Jurassic Palaeogeography and Crustal Movements in Middle and South America

Abstract

The stratigraphy, palaeogeography, faunas, and crustal movements recorded in the Jurassic rocks of Middle and South America are summerized in this paper. In many areas of Mexico and Andean regions the Jurassic sediments were produced under geosynclinal condition, but the facies, which are generally well characterized by the predominance of calcareous deposits and Tethyan faunas and controlled by three or four sedimentary megacycles, differ in many respects from those of the Pacific coast of North America and many other regions of the circum-Pacific orogenic belts.