◄ Carnets Geol. 24 (2) ►
Outline:
[1. Introduction]
[2. Geological context ... of the Ibura Event]
[3. Formation of the Ibura evaporites ...]
[4. The South Atlantic Gulf and its effects ...]
[5.
The South Atlantic and Tethys paleogeography ...] [6. Conclusions]
[Bibliographic references] and ... [Supplementary data]
Visiting
researcher at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ);
contact
address: Rua Sara Braune, 40/ 101 a; ZIP Code 28611-020, Nova Friburgo/RJ
(Brazil)
Visiting
researcher at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ);
contact
address: Rua Lopes da Cruz, 167/601; ZIP Code 20720-170, Rio de Janeiro/RJ
(Brazil)
Instituto
Tecnológico de Paleoceanografia e Mudanças Climáticas - itt Oceaneon,
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS University);
contact address: Av.
Unisinos, 950 / Sector C11, ZIP Code 93. 022-750, São Leopoldo/RS (Brazil)
Senior
collaborating Professor at the Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São
Paulo (USP);
Associate
researcher at UNESPetro - Centro de Ciências Naturais Aplicadas, Universidade
Estadual Paulista- UNESP, Rio Claro
(Brazil);
contact address: Rua do Lago, 562 - Cidade Universitária-ZIP Code 05508-080, São
Paulo/SP (Brazil)
Associate
researcher at UNESPetro - Centro de Ciências Naturais Aplicadas, Universidade
Estadual Paulista- UNESP, Rio Claro
(Brazil);
contact address: UNESPetro, CP 178, CEP 13506-900, Rio
Claro/SP (Brazil)
Published online in final form (pdf) on January 20, 2024
DOI: 10.2110/carnets.2024.2402
[Editor: Bruno
R.C. Granier]
The primitive sea that occupied the Central South Atlantic (CSA), part of the intra-Gondwana rift during the Early Cretaceous, allowed precipitation of an extensive and thick layer of evaporites, the Ibura Salt, followed by the deposition of a prominent Albian carbonate package. Although the shallow platform facies do not contain classical benthic Tethys markers, the pelagic open sea carbonates are essentially dominated by planktonic elements coming from the Tethys Realm. This condition led some researchers to think that Tethys waters also contributed to salt formation, an idea that clashes with the geotectonic model of northward separation of Africa and South America and ingression of predominantly Austral marine waters. Now, a new controversy arises as to the age of this salt layer when trying to position bio-events and lithological and chemostratigraphic markers from these rocks with respect to established data for the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Aptian/Albian boundary (GSSP-Alb). Biochronostratigraphic information on planktonic foraminifera points to an Aptian age as opposed to the earliest Albian traditionally accepted for the carbonate section that overlies the giant salt layer. On the other hand, stratigraphic and geochronological data suggest an age of 113 Ma for the base of the salt, very near to the 113.2 ± 0.1 Ma arbitrated for the GSSP-Alb. In this study, we adopt the base of the evaporite bed as the Aptian/Albian boundary in the CSA, Equatorial South Atlantic (ESA), and northeastern Brazilian interior basins (BNE) as well. Based on these criteria, a broad review and the integration of available information have led to new interpretations regarding the earliest phase of these segments of the South Atlantic and adjacent areas. Initially, during the Aptian-Albian transition, an ephemeral interior sea within Brazil, drawing its waters from the north, would have contributed to salt deposition in the intra-Gondwana rift (evaporitic stage of the CSA). Afterward, but still within the earliest Albian, the evaporitic system evolved into a carbonate gulf when the northern barrier, the Exception Zone (EZ), disappeared. The lagoonal circulation pattern that then formed in the CSA created a hypersaline and warm outflow plume that swept across the marine bottom of the ESA and part of the Tethys Sea. Paleoceanographic events registered at Site 545, Mazagan Plateau, support this new hypothesis and illustrate the potential complexity of correlation of organic-rich deposits in which local influences have been greater than global ones. This long, narrow, and continuous carbonate gulf disappeared at the end of the Albian with the arrival of southern waters from the Meridional South Atlantic (MSA), and the South Atlantic became consolidated as a proto-ocean.
• earliest Albian;
• South
Atlantic evolution;
• water source;
• hypersaline plume;
• origins of
the "OEA1b";
• paleogeographic impacts
Azevedo R.L.M., Antunes R.L., Bruno D.R., Fairchild T.R. & Dias-Brito D. (2024).- The Central South Atlantic: The origin of its waters, its evolution and effects beyond.- Carnets Geol., Madrid, vol. 24, no. 2, p. 29-74. DOI: 10.2110/carnets.2024.2402
L'Atlantique Sud Central : Origine de ses eaux, son évolution et ses répercussions.- Au Crétacé inférieur, la mer primitive qui occupait l'Atlantique Sud Central (ASC) était une composante du rift intra-gondwanien. Cette mer a permis le dépôt d'une couche salifère étendue et épaisse - le Sel d'Ibura (événement d'Ibura) - suivi ultérieurement (à l'Albien) celui d'une puissante sériecarbonatée. Alors que ces faciès carbonatés néritiques ne recèlent aucun des marqueurs benthiques classiques de la Téthys, les faciès pélagiques de mer ouverte sont dominés par des éléments planctoniques du domaine téthysien. Cette observation a conduit certains chercheurs à penser que les eaux issues de la Téthys auraient également pu contribuer à la formation des évaporites, un concept en contradiction avec le modèle géotectonique de séparation de l'Afrique et de l'Amérique du Sud à partir du sud, en direction du nord, avec pénétration d'eaux marines à prédominance australe. Une controverse surgit aujourd'hui concernant l'âge de la couche salifère, en tentant de recaler les événements biologiques et les marqueurs lithologiques et chimiostratigraphiques reconnus au sein de cette série carbonatée avec les données disponibles sur la Coupe et le Point Stratotypique Mondial de la limite Aptien/Albien (PSM-Albien). Les études biochronostratigraphiques fondées sur les foraminifères planctoniques indiquent un âge aptien pour la série carbonatée qui recouvre les dépôts salifères alors qu'un âge albien basal était traditionnellement accepté. Par ailleurs, les données stratigraphiques et géochronologiques suggèrent un âge de 113 Ma pour la base du Sel d'Ibura, très proche de celui arbitré pour le PSM-Albien (113,2 ± 0,1 Ma). Cette étude adopte la base de la couche salifère comme limite Aptien/Albien pour l'Atlantique Sud Central (ASC), l'Atlantique Sud Équatorial (ASE), ainsi que pour certains bassins intérieurs du nord-est du Brésil (BNE). Sur cette base, un réexamen approfondi et l'intégration de toutes les informations disponibles ont conduit à de nouvelles interprétations concernant la phase la plus ancienne de ces segments de l'Atlantique Sud et des zones adjacentes. Initialement, au cours de la transition Aptien-Albien, existait au Brésil une mer intérieure éphémère qui, tirant ses eaux du nord, aurait contribué au dépôt de sels dans le rift intra-gondwanien (phase évaporitique de l'ASC). Par la suite, toujours au cours de l'Albien basal, le système évaporitique a évolué vers un système carbonaté, une fois la barrière nord, i.e., la zone d'exception (ZE), disparue. Le modèle de circulation confiné qui s'est alors établi dans l'ASC a créé un panache hypersalin et chaud qui, sortant de l'ASC, a balayé le fond marin de l'ASE et d'une partie de la Téthys. Les événements paléoocéanographiques enregistrés sur le site 545, plateau de Mazagan, soutiennent cette nouvelle hypothèse et illustrent la complexité potentielle de la corrélation des dépôts riches en matière organique dans lesquels les influences locales ont prévalu sur les influences globales. Ce fossé long, étroit et continu à sédimentation carbonatée a disparu à la fin de l'Albien avec l'arrivée d'eaux méridionales issues de l'Atlantique Sud Méridional (MSA), consolidant ainsi l'Atlantique Sud en un proto-océan.
• Albien inférieur ;
• évolution de l'Atlantique Sud ;
• source d'alimentation en eau ;
• panache hypersalin ;
• origines de l' "OEA1b" ;
• impacts paléogéographiques
The history of the implantation of the South Atlantic is the subject of questions that motivate different, if not contradictory, interpretations: did the process of creating oceanic crust occur before or after the deposition of the giant Ibura salt deposit? When did this occur? Where did such a volume of water come from to form these evaporites with distinct and in some places anomalous compositions? How did the transition from the evaporitic to the carbonate system take place? What water circulation model was dominant in the two scenarios? How long did the barriers persist that delimited the areas of occurrence of these evaporites and carbonates? Once these barriers disappeared, what influence did the new body of water linking the South Atlantic to the Tethys Sea have on global paleogeography? And, are any black shales related to the Oceanic Anoxic Event 1b (OAE 1b) preserved in the South Atlantic basins? These and other questions have long intrigued researchers, yet in spite of much accumulated knowledge, uncertainties still provide room for new hypotheses and other controversies.
The principal objective of this paper is
to think about the evolution of the South Atlantic, its relationship and
influence elsewhere. To deal with this subject, many of the above questions
have been addressed and the most consecrated interpretations have been
summarized. Crucial to this discussion was information from wells drilled for
oil exploration in Brazilian marginal basins of Central South Atlantic (CSA),
Equatorial South Atlantic (ESA), and northeastern Brazilian interior basins (BNE).
