Left-lateral transtension along the Tierra Colorada deformation zone, northern margin of the Xolapa magmatic arc of southern Mexico

Structural analysis of steeply NNW-dipping tectonites along the northern margin of the Xolapa magmatic arc, southern Mexico, reveals progressive deformation involving ductile and brittle deformation mechanisms. Ductile deformation detached Cretaceous cover rocks from the Xolapa basement along a crustal-scale mylonite zone with normal fault geometry. Normal faults dissected the mylonite zone into blocks which rotated a minimum of 35° to the north. Stress tensors calculated from fault-striae data show subhorizontal, roughly N/S-trending principal extension. Deformation resulted from differential uplift of the Xolapa magmatic arc with respect to its northern hinterland (Mixteca terrane). The oblique normal fault geometry of the mylonites conforms with strike-slip and dip-slip movements along the faults. Left-lateral transtension commenced ductilely between 90 Ma (age of deformed cover rocks) and 34 Ma (U/Pb zircon age of an undeformed pluton cutting the mylonite zone) and continued brittlely into the late Tertiary (tilted Miocene volcanic rocks). We argue that deformation resulted from the interaction of a left-lateral strike-slip regime established during formation of the Caribbean, and an extensional collapse of the Xolapa magmatic arc resulting from a change in steady-state plate-boundary conditions in the early Tertiary.