are fully displayed in both plan view and cross section. These salt-related fea-

tures resemble salt structures known primarily from seismic and drilling data of the Gulf of Mexico basin and elsewhere. The salt bodies and structures of the La Popa basin are important because high-quality, accessible exposures of saltinfluenced basins are uncommon in the world, yet provide the only actualistic surface data with which to test and calibrate salt-tectonic models derived from scaled laboratory and computer models or high-resolution seismic and well-log studies of salt bodies. In this paper we describe the characteristics of an arcuate, fault-like feature and flanking growth synclines collectively referred to as the La Popa structure (Fig. 1). The structure was previously interpreted as a reverse fault (McBride et al., 1974; Laudon, 1984, 1996); we reinterpret it as a secondary salt weld, a surface across which nowadjacent strata were originally separated by salt that is now depleted or absent (Jackson and Cramez, 1989; Schuster, 1995). Although the weld may have been modified slightly by Paleogene crustal shortening, its original characteristics are substantially intact. Welds are well documented from subsurface data sets; however, we

Figure 1. Geologic map of La Popa structure and location of study area. Inset location: Geologic elements of Mexican states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon, northeastern Mexico. Major Madrean (Laramide) tectonic features: CP, Coahuila platform; MS, Monterrey salient. Sierra Madre Oriental fold belt includes easttrending structures between Torreon and Monterrey. Coahuila fold belt occupies Late CretaceousTertiary Sabinas basin. Sedimentary basins of foreland region: LP, La Popa; PB, Parras; SB, Sabinas. Closed fold arrows denote structures attributed primarily to salt movement; open fold arrows denote structures attributed primarily to Madrean (Laramide) shortening. Segments of La Popa structure discussed in text: W, western segment; E, eastern segment. Location 1 is inverted withdrawal syncline on flank of El Gordo lentil; AA is location of cross section of Figure 3. SJP, San Jose de la Popa.

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believe that this is the first published identification and description of a secondary salt weld exposed at the surface. GEOLOGIC SETTING The La Popa basin is part of the Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene Madrean foreland system that includes the Parras basin and the adjacent Sierra Madre Oriental fold belt to the south (Fig. 1). The boundaries of the basin (Fig. 1) are topographic, defined by anticlinal ranges (Laudon, 1975), the structural development of which culminated late in the history of the basin and separated the La Popa basin from the Parras and Sabinas basins (Soegaard et al., 1996; Ye, 1997). In most of the La Popa basin, strata are folded along northwestsoutheast trends characteristic of the Coahuila marginal fold belt (Wall et al., 1961), but in the southernmost part of the basin, folds trend eastwest, parallel to the structural front of the Monterrey salient of the Sierra Madre fold belt (Fig. 1). The Parras Shale and overlying Difunta Group form the sedimentary fill of the Parras and La Popa basins (Fig. 2). The Parras Shale thins northward from about 1525 m in the Parras basin (Imlay, 1937) to <1200 m in the La Popa basin (Wall et al., 1961), and it is only a few hundred meters thick adjacent to salt diapirs. In the La Popa basin the Difunta Group is as thick as 4500 m and is divided into five formations; in ascending order these are the Muerto, Potrerillos, Adjuntas, Viento, and Carroza Formations (Murray et al., 1962; McBride et al., 1974). These formations are primarily marine, finegrained siliciclastic strata and subordinate marine