Other data came from different areas of the world, especially from African and
Tethys basins. A section at Site 545 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP)
was reanalyzed in greater detail and used to exemplify paleoceanographic
processes associated with the evolution of the Central South Atlantic that
extended into Tethys (Fig. 1 
).
|
Figure 1:
Location
of the basins and sections considered in this study. Paleogeography represents
that at 113 Ma ago (modified from Azevedo et
al., 2023). |
Taking into account all interpretations based on previous information, we found it was necessary to define and harmonize the data into a single chronostratigraphic solution. We chose to adopt the proposal by Antunes et al. (2018), with further arguments by Azevedo et al. (2023), that indicate an earliest Albian age for all processes involving the thick evaporite layer, the Ibura Salt or Ibura Event. This solution is distinct from the late Aptian age traditionally admitted for the salt formation (e.g., Asmus & Ponte, 1973; Asmus & Ferrari, 1978; Ojeda, 1981; Uesugui, 1987; Boeuf, 1988; Regali, 1989a, 1989b; Salard-Cheboldaeff & Boltenhagen, 1992; Dias, 1998), as well as from those suggesting of a much older Aptian age (e.g., Tedeschi et al., 2017; Lima F.H.O. et al., 2018; Viviers et al., 2018; Sanjinés et al., 2022). Although the controversy regarding the age of the salt layer has yet to be resolved, data are presented here to justify the axiomatic solution of adopting the base of these evaporites as the Aptian/Albian boundary for the region under discussion.
Different models for the marine paleocirculation system that gave rise to the water masses responsible for the deposition of these evaporites and carbonates have been examined. New hypotheses are presented, recording not only the models' strengths but also their limitations. We also offer interpretations for the processes that led to overcoming the barriers that limited evaporitic and carbonate deposition in the CSA.
Although we recognize that much of the available evidence is still sparse, widely scattered, and commonly controversial, we believe that the new clues offered here will stimulate future research from the central perspective of impact of changes that occurred in the South Atlantic regarding global paleogeography and paleoceanography.
The
CSA and ESA have geological histories directly related to fragmentation axes
of Gondwana that developed during the Early Cretaceous, with orientations
NNE-SSW to N-S, and ENE-WSW to E-W, respectively. The CSA basins are
distributed between a barrier in the south, made up by the Florianópolis
Rise,
São Paulo Plateau, Walvis Ridge, and Frio Rise, here termed SAMB (the South
Atlantic Middle Barrier), and one in the north, the Exception Zone (EZ), as
designated by Barbosa et al.
(2008). The latter represents a strip of an exposed land bridge that extended
along the Patos-Pernambuco/Ngaoundéré-Sanaga lineament to the Touros High.
The ESA continued northwest from this continental high to the Guinea Plateau/Demerara
Rise (Fig. 1 ).
During continental fragmentation, sediments were deposited during well-recognized rift, sag, and drift phases, mainly in the CSA (Milani et al., 2007). A local Early Cretaceous chronostratigraphy has been created in Brazil for the dominantly lacustrine deposits that accumulated in the rift phase, with distinct stages defined mainly by ostracod and palynomorph bio-events evident in the Sergipe-Alagoas, Recôncavo, and Tucano basins (e.g., Schaller, 1969; Viana et al., 1971; Dias-Brito et al., 1987; Moura, 1988; Arai et al., 1989; Regali & Viana, 1989; Poropat & Colin, 2012; Antunes et al., 2018). Studies dealing with non-marine Lower Cretaceous sections of African basins do not use local stages, choosing rather to position ostracods and palynomorphs zones of endemic species within international stages (e.g., Doyle, 1977; Grosdidier et al., 1996; Bate, 1999; Poropat & Colin, 2012).
In the BNE, ESA, and CSA four salt layers are recognized with different dimensions and compositions. So far, there are no reliable indications of the presence of the three more ancient salts at equivalent levels in African basins; only a Barremian-Aptian salt layer is recorded from Kwanza Basin (Chaboureau et al., 2013). The oldest of these Brazilian evaporites occurrence is the Matarandiba bed, present in the Recôncavo Basin and associated with a Permian intracratonic section (Da Silva et al., 2007; Guimarães et al., 2018), thus clearly deposited prior to Gondwana fragmentation. The Sergipe-Alagoas Basin is the only one that hosts three other evaporitic events related to the rift and sag phases (Martins, 2016; Souza-Lima et al., 2021). The Horizonte and Paripueira salt layers, the two oldest, formed during the rift phase, are limited in area and thickness, and consist exclusively of halite enveloped by lacustrine clastic sediments. The youngest layer, the Ibura Member, the most widespread and diversified salt layer, was the one deposited during the transitional phase in the South Atlantic evolution.
The Horizonte salt layer is late Jiquiá in age (~ early Aptian, according to Regali & Viana, 1989), Aequitriadites spinosus Zone or P-220 code (Martins, 2016), and the Paripueira occurs in the middle part of the Alagoas Stage (Aptian, according Regali & Viana, 1989), in Inaperturopollenites crisopolensis/I. turbatus palynozones or P-230 and P-260 codes (Uesugui, 1987). Paradoxically, a geochemical study by Florencio (1996, 2001) and Florencio and Ribeiro (1998) on the Paripueira layer showed high bromine contents in samples of halite, more in keeping with a marine deposition than within an overly salty continental lake. However, a study of a thick halite section in non-marine deposits of Salar de Uyuni, central altiplano in Bolivia, showed how bromine profiles are affected by complex depositional processes, making it difficult to define a marine or non-marine origin for an evaporite based exclusively upon Br content (Risacher & Fritz, 2000). Recent works, however, have been reaffirming the idea of a continental origin for the Paripueira salt (Martins, 2016; Souza-Lima et al., 2021).
Two other hypotheses about possible marine invasions before the Alagoas Stage deserve comment. The first refers to the presence of benthic foraminifera in black shales associated with ostracod Zone Petrobrasia marfinensis, code NRT 007.2, that belonging to the Buracica local Stage (~Barremian in age). Affinities with marine environments of some of these fossils created expectations about the connection of the Recôncavo Basin with some arms of the sea. This interpretation was ruled out by Santos (1999), who called attention to both the coexistence of these foraminifers with non-marine ostracods, and the geochemical characteristics of those sediments.
A second hypothesis regarding possible marine invasions prior to the Alagoas Stage was proposed by Gamboa et al. (2021) in a study supported by integrated gravity, magnetic, and seismic data, as well as knowledge of the depositional history of the Santos Basin. They observed seismic patterns indicating the presence of an older evaporite layer in the São Paulo Plateau, which was deposited in a restricted and shallow environment to the north of an aborted oceanic crust axis. This structural feature later shifted eastward, forming the definitive oceanic floor of the CSA. Gamboa et al. (2021) suggest that this older axis would have served as the pathway for the initial Austral marine incursions into the Santos Basin. With the contribution of hydrothermal processes, these waters would have led to the formation of the first salt ponds in the peripheral and shallow depressions of the Santos Basin, predating the deposition of the Ibura Evaporite.
Part of the controversy about the age of giant Ibura salt deposits in the CSA, ESA, and BNE basins is related to scarce published data on these distinct evaporite beds. The picture is complex mainly due to lack of accuracy in the chrono-correlation between the local Brazilian and the international stages of the Lower Cretaceous. Conceptual changes promoted in the last three decades involving the Aptian and Albian and several pitfalls of bio-chronostratigraphic interpretations have broadened this controversy. For example, the concept of diachroneity concerning the giant evaporitic layer, as proposed by Davison (2007) and accompanied by Karner and Gamboa (2007), Kukla et al. (2018), Saunders et al. (2018), and Cui et al. (2023), adopted Caron's (1978) interpretation of an Aptian age for the sediments overlaying the salt at DSDP Site 364 (Kwanza Basin), a solution that conflicts with results ased on other fossil groups (Bolli, 1978a; Azevedo et al., 2023). Davison (2007) also indicated a value of 114.5 Ma for the youngest salt layer of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin (Ibura Member), based on associations of planktonic foraminifera and ammonites described by Koutsoukos et al. (1993). As a result, the salt in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin would be older than the salt in the Santos Basin, estimated to be around 113 Ma.
The Ibura layer, the youngest salt unit in
the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, has been traditionally considered as coeval with
other evaporite layers present in CSA, ESA, and BNE basins (e.g.,
Ojeda, 1981; Asmus & Campos,
1983; Regali, 1989a; Arai, 2009; Bastos et
al., 2022; Azevedo et al.,
2023). It belongs to the sag tectonic phase and was tentatively associated
with the end of Aptian (Milani et
al., 2007 - adjusted to the GTS2004 - Gradstein et al.,
2004). Because lithostratigraphic designations for this salt
layer vary from basin to basin (Fig. 2 ), Dias
(1998, 2005) created the
term "Ibura Event" to englobe the processes responsible for the almost
"instantaneous" deposition of these evaporites.
|
Figure 2:
Stratigraphic chart for the Araripe (in the BNE), Sergipe,
Campos, Santos, Kwanza (all in the CSA), and Pelotas (Meridional South Atlantic
- MSA) basins for the late Aptian-Early Albian (Azevedo et
al., 2023). Stratigraphic adjustments for the Brazilian basins have taken
into consideration geochronologic interpretations and the position of sequence
boundaries described by Milani et
al. (2007), in accordance with the geological time scale of Gradstein
et al. (2004) - the left column -, and
the alternative proposal of Antunes et
al. (2018) that the base of the Ibura evaporite marks the Aptian/Albian boundary. |
Biostratigraphic studies show that the Ibura Event is inserted in the palynozone Sergipea variverrucata or P-270 code, in the basins of northeastern Brazil and is also associated with the Last Stratigraphic Occurrence (LO) of "Cytheridea" sp. gr. 201-218 or RT-011 code (e.g., Uesugui, 1987; Regali & Viana, 1989; Rangel et al., 1994; Vieira et al., 1994; Feijó, 1994a). Counterpart rocks in Africa occur within the palynomorph Zone C-IX and ostracod Zone AS12 (Doyle et al., 1977; Grosdidier et al., 1996; Bate, 1999; Poropat & Colin, 2012; Eldrett et al., 2023).
