Published October 2025 | Supplemental material
Journal Article Open

A recently identified mass-transport deposit stack in the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California (México), and its implication in the basin tectonics

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • 3. ROR icon California State University, Northridge
  • 4. ROR icon Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada
  • 5. ROR icon GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
  • 6. ROR icon National Autonomous University of Mexico

Abstract

A large mass transport deposit (MTD) stack has been identified in the Guaymas Basin using seventeen high-resolution seismic reflection profiles and sediment core analysis. Guaymas Basin is a young, marginal basin characterized by active seafloor spreading in the central Gulf of California, Mexico. The large stack includes five distinct MTD units of variable thickness, area, and volume, characterized by a predominantly transparent seismic reflection facies with small sections of laterally discontinuous reflectors and bumpy upper and erosional lower surfaces. Based on analysis of sediment cores from Site U1551A from International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 385, we define MTD lithofacies and use sand provenance to infer that the MTD stack originated from the Yaqui Delta region of the Sonoran margin, transporting material to the south-west. We suggest that a combination of high sedimentation rates and active tectonics contributed to the MTD events. ‘Flower structures’ observed in margin-crossing profiles indicate that the MTD stack buried a part of the transform fault separating the Guaymas Basin and the continental Sonoran margin. Seismic reflection interpretations suggest that part of the MTD stack filled the southern graben applying local stresses that drove a change of the sediment surface expression of plate spreading in the sediment-filled basin. In response to the MTD emplacement and the southern graben fill, an additional northern seafloor graben in the Guaymas Basin developed. Our results contribute to the understanding of the interactions among high sedimentation rates, continental slope stability, and active tectonics; and the influence of those interactions on the surface expression of plate spreading in the Guaymas Basin.

Copyright and License

© 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Acknowledgement

This project is funded by the project NSF 1728690 granted to J. Stock, U.S. Science Support Program, Exp. 385 post-expedition activity (PEA). We thank S&P Global for providing a free Educational Network license through the University Grant Program. A special thanks to Erin Burkett from the Hixon Writing Center at Caltech for the writing style advice provided to A. Piña in the development of this manuscript. We thank Francisco Ponce (UNAM) and Diego Aguilar (UNAM) for their support in the bathymetric data processed. Additional funding from the National Science Foundation (Award OCE-2133396 to K. Marsaglia) supported contributions by S. Hart and K. Marsaglia to this paper. Thanks to Liselle Persad for help with Hole U1551A sample selection and processing, and James Ingle (Stanford Emeritus) for his contribution of the Van Andel (1964) GOC grain mount collection and thin section R111 to KM for use in this study. We thank Andrea Artoni and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and constructive feedback, which greatly improved the quality of our manuscript.

Data Availability

The MCS reflection data acquired during Sonne 241 are found at doi: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.944765. The data acquired during AH1605–020 (Line 1 Alpha Helix) are found at doi: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/FCTZZC. The bathymetric grid is found in the supplementary materials.

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Additional details

Created:
June 26, 2025
Modified:
June 26, 2025