Provenance analysis on detrital zircons from the back-arc Arivechi basin: Implications for the Upper Cretaceous tectonic evolution of northern Sonora and southern Arizona

• Published in: Journal of South American earth sciences 2018-07, Vol.84, p.276-298
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Castañeda, José Luis, Ortega-Rivera, Amabel, Roldán-Quintana, Jaime, Espinoza-Maldonado, Inocente Guadalupe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 40Ar39Ar step-heating date; Northwestern México; U-Pb detrital zircon dates; Upper Cretaceous
• ISSN: 0895-9811; 1873-0647
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2018.04.007

In the Arivechi region of eastern Sonora, northwestern Mexico, mountainous exposures of Upper Cretaceous rocks that contain monoliths within coarse sedimentary debris are enigmatic, in a province of largely Late Cretaceous continental-margin arc rocks. The rocks sequence in the study area are grouped in two Upper Cretaceous units: the lower Cañada de Tarachi and the younger El Potrero Grande. Detrital zircons collected from three samples of the Cañada de Tarachi and El Potrero Grande units have been analyzed for U–Pb ages to constrain their provenance. These ages constrain the age of the exposed rocks and provide new insights into the geological evolution of eastern Sonora Cretaceous rocks. The detrital zircon age populations determined for the Cañada de Tarachi and El Potrero Grande units contain distinctive Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic zircon ages that provide probable source areas which are discussed in detail constraining the tectonic evolution of the region. Comparison of these knew ages with published data suggests that the source terranes, that supplied zircons to the Arivechi basin, correlate with Proterozoic, Paleozoic and Mesozoic domains in southern California and Baja California, northern Sonora, southern Arizona and eastern Chihuahua. The provenance variation is vital to constrain the source of the Cretaceous rocks in eastern Sonora and support a better understanding of the Permo-Triassic Cordilleran Magmatic Arc in the southwestern North America. •Large-scale mass-gravity megablocks are characteristic feature of Upper Cretaceous rocks.•U-Pb detrital zircon and 40Ar/39Ar ages reveal Permo-Triassic and Cretaceous sediments.•We constrain the age of exposed Upper Cretaceous rocks.•We provide new insights into the geological evolution of northwestern México.