From a tectonic point of view, the salt accumulations in the CSA and ESA, in general, are interpreted as occurring upon continental crust subjected to different intensities and/or timing of stretching (e.g., Kowsmann et al., 1982; Mascle et al., 1988; Chang et al., 1992; Demercian, 1996; Torsvik et al., 2009; Moulin et al., 2010, 2012; Scotchman et al., 2010; Heine et al., 2013; Matos et al., 2021a, 2021b). For Jackson et al. (2000), however, the salt accumulation occurred after initial formation of oceanic crust.
The Ibura Event result in accumulation of
up to 2,000 m of evaporites and associated over an area of approximately 1.500
km by 500 km (c. 750,000 km2), between the SAMB and the EZ (Fig. 1 ). Deposits are mainly halite and anhydrite, with other soluble salts present
only in the southernmost and northernmost of CSA (Szatmari
et al., 2021). Duration of deposition has been estimated
as 530 ka (Rodriguez et al., 2018), 573 ka (Freitas,
2006), and up to ~ 600 ka to 1 Ma (e.g.,
Dias, 1998, 2005; França et
al., 2007; Moreira et al.,
2007; Winter et al., 2007). However, the absolute age for the onset of evaporite deposition is still
controversial (e.g., Davison, 2007; Szatmari & Milani,
2016; Kukla et al., 2018; Szatmari
et al., 2021; Azevedo et
al., 2023).
Current information on radiometric dating of the
salt and rocks that allow age inferences based on stratigraphic relationships
with the Ibura Salt are consolidated in Azevedo et al. (2023; Fig. 3 ). The most important result is an
Ar/Ar age of
113.2 ± 0.1 Ma for a trachyandesite in well 1-SCS-1, on the Florianópolis
High,
extreme south of the CSA (Misuzaki, 1993, fide Dias et al.,
1994), that is nearly identical to the age defining the GSSP-Alb (Kennedy
et al., 2017). According to Dias
(1998) the salt and the overlying carbonate onlap the SAMB volcanics, an
observation that allowed Azevedo et
al. (2023) to advocate the adoption of an age of 113 Ma for initiation of
the Ibura Event. Radiometric results reported by Evensen and Smith
(2007) fide Szatmari et
al. (2021), Gomes et al.
(2015), and Lawson et al.
(2022) give complementary support for the suggested age for the base of the
salt.
The 113.1 ± 0.3 Ma age originally registered for the GSSP-Alb was based on the 238U/206Pb method, applied to measure in zircon from volcanic ash at Vöhrum, Germany (Selby et al., 2009; Kennedy et al., 2017). However, the GTS2020 revised the age to 113.2 ± 0.3 Ma (Gale et al., 2021), employing spline-curve estimations adjusted for Milankovitch-based stage duration (Agterberg et al., 2021). Distant about 1000 km from Col de Pré-Guittard, the Vöhrum section does not contain planktonic foraminifera, so that support for the chrono-correlation between the two outcrops came from ammonite associations and the first stratigraphic occurrence (FO) of Prediscosphaera columnata (subcircular category) a few centimeters above the ash layer (Mutterlose et al., 2003). Several volcanic ash beds have been identified in the Subalpine Basin, SE France (Beaudoin et al., 2012). Among them, the Cézanne bentonite bed exhibits the closest stratigraphic correlation with the Vöhrum tuff and is found just below the Jacob Event, the oldest OAE1b. Interestingly, the black shales associated with the Jacob level in the CSA, ESA, and BNE overlie the Ibura salt and were deposited prior to the formation of the extensive Albian carbonate system (Azevedo et al., 2023).
|
Figure 3:
Schematic stacking of sedimentary succession and other
geological parameters with respect to the Pelotas, Santos, Campos and Kwanza
basins. Relevant stratigraphic data justify the differences between the solution
proposed by Sanjinés et al.
(2022) and that offered here. Lithological and geophysical profiles are from the
type-section of the post-salt carbonate in well 1-RJS-135, Campos Basin (Rangel
et al., 1994). The parastratigraphic
data are from Azevedo (2001) and the ages are from CGTS2020 and Azevedo
et al. (2023). |
Questions about the age of the salt entered a new chapter recently with the discovery of planktonic foraminifera taken as Aptian in marine carbonates overlying the Ibura salt (Tedeschi et al., 2017; Viviers et al., 2018; Lima F.H.O. et al., 2018; Sanjinés et al., 2022). These carbonates formed in the open sea and register the beginning of the drift phase in the CSA and ESA basins, as well as in a few interior basins of the BNE (Milani et al., 2007). Prior to the 2010's, these rocks were considered Albian in age in both sets of stratigraphic charts of Brazilian basins published by Petrobrás (Feijó, 1994b; Milani et al., 2007).
Azevedo et
al. (2023) brought to light the conflict between this assemblage of
planktonic foraminifera and certain regionally and globally relevant
biostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic, and chemostratigraphic data (Figs. 3
- 4 ). The complexity of establishing a
single global standard for the datum
in the GSSP-Alb and in the GTS2020 (Gale et al.,
2021) is evident in the notable differences between the
sedimentary sections of the North Atlantic and South Atlantic (Fig.
4 , columns
9-10, 13-16), as compared to those of other regions (Fig. 4 , columns 1-8, 12). The only exception is at Site 511, at the southern end of the
South Atlantic, which is not part of the CSA. The incompatibilities that stand
out most are within the successions of marker species of planktonic foraminifera
and calcareous nannofossils. Moreover, black shales associated with OAE1b show a
lack of synchronous deposition, with only the oldest event, the Jacob
Level, possibly representing a global event. All of the above data support the
alternative chronostratigraphic interpretation that the base of the Ibura
evaporites should be considered as the datum marking the beginning of the Albian in basins of the CSA,
ESA, and the BNE, as proposed by Antunes et al. (2018) and reaffirmed by Azevedo et al. (2023).
Different hypotheses have been proposed for the origin and possible routes of marine waters responsible for the deposition of the Ibura Salt and the overlying rocks, the post-salt carbonates. The problems with each model are discussed below to reach the most compatible water circulation proposal for the CSA and neighboring basins.
3.1. Hypotheses regarding the water mass responsible for the Ibura evaporites
Rodriguez et al. (2018) presented a broad review of the Early Cretaceous salt deposits of the South Atlantic related to the Ibura Event, citing many studies and the controversies regarding the time of deposition, the accommodation models, genesis, and water sources that fed salt deposition. In turn, Szatmari et al. (2021) presented a significant set of information on the regional and stratigraphic distribution of the different evaporites associated with the Ibura Event in support of genetic interpretations, their age and the paleogeographic scenarios that allowed their formation. Interestingly, the salt deposits in the northernmost (Sergipe, Gabon, and Congo) and southernmost (Santos) of the CSA basins register abundant soluble salts (Mg-K-Ca-salts-carnallite: bischoffite, and tachyhydrite) indicative of a broad evaporite paragenesis that has not been found so far in the other CSA basins.
The unusual massive deposition of tachyhydrite and MgSO4-depleted evaporites in the CSA basins motivated Jackson et al. (2000) to argue that its precipitation did not come from normal seawater, suggesting rather that they were produced via hydrothermal alteration of a host rock, likely spilitized basalt. Debure et al. (2019), in turn, defended a serpentinization flux as a source of Ca, in view of the suggestion that the Aptian climate of the South Atlantic rift was not sufficiently arid for tachyhydrite precipitation (Chaboureau et al., 2012). Nevertheless, the secular variation in Ca and SO4 in seawater over geologic time indicate the Cretaceous as a period of "calcite sea", in which KCl evaporite formation may have been associated with increased hydrothermal flux along the mid-oceanic ridge (Spencer & Hardie, 1990; Hardie, 1996; Lowenstein et al., 2001; Demicco et al., 2005; Warren, 2010). This last author argued that the large volume of seawater necessary for the accumulation of huge volumes of halite or calcium sulfate in a sedimentary basin occurs frequently within hydrographically isolated and arid depressions below sea level that are fed by marine seepage.
|
Figure 4:
Biostratigraphic, chemostratigraphic and
lithological data for latest Aptian to Early Albian events, as indicated by Azevedo
et al. (2023). The columns to the
left are from GTS2020 (Gale et al., 2021); the ones at the center are the sixteen sections
analyzed and at the right is an idealized hypothetical section for the CSA,
ESA, and BNE, encompassing the chronostratigraphic and geochronological limits
suggested by Azevedo et al.
(2023 - bibliographic references for each column can be found in this paper).
The highlighted δ13C excursions are limited to three OAE1b
levels; they are tentatively differentiated based on strong (2‰) and weak (between
1 and 2‰) oscillations. |
Based on these
approaches Szatmari et al.
(2021) reaffirmed the barrier model developed by Ochsenius (1877, fide
Hsü et al., 1973) that had been defended a few years earlier by Szatmari
and Milani (2016). To them, the formation of the salt in the CSA occurred
in a shallow-water setting within a deep subaerial basin that received water of
varied nature and sources: infiltration through the SAMB via fractures and
faults; continental runoff leaching basaltic terrains and siliciclastic
Proterozoic rocks; hydrothermal flows ascending through rift faults; and inflow
of marine waters from the north, which would have passed through the Taquipe and
Manati canyons (Fig. 5 ). In line with Szatmari and Milani
(2016),
but focused on the Santos Basin, Farias et al.
(2019) suggested that the Pre-Salt carbonates are a product
of the same system that led to the precipitation of the
halite-carnallite-tachyhydrite salts associated with the Ibura Event.
