Geology and tectonics of the South Atlantic Brazilian salt basins

IAN DAVISON Earthmoves Ltd, Chartley House, 3842 Upper Park Road, Camberley GU15 2EF, UK (e-mail: i.davison@earthmoves.co.uk)
Abstract: This paper first reviews the salt basins and depositional ages in the South Atlantic salt province. This comprises a series of salt basins separated by basement highs, deep graben (that never dried up), later volcanic highs and subaerial ocean spreading ridges. Initial halite and anhydrite deposition occurred first in the SergipeAlagoas Basin of NE Brazil at c. 124.8 Ma, and was closely followed by deposition in the Kwanza Basin, Angola between 124.5 and 121 Ma. The later potassiummagnesium-rich salts were deposited in the Sergipe Alagoas and GabonCongo basins before 114.5 Ma. The age of the main SantosCampos salt is not known precisely, but the latest anhydrites deposited on the southern margin of the Santos Basin post-date volcanic rocks dated at 113.2 Ma. The paper then compares the salt tectonics of the wide CamposSantos Basin segment with the narrow South Bahia basins segment. Sediment loading in the Santos Basin produced a landward-dipping base salt, which led to the development of counter-regional faults, and inhibited downslope sliding, and enhanced later contractional effects caused by either gravity spreading or regional tectonic compression. Folding occurred in simultaneous pulses across the Santos Basin, suggesting that regional tectonic compression occurred. The narrow salt basins of South Bahia have a steeply dipping base salt horizon (4) and pronounced folding, which initiates at the oceanward pinch-out of the salt and propagates back up the slope. The topographic highs, above fold anticlines, are rapidly eroded on narrow margin slopes, which allows the folds to grow more easily to large amplitudes at the top salt horizon.

The South Atlantic salt province comprises a series of basins that are separated by: (1) deep rifts that never dried up (Jacuipe Basin); (2) basement highs where no salt was deposited (Florianpolis High, Ascension Fracture Zone); or (3) post-salt volcanic highs (Royal Charlotte and Abrolhos) (Fig. 1). These basins contain some of the largest oilfields (Marlim Complex, c. 10x109 barrels) discovered worldwide in the last 20 years, and salt tectonics controlled the configuration of many of the producing reservoirs. This paper reviews the tectonic and depositional history of the South Atlantic salt basins, and then illustrates the differing structural styles along the southern and central Brazilian Atlantic margin. Salt tectonic styles of a broad margin are compared with those of a narrow steeper margins where less sediment has been deposited.

South Atlantic salt deposition Distribution of the Brazilian salt basins

The Brazilian salt province is separated into at least three original salt basins (Cear, Sergipe Alagoas, and the South BahiaEsprito Santo CamposSantos Basin). The southern end of the Santos Basin is bounded by the Florianpolis High, which was a basement high during the Barremian to early Aptian period. Thin

anhydrite deposits overlie Precambrian basement or 113.2 Ma age volcanic rocks in this area (Dias et al. 1994). The South Bahia basins (Cumuruxatiba, Jequitinhonha and Camamu) are separated from the Esprito Santo Basin by the Abrolhos Volcanic High which was erupted and intruded during Palaeocene times (Sobreira & Szatmari 2000) (Fig. 2). The SergipeAlagoas Basin is separated from the Camamu Basin by the Jacupe Basin, which is interpreted to have been a deep sediment-starved graben during deposition of the salt that may never have dried up (Fig. 1). Salt has not been penetrated in the deeper part of the SergipeAlagoas Basin (>1000 m) and seismic data also suggest the absence of salt structures. This contrasts with the Gabon salt basin which extends out to near the oceancontinent crustal boundary. The SergipeAlagoas Basin is bounded to the north by the Ascension Fracture Zone, which is assumed to have been a basement high during the Aptian. Farther north, the Cear Salt Basin contains thin Aptian salt of the Paracuru Formation (Fig. 1). Halite is up to several metres thick in wells CES-42 and CES-46 (Regali 1989). This is the only recorded Aptian halite along both sides of the Equatorial Atlantic margin, although Aptian anhydrite has also been recognized in the Barreirinhas Basin of Brazil (Azevedo 1991) and in the interior Araripe Basin (Fig. 1).