to nonmarine coarse-grained sandstone and conglomerate. Locally present adjacent to evaporite diapirs are shallow-marine carbonate beds as thick as 350 m composed of oyster-rich calciclastic deposits and coral- and red-algaldominated bioherms that rimmed the diapirs during near-surface diapiric rise (Lawton and Giles, 1997; Hunnicutt, 1998). The Parras Shale in the La Popa basin is Late Cretaceous (Santonian[?]Campanian; McBride et al., 1974; Wolleben, 1977) and the Difunta Group is MaastrichtianEocene (Wolleben, 1977; Vega-Vera et al., 1989; Vega-Vera and Perrilliat, 1989). The initial age of folding in the La Popa basin is not constrained, and it is not known whether crustal shortening was syndepositional or syndiapiric; however, all Difunta Group strata are folded, indicating postmiddle Eocene contraction (Vega-Vera and Perrilliat, 1989). Fission-track data, fluid-inclusion data, and thermal maturation of organic matter data indicate that ~5 km of post-Oligocene uplift and erosion took place in the La Popa basin (Gray et al., 1997). Salt bodies penetrate the Parras Shale and all formations of the Difunta Group (Figs. 1 and 2). Salt bodies of the La Popa basin are of two different geometries. The first type is represented by roughly cylindrical, diapiric salt stocks of 46 km2 surface area (McBride et al., 1974; Laudon, 1975, 1984, 1996). The diapirs include gypsum and anhydrite containing blocks of metamorphosed mafic-intermediate igneous rocks and Jurassic carbonate (Laudon, 1984, 1996; Garrison and McMillan, 1997; Garrison, 1998). The gypsum overlies allochthonous salt deposits derived from the underlying Minas Viejas or Olvido evaporite horizons, both of Late Jurassic age (LopezRamos, 1982). The blocks comprise both entrained basement rocks and salt-transported sedimentary and volcanic interbeds. The gypsum is penetratively deformed and is extensively sheared and mylonitized near diapiric contacts with the wall rock. The second type of salt body, represented by a single recognized example (La Popa structure), is an elongate, curviplanar surface of displacement identified here as a salt weld, for reasons described in the following sections. LA POPA STRUCTURE The La Popa salt structure consists of two elements: (1) a displacement surface that currently resembles an arcuate growth fault but formerly was a volume occupied by salt and (2) parallel synclines in the hanging wall and footwall of the displacement surface. The trace of the displacement surface, concave to the southwest, consists of two roughly linear segments, termed the eastern and western segments, separated by a prominent bend (Fig. 1). The segments vary in trend, degree of stratigraphic displacement, and position of synclines relative to the displacement surface. The attitude of the displacement surface is controversial, but we infer a steep southwestward

Figure 2. Stratigraphy of La Popa basin and duration of salt tectonic events based on diapir-stratal relations discussed in text. L = lower, E = early, M = middle, Fm = formation. 324