As commented ahead, the irrefutable Tethys nature of the carbonates overlying the CSA saliferous layer is an obstacle to the idea of a great primary contribution of Austral waters in the formation of these Ibura Evaporites. However, such is not the case for the rocks found in the MSA (e.g., Pelotas Basin, well 1-RSS-2; DSDP, Site 511) as verified by Dias-Brito (1995). This author viewed the SAMB as an efficient barrier to the entry of southern waters and argued that the Tethys marine contribution reached the CSA via ESA and crossed the Exception Zone (EZ) in one or more transgressive pulses, thereby feeding the extensive evaporitic basin in the intra-Gondwana rift. The main limitation of this hypothesis is that salt paragenesis points to an extremely restricted environment at the time of deposition (Szatmari et al., 2021), a scenario less compatible with the dilution that would be expected for waters entering from Tethys through a Sergipe-Gabon gateway. Therefore, the presence of a via some place in the central region of the CSA (between Recôncavo and Campos and its counterpart in Africa) should be considered for feeding the water for Ibura Salt formation.
|
Figure 5:
Mixed model for evaporite formation in a shallow-water setting within a
deep basin ~1000m (adapted from Szatmari & Milani,
2016,
based on Ochsenius' bar model, 1877 and later by Hsü et
al., 1973). The SAMB limited the entry of marine waters from the MSA;
different sources of continental, hydrothermal and marine waters (arrows) also
contributed to salt formation in the CSA. |
Ever since the 1960s, traces of the Albian-Aptian marine transition have been known in the northeastern Brazil onshore basins. Some maritime routes were postulated to explain how the water reached, for example, the Araripe Basin. Two of them suggesting that it came from the ESA, one through the São Luiz and Parnaíba basins (e.g., Braun, 1966; Beurlen & Mabesoone, 1969, fide Mabesoone & Tinoco, 1973; Beurlen, 1971a, 1971b; Arai et al., 1994; Carvalho et al., 2012) and the other through the Potiguar Basin (e.g., Lima M.R., 1978; Petri, 1987; Viana, 1998, fide Arai, 2014). Some authors defended a connection between the Araripe and Sergipe-Alagoas basins (Silva-Santos, 1991; Assine, 1994) and others proposed that the Araripe Basin received marine contributions via all three of these basins (e.g., Lima Filho et al., 1996; Mabesoone et al., 1999; Valença et al., 2003). A later suggestion was that the waters came from the south through the Tucano and Recôncavo basins (e.g., Assine, 2007; Assine et al., 2014, 2016; Custódio et al., 2017).
Conjectures that this mid-Cretaceous
seaway extended significantly into a more central area of Brazil gained
attention after radiolarians were found in chert levels interbedded with
shales/siltstones containing dinoflagellates and other planktonic marine
fossils in the southern Sanfranciscana Basin (Kattah,
1991). Arai
(1999, 2000, 2016a) reinforced Kattah's idea based on geomorphological,
stratigraphical, sedimentological, paleontological, and geochemical criteria.
For him, vestiges of an interior sea in many mid-Cretaceous Brazilian plateaus
(or "chapadas") comprise evidence of marine ingressions over vast areas of
Brazilian territory. Later, Arai (2009,
2014) extended this
epicontinental sea, connecting it to
the intra-Gondwana rift through the Almada Basin, based mainly on Subtilisphaera
blooms detected in
clayey levels that usually occur overlying Ibura evaporitic deposits (Arai
et al., 1994, 2000; Arai,
2009, 2014). Figure 6.A
shows the abundant occurrences of this dinoflagellate
genus restricted to the Sergipea
variverrucata Zone or another coeval zone; Figure 6.B
displays the
Brazilian interior seaway map formulated by Arai (2009) based on the
distribution of these fossils. More recent indications (e.g., Michels
et al., 2018; Santos et
al., 2022; Eldrett et al., 2023) further confirm the chronostratigraphic relevance of this
ecozone,
despite the wide range of the genus Subtilisphaera
(Late Jurassic to Tertiary). The occurrence of this dinoflagellate genus in the Almada Basin was
not plotted because there it is related to older strata, the palynologic Zone Transitopollis
crisopolensis (=Inapturopollenites
crisopolensis), code P-230 (Lana & Pedrão,
2000).
Carvalho et al. (2016) defended the idea that a wide interior sea covered a large part of Brazil connected to the CSA and even a small portion of Africa (Niger and Cameroon) during the span time of the Sergipea variverrucata Zone. They attributed the origin of this marine domain to one of the most extensive sea level rises of the entire Phanerozoic, an argument previously used by Arai (1999). It is unlikely that eustasy alone can explain the formation of the interior sea, particularly because the end of the Aptian (sense GSSP-Alb) was marked by erosional events associated with a significant decrease in sea level (e.g., Huber & Leckie, 2011; Haq, 2014; Gale et al., 2021). At that time, distensive phases created space for the formation of a group of sedimentary basins in the northern region of Brazil (Soares Júnior et al., 2011), including the Bragança-Viseu, São Luís, Ilha Nova, Barreirinhas, and Pará-Maranhão basins, that contain marine carbonates and sporadic layers of evaporites (e.g., Hashimoto et al., 1987; Soares et al., 2007; Zalán, 2007).
|
Figure 6:
Sections with the Subtilisphaera
ecozone or abundant occurrences of this genus (A) that support the
paleogeographic map (B; modified from Arai, 2009). Sections have
different vertical scales and notations for Subtilisphaera
abundance. The chrono-equivalence between the biozones and the local and
international stages (C) are based on Azevedo et
al. (2023). |
A further proposal, that the waters came from the north, reaching the CSA through the African interior via the Benue (Umeji, 2013), is based on the presence marine carbonates and lagoonal shales dated as Aptian-Albian in the central portion of the Benue Trough. However, similar deposits are not found in the northern portion of the Benue Trough, nor have they been recognized in any basin of the West and Central Africa Rift System, which formed concurrently with the fragmentation of Gondwana (Guiraud et al., 2005; Heine et al., 2013; Abubakar et al., 2014; Suleimain, 2016). Rather, it is more reasonable to attribute these carbonates and lagoonal shales to marine incursions from the west (Akande et al., 2012; Kelechi, 2017), especially given that the Benue Basin had its origin in the fragmentation of the equatorial segment of Gondwana (Matos, 1992).
3.2. The "Arai Sea" as the supplier of the waters that formed the Ibura evaporites
Though the deposition of the Ibura evaporites is associated with the sag phase, in which thermal subsidence predominated, many studies have shown that tectonic processes continued from the Cretaceous to the Neogene, producing in gaps in the sedimentary record of the Brazilian interior basins (e.g., Magnavita et al., 1994; Karner et al., 2003; Japsen et al., 2012; Chaboureau et al., 2013; Klöcking et al., 2020). Moreover, much biochronostratigraphic and paleoecological data are lacking, so it is difficult to make well-founded interpretations about the supply and volume of the water required for the formation of the giant evaporitic deposits preserved in the CSA, ESA, and BNE. Such gaps in knowledge invite elaboration of new hypotheses on this subject, for example, that which we present here that integrates, with reservation, part of the models defended by Arai (2009, 2014) and Szatmari and Milani (2016).
As an unusual group of soluble salts occur
only at both ends of the giant Ibura evaporitic province (Szatmari et
al., 2021) and since there is no evidence of marine water
inflow from Africa, it is assumed here that waters coming from the
west/northwest
possibly diluted the brine in the central region of the CSA. Therefore, the
narrow, shallow, and
ephemeral epicontinental sea initially imagined by Arai
(2009, 2014) gains greater dimension in the present
study (Fig. 7.A ). It is designated here as
'the Arai Sea', in honor of
Mitsuru Arai for his prolific contributions to Brazilian geology. The
outline of this sea is defined by the distribution of mid-Cretaceous "chapadas" (i.e.,
plateaus)
bearing marine fossils (Arai, 1999,
2000, 2016a) and occurrences of
Brazilian evaporites (Chumakov et
al., 1995; Fig. 7.A ). As the Subtilisphaera
spp. Ecozone occurs just above the salt layer, it is the best proxy to track a
possible seawater route that fed the formation of the Ibura evaporites.
There are some issues with this model. For Assine et al. (2016), the marine incursion inferred by Arai (2009, 2014) is incompatible with paleocurrent patterns of the BNE. There are also doubts regarding the marine nature of the facies enclosing the evaporites in some basins of Northeastern Brazil (e.g., Paz & Rossetti, 2001; Bahniuk et al., 2014; Dias-Brito et al., 2015). In addition, there is uncertainty regarding both the marine influence upon the Sanfranciscana Basin and the possible connections of this epicontinental sea with the intra-Gondwana rift.
|
Figure 7:
Sections with the Subtilisphaera
ecozone or abundant occurrences of this genus (A) that support the
paleogeographic map (B; modified from Arai, 2009). Sections have
different vertical scales and notations for Subtilisphaera
abundance. The chrono-equivalence between the biozones and the local and
international stages (C) are based on Azevedo et
al. (2023). |
To Assine et al. (2016), the idea of a seawater advancing into the continental interior is in complete contradiction to the paleocurrent directions of contemporaneous river flow in the Araripe and Tucano basins. They also offer lithofaciological arguments that "suggest a paleogeographic scenario in which the Parnaíba and Potiguar basins were set apart of each other and of the system formed by the Araripe, Tucano and Jatobá basins, configuring three distinct drainage basins in the northeast Brazil". The problem is that there are other paleontological and geological data that indicate more affinities than incompatibilities between BNE basins. As Arai (2016b) commented, if "the aforementioned drainage divides actually existed, it would clearly constitute a biogeographic barrier inhibiting the development of similar biota in these basins". A good example that this paleogeographic isolation did not occur is the record of turtle species in common in the Codó and Romualdo formations within Parnaíba and Araripe Basin, respectively (Batista et al., 2023).