From: RIES, A. C., BUTLER, R. W. H. & GRAHAM, R. H. (eds) 2007. Deformation of the Continental Crust: The Legacy of Mike Coward. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 272, 345359. 0305-8719/07/$15 The Geological Society of London 2007.

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Fig. 1. Map of the South Atlantic salt province. Salt Basin outlines compiled by author.

Age and nature of Brazilian evaporite sequences

Depositional age estimates of the evaporites differ along the Brazilian margin and are summarized below (and in Fig. 1). The salt in the SergipeAlagoas Basin of NE Brazil occurs in two separate intervals in the Macei Formation (Paripueira Member) and the Muribeca Formation (Ibura Member) of Aptian age (Uesugui 1987; Feij 1994). The Paripueira

Member was deposited during palynological zones P-230 (Inaperturopollenites crisopolensis) to P-260 (Inaperturopollenites turbatus). It consists of halite beds interbedded with shales and is c. 100 m in thickness. This salt is estimated to have deposited around 124.8 Ma (R. WynneJones, pers. comm.) The later Ibura Member of the SergipeAlagoas Basin is restricted to the upper part of P-270 zone (Sergipea variverrucata) (Uesugui 1987) onshore and on the shallow shelf. The overlying Riachuelo Formation contains

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Fig. 2. Map of the southern Brazilian Atlantic margin salt basins showing location of the cross-sections in this study. Salt structures in Santos and Campos from Jamieson et al. (2002), and in Cumuruxatiba, Jequitinhonha and Camamu from Cainelli & Mohriak (1998) and the authors own work.

late Aptian planktonic Foraminifera (Ticinella bejaouaensis) and ammonites dated at 114.5 Ma (Koutsoukos et al. 1993). The Ibura salt in the SergipeAlagoas Basin was deposited in a sabkha environment with coarse clastic fan deposits occurring on the borders of the basin in half-grabens, adjacent to major normal faults. Bituminous black shales occur interbedded with the halite, dolomite and algal limestones, and these are an important hydrocarbon source rock in the northern basins of Brazil. The Ibura salt is a MgSO4-free potassium mineral deposit formed of stacked cycles of halite, carnallite and sylvite up to 800 m in thickness. Several of these cycles contain >10 m thick units of primary tachyhydrite (CaMg2Cl6.12H2O; Meister & Aurich 1972; Wardlaw 1972; Wardlaw & Nicholls 1972; Borchert 1977). Farther south in the Santos Basin, on the Florianpolis High, anhydrite and carbonates of the Ariri Formation lie unconformably above

the Curumim Volcanic series in well 1-SCS-3, which has been dated at 113.2P0.1 Ma (Dias et al. 1994). The age of the main salt of the Esprito Santo, Campos and Santos basins is not known, but is thought to be coeval as this is a single continuous salt basin (Fig. 2). The thin halite of the Munda and Icara sub-basins is an isolated occurrence along the Equatorial margin in Cear and is also assigned to the P-270 zone of late Aptian age (Regali 1989).

African salt basins

The West African Salt Basin is separated into at least three basins: Douala, Rio Muni and the main GabonCongoAngola Salt Basin (Fig. 1). A structural high may have been created along the Ascension Fracture Zone during the Aptian, which separated Rio Muni from the main West African Salt Basin to the south. The Rio Muni

