7. Sedimentary basins of Brazilian Borborema and São Francisco tectonic provinces since mesoproterozoic

Abstract

This chapter describes the sedimentary basins of Brazilian Borborema and Sao Francisco tectonic provinces since mesoproterozoic. It focuses on the formation of sedimentary basins cyclically, in particular during submergent tectonic-sedimentary episodes. The Borborema and Silo Francisco tectonic provinces are found in the northeastern and eastern regions of Brazil and form part of the South American craton that occupies more than half of the continent including the whole of Brazil. The Borborema Province is the westernmost section of a Pan-African mobile belt that extends from the Amazon craton in the west up to the Arabian–Nubian Shield in the east. As a mobile belt, it is very extensive and composed of various terranes amalgamated since the Paleoproterozoic. The Sao Francisco Province constitutes the western part, in Brazilian territory, of the big Silo Francisco–Congo/Kasai–Angola Shield. In both geotectonic units, three main types of sedimentary basins are distinguished: large-size syneclises and small-size centroclines, as well as rifts that developed in cyclically repeated periods of the earth's geological history, probably since the beginning of the Proterozoic.