Organic-rich calcimudstone beds above and below the salt (Dias-Brito et al., 2015) show environmental and chronological similarities in different ESA and BNE basins. These and other authors, such as Bahniuk et al. (2014), associate both records, or only the older strata, with lagoonal deposits. It is currently widely agreed that the evaporites of the ESA and BNE basins are marine in origin, but there is no consensus yet regarding the salts of the Codó Formation, Parnaíba Basin (e.g., Rodrigues, 1995; Paz & Rossetti, 2001; Antonioli & Arai, 2002; Rossetti et al., 2004; Bahniuk et al., 2014; Bastos et al., 2014; Dias-Brito et al., 2015). However, marine evidence can be found in these rocks at levels just below the salt (Bastos et al., 2022). Over the evaporites occur organic-rich layers containing biomarkers associated with marine organisms of the photic zone tolerant of anoxic conditions (Heimhofer et al., 2008; Sousa Júnior et al., 2013), and Subtilisphaera spp. Ecozone, helping to track the route of marine incursion in the interior of Brazil (Arai, 2009, 2014).
Another debatable point concerns the marine fossils in the southern Sanfranciscana Basin. For Pessagno and Dias-Brito (1996), the radiolarians recovered there have characteristics of an Austral association of Pacific origin and point to a Barremian/Aptian age for the chert. However, palynological data obtained for one of two sets of shale samples collected by Kattah (1991) revealed a much younger age, inferred from the presence of poorly preserved dinoflagellates, including one belonging to the genus Oligosphaeridium, and the incertae sedis Cyclopsiella (A.T. Hashimoto, in Annex III, Palynological Analysis, Kattah, 1991). The Last Occurrence (LO) of Cyclopsiella is the reference marker for the Lower-Middle Albian packet in southeastern Brazilian basins (Dias-Brito et al., 1990), which favors the idea that this interior route may have supplied water for the formation of the enormous evaporitic layer of the CSA. Nevertheless, the Tucanopollis crisopolensis Zone (= Transitoripollis crisopolensis), of Barremian age, was indicated in the second set of samples (M. Arai, in Annex III, Palynological Analysis, Kattah, 1991). Despite chronostratigraphic imprecision and conflicts regarding the origin of waters that transported the radiolarians and other microfossils to the Sanfranciscana Basin, Kattah's discovery is important because it allows conjecture as to that this area was possibly part of the Arai Sea in central Brazil.
Assuming an endorheic basin model for salt deposition in the CSA (Szatmari & Milani, 2016; Farias et al., 2019), it is reasonable to expect that canyons would have formed in the more elevated borders of the intra-Gondwana rift where waters from rivers or the Arai Sea entered such basins, similarly to what occurred throughout the Mediterranean during the Messinian salinity crisis (Hsü et al., 1973; Estrada et al., 2011). The adoption of Subtilisphaera spp. acme as a proxy for recognizing probable connections between the Arai Sea and the CSA leads us to deduce that the most probable final outlet was located in the coastal area of the Espírito Santo Basin, where Oliveira et al. (1993, fide Arai et al., 1994) and Michels et al. (2018) recognized blooms of this dinoflagellate in rocks just slightly above the Ibura salt. Moreover, among CSA basins, it is the Espírito Santo Basin that exhibits the westernmost occurrences of both evaporites and post-salt carbonates in onshore areas. In addition, imposing paleocanyons sculpted in this basin during the Late Cretaceous (Antunes, 1984, 1990) and the Paleogene (Estrella et al., 1984) suggest uplift of continental crust that would have adversely affected preservation of the sedimentary record left by this marine route through the interior of Brazil.
Figure 8.A
presents data from two
sedimentary sections at opposite ends of the proto-South Atlantic, the Parnaíba
Basin in the ESA and the Santos Basin in the CSA (Bastos et
al., 2022), and shows a paleogeographic reconstruction at the time of
Ibura salt deposition, with waters mainly coming from Tethys, by a route
involving the Arai Sea and the Espírito Santo Basin (Fig.
8.B ). As
commented above, this solution reconciles the restriction of extreme
conditions for the formation of soluble salts to the north and south ends of
the CSA (Szatmari et al., 2021), which leads to the exclusion of Sergipe Basin from the area covered by
this epicontinental sea. As neither marine sediments associated with
the evaporitic phase nor Subtilisphaera
spp. have ever been found in the Jatobá, Tucano, and Recôncavo basins, this
area has not been considered a possible water supply route for salt formation
in the CSA.
Bastos et
al. (2022) showed that in both the Santos and Parnaíba
basins most
sedimentary records, including the evaporite layers, are inserted within the
ostracod Zone "Cytheridea" sp. gr. 201-218 (or 11 code), belonging
to the local Alagoas Stage (Fig. 8.A ). In the stratigraphic chart of the Campos Basin, Rangel et
al. (1994) also associate the evaporite layer with this biozone and with the
same age, without indicating an equivalent palynological unit. The
biostratigraphic synthesis for the Santos Basin does not include any information
for the section beneath the post-salt carbonates (Pereira & Feijó,
1994). In turn, the Codó Formation (Parnaíba Basin) is also included in the
ostracod biozone "Cytheridea"
sp. gr. 201-218 (~Harbinia spp. 201-218
sensu Do Carmo et
al., 2008), and the Sergipea variverrucata palynozone (Antonioli
& Arai, 2002; Machado, 2022), which is limited to the
northeastern Brazil basins.
To Bastos et al. (2022), sediments of the Codó Formation initially
accumulated in a hypersaline lacustrine environment; it was converted into a
closed evaporite complex due to episodic Atlantic marine influxes into the
basin. Still according to them, this evaporitic phase was followed by an
important marine ingression with the installation of an expressive regional
epicontinental sea linking several basins in northeastern Brazil; the
uppermost sediments of the Codó Formation reflect a progressive
continentalization of the system. Subtilisphera
blooms were associated with the epicontinental sea phase (Neves et al.,
2007).
Figure 8.A
also shows expressive post-evaporitic
marine deposits in the Codó section made up of organic-rich mudstones that
record the OAE1b global perturbation signal (Bastos et al., 2022). In this case, emphasis is placed on its
chrono-correlation with the Jacob event, as interpreted by Azevedo
et al. (2023).
|
Figure 8:
Chrono-correlated sections between as far away as the Parnaíba and Santos basins confirm the synchronous character of the Ibura
evaporites (modified from Bastos et
al., 2022). Black shales around the salt deposition reflect the rapid,
intense environmental changes, that concluded with a continentalization
process affecting the BNE basins and the imposition of a carbonate system in
the ESA and CSA. The map on the right, based on Szatmari et al.
(2021), shows the general trend of the evaporite
distribution, with the soluble salts limited to the extremities of the CSA.
The fracture zones defined by Matos et
al. (2021a, 2021b) are indicated by: C- Charcot; K- Kribi; BV-Bode Verde;
SH- St Helen; and F- Florianópolis. Chronostratigraphic indications are based
on Azevedo et al. (2023). |
However, the presence of microforaminiferal linings immediately underlying the Ipubi gypsiferous strata, in the Araripe Basin (Arai, 2012; Goldberg et al., 2019), previously considered lacustrine, opens the perspective that broad areas of the BNE may have been covered by marine waters prior to the Ibura Event.
Assuming the paleoclimatic context indicated by Chumakov et al. (1995), we see the shallow Arai Sea as an ephemeral entity that occupied a broad, warm and arid area. It was influenced by tectonic movements related to continental fragmentation to the east and dried up relatively quickly, thus ending water flow into the CSA.
It remains, now to answer another crucial question: how did the evaporite system pass to the stage of a long and narrow carbonate gulf with a lagoonal circulation pattern?
3.3. Marine conditions during post-salt carbonate deposition
The geodynamic model of progressive south-to-north rupture of Gondwana has long sustained the dominant idea that the giant Ibura salt deposits was originated by waters coming predominantly from the south (e.g., Asmus & Ponte, 1973; Premoli-Silva & Boersma, 1977; Kumar et al., 1977; Natland, 1978; Jackson et al., 2000; Davison, 2007; Davison et al., 2012; Heine et al., 2013). By the same token, the predominantly carbonate deposits overlying the evaporite succession would have originated from temperate waters likewise coming from the south (e.g., Gordon, 1973; Kauffman, 1973; Scheibnerová, 1978; Philip, 1982; Rat, 1987; Sohl, 1987). This scenario is well expressed by prevailing paleogeographic reconstructions for the Aptian-Albian time interval (e.g., Scotese, 2014).
It was the presence of Tethys ammonite species at DSDP sites 363 and 364 (Walvis Ridge and Kwanza Basin, respectively) that led Wiedmann and Neugebauer (1978) to defend the idea of a broad invasion of northern water into the CSA in mid Albian times, when the common history of these two water masses would have begun. However, these authors considered the possibility that the South and North Atlantic were connected even earlier, in late Aptian times. Moullade and Guérin (1982) also indicated contact of the northern South Atlantic (CSA plus ESA) with northern waters since the Middle Albian, based on the high number of Tethys foraminifera species of that time found in South Atlantic sediments.