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salt has lacustrinecontinental strata above it (Dailly 2000), whereas the main GabonAngola Salt Basin is immediately followed by fully marine Albian carbonates (R. Bate pers. comm.). The salt in Gabon and Congo does not include MgSO4 salts and contains thick tachyhydrite units (de Ruiter 1979). The salt in Gabon is particularly rich in carnallite, with beds up to 400 m thick, which produce strong seismic reflections within the evaporite interval. Interbedded carnallite, halite and thin black shale layers are also present in the shallow part of the Congo Basin (Belmonte et al. 1965). Bischofite and tachyhydrite occur at the top of some evaporite cycles and are considered to be original sedimentary deposits, which are extremely rare worldwide except in the conjugate SergipeAlagoas (Wardlaw & Nicholls 1972; Borchert 1977) and GabonCongo basins (Teisserenc & Villemin 1990). The most extensive and thickest potassium salt deposits are present onshore in the coastal Kouilou region of Congo, where 10 evaporite intervals are recognized with a cumulative thickness of potassium minerals of more than 100 m (Belmonte et al. 1965). These salt deposits were exploited in the Holle Mine area for several years, but this was abandoned as a result of flooding from an aquifer (Warren 1999). The significance of the MgSO4-free salt is that it cannot have formed from evaporation of normal seawater, yet the deposits appear to be of primary sedimentary origin. The chloride minerals sylvite, carnallite, tachyhydrite and bischofite are diagnostic of brines enriched in CaCl2, probably by hydrothermal waterrock interaction. The most prolific rock host would be basalt, altered to spilitic greenstone, where albitization releases Ca into brine and chloritization absorbs Mg from brine (Hardie 1990; Jackson et al. 2000), and a mid-ocean ridge spreading centre was probably developed during the later salt deposition. The African salt basins are believed to have be partially separated from the Brazilian salt basins by subaerial mid-ocean ridge spreading centres, with the salt onlapping and thinning onto the ridge (Jackson et al. 2000). Evaporation drawdown may have taken the local sea level down well below the present-day level (c. 3 km) during the early Aptian to expose the spreading centre. Seaward-dipping reflectors occur sporadically along both margins outboard, and possibly underneath, the seaward edge of the salt, and provide possible evidence for subaerial spreading (see example from Santos Basin, Fig. 4d; Jackson et al. 2000; Henry et al. 2004). Plate reconstruction work carried out by the author also suggests that ocean spreading had already commenced

before the late Aptian salt was deposited, as 200 km of separation of the two continents is predicted at that time (http://www.earthmoves.co. uk/products/south_atlantic/index.html). The salt in the Doula sub-basin, which is the most northern salt basin on the African side, is poorly known (Fig. 1). The current interpretation of the oceaniccontinental crust boundary in this area suggests that the salt is located on ocean crust (Meyers et al. 1996). However, the salt may have been allochthonous and originally deposited higher on the shelf then flowed basinward, as it appears to have done in southern Rio Muni in Block K of Equatorial Guinea.

Ages of African salt basins

In Angola, the top of the salt is estimated to have been deposited before 121124.5 Ma, based on the age range of early Aptian planktonic Foraminifera Leupoldina cabri found above the salt in a confidential well in one of the shelfal blocks in Angola and in the DSDP-364 well, which was suspended above the frontal allochthonous salt massif (Caron 1978; R. Wynn Jones pers. comm.). (It should be noted that the Aptian stage lasts from 125 Ma to 112 Ma; Gradstein et al. (2004)). The Kwanza salt post-dates the extinction of Inaperturopollenites crisopolensis and is therefore slightly younger than the Paripueira Member of the SergipeAlagoas Basin. The evaporites in Gabon are thought to be the equivalent of the later Ibura Member (121114.5 Ma, Uesugui 1987), and the Gabon and Sergipe basins were probably a single basin at that time. However, no evaporites equivalent to the older Paripueira Member of Sergipe Alagoas (124.8 Ma) have been identified in Gabon (Doyle et al. 1982). It is not clear where the change in age of the salt between Angola and Gabon occurs and it is not clear whether the salt is diachronous within a single basin.

