Stratigraphic analysis of Ponta do Mel carbonate platform, Albian-Cenomanian in Potiguar Basin, NE of Brazil

Abstract

This work intends to understand how the Ponta do Mel carbonate platform was implanted, to characterize its depositional model and its evolution in the light of modern stratigraphy, as well as to understand the stratigraphic relations with beneath, overlapping and contemporary units, from wells and seismic data. The focus area of this study corresponds to a belt in the offshore portion of the Potiguar Basin, which runs parallel to the shoreline, about 40 km from it. The carbonate rocks of the Ponta do Mel Formation date from the Late Albian and, similar to what occurs in the other basins of the Brazilian continental margin, their deposition is related to the separation events of the African and South American continents. In the stratigraphic analysis of the wells (1D analysis), it was possible to characterize carbonate lithofacies, that are the predominant, as well as mixed and siliciclastic lithofacies. It was also possible to individualize shallowing upward cycles and cycle sets, which were associated with the identified systems tracts. In the seismic stratigraphic analysis, in the same way, four seismic facies were visualized, which, in general, are related to the tractive processes involved in the deposition of the carbonate, mixed and siliciclastic lithofacies, defined in the 1D analysis. The integration of the results from the well data analysis to the seismic stratigraphic analysis allowed to understand that the studied interval, which coincides, in lithostratigraphic terms, with the Ponta do Mel Formation, represents a complete depositional sequence, here referred to as the Albian-Cenomanian Sequence, formed by the Lowstand Systems Tract (LST), Transgressive Systems Tract (TST), and Highstand Systems Tract (HST). The sedimentation history of the Ponta do Mel unit started from the deposition of siliciclastic and carbonate facies in a shallow water platform environment. Then, with the increase in the accommodation space, in a transgressive phase, a thick interval of deeper water facies, represented mainly by calcilutites and pelitic rocks, was deposited. At the end of this interval, facies of coarser granulation, represented mainly by thick calcarenites layers, and sometimes calcirrudites, started to dominate the platform scenario, denoting a regressive phase and thus ending the Albian-Cenomanian Sequence.