dip from surface relations. (For alternative interpretations of the attitude, see McBride et al., 1974, and Laudon, 1996.) At the bend, the discordant contact between Cretaceous and Tertiary strata curves to the southeast (Fig. 1) as it descends about 125 m from its highest exposed elevation, an intersection with topography that indicates a southwest, rather than a northeast, dip. Along the eastern segment, minor faults with southwest dips and dip-oriented slickenlines are exposed near the contact; nearby contact-topography trends are consistent with a steep southwest dip. Along the western segment, the trace of the surface appears to dip steeply southward, angling south into drainages between spur-like ridges of the Carroza Formation. Given the southerly dip, the hanging-wall block of the displacement surface is south and west of its surface trace, and the footwall block is north and east. The eastern segment is 12 km long and trends 330 from a tip in the Muerto Formation at its southeastern end. This segment is paralleled by synclines with axial traces at a distance of about 1.5 km in both the hanging wall and footwall. The hanging-wall syncline plunges northwest, revealing that all strata above the Delgado tongue of the Potrerillos Formation, except the uppermost part of the Carroza Formation, thin and are upturned toward the displacement surface (Fig. 1). Hanging-wall beds near the displacement surface dip steeply southwest. The footwall syncline plunges to both northwest and southeast. Strata of the footwall are vertical, locally overturned, and face east. Angular unconformities are developed between the Parras, Muerto, and Potrerillos Formations, and strata thin toward the displacement surface. A discontinuous limestone unit, here named El Toro lentil, in the Parras Shale is exposed directly east of the displacement surface. The interlimb angle of the footwall syncline decreases from older to younger strata (Fig. 3). Displacement on the surface increases northwestward toward the bend, where footwall Parras Shale is juxtaposed against beds of hanging-wall Viento Formation. Maximum throw at the bend is 4 to 5 km, depending upon estimates of stratal thinning toward the surface and the assumed attitude of the surface. The 15-km-long western segment trends 290 from the bend to a tip in the Carroza Formation near the village of San Jose de la Popa. The trace of the synclinal hinge in the footwall bends to parallel the trace of the displacement surface and is 1.5 km from it, but the hanging-wall syncline intersects the displacement surface at a level in the Carroza Formation that corresponds to a change in hanging-wall stratal geometry. East of the syncline-surface intersection, Carroza beds are folded and thin toward the surface in the fashion of older beds adjacent to the eastern segment. West of the intersection, uppermost Carroza beds are not folded and instead thicken toward the surface, a geometry that is exposed in the topographic spurs east of San Jose de la Popa (Figs. 1
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and 3). Here strata immediately north of the displacement surface dip vertically to steeply north and thicken northward into the footwall syncline. The geometry of the syncline is like that of the eastern segment of the structure, with tighter interlimb angles in older strata. The La Popa and San Jose limestone lentils are present in the Potrerillos Formation of the footwall. The lentils are thickest nearest the displacement surface and thin away from it, converse to thickness trends in the siliciclastic strata. Discontinuous exposures of gypsum with map widths of tens of meters that contain metaigneous clasts separate hanging-wall strata from footwall strata west of the bend. The displacement surface ends in the vicinity of a poorly exposed tract of gypsum that separates offset strata of the footwall from strata that are continuous from the footwall to the hanging wall. Strata of the hanging wall record displacementenhanced accommodation and locally contain exotic clasts that indicate the former presence of salt at the depositional surface. The upper part of the Potrerillos Formation and strata throughout the Viento Formation along the eastern segment are unusually sand rich. The sandstone/siltstone ratio in each unit declines westward along the exposed southwest (distal) limb of the hangingwall syncline. Viento beds, although dipping steeply adjacent to the displacement surface, appear to onlap the surface and thus yield a confusing hybrid depositional-faulted relationship. Metaigneous clasts eroded from now-vanished salt (Lawton and Giles, 1997) are locally present in Viento beds adjacent to the displacement surface on the eastern segment of the structure. EVOLUTION OF LA POPA STRUCTURE We interpret the La Popa structure as a secondary salt weld (Fig. 3), analogous to similar features on Gulf Coast seismic lines (Jackson and Cramez, 1989; Schuster, 1995). Our interpretation is based on (1) wedges of gypsum containing metaigneous clasts exposed discontinuously along the trace of the displacement surface; (2) the southwest dip of the displacement surface combined with concavity toward the hanging wall, suggesting a normal, rather than reverse, displacement; (3) growth strata in both hanging wall and footwall that record long-term subsidence due to salt withdrawal beneath the synclines or downbuilding (Barton, 1933) of both blocks, a geometry atypical of uplifted reversefault settings; and (4) the presence of exotic clasts derived from nearby diapiric salt in Viento beds of the hanging wall. Depositional facies and stratal geometry indicate that the La Popa salt weld had a two-phase history: (1) a diapiric phase, during which an elongate salt wall was formed between parallel salt-withdrawal basins; and (2) a salt-evacuation phase accompanied by subsidence of the hanging wall into space formerly occupied by the salt wall and ultimate juxtaposition of hanging wall and
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Figure 3. Geologic cross section of La Popa structure. Units as in Figure 1.