Salt Tectonics in the Greater CamposSantosEsprito Santo Basin Faulting controls on salt deposition
Large normal faults are present in both the Campos and Santos basins, which offset the base Aptian salt by up to 2 km (Figs 3 & 5). The presalt sag phase strata and salt thickness change dramatically across the fault shown in Figure 5, but there is no evidence of fanning of the sag-phase reflectors into the fault, which suggests that a fault scarp already existed before deposition of the salt. Variations in salt thickness

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and facies are controlled by faulting, with thin salt (<1 km) present over highs and thicker salt (<2) in lows. Large normal faults (>2 km throw) offsetting the base and top salt have also been identified in the SergipeAlagoas Basin. Localized pods of salt are restricted to the downthrown side of the fault, suggesting that a large surface topography was present, where salt infilled the lows (e.g. Figueiredo 1985), but it is still not clear whether later faulting in the SergipeAlgoas Basin occurred during the Aptian after the salt was deposited, or fault scarps existed before the salt was deposited.

Salt basin geometry

The Santos Basin is the widest salt basin in the South Atlantic, of up to 500 km width from the Santos Hinge Line to the frontal edge of the salt. The salt basin narrows to 150 km wide in the Esprito Santo Basin (Fig. 2). The Santos CamposEsprito Santo Basin (SCES Basin) contains the largest oil and gas fields in the South Atlantic and has been the subject of several important papers on salt tectonics (e.g. Cobbold & Szatmari 1991; Demercian et al. 1993; Cobbold et al. 1995; Mohriak et al. 1995; Fiduk et al. 2004). Most of the hydrocarbon fields

are combination structuralstratigraphic traps, created by movement of the salt in Cretaceous and Tertiary turbidite sandstone reservoirs. The large rift flank uplift created the Serra do Mar Mountains, adjacent to the Santos and Campos basins, which rise to over 2.2 km above sea level (Fig. 3). This topography developed during the synrift stage and made a contribution to the differential gravitational stress affecting the salt basin. The flanking mountains and the palaeotopography of the sea bed during the Cretaceous created a differential stress of up to c. 100 MPa, which produced downslope sliding and frontal toe compression in the salt and overlying strata (Fig. 3). The amount of differential stress occurring at the leading edge of the salt can be estimated by using Archimedes Principle and measuring the maximum height of the freeboard between sea bed on oceanic crust and above the frontal allochthonous salt massif (Fig. 3). The freeboard is up to 600 m in the NE Santos Basin (Mohriak 1988) and 1400 m in the Kwanza Basin (Marton et al. 2000), and this is approximately equivalent to a differential stress of 6 MPa and 14 MPa, respectively (using a density difference between seawater and salt or sediment of 1000 kg m3 and assuming zero strength of the sediment; Fig. 3). Hence, the frontal stress is

Fig. 3. Force balance on the Santos continental margin indicating topography, which created a maximum differential stress of c. 100 MPa, causing downslope compression on the continental margin. The allochthonous salt sheet has a freeboard up to 710 m which was produced by a compressional stress of at least 7 MPa. Inset table showing freeboard of frontal salt structures in the South Atlantic.

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much less than that predicted from the margin topography. This is probably due to stress dissipation as a result of present-day folding and slip along the salt dcollement. The sedimentary loading of the Santos Basin has created a downwarp of the regional base salt horizon, which has subsided 4.5 km below the regional Early Cretaceous position to create a landward dip of c. 1.7 (Fig. 4a). The sediment loading occurred in Late Cretaceous times, so the landward base salt dip has created an effective physical buttress since that time. The landward dip of base salt inhibited downslope sliding of overlying sedimentary strata, and promoted counter-regional faulting caused by lateral salt expulsion in front of the prograding sediment wedge (see also Ings et al. 2004). Landward dip of base salt has also helped to cause a large amount of contractional folding and thrusting from Late Cretaceous through to Tertiary times (Cobbold et al. 1995; Cobbold 2004). Analysis of the sedimentary stratal growth patterns in the synclines between salt-cored anticlines indicates that at least one phase of contraction occurred in a simultaneous pulse across the outer half of the Santos salt basin over a 300 km wide zone. This contractional event is tentatively correlated with an end-Maastrichtian erosional unconformity in the shallow shelf area (Pereira & Macedo 1990). Stresses were so high in the outer Santos Basin salt sheet that major thrust faulting occurred, which repeated and thickened the evaporite sequence to as much as 4.5 km in thickness (Fig. 4c). In the Campos and Esprito Santo basins the base salt dips oceanward or is almost flat, and downslope sliding has produced mainly regional seaward-dipping listric faults that sole out in the Aptian salt. Counter regional faults are less important, and the compressional folding is less marked than it is in the Santos Basin. In the outer central and northern part of the Santos Basin the salt interval is a strongly reflective interbedded sequence which is believed to be a haliteanhydriteclastic sediment sequence of Aptian age strata (Fig. 4b; Mohriak et al. 2004). The uppermost seismic reflection of this

