Crustal structure and lateral variations in the Gulf of Mexico conjugate margins: From rifting to break-up

The Gulf of Mexico opened as a Late Triassic-Mid Jurassic continental rift that was first largely covered by the Mid-Jurassic Louann Salt and later split apart triangular-shaped oceanic crust. in hampers imaging interpretation underlying pre-salt crustal geometries, which are fundamental for assessing early kinematic evolution margin. To better define these deep geometries their lateral variations, we built three seismic-based crustal-scale cross-sections across Florida-Yucatan conjugate margins, areas where is thinner. They were used, together with magnetic gravity anomalies data, to build domains map study area. Cross-sections show meaningful along-strike variation: South Florida-East Yucatan area characterized narrower rifted crust evolves sharply whereas North Florida central-western areas, wider transition corresponds narrow magmatic or exhumed mantle domain. Bulk extension determined using balancing method. Estimated horizontal values vary from minimum ∼120 km ∼240 Florida-Central conjugate, being systematically larger northern Based on our observations considering previous models, propose evolved an involving magmatism, magma-poor margin, break-up (OCT formation) exhumation associated magmatism along areas. As other analogues such Guinea, thick evaporite deposited during late rift, while exhumed.