As commented early, the Aptian-Albian marine deposits and a limited influence of northern waters in BNE basins have been known for more than a half a century. It fell to Dias-Brito (1982) suggested that this marine incursion extended throughout the CSA since Albian times. Comparing microfaciological and micropaleontological information from fine Albian carbonates of the Campos and Angola basins, he wrote: "It is worth highlighting the occurrence of carbonate strata rich in calcispherulids. Not restricted to the Late Albian sediments of the Campos Basin, but distributed in this time interval throughout the Atlantic-Brazilian margin and Angola Basin (Bolli, 1978b), such levels must represent an important event in the paleoceanographic context of the South Atlantic (North Atlantic or Mediterranean Tethys contact with the South Atlantic ?)." Three years later, Dias-Brito (1985a, 1985b) concluded that connections between South and North Atlantic waters had already been established since Early-Middle Albian times. Micropaleontological data from Sergipe-Alagoas and Ceará basins led Dias-Brito (1987) to consider "the possibility that the break up [...] would have occurred immediately after the evaporitic phase". Along the same line, Dias-Brito (1992) and Koutsoukos (1992) make it clear that in late Aptian to Early Albian times there was direct communication between surface waters of the South Atlantic and Tethys. Koutsoukos (1992) also showed that "about 80-90% of microfaunistic elements was present in low-latitude central North Atlantic-western Tethys regions", and that "all the microfaunistic elements from Sergipe that have been reported form high-latitude southern regions are also known to occur in the central North Atlantic-western Tethyan/Transitional realm."
Microfaciological data concerning post-salt
pelagic carbonates from the entire Brazilian margin and some information from
literature on West African basins (e.g., Chevalier & Fischer,
1982; DSDP Leg 40, several authors) combined with an exhaustive global
biogeographical survey on a select group of Tethys calcareous planktonic
elements found in Cretaceous limestones and marls, led Dias-Brito
(1992, 1994, 1995,
2000) to elaborate an oceanographic evolutionary model for
the Albian northern-equatorial South Atlantic, i.e., from SAMB to the north (a continuum formed by CSA plus ESA).
He visualized this segment - a long, narrow and predominantly carbonate gulf -
as an arm of the Megatethys (Tucker & Dias-Brito,
2017; Fig. 9 ).
|
Figure 9:
The Mid-Cretaceous Megatethys, a
planetary realm of warm waters occupying a latitudinal band between 40° N and
40° S during a global warming phase, as conceived by Dias-Brito
(1992, 1995, 2000). The limits of the Megatethys are based on the global distribution
of pithonellids, which because of their thermophilic nature serve as excellent
tracers of Tethys waters. This map represents, to a large extent, the Late
Albian scenario. Figure from Dias-Brito in Tucker and Dias-Brito
(2017). |
The pelagic carbonates of this Tethys
extension into the South Atlantic are dominated by a planktonic content (Fig. 3 ), i.e., calpionellids (Colomiella Mexicana, C. recta), pithonellids (Pithonella
sphaerica, P. ovalis, P. perlonga, P. trejoi, Bonetocardiella conoidea),
colomispherids, cadosinids, stomiospherids, nannoconids, several species of
planktonic foraminifera, and crinoids (roveacrinids and saccocomids, including
Poecilocrinus, Lombardia, Microcalamoides
diversus, and Eothrix alpina).
This association is present in pelagic carbonates from eastern Mexico, the
Gulf of Mexico and the Western Carpathians and used as a marker of latest
Aptian-earliest Albian time (Trejo, 1975; Borza,
1984; McNulty, 1985; Rehákova & Michalík,
1993; Núñez-Useche et
al., 2016; Monier-Castillo et
al., 2018; Gutierrez-Puente et
al., 2021). Nektonic
ammonites are also present, best recorded in the onshore Benguela and Sergipe
basins (e.g., Tavares, 2007; Bengtson et al.,
2018), but sporadic occurrences have also been recognized on
well cores, like DSDP-363 and DSDP-364 (Bolli et al.,
1978a, 1978b) and others drilled by oil companies
(unpublished
reports).
Paradoxically, however, the shallow-water limestones are virtually devoid of some key Tethys fossils, such as orbitolinids (Granier & Dias-Brito, 2015), discyclinids and alveolinids. Ostreid boundstones and thrombolite mounds preserved in situ, with doubtful ages, were recorded in the Sergipe Basin (Riachuelo Formation, Lower-Middle Albian?) and in the Albian? of Namibe Basin (Granier & Dias-Brito, 2015; Schröder et al., 2015; Tucker & Dias-Brito, 2017; Andrade et al., 2019). Shallow water environments, especially those located in Brazilian basins further south in the gulf, were inhabited by cyanobacteria which produced oncoidal packstones and grainstones that are commonly associated with oolitic carbonate deposits (Spadini et al., 1988; Carvalho, 1989, 1996). Also present a poor and little-diversified microbiota (e.g., benthic foraminifera, including Coscinoconus, Lenticulina and other nodosarids, miliolids, and a few metazoans, such as echinoderms, mollusks, and ostracods; e.g., Azevedo et al., 1987).
Dias-Brito (1995, 2000) designated this arm of Tethys in the South Atlantic as the Paratethys Province, a paleogeographic model in clear opposition to the dominant classical view that roots the primitive CSA in Austral waters coming from the MSA. He assumes that episodic pulses led southern waters to cross SAMB, a barrier that was only definitively overcome at the end of the Albian.
Based on the concepts formulated by
Dias-Brito, Azevedo (2001,
2004) defended a lagoonal circulation
pattern for the long, narrow South Atlantic carbonate gulf, similar to that in
the modern Red Sea (Fig. 10 ). According to Azevedo's model, warm
superficial waters from the north carrying Tethys faunal elements would have
entered the gulf and progressed southward until they reached the SAMB. Once
there, these now much denser waters returned north as hypersaline and almost
always oxygenated bottom currents.
Throughout the Early-Middle Albian, the carbonate system was characterized by numerous cycles (on the scale of meters to hundreds of meters) piled up in different orders, organized in basic, shallowing-upward units (Azevedo, 2005). The relatively stable creation of space for third-order cyclothem formation through thermal subsidence was occasionally interrupted by halokinetic or tectonic instabilities (Castro & Fugita, 2004; Tagliari et al., 2013).
This situation changed greatly in the Late
Albian when the carbonate ramp underwent a remarkable phase of prolific
planktonic production, which evolved to form a chalk-marl rhythmite, followed
by complete drowning of the carbonate system, as indicated by marls and shales
of the uppermost part of the section (e.g., Dias-Brito,
1982; Spadini, 1982; Dias-Brito & Azevedo,
1986; Viviers, 1986; Azevedo
et al., 1987; Spadini et
al., 1987, 1988). A geochemical study of an Albian section
in the Campos Basin records substantial change in the values of major, minor
and trace elements at the uppermost Albian (Azevedo & Lobo,
2013) that point to a marked tectonic event with rearrangement of source areas
that furnished the first turbiditic sandstones to the basin. Due to its
expression and stratigraphic position, it is reasonable to speculate that this
serves as a proxy for the moment of rupture of the SAMB (Fig. 3 ) and the birth
of the South Atlantic by the unification of the MSA, CSA, and ESA (e.g.,
Dias-Brito 1995, 2000; Azevedo,
2001; Fig. 10 ).
|
Figure 10:
Evolution of dominant
circulation patterns of the South Atlantic - Tethys during the Albian
(modified
from Azevedo, 2001). |
3.4. Breaching of the Exception Zone and the formation of the South Atlantic Gulf
The ephemeral Arai Sea lasted long enough to be an important water source for salt formation in the CSA. The geological scenario changed when the two rift segments, housing the ESA and CSA, became definitively linked with the rupture of the Exception Zone - EZ (Barbosa et al., 2008), the last connection between South America and Africa at the northern end of the CSA. The first results were quick deposition of siliciclastics, including back shale, and Subtilisphaera blooms, followed by the implantation of the widespread Atlantic Albian carbonate system, involving the ESA and CSA basins, with some minor lithofaciological differences. According to the chronostratigraphic interpretation of Antunes et al. (2018) and Azevedo et al. (2023), an earliest Albian age is suggested for the collapse of the EZ that resulted in the formation of the South Atlantic Gulf.
Any interpretation to the age of the EZ rupture process necessarily
comes up against the precariousness of available data on the mid-Cretaceous
for the Pernambuco and especially the Paraiba basins and their African
counterparts. Figure 11.A
shows the difference in the density of seismic data
for the two Brazilian continental margin basins and the limitation of
information from wells restricted to the onshore portion, where coarse-grained
siliciclastic facies dominate, with reduced fossil preservations and,
consequently, limited biochronostratigraphic indicators. The section
constructed from data from water wells (Fig. 11.B ) and the seismic lines
(Fig. 11.C-E ) show the differences in the tectonic-depositional regime of
the two basins (e.g., Lima Filho, 1998; Barbosa,
2004, 2007; Lima Filho et al.,
2005; Barbosa & Lima Filho,
2005, 2006; Barbosa et
al., 2007; Lima Filho & Barbosa,
2010; Maia, 2012). The
offshore data also reveal their differentiated sedimentary evolution, with the
presence of halokinetic
features in the Pernambuco Basin, making it the northernmost limit of
salt deposition on the Brazilian continental margin (Lima Filho,
2013; Matos
et al., 2021b; Fig. 11.C-D ).
|
Figure 11:
Geological and geographical data from the Pernambuco and Paraiba basins,
extreme northwestern CSA (A). Stratigraphic section based on water well data (Barbosa
& Lima Filho, 2005; in B). Two dip seismic lines showing structural
differences in the basement of the basins (C and D, modified from Barbosa
& Lima Filho, 2005), and,
in E, a detail of an offshore dip seismic line, with the presence of
halokinetic features in the Pernambuco Basin (modified from Lima Filho,
2013). The precarious nature of age information for the sedimentary deposits
was confirmed in the two oil wells drilled in these basins (F). |
The
tectonic evolution model presented by Lima Filho et al.
(2005, 2006) proposes
that, as observed in other CSA basins, NE/SW
aligned grabens and horsts developed progressively in the Pernambuco Basin (Fig.
12.A ). Initially, the EZ prevented extension of this process to the
Paraiba Basin because it accommodated strain originating from tectonic
deformation associated with the propagation of rifts in the CSA, ESA, interior
of the Brazilian northeast, and Benue Trough, Africa (Popoff,
1988; Matos,
1992), and resulting in the creation or reactivation of several basins on the
continent (Fig. 12.B ). The high stretching rates and low heat flow of the
rifting process between the Maragogi and Touros highs, within the EZ (Matos,
1999), led Lima Filho et al.