layered sequence is particularly strong and has been called the enigmatic reflector (Mohriak et al. 2004). This is probably an anhydrite layer, and most of the salt diapirs appear to be capped by this reflector (Fig. 4b). Thick halite occurs near the base of the evaporite sequence, and has been intruded into the overlying mixed evaporiteclastic layered sequence (Fig. 4b). Outside the fold cores the layered sequence is clearly imaged (Fig. 4b). However, these layered rocks are tightly folded in the cores of the anticlines and the steeply dipping beds are non-reflective, giving the impression that the folds have massive halite cores (Fig. 4b). The strongly anisotropic anhydritehaliteclastic layers enhance fold amplification and some folds grew into ptygmatic shapes.

Frontal edge of the salt

The oceancontinent transition zone lies slightly inboard of the salt basin, where salt has been deposited on either normal oceanic crust or seaward-dipping reflectors (SDRs). The salt has been overthrust c. 20 km over oceanic crust in the Santos Basin, but in some areas it is difficult to locate a sharp oceancontinent transition and it is not clear whether the outer 50100 km part of the Santos Basin salt lies on oceanic or continental crust. The seismic reflection data are inconclusive, because the crust below the frontal salt massif is poorly imaged over a 50 km wide zone. The gravity signature is also very transitional in this area and an abrupt density change does not occur at the oceancontinent transition.

Salt tectonics in the Jequitinhonha and Camamu basins of South Bahia

The topographic slope is much steeper in the Jequitinhonha and Camamu basins than it is farther south. The maximum width of the salt basin reaches c. 70 km in the South Bahia basins. In the central portion of the Jequitinhonha Basin the present-day sea bed has a 3.1 dip from the landward edge to the seaward edge of the salt, representing a total relief of 3400 m (Fig. 6).

Fig. 4. (a) Regional cross-section through the Santos Basin showing the landward dip of the base salt caused by sedimentary loading.

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Fig. 4. (b) Close-up of the layered evaporiteclastic sequence in the central and northern Santos Basin, showing a lower halite section that intrudes through the upper layered part of the evaporite sequence. The evaporites are capped by the very strong reflector, informally known as the enigmatic reflector (Mohriak et al. 2004), which is believed to be an anhydrite layer capping the evaporite sequence. TWT, two-way travel time.

This has created a large gravitational component of downslope sliding, generating a maximum differential stress of 40 MPa (with an assumed sediment density of 2200 kg m3). A very large extensional listric fault formed at the landward edge of the salt basin, which produced a megarollover anticline that is c. 10 km wide. Early turbidite sandstone reservoirs may be trapped in the hanging wall of this fold (Fig. 6a and b).

The rest of the salt basin is dominated by folding. The geometry of growth strata around the folds indicates that they grew as a result of downslope gravity spreading with compression occurring at the leading edge of the salt because of salt pinch-out. The fold-growth strata suggest that the folds propagated backwards up the slope from the frontal salt pinch-out (Fig. 6a), with the earliest initiation of folds in the deepest water.

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Fig. 4. (c) Allochthonous salt massif in the Central Santos Basin. Ramp-flat thrusted sedimentary strata are highlighted in the line drawing. The thrusted evaporite clastic imbricate fan reaches up to 4. 5 km in thickness. Allochthonous salt sheets cap the salt massif and internal ramp-flat geometry and folded imbricate fans occur where there is a step in base salt.

