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Large Neogene subsidence event along the Middle America Trench off Mexico
(18°N–19°N): Evidence from submersible observations

Article in Geology · January 1997

DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(1997)025<0387:LNSEAT>2.3.CO;2

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Geology
Large Neogene subsidence event along the Middle America Trench off Mexico
(18°N19°N): Evidence from submersible observations
B. Mercier de Lépinay, F. Michaud, T. Calmus, J. Bourgois, G. Poupeau, P. Saint Marc and The
NAUTIMATE team

Geology 1997;25;387-390
doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1997)025<0387:LNSEAT>2.3.CO;2

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Notes

© 1997 Geological Society of America

 Large Neogene subsidence event along the Middle America Trench
off Mexico (18°–19°N): Evidence from submersible observations
B. Mercier de Lépinay*
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Géosciences Azur, UMR 6526, Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis,
250 rue Albert Einstein, 06560 Valbonne, France
F. Michaud*
Géosciences Azur, UMR 6526, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, La Darse, B.P. 48, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
T. Calmus
Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico
J. Bourgois
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris, France
G. Poupeau
Groupe de Géophysique Nucléaire, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France
P. Saint-Marc
Géosciences Azur, Sophia-Antipolis, Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis
The NAUTIMATE team†

ABSTRACT
Exposures of pre-Eocene plutonic rocks located along the inner slope of the Middle Amer-
ica Trench were sampled during deep-sea dives off Manzanillo (lat 18°–19°N) at depths ranging
from 3950 m to 2823 m. Fission-track data show a rapid cooling of these plutonic rocks during
the Paleocene. A subaerial unconformity indicates that the plutonic rocks were exposed after Pa-
leocene time. The presence of upper middle bathyal upper Miocene–lower Pliocene marine sed-
iments above the unconformity documents a Neogene subsidence event at a mean rate of
0.35 mm/yr. This subsidence indicates subduction erosion along this segment of the margin.

INTRODUCTION
The Middle America Trench consists of two main segments. The first
segment lies along the Caribbean plate boundary, where little or no subduc-
tion accretion took place (Aubouin et al., 1982; 1984). The second segment
lies along the North America plate boundary, where a 30–40-km-wide
Miocene to Present accretionary wedge was documented off Acapulco
(Watkins et al., 1981; Moore et al., 1981; Moore and Shipley, 1988). These
two segments correspond to the two major types of convergent margins (von
Huene and Scholl, 1991): type 1, with subduction accretion, and type 2,
with little net accretion but subduction erosion and associated subsidence.
Along the northern segment, off Manzanillo (Fig. 1), the North Amer-
ica plate is fragmented in relation to the approach of the East Pacific Rise
spreading center (Atwater, 1970; Stock and Lee, 1994). The Jalisco block is
believed to presently rift westward from the Mexican mainland (Luhr et al.,
1985; Bandy and Pardo, 1994). The southeastern offshore boundary of this
block intersects the trench at the Manzanillo graben (Bourgois et al., 1988;
Bourgois and Michaud, 1991). One conspicuous feature of the Jalisco block
coastline is the exposure of an upper Cretaceous to Paleocene island-arc plu-
tonic belt that extends from Puerto Vallarta to Manzanillo at an average ele-
vation of 1000 m (Fig. 1); Zimmermann et al., 1988; Wallace et al., 1992;
Schaaf et al., 1995). Uplift of the Jalisco block coastal region with respect
*E-mail: Mercier de Lépinay, mercier@faille.unice.fr; Michaud, micho@
ccrv.obs-vlfr.fr.
†W. Bandy, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Autonoma de México, México,
D.F.; M. Castrec, Laboratoire de Géochimie et Métallogénie, Université Pierre-et-
Marie-Curie, Paris, France; J. Guerrero-Garcia, Instituto de Geología; Universidad
Autonoma de México, México, D.F.; M. Sosson, M. Villeneuve, Géosciences Azur,
UMR 6526, Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis, France; and C. Rinaldi, Università
di Bologna, Italy.
to the inland region has been proposed to explain the broad exposure of this
plutonic belt (Righter et al., 1995; Schaaf et al., 1995).
Deep-sea dives with the submersible Nautile (NAUTIMATE cruise,
Michaud et al., 1995) were conducted along the inner slope of the Middle
America Trench (18°–19°N) (Fig. 2). Observations of an erosional uncon-
formity at a maximum depth of 3820 m, located above a pre-Eocene pluton
along the inner wall of the trench, document a large Neogene subsidence
event that indicates subduction erosion along the margin.
DEEP-SEA DIVE OBSERVATIONS
During the NAUTIMATE cruise, cross sections of the inner slope of
the trench were completed and the 1000-m-high canyon walls that bound
the Manzanillo graben to the south were explored (Fig. 2). Samples of fos-
siliferous sediment and plutonic rock were collected in order to constrain
the geological evolution of the area. Landward from the trench axis, we ob-
served a 4400-m-deep flat trench floor partly filled by sediments of a deep-
sea fan, a 400–500-m-high lower slope and a 2000-m-high middle slope.
Along the middle slope, we observed, from the base upward, the following
(Fig. 3):
1. Highly fractured fresh granodiorites and gabbros (Fig. 4A) crop out
continuously along dive NM11 traverse between 3703 m and 2823 m. The
deepest point where such plutonic rocks are encountered is at 3950 m water
depth (dive NM20). Apatite fission-track analyses indicate a rapid cooling of
these rocks during the Paleocene.1 Ages of 57.3 ± 3 Ma and 55.7 ± 2.5 Ma
(1 σ) were determined for the deepest and shallowest samples (dive NM11),
1GSA Data Repository item 9723, Fission-track analytic data, is available on re-
quest from Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301.
E-mail: editing@geosociety.org.