(2006) to allege an almost instantaneous separation of Brazil from Africa over
about 5 Ma. Nevertheless, for these authors, the entire process extended from
the Aptian to late Turonian/Santonian, with the creation of the Paraíba Basin
and the Natal Platform on the Brazilian side and the Niger Basin and South
Cameroon basins on the African side.
|
Figure 12:
In A, schematic model of
tectonic evolution of the Exception Zone: 1: Patos Shear Zone; 2- Pernambuco
Shear Zone; 3- Cupe Rift; 4: Tamandaré High; 5: Olinda Basin; 6 Cabo de Santo
Agostinho Granite; 7- Piedade Graben; and 8- Paraíba Basin. In B, tectonic
setting during the breakup of South America and Africa. Large arrows indicate
the main direction of extension. Represented basins are: Pe- Pernambuco; SA-
Sergipe/Alagoas; J- Jatobá; T- Tucano; R-Recôncavo; Ar- Araripe; Jg- Jacaúna
Graben; Ja- Jacuípe; Ig- Iguatu, Malhada, Malhada Vermelha, Lima Campos and
Icó; P- Potiguar/Ceará; RP- Rio do Peixe; RR- Rio del Rey; D- Douala; RM-
Rio Muni; G- Gabon basins. The basins formed after the collapse of the EZ: Pb-
Paraíba; NP- Natal Platform; and Ni- Nigeria (modified from Matos,
1992). |
The lack of proven records of mid-Cretaceous and Cenomanian rocks
allows different evolutionary interpretations for the Paraíba Basin. Lima
Filho et al. (2005, 2006)
considered the stratigraphy of well 2-CPE-1-PE, drilled by Petrobrás in the
Pernambuco Basin (Fig. 11.F ), as evidence of a limited extension of the
Aptian-Albian strata from the Cupe Graben into the Paraíba Basin. Well
2-IST-01-PE (Fig. 11.F ), drilled in this basin, cuts about 300m of sandstones
associated with the Beberibe and Itamaracá formations, that directly overlie
the basement (Feijó, 1994c; Barbosa,
2004; Barbosa et
al., 2007). Although a Coniacian?-Santonian age is attributed to the
oldest known lithostratigraphic unit, the Beberibe Formation, Barbosa
(2007) has called attention to the uncertainty regarding this information.
Studies of water wells and outcrops in the Natal Platform permit tentative
correlation with deposits of the Jandaira Formation in the Potiguar Basin,
with the oldest strata suggesting a Turonian age (Lana & Roesner,
1999a, 1999b).
Seismic lines reaching the offshore portion of the Paraiba Basin (e.g., Barbosa & Lima Filho, 2005; Barbosa, 2007; Maia, 2012; Lima Filho, 2013) do not allow precise basinward tracking of the Lower Cretaceous. The steep face of the slope in the region represents an obstacle to tracking reflectors from the shelf to the continental rise without calibration by direct data, such as biochronostratigraphic markers, which is only possible in drill core samples. The lack of these data and the subtle lithologic distinctions among the siliciclastic units in outcrops or sampled by onshore drilling also compromise broader chrono-correlations based on radiometric dating of volcanic rocks of the Cabo Magmatic Province in the Pernambuco Basin.
The time of separation of the two continents has been much debated, and different ages have been suggested for the rupture: latest Aptian (Dias-Brito, 1987); late Aptian-Middle Albian (Moullade et al., 1998; Pletsch et al., 2001); late Albian (Mascle et al., 1996a, 1996b; Saint-Marc & N'Da, 1997; Guiraud et al., 1987, 2005); late Albian/early Cenomanian (Mascle et al., 1988; Popoff, 1988) based on biostratigraphic inferences and the tectonic evolution of the South Atlantic and Africa, with much data from the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana marginal ridge.
Some recent papers offer new micropaleontological and geochemical data and tectonic interpretations on Gondwana breakup, supported by the GSSP-Alb criteria. In a study involving eight fossil groups (ammonites, calcareous nannofossils, echinoids, planktonic and benthonic foraminifera, ostracods, palynomorphs, and radiolarians) from 107 sites in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, Luft-Souza (2022) confirmed the strong affinity with the Tethys Realm of an Aptian-Albian marine biota, as well as indications of provincialism/endemism as expected for the restricted South-Atlantic Sea. Their paleogeographic maps suggest an Aptian-Early Albian marine connection between the CSA and the ESA.
In turn, by integrating geochemical and micropaleontological data from DSDP sites 363 (Walvis Ridge) and 364 (Kwanza Basin), Dummann et al. (2023) constrained the onset of shallow (<500 m) and intermediate (<~1000 m) water mass exchange across the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway (EAG, equivalent to the EZ) to 113 Ma and 107 Ma, respectively. Furthermore, for them, deep water mass exchange (>2000 m) was in place by at least about 100 Ma. The construction of age models was based on calcareous nannofossil successions recognized at site 364 (Bruno et al., 2020), and site 363 (Dummann et al., 2023, Supplemental Material). The oldest reliable age, 112.95 Ma, is indicated by the first stratigraphic occurrence of the calcareous nannofossil Prediscophaera columnata, at the 1032.37m horizon at Site 364, in which Nd isotope values increase, a fact that Dummann and collaborators used to establish the age of 113 Ma for the connection between the CSA and ESA. However, as demonstrated by Azevedo et al. (2023), the values attributed to the bio-events from this fossil do not match the succession of data for planktonic foraminifera described in the GSSP-Alb. At Site 364 Kochhann et al. (2013) recognized Paraticinella eubejaouensis Zone (= P. rohri Zone), a proxy of the Aptian/Albian limit, around 200 m above where Dummann et al. (2023) indicated the "opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway (EAG)". Hence, the only compatible choice for this geochronological interpretation is with the use of the base of the Ibura Event as a reference for the beginning of the Albian.
Focusing mainly on the tectonic evolution
of the South America and Africa continents, Matos et al.
(2021a, 2021b) and Matos
(2021) offered a robust
interpretation of Gondwana fragmentation based on analyses of both the
equatorial (here treated as ESA) and southern (CSA) arms, and the rupture
process of the Orthogonal Zone - OZ (Matos et
al., 2019; = to the EZ). They identified six structural segments limited
by major fracture zones, some shown in Figure 8.B B. They indicated that rifting
was triggered at the Pernambuco and Paraíba basins and their counterpart in
Africa during the early Aptian and Albian, and a full spreading center was
developed at the end of the Albian. This last inference is based on the
age-progressive magmatism observed within the Borborema Large Igneous Province
(LIP) from 135 to 104 Ma (Matos et
al., 2021a), interpreted "as a possible hotspot track of the St. Helena
plume on continental crust. During late Albian time, the possible arrival of
the St. Helena plume head at an already stretched intraplate continental
margin would explain the widespread along-axis magmatism and seaward-dipping
reflectors between the Jacuípe and Paraíba basins, as recorded by a
750-km-long array of deep-water magmatic bodies (Caixeta et
al., 2015)."
Recent and different approaches thus offer indications of older ages for the breaching or definitive rupture of the EZ (Barbosa et al., 2008), or OZ (Matos et al., 2021a), or the EAG (Dummann et al., 2023), that allowed the implementation of the South Atlantic Gulf. But they do not end the controversies regarding the age of this event. This will only be possible when deep sea well samples can clarify the age of the sedimentary succession of the Paraíba Basin. Until then, new interpretations can be made, like the one presented here that considers this latter basin as the strait of a long hypersaline longitudinal gulf.
Capella et al. (2019) found that erosional and/or non-depositional processes associated with outflow of Mediterranean water into the North Atlantic depend upon differences in water mass density and the dimensions of the strait between the two bodies of water. In cases such as the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, both with lagoonal circulation patterns, the outflow velocity and erosional and/or non-depositional processes around the exit area will be higher the greater the contrast in water density between the two seas and narrowed the strait connecting the water bodies. A similar situation may explain the stratigraphic gaps that make it difficult to attribute ages to EZ fragmentation or to the sedimentary rocks preserved in the Paraíba Basin and on the Natal Platform.
Our interpretation is that the EZ rupture
occurred in the earliest Albian, thereby ending evaporitic sedimentation and
establishing the South Atlantic Gulf. The FO of Prediscosphaera columnata right after salt deposition at Site 364 (Bruno
et al., 2020; Fig. 4 , column 14)
validates this age for the opening of this barrier. This phenomenon created
conditions for the occupation of the CSA by a fossil assemblage of Tethys
affinity and a higher faunal and floral diversity, as observed in the
post-salt
carbonates of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin (Dias-Brito, 1994; Terra
& Lemos, 1999). This resulted from the quality of the surficial
water mass in terms of nutrients (probably eutrophic) as it entered the gulf
and became progressively oligotrophic towards the other end of the gulf,
similar to what currently happens in
the Red Sea (Scholle, 1996).
According to Hay et al. (2006), Mesozoic was a time of generally declining salinity associated with the deep sea salt extractions for the young ocean basins which developed of the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (Middle to Late Jurassic) and South Atlantic (Early Cretaceous). In the mid-Cretaceous the opposite occurred, and much of this salt was dissolved and returned to the oceans (Hay, 1988), notably just after the opening to the north of the South Atlantic, thereby raising average salinity in the sea to as high as 41.6%. Major dense water masses then defined a halothermal circulation pattern, in which the saltier bottom waters acted as the most important element in global marine circulation.
