Ocean-continent transition and tectonic framework of the oceanic crust at the continental margin off NE Brazil: Results of LEPLAC project

Abstract

In 1992, Brazilian Navy and PETROBRAS carried out a geophysical survey along the continental margin off northeastern Brazil, as part of a governmental plan to delineate the Legal Continental Shelf' according to the international Law of the Sea. This data set is leading to a better understanding of the crustal transition processes and on the evolution of the oceanic crust over that part of the Brazilian continental margin. On our seismic transects, we show a rifted marginal plateau (Pernambuco Plateau) where crustal extension was controlled by detachment faulting, possibly in a non-volcanic margin setting. Farther north, dealing with the ocean-continent transition nearby a major transform margin, we found a normal passive margin-style transition zone instead of transform-related structures. With the support of multichannel seismic profiles and gravity data derived from GEOSAT altimetry, several well-known oceanic fracture zones and structural lineaments were properly located and correlated. The relationship of these structures with volcanic ridges and extensional, compressive and strikeslip tectonic reactivations suggests that fracture zones at this area behaved either as zones of weakness or as locked transform fault scars. Striking lithospheric flexural deformation is also related to FZs in this region. In the surroundings of the Fernando de Noronha Ridge, lithospheric flexure represents an isostatic response to volcanic loading, while bending across Ascension FZ is likely to have been caused by differential subsidence in crustal segments of contrasting ages. We also correlate some other deformation of the oceanic crust with changes in spreading directions that possibly took place at the Upper Cretaceous.