footwall to form a weld upon locally complete evacuation of salt (Figs. 3 and 4). The diapiric phase is recorded by parallel salt-withdrawal synclines on both the hanging wall and footwall and development of isolated carbonate lentils on saltwall topography (Fig. 4). These lentils have geometries and facies similar to those of lentils surrounding nearby diapiric stocks (Lawton and Giles, 1997). Metaigneous clasts in the lentils and nearby clastic beds indicate that evaporite of the salt wall was periodically exposed to erosion, probably submarine, during this phase. The consistent 1.5 km distance of the paired synclinal hinges from the displacement surface indicates that salt-body geometry was symmetrical from north to south and that the diapir rose vertically during the time interval represented by strata on both sides of the weld (late Campanian through middle Eocene). The process of downbuilding causes the progressive upturning of strata adjacent to the diapir as the withdrawal synclines sink. Lateral migration of the hanging-wall synclinal axis toward the weld and changing thickness trends in near-weld strata record the transition from salt-wall diapirism to salt-wall evacuation. Evacuation of the salt wall led to subsidence of the hanging wall as salt migrated from beneath it, resulting in stratal thickening toward the weld in uppermost Carroza beds. During evacuation, the salt wall became progressively narrower, until welding took place as the hanging wall encountered the footwall (Fig. 4). Beds deposited during the evacuation stage are not folded or upturned adjacent to the structure as are beds of the diapiric phase because the process of downbuilding has ceased, probably due to the formation of primary welds on basement (Fig. 4). Evacuation took place in Eocene time during deposition of the upper part of the Carroza Formation, and probably continued beyond the age of deposition of the youngest beds preserved in the La Popa basin. IMPLICATIONS OF SALT-WELD INTERPRETATION The salt-weld interpretation has important implications for the deformational history of the

La Popa basin. Synclines flanking the weld have typical growth geometries, in that older strata have tighter interlimb angles than younger strata, unlike conventional synclines, which are more tightly folded in younger beds. If these growth synclines were related to reverse movement on the displacement surface, then the shortening history of the basin, as manifested on a single structure with only 5 km of displacement, ranged from Campanian to Eocene time. In the weld interpretation, the timing of shortening is not constrained by the observed growth strata, which resulted instead from downbuilding within salt-withdrawal basins (Barton, 1933) adjacent to a diapirically rising salt wall. Although diapirism and shortening may have been in part coeval, we interpret the peculiar dome and basin map pattern of the La Popa basin as the result of superposition of younger northwest-trending folds of the Coahuila fold belt on older salt-withdrawal structures, rather than vice versa. An example of such an interference relationship is exposed northwest of the El Gordo diapir, where a northwest-trending

Figure 4. Schematic evolution of La Popa structure. 325

Madrean anticline cuts a sand-rich salt-withdrawal syncline adjacent to the diapir, exposing the older syncline on its northeastern flank (Fig. 1, location 1). The syncline would not have accumulated sand if that location had been first uplifted on the limb of the anticline. Similar faultfold relationships have been documented in salt basins of arctic Canada (Van Berkel et al., 1984) and the Persian Gulf (Kent, 1979), where arcuate faults are associated with diapirs and younger detachment folds. Thus, exposed salt welds should be expected in other sedimentary basins where salt tectonics are present. CONCLUSIONS The La Popa structure is a secondary salt weld, or a surface of displacement once occupied by a salt diapir, with flanking salt-withdrawal synclines in the hanging wall and footwall of the weld. The weld dips steeply southwest at the surface, but probably becomes less steep at depth. The former presence of salt along the weld is inferred from discontinuous exposures of gypsum containing allochthonous metaigneous blocks along the trace of the weld and the presence of local metaigneous clasts derived from salt in beds of the hanging wall near the weld. The history of the structure began with a diapiric phase, during which salt rose as an elongate wall and was associated with parallel salt-withdrawal synclines created by the process of downbuilding. A subsequent salt-wall evacuation phase was accompanied by hanging-wall displacement into the space formerly occupied by salt. Both processes contributed to the formation of the La Popa structure, which superficially resembles a conventional growth fault.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Supported in part by the donors of the Petroleum Research Fund, administered by the American Chemical Society. Additional support was provided by the Mexico Small Grants Program and Minigrant RC95-073 from New Mexico State University. We thank R. Laudon and C. Talbot for helpful reviews; F. Vega-Vera for unpublished biostratigraphic data from the Difunta Group; H. Millan for air-photo bed correlation; and B. Goldhammer, G. Gray, J. Haldar, B. Hart, J. McKee, N. McMillan, J. Peijs, M. Rowan, T. Seeley, K. Soegaard, B. Vendeville, J. Wilson, and C. Yeilding for discussions. REFERENCES CITED Barton, D. C., 1933, Mechanics of formation of salt domes with special reference to Gulf Coast salt domes of Texas and Louisiana: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 17, p. 10251083.

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