ORIGINAL PAPER Evidence for an Ordovician continental arc in the pre-Mesozoic basement of the Huizachal–Peregrina Anticlinorium, Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico: Peregrina Tonalite Eduardo Alejandro Alemán-Gallardo 1 & Juan Alonso Ramírez-Fernández 1 & Augusto Antonio Rodríguez-Díaz 2 & Fernando Velasco-Tapia 1 & Uwe Jenchen 1 & Esther María Cruz-Gámez 1 & Lorena De León-Barragán 3 & Ignacio Navarro- De León 1 Received: 5 March 2018 / Accepted: 15 March 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract The Huizachal–Peregrina Anticlinorium basement of the Sierra Madre Oriental in north-eastern (NE) Mexico comprises a wide variety of Precambrian and Paleozoic units. A granitic unit, described in this work as the Peregrina Tonalite (PTo), intruded the Neoproterozoic Novillo Gneiss, which is the northernmost expression of the Oaxaquia microcontinent. In contrast, the PTo’ s contact with the Carboniferous Granjeno Schist is tectonic along vertical faults with a strike-slip component. This Paleozoic lithodeme is part of the Granjeno–Acatlán Belt. The PTo has been described as an orphaned block associated with an enigmatic Carboniferous magmatic arc located along the north- western (NW) margin of Gondwana. In this study, new U–Pb LA–ICP–MS data from PTo zircons included a youngest Late Ordovician (Katian stage) population at 448.8 ± 2.9 Ma, interpreted as the crystallisation age, and an oldest Grenvillian population interpreted as the potential age of its protolith. Additionally, major and trace element concen- trations and ratios indicate a link to a continental arc that developed along the NW margin of Gondwana. Given this proposed arc’ s age and position, a comprehensive model for the development of the NE Mexican basement without the involvement of exotic or orphaned terranes is now proposed. The PTo outcropping near Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, is interpreted to be part of a previously unreported magmatic arc in NE Mexico established during the Late Ordovician, herein described as the Peregrina–Mochonian Orogeny. It represents an extension of the South American Famatinian arc into Mexico. Keywords Huizachal–Peregrina Anticlinorium . Peregrina Tonalite . Continental arc . Famatinian arc . Peregrina–Mochonian orogeny Introduction The Huizachal–Peregrina Anticlinorium (HPA; Fig. 1a, b; Ramírez-Ramírez 1992) is located near Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, in NE Mexico. It represents a major regional structure that developed during the late Mesozoic to Early Cenozoic Laramide deformation. Its eroded core contains a wide variety of Precambrian and Paleozoic units comprising the basement of the Sierra Madre Oriental (SMO) fold and thrust belt, which consists of a thick Mesozoic sedimentary sequence. Previous studies of the Precambrian and Paleozoic HPA basement units have favoured their correlation with Gondwana rather than Laurentia (e.g. Ortega-Gutiérrez et al. 1995; Stewart et al. 1999; Barboza-Gudiño et al. 2011). The exposed HPA basement comprises two felsic, unmetamorphosed magmatic units: the informally labelled Editorial handling: A. Möller Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-019-00660-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Juan Alonso Ramírez-Fernández juan.ramirezf@uanl.mx; alonso_fct@hotmail.com 1 Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias de la Tierra, Carretera Linares – Cerro Prieto km. 8, 67700 Linares, Nuevo León, Mexico 2 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geofísica, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Ciudad de México, Mexico 3 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Geociencias, Boulevard Juriquilla No. 3001, 76230 Querétaro, Mexico Mineralogy and Petrology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-019-00660-4