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Fig. 4. (d) Regional cross-section through the southern Santos Basin. Close-up showing the thrust frontal edge of the salt with seaward-dipping reflectors (SDRs) interpreted to be subaerial basaltic lavas that have caused a dam, with salt found only to the landward side of the SDRs. Seismic line locations are shown in Figure 2.

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Fig. 5. Seismic section in the Campos Basin showing a large normal fault offsetting the top of the synrift sequence by c. 1.8 km, and base salt by 1.5 km. The top of the salt is difficult to determine in the hanging wall, but the interpretation shown here suggests that the top salt is not displaced by a fault, but is flexed downward in the same way as the overlying Cretaceous stratal reflectors. This suggests that the fault scarp was present during the sag phase and deposition of the salt. Location of seismic line is shown in Figure 2.

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Fig. 6. (a, and b) Cross-sections through the Jequitinhonha Salt Basin. The sea bed is folded as a result of gravitational spreading of the post-salt section, which is pinned at the leading edge of the salt basin where the salt pinches out. Contractional folding is enhanced because of the high rate of erosion on the shelf which thins the sediment cover above the salt during the folding process. Location of seismic lines is shown in Figure 2.

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Fig. 7. Summary of the different styles of salt tectonics on the Brazilian margin. (a) Broad margin with flat and landward-dipping base salt horizon. Folding and counter-regional fault development are favoured on broad margins. (b) Narrow basin with a relatively steep oceanward-dipping base salt horizon. The salt pinch-out causes compression to propagate back up the slope and later turbidites may be trapped behind the folds.

This is the opposite sense to the usual forwardpropagation of mountain fold and thrust belts. The folds that are currently the most active are highest up the continental slope, although all the folds in the section (Fig. 6b) have created sea-bed topographic relief and are still active. Erosion has removed up to 0.75 km of strata from the crest of the major folds (Fig. 6b). Rapid erosion allows the roof of the fold to uplift more easily, and the salt-cored anticline continued to create a large fold amplitude defined at top salt horizon. This positive feedback effect makes this a fold factory with a physical environment ideal for growing folds with large compressive stress, low-viscosity salt layers that fill fold cores, and high erosion rates on the fold crests.

Conclusions
The Brazilian and African salt basins developed diachronously in the Aptian, and individual basins were separated by basement highs and lows. The oldest salt in the South Atlantic is thought to be the SergipeAlgoas Paripuiera salt dated at c. 124.8 Ma, followed by the Kwanza Basin salt at 121124.5 Ma, and then the Ibura Member and Gabon salt (114.5121 Ma). The age of initiation of the main SantosCampos

salt basin is not known but the latest evaporite deposition appears to be latest Aptian (c. 112 113 Ma). It is still not clear whether the salt is diachronous within basins, or between basins or both. The original salt thickness and distribution were partly controlled by normal faulting, with thin salt deposited on pre-salt highs. The outer part of the salt basin is interpreted to lie on oceanic crust with the mid-ocean ridge spreading centre exposed subaerially as a result of evaporitic drawdown. A limited amount (c. 20 km) of overthrusting of the salt onto oceanic crust has occurred. In the Santos Basin, a large sediment load was applied in Cretaceous times, which pushed the base salt horizon down so that it dipped landward over a large part of the basin (Fig. 7). This impeded downslope regional listric faults from forming, and counter-regional faults and upright diapirs and contraction folds are more dominant in the outer part of the basin. Numerical modelling also indicates a similar relationship with landward-dipping base salt (Ings et al. 2004). Contractional deformation is more pronounced in the Santos Basin, as the landward dip of the base salt caused a buttressing effect during later compressive events. One regional compressive event has been identified near the end of the Maastrichtian. Sediment loading in the

