During many years the great majority of geologists considered that the structures of the Sabinas Basin in northern Mexico were a consequence of the Upper Cretaceous Laramide Revolution. Recent geologic and seismic evidence indicates very clearly that most of the anticlines, synclines, and faults cropping out in the Sabinas Basin are a consequence of an Early Tertiary (Eocene) transpressive event. This tectonic episode is given the name of the "Coahuilan Revolution" by the author.

The seismic data also clearly indicate that the compressive forces that folded and faulted the producing structures of the basin acted in a direction of northeast to southwest. This compressive direction is completely different to the Laramide forces that deformed the structures of the Sierra Madre Oriental folded belt located between the cities of Torreon and Monterrey, Mexico, which acted from south to north.

To recognize the presence of the transpressive forces in the Sabinas Basin of northern Mexico has very important consequences, not only from the economic-petroleum geology point of view, but also from the biologic field.