Abstract
Ore deposits of the Southern Cordillera can be assigned to NNW trending metallogenic provinces. These ore deposits and the rocks with which they are associated were originated by magmatic arcs that migrated in response to changing plate interactions.
Isotopic dating of these rocks has established a chronology of geologic events that allows to trace the paths of migration of magmatic arcs and construct paleogeographic maps. Emplacement of a batholith in the Sierra Madre del Sur in Permian time, one of the earliest magmatic events, may have been associated with the closing of the proto-Atlantic. The first of the magmatic arcs was established in the cordillera extending Chiapas to Nevada and California by Early Jurassic time, as suggested by outcrops that roughly parallel the Pacific coast at distances varying from 100 km in Chiapas to 500 km in Arizona... In order to continue, download the full paper in PDF.
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