Search

This study aims to analyze the modalities of strain accommodation within a highly oblique rift, taking the Gulf of California as a prototype. Rifting in the Gulf of California is accomplished by intra‐Gulf strike‐slip (transform) faults, and mostly dip‐slip displacement on the rift‐margin faults. We have collected fault‐slip data and samples for radiometric dating at selected sites in southeastern Baja California, which is host to the southwestern margin of the rift. We have identified three styles of faulting, particularly (1) WSW‐dipping normal faults, (2) E‐ENE‐dipping normal faults, and (3) steep NNE‐NE‐trending left‐lateral faults. The E‐ENE‐dipping normal faults define the western margin of the Gulf of California rift and are most likely coeval (late Miocene to recent) with both the ~NNE‐NE‐trending left‐lateral faults and some of the WSW‐dipping faults. Fault‐slip data have often been collected on potentially active Gulf of California rift‐margin faults, which invariably display dominant dip‐slip kinematics (generally with minor dextral component). Distribution of extension directions determined from stress inversion of brittle fault kinematic data indicates a peak of 080°–090°, which is strikingly similar to the orientations of Taxes from earthquake focal mechanisms of both rift‐margin normal/faults and intra‐Gulf strike‐slip faults. These findings suggest that this stretching may have been occurring throughout the protracted rift history. Furthermore, highly oblique rifts do not show across‐rift variations in the orientation of local extension, which is instead typical of continental rifts with lower obliquity. Divergent movement between tectonic plates extends continental crust that progressively thins and subsides generating tectonic depressions called continental rifts. With increasing extension, continental rifts can eventually break through the continental lithosphere and become the locus of creation of new ocean crust. With sufficient tectonic subsidence, a rift can be invaded by ocean water at some point during the rifting process. The displacement vector between the diverging plates may range from orthogonal to oblique, relative to the orientation of the boundary between the plates. The Gulf of California exemplifies a highly oblique continental rift produced by the displacement of Baja California Peninsula with respect to mainland Mexico. Ongoing rifting in the Gulf of California produces intense seismicity, and one long pending question is how deformation is accommodated within highly oblique continental rifts, particularly whether the style of deformation changes from the rift margins toward the rift interior. Analysis of faults exposed along the southwestern rift margin (southeastern Baja California), and its comparison with characteristics of historical seismicity generated by the long strike‐slip faults underwater in the Gulf of California shed new light on the kinematics of high obliquity continental rifts and improves our understanding of the ongoing deformation of our planet. Fault‐slip data and samples for radiometric dating have been collected from the southwestern margin of the Gulf of California oblique riftRifting in southeastern Baja California is controlled by E‐ENE‐dipping normal faults coeval with NNE‐NE‐trending accommodation zonesGulf of California rifting is partitioned into intra‐Gulf strike‐slip and rift margin normal faults that both respond to East‐West extension

Treatment with 17-β estradiol and progesterone improves the performance of ovariectomized rats in an autoshaping learning task, representing cognitive improvement. To test whether this is attributable to genomic mechanisms, the antiestrogen ICI 182 780 or antiprogesterone RU486 was injected into ovariectomized animals primed previously with estrogen or progesterone, respectively. Compared with the vehicle control, each hormone administered alone produced an elevated expression of choline acetyltransferase and TrkA, along with an improvement in performance on the behavioral test. E2+ICI reverted the increase in these two proteins. However, RU alone elicited higher ChAT expression. With this exception, there was a clear linear regression between the number of conditioned responses and the level of ChAT and TrkA in the basal forebrain. The results suggest that TrkA may be more important than ChAT for regulating autoshaping learning tasks, and that genomic mechanisms in the basal forebrain could possibly underlie hormonal improvement of cognition.

