THE MEX/CAN VOLCANIC BELT STRUC'TURE AND TECTONIC´S

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Abstract
The Mexican Volcanic Belt appears to be an ancient suture which was reopened in Middle Tertiary tines. Its irregular zigzag course with large volcanoes rising on its southern corners suggests that the suture suffered major transcurrent displacxements early in geologic history. The igneous activity of the belt-mostly andesitic lavas may be derived from melting of the oceanic Cocos Plate upon suffering subduction in the Acapulco Trench. No connection exists between the Clarion Fracture Zone and the belt's large volcanoes, which only form an apparent east-west alignment. Probably the crustal weakness into which the Last Pacific Rise entered upon rifting the Gulf of California originally formed, with the belt's suture, a single ancient zone of weakness. The igneous activity of the belt -mostly andesitic lavas may be derived from melting of the oceanic Cocos Plate upon suffering subduction in the Acapulco Trench. No connection exists between the Clarion Fracture Zone and the belt's large volcanoes, which only form an apparent east-west alignment. Probably the crustal weakness into which the Last Pacific Rise entered upon rifting the Gulf of California originally formed, with the belt's suture, a single ancient zone of weakness. El cinturón volcánico mexicano parece ser una antigua sutura cuya reapertura tuvo lugar en el Terciario Medio. Su curso irregular y zigzagueante, con grades volcanes levantándose en sus esquinas meridionales, hace pensar que en épocas geológicas tempranas la sutura sufrió grandes desplazamientos. La actividad ignea del cinturón (en su mayoría lavas andesticas) pudo originarse de la fusión de la Placa de Cocos, posterior a la subducción de la Trinchera de Acapulco. No existe conexión ente. la Zona de Fractura Clarion y los grandes volcanes del cinturón, los cuales sólo aparentemente están alineados de Este a Oeste. Probablemente la debilidad cortical por la cual entró el Levantamiento del Pacifico Oriental hendiendo el Golfo de California, originalmente formó, con la sutura del cinturón, una antigua y única zona de debilidad.

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