Data Repository item 9723 contains additional material related to this article.

Geology; May 1997; v. 25; no. 5; p. 387–390; 5 figures. 387


Ma
Figure 1. Location of studied area. MG = Manzanillo graben; TFZ =
Tamayo Fracture Zone; RFZ = Rivera Fracture Zone; EPR = East Pacific
Rise; PV = Puerto Vallarta; Ma = Manzanillo; Ac = Acapulco. Black area =
Coastal plutonic belt from Manzanillo area to Baja California (from
Schaaf et al., 1995, modified).
respectively. Rapid cooling through the apatite partial annealing zone
(∼120–50 °C) is indicated by mean confined track lengths between 15.15 µm
and 15.55 µm and standard deviations less than 1.17 µm. Moreover, these
analyses show that the emplacement age of the plutonic rocks is pre-Eocene,
contemporaneous with the island-arc plutons of the Mexican Pacific coast
between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo (Schaaf et al., 1995). Therefore, we
correlate these plutonic rocks with the Late Cretaceous–Paleocene coastal
plutonic belt.
2. Polymictic 10-m-thick massive conglomerate (Fig. 4B) containing
granitic and volcanic well-rounded pebbles unconformably overlies the plu-
tonic rocks. A similar unconformity exists on the Tres Marias Islands, 250 km
northward of the dive area, where McCloy et al. (1988) described massive
Figure 2. Location of dives at the intersec-
tion between Manzanillo graben and Mid-
dle America Trench (Seabeam map after
Bourgois et al., 1988).
388
fine- to medium-grained sandstone deposited in a nonmarine or shallow-ma-
rine environment on top of pre-Eocene granites. This unconformity, an ero-
sional surface that formed in subaerial conditions with the same hiatus in sed-
imentation between the conglomerate and the pre-Eocene pluton, was
observed at 2823 m water depth (dive NM11) and 3820 m (dive NM20).
3. Thin brown layers of siltstone offset by normal faults crop out above
the conglomerate. Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages generally indicate
upper Miocene to lower Pliocene ages (Globorotalia acostaensis, G. humer-
osa, G. gr. menardii, Globigerinoides trilobus, G. extremus, G. obliquus).
Some samples are characterized by strictly lower Pliocene assemblages
(Globorotalia margaritae, G. cibaoensis, G. gr. crassaformis, G. tumida,
Pullieniatina primalis, P. obliquiloculata) (Bolli and Saunders, 1985). The
same planktonic assemblages were described in the exposed Neogene sedi-
ments of the Tres Marias Islands (McCloy et al., 1988). Benthic foraminif-
eral assemblages are mainly characterized by bolivinids, buliminids, cassi-
dulinids, and uvigerinids. Most of these species were also found in Neogene
sediments of California (Finger, 1990, 1992). They indicate bathyal water
depths and generally low oxygen content of the water environment (upper
middle bathyal zone, between 500 and 1000 m; Ingle, 1980).
DISCUSSION
The observed lithostratigraphic succession along the Mexican margin off
Manzanillo demonstrates that plutonic rocks were exposed before late
Miocene time, after a rapid cooling phase in Paleocene time as shown by fis-
sion-track data. Clastic sediments of the Magdalena fan west of the southern
Baja California Peninsula (Deep Sea Drilling Project site 471; Curray et al.,
1982) are interpreted as deposits associated with a middle Miocene (12.5 Ma)
uplift of the Pacific margin of Mexico. At this time, subduction along the mar-
gin was continuous from the Manzanillo area to the area west of Baja Cali-
fornia (Curray et al., 1982; Stock and Lee, 1994). Our observations show that
the uplift event also occurred along the margin off Manzanillo and brought
plutonic rocks to exposure. After the uplift, subduction ceased west of Baja
California, whereas it continued southward of Tres Marias Islands.
In the Tres Marias Islands, the sedimentary sequence records an upper
Miocene–lower Pliocene subsidence event (McCloy et al., 1988). Off Man-
zanillo, the deposition of late Miocene–Early Pliocene upper bathyal sedi-
ments (between 500 and 1000 m depth) above a conglomerate that under-
lies a subaerial unconformity on top of the pre-Eocene plutonic basement
records the same upper Miocene–lower Pliocene subsidence event. A simi-
lar evolution characterizes the margin from the Tres Marias Islands to the
Manzanillo area until late Pliocene time.
GEOLOGY, May 1997
 We therefore propose the following uplift-subsidence history for the
margin along the Middle America Trench from the Tres Marias Islands to the
Manzanillo area (Fig. 5). The margin was uplifted and emergent before the
late Miocene. The margin started to subside during the upper Miocene–lower
Pliocene. As shown by our data for the Manzanillo area and by data from
McCloy et al. (1988) for the Tres Marias Islands, the entire margin segment
subsided at least until the Pliocene-Quaternary limit. At that time, unlike the
Manzanillo area, the Tres Marias Islands began to be uplifted (McCloy et al.,
1988).
The first evidence of the development of the Jalisco block boundaries
is of Pliocene-Quaternary age (Luhr et al., 1985). This fragmentation event
could be responsible, at least in part, for the Pliocene-Quaternary subsidence
Figure 3. Geologic cross sections of inner slope of trench from dives NM05, NM11, NM19, and NM20. FT = fission-track samples
location. See location of dives in Figure 2.
GEOLOGY, May 1997
observed in the Manzanillo area. However, the regional unconformity was
observed both within and outside the Manzanillo graben. In the Manzanillo
graben (dive NM20) the depth of the unconformity (3920 m) includes the
local effect of the graben formation. Outside the graben (dive NM11), the
depth of the unconformity (2823 m) is solely representative of the regional
subsidence. Subsidence of 2823 m over 8 m.y. (since the late Miocene) re-
quires an average subsidence rate of 0.35 mm/yr. Regional subsidence of an
active margin is generally related to tectonic erosion. This subsidence rate
of 0.35 mm/yr is similar to that of the Peru margin (Sosson et al., 1994),
Tonga (Clift, 1994), or northern Japan margins (von Huene and Lallemand,
1990; Lallemand, 1995), where subduction erosion is active.
Results from DSDP Leg 66 (Moore et al., 1981) allow us to identify
Figure 4. A: Plutonic rocks
(dive NM11, 2831 m water
depth). B: Conglomerate
(above plutonic rocks,
dive NM20, 3918 m water
depth). Black line = 1 m.
389

