A contribution to regional stratigraphic correlations of the Afro-Brazilian depression – The Dom João Stage (Brotas Group and equivalent units – Late Jurassic) in Northeastern Brazilian sedimentary basins

Abstract

Abstract The Dom Joao Stage comprises an interval with variable thickness between 100 and 1200 m, composed of fluvial, eolian and lacustrine deposits of Late Jurassic age, based mainly on the lacustrine ostracod fauna (although the top deposits may extend into the Early Cretaceous). These deposits comprise the so-called Afro-Brazilian Depression, initially characterized as containing the Brotas Group of the Reconcavo Basin (which includes the Alianca and the Sergi Formations) and subsequently extended into the Tucano, Jatoba, Camamu, Almada, Sergipe, Alagoas and Araripe Basins in northeastern Brazil, encompassing the study area of this paper. The large occurrence area of the Dom Joao Stage gives rise to discussions about the depositional connectivity between the basins, and the real extension of sedimentation. In the first studies of this stratigraphic interval, the Dom Joao Stage was strictly associated with the rift phase, as an initial stage (decades of 1960–70), but subsequent analyses considered the Dom Joao as an intracratonic basin or pre-rift phase – without any relation to the active mechanics of a tectonic syn-rift phase (decades of 1980–2000). The present work developed an evolutionary stratigraphic and tectonic model, based on the characterization of depositional sequences, internal flooding surfaces, depositional systems arrangement and paleoflow directions. Several outcrops on the onshore basins were used to build composite sections of each basin, comprising facies, architectural elements, depositional systems, stratigraphic and lithostratigraphic frameworks, and paleocurrents. In addition to that, over a hundred onshore and offshore exploration wells were used (only 21 of which are showed) to map the depositional sequences and generate correlation sections. These show the characteristics and relations of the Dom Joao Stage in each studied basin, and they were also extended to the Gabon Basin. The results indicate that there were two main phases during the Dom Joao Stage, in which distinctive sedimentary environments were developed, reflecting depositional system arrangements, paleoflow directions were diverse, and continuous or compartmented basins were developed.