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Geostatistical Interplay Between Geophysical and Geochemical Data: Mapping Litho-Structural Assemblages of Mesozoic Igneous Activities in the Parnaíba Basin (NE Brazil)

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Abstract

Two widespread magmatic events are recorded in the Parnaíba basin (NE Brazil) during the Jurassic/Cretaceous opening of the Central and South Atlantic Oceans. The Early Jurassic (~ 200 Ma) lava flows of the Mosquito Formation occur essentially in the western and southern basin segments, representing one of the largest expressions of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province in the South American Plate. In contrast, sill complexes and dike swarms of the Early Cretaceous (129–124 Ma) Sardinha Formation occur in the eastern part of the basin and are chrono-correlated to the large Paraná–Etendeka igneous province and to the Rio Ceará–Mirim Dike Swarm. We gathered geophysical, well logging, outcrop analogs and geochemical data to recognize geometrical shapes and areal distribution patterns of igneous-related constructions. Seismic and well data reveal hundreds of km wide multilayered sill complexes and dikes, which are widespread across vast regions of the basin without evident structural control from either the Precambrian basement grain or the basin internal architecture. Anomaly enhancement techniques and self-organizing maps (SOM) procedure were applied on airborne magnetic data, unraveling near-surface magmatic features in four distinct magnetic domains. Using SOM analysis, the basaltic rocks were divided into six groups based on magnetic susceptibility and major elements composition. These results suggest common origin for both magmatic episodes, probably a combination of effects of edge-driven convection and large-scale mantle warming under the westward moving West Gondwana during the Central and South Atlantic opening, which caused a shifted emplacement to the east of the igneous rocks in the Parnaíba basin.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (Grant No. 471064/2013-0) and Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para Estudos Tectônicos (INCT-ET). We acknowledge the Brazilian Agency of Petroleum and Natural Gas (Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis - ANP) and the Brazilian Geological Survey (CPRM), which provided the seismic, borehole and magnetic data used in our study. We also thank dGB Earth Sciences and K2 Sistemas for educational licenses of Opendtect and Trace®, respectively. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and Surveys in Geophysics Editor Michael J. Rycroft for providing constructive criticism and suggestions that improved the final version of the manuscript. Many students of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) were helpful in data collecting during field trips. DLC and MHBMH thank CNPq for their research grants.

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  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Geodinâmica e Geofísica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário, Natal, 59078-970, Brazil

    David L. de Castro & Diógenes C. Oliveira

  2. Departamento de Mineralogia e Geotectônica, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago, 562, São Paulo, 05508-080, Brazil

    Maria Helena B. M. Hollanda

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de Castro, D.L., Oliveira, D.C. & Hollanda, M.H.B.M. Geostatistical Interplay Between Geophysical and Geochemical Data: Mapping Litho-Structural Assemblages of Mesozoic Igneous Activities in the Parnaíba Basin (NE Brazil). Surv Geophys 39, 683–713 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-018-9463-5

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