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I. DAVISON Project, 40. US Government Printing Office Washington, DC, 651678. COBBOLD, P. R. 2004. Style and timing of Andean deformation, reactivation and inversion at the scale of South America (abstract). Continental Tectonics: Discussion Meeting in Memory of the Life and Work of Mike Coward, Geological Society, London, 2728 May 2004. COBBOLD, P. R. & SZATMARI, P. 1991. Radial gravitational gliding on passive margins. Tectonophysics, 188, 249289. COBBOLD, P. R., SZATMARI, P., DEMERCIAN, L. S., COELHO, D. & ROSSELLO, E. A. 1995. Seismic and experimental evidence for thin-skinned horizontal shortening by convergent radial gliding on evaporites, deep-water Santos Basin, Brazil. In: JACKSON, M. P. A., ROBERTS, D. G. & SNELSON, S. (eds) Salt Tectonics: a Global Perspective. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Memoirs, 65, 305322. DAILLY, P. 2000. Tectonic and stratigraphic development of the Rio Muni Basin, Equatorial Guinea, the role of transform zones in Atlantic Basin Evolution. In: MOHRIAK, W. & TALWANI, M. (eds) Atlantic Rifts and Continental Margins. Geophysical Monograph, American Geophysical Union, 115, 105128. DEMERCIAN, S., SZATMARI, P., COBBOLD, P. & COELHO, D. F. 1993. Style and pattern of salt diapirs due to thin-skinned gravitational gliding, Campos and Santos basins, offshore Brazil. Tectonophysics, 228, 393344. DE RUITER, P. A. C. 1979. The Gabon and Congo basins salt deposits. Economic Geology, 74, 419431. DIAS, J. L., SAD, A. R. E., FONTANA, R. L. & FEIJO, F. J. 1994. Bacia de Pelotas. Boletim Geocincias da Petrobrs, 8, 235246. DOYLE, J. A., JARDINE, S. & DOERNKAMP, A. 1982. Afropollis; a new genus of early angiosperm pollen, with notes on the Cretaceous palynostratigraphy and paleoenvironments of northern Gondwana. Bulletin des Centres de Recherches Exploration Production Elf-Aquitaine, 6, 39117. EARTHMOVES LTD 2005. Digital Atlas of the South Atlantic. Multiclient Confidential Report FEIJO, F. J. 1994. Bacias de Sergipe e Alagoas. Boletim Geocincias de Petrobrs, 8, 149162. FIDUK, C., BRUSH, E. R., ANDERSON, L. E., GIBBS, P. B. & ROWAN, M. G. 2004. Salt, deformation, magmatism and hydrocarbon prospectivity in the Esprito Santo Basin, Offshore Brazil. GCSSEPM Bob F. Perkins 24th Annual Research Conference, 58 December 2004, Houston, TX, CD-ROM, 640 668. FIGUEIREDO, A. M. F. 1985. Geologia das Bacias Brasileiras. WEC Schlumberger Symposium. Schlumberger, Rio de Janeiro, 137. GRADSTEIN, F. M., OGG, J. G. & SMITH, A. G. 2004. A Geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. HARDIE, L. A. 1990. The roles of rifting and hydrothermal CaCl2 brines in the origin of potash evaporites: an hypothesis. American Journal of Science, 290, 43106.

Esprito Santo and Campos basins occurred mainly in the Tertiary and is less important than in the Santos Basin. Base salt dips gently seaward in these basins and regional down-to-basin listric faults are better developed, and contractional deformation is less important. The Jequitinhonha and Camamu basins exhibit pronounced contractional folding, because a larger gravitational component developed as a result of the steep topography on these margins (Fig. 6). The first folds formed at the leading edge of the salt and early turbidite reservoirs may have been trapped in the outer part of the basin on the landward side of these folds (Fig. 7). Later folding developed higher up on the slope so that later turbidites were trapped higher on the slope behind actively growing folds (Fig.7). The early folds in deep water were also active at this time, but they grew less quickly, as there was less erosion of the fold crests in deep water. Very large salt-cored folds (2 km amplitude) developed on narrow margins as the crests of the folds were rapidly eroded which facilitated folding. These folds developed on the continental slope, where extension would normally be expected.
I wish to thank the late Mike Coward for his inspiration in my early research years working on Precambian mobile belts in Africa, which ultimately led to me working on the tectonics of the South Atlantic. I would like to thank R. Wynn Jones for useful discussions on the age of the salt in the South Atlantic. G. Tari and J. Turner made useful comments on this paper.

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