Paisagens no Tempo e Espaço (PATES)

Research Motivation

The northeast region of Brazil has an extensive record of sismogenic earthquakes. Geological investigations have shown that the occurrence of such events is ancient and that they were recurrent in different periods of the geologic history of this region. This fact has attracted the attention of many researchers of the national and international scientific community, given the location of the Northeast region in the passive margin of the South American plate. This is because it was believed that tectonic activities in this Atlantic margin would have been important only during the main continental fragmentation stage, which resulted in the origin of the Atlantic Ocean in the Cretaceous period, after which this margin would have evolved a tectonically stable behavior.

The tectonic movements recorded in northeastern Brazil are not consistent with the conceptual model of a stable passive plate throughout the continental drift phase. Therefore, it is important to undertake research aiming at deciphering the mechanisms that drove these tectonic activities in this anomalous passive margin.

In this context, the Paraíba Basin, last bridge connecting the South American and African plates, remained tectonically active longer during the continental breakup. Previous studies in this area have demonstrated strong tectonic control in sedimentary deposits formed from the Miocene to the Holocene. Therefore, this basin has primary interest in studies aiming at understanding the mechanisms that would have generated tectonic activity in relatively young periods of the South America passive margin.