The breakup of the South Atlantic Ocean: formation of failed spreading axes and blocks of thinned continental crust in the Santos Basin, Brazil and its consequences for petroleum system development
Publication: Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series
Volume 7
Pages 855 - 866
Abstract
The occurrence of failed breakup basins and deepwater blocks of thinned continental crust is commonplace in the rifting and breakup of continents, as part of passive margin development. This paper examines the rifting of Pangaea–Gondwanaland and subsequent breakup to form the South Atlantic Ocean, with development of a failed breakup basin and seafloor spreading axis (the deepwater Santos Basin) and an adjacent deepwater block of thinned continental crust (the Sao Paulo Plateau) using a combination of 2D flexural backstripping and gravity inversion modelling. The effects of the varying amounts of continental crustal thinning on the contrasting depositional and petroleum systems in the Santos Basin and on the São Paulo Plateau are discussed, the former having a predominant post-breakup petroleum system compared with a pre-breakup system in the latter. An analogy is also made to a potentially similar failed breakup basin/thinned continental crustal block pairing in the Faroes region in the NE Atlantic Ocean.
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Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series
Volume 7 • 2010
Pages: 855 - 866
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© Petroleum Geology Conferences Ltd. Published by the Geological Society, London.
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Published: 2010
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