Early Mesozoic Southern Mexico–Amazonian connection based on U–Pb ages from detrital zircons: The La Mora Paleo-River in the Mixteca Terrane and its paleogeographic and tectonic implications

• Detrital zircons in Southern Mexico have provenance in the Amazonian craton.
• La Mora flowed as reverse Amazonas River fed Triassic–Jurassic Tolimán submarine fan.
• Acatlán–Oaxaquia block was in NW corner of South America in Triassic–Jurassic time.

The La Mora Formation is the oldest Mesozoic floodplain succession in the Mixteca Terrane of Southern Mexico. The presence of Amazonian detrital zircons in the La Mora Formation and in the overlying volcanic Diquiyú Unit indicates a major fluvial system that drained the Mixteca Terrane. The La Mora Paleo-River crossed the Oaxaquia microcontinent and the Mixteca Terrane prior to the breakup of Pangea, during Late Triassic–Early Jurassic time, when the Acatlán–Oaxaquia block was part of the northwestern portion of the Amazonian craton. Detrital zircons in the La Mora Formation have ages between 3307 ± 31 and 210 ± 12 Ma, which suggest that they originated in Amazonia and Southern Mexico: 33.2% of the detrital zircons have ages that are found only in Amazonian sources; whereas 66.7% of the zircons may be associated with either the Amazonian craton, the Andean Basement, or Southern Mexico. We propose that the La Mora fluvial system drained the Amazon basin in a westward direction, with its mouth in central Pangea, and that it most likely fed the Tolimán submarine fan. The inferred location of the Acatlán–Oaxaquia tectonic block at the time of the La Mora fluvial system implies that the basement of Southern Mexico experienced a right lateral displacement of at least 2300 km with respect to South America during the Mesozoic.

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