En este trabajo se integra la estratigrafía local y fallas como restricciones para un modelo numérico de flujo del agua subterránea en la parte norte del acuífero fallado del Valle de Querétaro. La información geológica de base fue establecida a partir de la reinterpretación de registros litológicos de pozos, datación isotópica 40Ar*/39Ar de rocas y cartografía de campo. En particular, la datación isotópica permitió obtener el tiempo de emplazamiento de un dique magmático a lo largo de la falla de El Nabo. El aumento de la tasa de flujo y la temperatura en el pozo El Nabo sugieren que la falla y el dique transportan un flujo regional. Un modelo numérico fue implementado para evaluar las contribuciones de fallas y estructuras volcánicas en el flujo general de agua subterránea. El modelo realizado con el software Visual-Modflow y código Modflow 2000 fue parcialmente restringido por los resultados de una prueba de bombeo en pozo “El Nabo”, el pozo más profundo (Lat. 20° 42 ‘14 “N, Long. 100° 28’45” O, aproximadamente de 1000 m de profundidad) ubicado en la zona de Querétaro. La interpretación de los resultados del modelo y las observaciones de campo sugieren que las fallas reciben un flujo regional, compartimentalizan el sistema, y son responsables de un importante aumento del gasto, de 6 a 47 l/s, cuando se la perforación del pozo El Nabo bajo de 850 m profundidad. El estudio que aquí se presenta permite la evaluación de fallas normales y intrusivos que determinan el flujo del agua subterránea y podría ser relevante para el conocimiento de la dinámica de flujo valles volcánicos cercanos. El modelo numérico implementado basado en información geológica, permitió una mejor comprensión de los sistemas acuíferos complejos, lo que no se puede evaluar por métodos analíticos. Por otra parte puede ser una aplicación útil para una mejor interpretación de pruebas de bombeo y para añadir datos complementarios de otras pruebas y/o de análisis de hidrogeoquímica.

This study presents paleomagnetic data from 59 independent lava flows from the trans-Mexican volcanic belt (TMVB) with ages from 6.4?Ma to recent, 52 being younger than 1?Ma, and 11 new 40Ar/39Ar age determinations. Most remanence carriers are Ti-poor titanomagnetite of pseudosingle-domain magnetic structure, nine lavas contain small amounts of titanomaghemite, and four lavas additional (titano-) hematite. Paleosecular variation of lava flows younger than 1.7?Ma is consistent with latitude-dependent Model G and also in agreement with other Pleistocene paleomagnetic data from the TMVB. The directional record of Brunhes and Matuyama Chrons lavas was correlated to the geomagnetic polarity timescale and there is evidence for at least four geomagnetic excursions. One lava flow dated at 592?±?20?ka has a fully reversed paleodirection and most likely erupted during the Big Lost excursion. Another fully reversed flow, dated at 671?±?12?ka, gives new volcanic evidence for the Delta/Stage 17 excursion. This excursion is supported by a reversed intermediate direction of another flow from a different volcanic field but of very close age of 673?±?10?ka. From the Matuyama age lavas, one flow with normal polarity magnetization, dated at 949?±?37?ka, could either be related to the Kamikatsura or the Santa Rosa excursion and a normal polarity flow, dated at 1628?±?56?ka, could have been emplaced during the Gilsa excursion. The results presented here confirm in one case but disagree in four cases with results presented in two previous studies of the same lava flows and interpreted as geomagnetic excursions. Evidence for at least 4 geomagnetic excursions in 59 Brunhes-Matuyama lava flows11 new Ar-Ar age determinationsResults confirm in 1 but disagree in 4 cases with previously published data

Three imidazo[1,2‐a]pyridine‐3‐nitrosated (L‐1, L‐2, L‐3) and a 3‐formyl imidazo[1,2‐a]pyridine thiosemicarbazone (L‐4) were synthesized and evaluated for their effects in the elevated plus maze, burying behavior test, rotarod performance, the horizontal wire test, and locomotor activity. L‐2 and L‐3 increased the percent time spent in the open arms of the plus maze at doses of 1 and 2 mg/kg without modifying the number of total entries. In addition, L‐2 and L‐3 (1 mg/kg) increased the number of open arm entries indicating anxiolytic‐like activity at this dose. In the burying behavioral test, L‐1 (2–8 mg/kg), L‐2 (8 mg/kg), and L‐3 (4 and 8 mg/kg), induced a clear reduction in cumulative burying behavior, without modifying burying behavior latency, thus reducing experimental anxiety. In the rotarod test, L‐1 and L‐2 impaired rotarod performance only at the highest evaluated dose (64 mg/kg) at which reduction of motor activity was observed and thereby no conclusions about myorelaxant effects can be proposed. All compounds showed a clear sedative effect and corresponding ED50values were obtained. Results indicate that compounds L‐1, L‐2, and L‐3 show a sedative and an anxiolytic profile. Drug Dev Res 71:371–381, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