Figure 5. Reconstruction of tectonic history of plutonic basement that
crops out along inner slope of Middle America Trench off Manzanillo.
the tectonic regime of the Middle America Trench off Acapulco. Whereas
subduction erosion characterizes the Manzanillo transect at least during the
past 8 m.y., subduction accretion was active off Acapulco. This contrast in
tectonic regime along these two transects that are only 500 km apart coin-
cides with slab geometry variation along the trench. The downgoing slab is
steeper beneath the Jalisco block than to the south, off Acapulco (Pardo and
Suarez, 1993). On the other hand, the margin segment of the Manzanillo–
Tres Marias area recorded an uplift-subsidence evolution similar to that of
the Gulf of California until the Pliocene-Quaternary limit. Therefore, the
opening of the Gulf of California as a consequene of the approach of the
East Pacific Rise spreading center may also explain the tectonic regime
change along the Middle America Trench. Whatever the origin of the tec-
tonic regime in the Manzanillo area, such a long-term suduction erosion im-
plies trench retreat, which has to be taken into account with reconstituting
the opening of the Gulf of California.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The NAUTIMATE cruise was supported by Institut Français de Recherche pour
l’Exploitation de la Mer, Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers, Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique. We thank the captain and the crew of R/V Nadir for
their efficient work; Erika Labrin of the “Groupe de Géophysique Nucléaire” of the
Institut Dolomieu (Grenoble) for her collaboration; and Serge Lallemand, Mark
Cloos, Roland von Huene, Gregory Moore, and David Fountain for their careful and
helpful comments. Contribution no. 101 of “Géosciences Azur.”
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Manuscript received October 7, 1996
Revised manuscript received January 13, 1997
Manuscript accepted January 28, 1997
GEOLOGY, May 1997