New structural, geochronological, and petrological data highlight which crustal sections of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary in Guatemala and Honduras accommodated the large-scale sinistral offset. We develop the chronological and kinematic framework for these interactions and test for Palaeozoic to Recent geological correlations among the Maya Block, the Chortís Block, and the terranes of southern Mexico and the northern Caribbean. Our principal findings relate to how the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary partitioned deformation; whereas the southern Maya Block and the southern Chortís Block record the Late Cretaceous–Early Cenozoic collision and eastward sinistral translation of the Greater Antilles arc, the northern Chortís Block preserves evidence for northward stepping of the plate boundary with the translation of this block to its present position since the Late Eocene. Collision and translation are recorded in the ophiolite and subduction–accretion complex (North El Tambor complex), the continental margin (Rabinal and Chuacús complexes), and the Laramide foreland fold–thrust belt of the Maya Block as well as the overriding Greater Antilles arc complex. The Las Ovejas complex of the northern Chortís Block contains a significant part of the history of the eastward migration of the Chortís Block; it constitutes the southern part of the arc that facilitated the breakaway of the Chortís Block from the Xolapa complex of southern Mexico. While the Late Cretaceous collision is spectacularly sinistral transpressional, the Eocene–Recent translation of the Chortís Block is by sinistral wrenching with transtensional and transpressional episodes. Our reconstruction of the Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic evolution of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary identified Proterozoic to Mesozoic connections among the southern Maya Block, the Chortís Block, and the terranes of southern Mexico: (i) in the Early–Middle Palaeozoic, the Acatlán complex of the southern Mexican Mixteca terrane, the Rabinal complex of the southern Maya Block, the Chuacús complex, and the Chortís Block were part of the Taconic–Acadian orogen along the northern margin of South America; (ii) after final amalgamation of Pangaea, an arc developed along its western margin, causing magmatism and regional amphibolite–facies metamorphism in southern Mexico, the Maya Block (including Rabinal complex), the Chuacús complex and the Chortís Block. The separation of North and South America also rifted the Chortís Block from southern Mexico. Rifting ultimately resulted in the formation of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous oceanic crust of the South El Tambor complex; rifting and spreading terminated before the Hauterivian (c. 135 Ma). Remnants of the southwestern Mexican Guerrero complex, which also rifted from southern Mexico, remain in the Chortís Block (Sanarate complex); these complexes share Jurassic metamorphism. The South El Tambor subduction–accretion complex was emplaced onto the Chortís Block probably in the late Early Cretaceous and the Chortís Block collided with southern Mexico. Related arc magmatism and high-T/low-P metamorphism (Taxco–Viejo–Xolapa arc) of the Mixteca terrane spans all of southern Mexico. The Chortís Block shows continuous Early Cretaceous–Recent arc magmatism.

Abstract: The El Arco porphyry copper deposit is located in central Baja California and is a resource containing >600 Mt of ore with ∼0.6% copper. It was emplaced within a relatively primitive Jurassic island arc and it was subsequently metamorphosed and intruded by the Cretaceous Peninsular Ranges batholith. The porphyritic stock intrusion and ore formation at El Arco has recently been dated at ∼165 Ma [Valencia et al. GEOS 24:189 (2004)]. This age is much older than Aptian-Albian K–Ar ages previously reported from El Arco [Barthelmy, Geology of El Arco-Calmallí area, Baja California, México. MSc Thesis, San Diego State University, CA (1975); Baja California Geology. San Diego State University, CA, pp 127–138 (1979)]. The copper mineralization at El Arco is concentrated in a core of potassic alteration in a dioritic porphyritic stock surrounded by propylitic alteration in andesitic lavas. Mafic dikes that intruded the deposit are not mineralized, but they are affected by post-ore low-grade metamorphism. The dikes are compositionally the most primitive rocks, while host rock andesites and the porphyry stock display typical volcanic arc characteristics. The Pb isotope data from sulfides, feldspars, quartz, and whole-rock samples indicate that: (1) the copper-bearing porphyry stock and the surrounding andesites evolved from a similar source with an average μ-value of 9.43; (2) no external Pb was added during mineralization; (3) some Pb isotope compositions were slightly disturbed by a later metamorphic event. Strontium and Nd isotopes show that the magmas evolved from a depleted mantle reservoir with no involvement of older continental crust. Our data favor a model for the formation of the El Arco deposit linked to a Triassic to Jurassic intra-oceanic arc system, cropping out at the western margin of central Baja California in the Cedros-Vizcaíno region. The intra-oceanic arc together with the El Arco deposit was accreted to the active continental margin of North America and metamorphosed during the Early Cretaceous. This model is in disagreement to earlier models that favor the El Arco deposit formation being linked to the Cretaceous continental margin.