Current circulation models for restricted water bodies, with a negative hydrologic balance (evaporation > runoff), give a good idea of what happens when their higher densities waters flow to the open sea (e.g., Aiki et al., 2006; Matt & Johns, 2007; Jia et al., 2007; Rogerson et al., 2012; Capella et al. 2019). Outcomes depend on a number of geographic variables, such as climate and the physiography of both the surrounding continents and the bottom of the receiving water body. Nevertheless, lagoonal circulation inevitably generates hypersaline water plumes where it enters the open sea. For example, the water mass entering the Aden Gulf from the Red Sea exerts an influence over a distance on the order of 200 km (Aiki et al., 2006). Similarly, the plume that leaves the Mediterranean advances across much of the North Atlantic (Rogerson et al., 2012).
Therefore, it is reasonable to imagine that a similar plume, originating in the South Atlantic Gulf, advanced as a bottom current across much of the adjacent Tethys Sea (central North Atlantic/Caribbean zone) at the beginning of the Albian when the EZ opened up. By the same token, similar plumes may have existed at the same or different times in the Tethys and the Gulf of Mexico, where evaporitic deposits are somewhat frequently overlain by biofacies indicative of a restricted sea with a negative hydrologic balance (Dias-Brito, 1994; Hay et al., 2006; Galloway, 2008). Despite the favorable paleogeographic scenario, few studies point to thermohaline circulation and anomalous phenomena resulting from it as a relevant factor in mid-Cretaceous sedimentation (e.g., Bréhéret et al., 1986; Erbacher et al., 2001; Trabucho Alexandre et al., 2010; Huber et al., 2011).
At the end of evaporite precipitation, the South Atlantic Gulf was favorable for deposition of organic-rich rocks in around the CSA, ESA, tentatively associated by Azevedo et al. (2023) with the Jacob Level, the oldest OAE1b layer (Figs. 3-4). At the same time, an anomalous bloom of Subtilisphaera spp. occurred in many of these basins (Arai, 2009, 2014; Bastos et al., 2022). This ecozone is also registered in apparently coeval sections of the Maracaibo Basin (Venezuela) and on the continental margin of Senegal and Morocco, which suggests great influence of water flowing from the South Atlantic Gulf into the Tethys Sea at the beginning of the Albian.
A review of the data from the DSDP Site
545 on the Mazagan Plateau on the Morocco continental margin illustrates the
relationship between Subtilisphaera spp.
blooms, geochemical signals and ephemeral oceanographic processes (Fig. 13 ).
Approximately 140 m of an apparently continuous sedimentary succession were
recovered from the drill core (Hinz et
al., 1984). Two Subtilisphaera
spp. blooms were recognized by Below (1984) within an Aptian-Albian
section, as determined by the planktonic foraminifera Hedbergella trochoidea, Paraticinella
rohri, and Pseudothalmanninella
ticinensis zones (Leckie, 1984; Huber & Leckie,
2011; McAnena et al.,
2013).
This section has been subject to many different, even contradictory, geologic
interpretations (e.g., Leckie et
al., 2002; Herrle, 2002; Herrle et al.,
2004; Wagner et
al., 2007, 2008; Hofmann et
al., 2008; Trabucho Alexandre et
al., 2011).
|
Figure 13:
Summary of geological data for Site 545, DSDP, Mazagan
Plateau. On the right are the interpretations of the main processes recorded in
the section in the Shipboard Scientific Results. Legend for "Lithological
highlights" is as follows: wavy lines = conglomerate; thick black line = black
shale; dotted lines= laminar sedimentary structure. Trend in "Sea water
temperature" is based on d18Ocarb curve;
the "Upwelling caused by western African trade wind" was constructed by
weighting the variable abundances of radiolarians and sponge spicules, and
palygorskite percentage. The dotted line highlights the EZ rupture that induced
many changes in the geological processes on Site 545. |
Upwelling events recorded in rocks at Site 545 were noted by Hinz et al. (1984) and Leckie (1984), based mainly on the increase in the number of siliceous carapaces (radiolarians and sponge spicules) and, secondarily, on the substantial change in the foraminifera fauna. The site lay within the easterly trade wind belt, whose influence on sedimentation in the area can be inferred from the high frequency of the clay-mineral palygorskite (Chamley & Debrabant, 1984), thought to have come from the erosion of evaporitic deposits located in the Northern Hot and Arid (NHA) climate belt in West Africa by Chumakov et al. (1995, Fig. 9C; Pletsch et al., 1996; Trabucho Alexandre et al., 2011).
Data
from Leckie (1984) demonstrate that the increase in the number of
radiolarians coincides with the beginning of a progressive, non-linear reduction
in the planktonic/benthic foraminifera ratio. Sponge spicules become abundant a
little later (upper portion of core 50, base of core 49), a moment marked by
other important bio-events, such as the Subtilisphaera spp. bloom, a significant drop in the abundance of Nannoconus
spp., and FO of the Paraticinella
eubejaouaensis = P. rohri Zone (Fig. 13 ). A few tens of meters above this
level occurs the FO of Prediscosphaera
columnata s.l., almost coeval with
the disappearance of the genus Nannoconus
(core 47).
From a stratigraphic point of view, the bio-event
succession described for Site 545 is similar to that of Site 364 (Fig. 4 ,
columns 9 and 14, respectively), with the FO of Hayesites albiensis and Tranolithus
orionatus below the LO of Paraticinella
rohri. It is also important to highlight that at Site 545 the oldest Subtilisphaera
spp. bloom precedes the FO of Prediscophaera
columnata s.l., confirming the
stratigraphic relationship suggested for the CSA, ESA and BNE basins.
Other geological parameters evident in the
upper portion of core 50 (Fig. 13 ) demonstrate the importance of the
environmental changes during the deposition of these sediments. There is a
decrease in bioturbation in the strata that mark the base of the anomalous Subtilisphaera
spp. bloom, and this silty claystone exhibits much thinner lamination than
usual. Furthermore, there is a noticeable increase on the order of 1%o
in the δ13Ccarb curve without a concomitant change
in TOC values (Wagner et al., 2007; McAnena et al.,
2013).
The strata encompassing the period in which these events occurred also shows
an increase in the percentage of palygorskite, which is indicative of
increased eolian contribution to sedimentation in the area.
Oscillations in wind intensity influences
upwelling. To evaluate the evolution of this phenomenon on the Mazagan
Plateau, the abundances of radiolarians, sponge spicules, and palygorskite
were weighted to obtain a curve representative of this phenomenon over time (Fig. 13 ; see Supplementary data). The result shows
that the process was not linear: it began at the Aptian/Albian limit, lasted
part of the Albian, and lost intensity until it all but ceased in the Late
Albian. Significantly, the peak of this process was broadly coeval with the
important transformations identified above in the upper portion of core 50.
The first Subtilisphaera
spp. ecozone appeared at a moment of strong upwelling
but soon ceased, whereas the second Subtilisphaera spp. bloom occurred during a less important upwelling
event (Fig. 13 ). No correlation was found between these dinoflagellate abundances
and water mass cooling/warming cycles, as inferred from the δ18Ocarb
curve. Thus, if there is no unique relationship between Subtilisphaera
spp. blooms and eolian influences, then some other physical variable among the
paleoenvironmental conditions of the Mazagan Plateau must be sought to explain
the two acmes of these dinoflagellates.
As previously mentioned, the answer may well lie in the strength of the hypersaline plume emerging from the South Atlantic Gulf, as strongly suggested by the dynamic that has governed the outflow of water from the Mediterranean since the Messinian (Capella et al., 2019). Hence, the first pulse, resulting from the opening of the South Atlantic, involved a water mass of elevated salinity and rapid displacement into the Tethys. Together with the intensified eolian influence at the beginning of the Albian, the force of this displacement caused the ascension of more highly saline waters into the Mazagan Plateau region, creating ideal conditions for the anomalous Subtilisphaera spp. acme.
The second pulse of resurgence, that promoted a new Subtilisphaera bloom, may have been associated with increased dissolution of salt because of an important tectonic (Tagliari et al., 2013) and/or halokinetic event in the CSA during the Early Albian (e.g., raft tectonics, Duval et al., 1992; Castro & Fugita, 2004). Such processes would have led to the exhumation and dissolution of expressive volumes of evaporites, increasing the salinity and velocity of the plume that flowed out of the South Atlantic Gulf.
The installation of this relatively warm,
hypersaline plume is also interpreted as responsible for increased in primary
productivity and carbon fractionation, elevating δ13Ccarb
values throughout the entire Early Albian (Fig. 13 ). The low TOC percentage
suggests, moreover, that this new circulation dynamic occurred, initially,
within an unrestricted basin lacking environmental factors favorable for
promoting preservation of organic matter on the seafloor.
The
second Subtilisphera spp. acme
coincides with an elevation in the amount of TOC that began in core 44 of Site
545 (Fig. 13 ), whereas the δ13Ccarb values
progressively decrease and δ18Ocarb values
oscillate without any clear tendency. These data suggest that this anomalous
bloom took place under environmental conditions different from those of the first bloom. Rapid climatic oscillations and
increased runoff would explain the decrease in δ13Ccarb
values and the increase in TOC values, possibly influenced by the
establishment of the Equatorial Humid belt (EH) a little to the south during
the Albian (Chumakov et al., 1995;
Fig. 7.C ).
Lastly, it is important to discuss the
origin of the decimetric layer of black shales in core 42, Site 545. This
lithological unit shows a decrease on the order of 1 %o in δ18Ocarb
and δ13Ccarb values (Fig. 13 ). The abrupt excursion
in the behavior of the latter geochemical parameter was coeval with an
increase in TOC, thereby permitting a precise definition of the base of the
organic-rich layer. In turn, δ18Ocarb clearly
increases by 0.5%o, then initiates a decreasing tendency
amidst intense, high-frequency oscillations, until it reaches its lowest
values for the black shale. For Hofmann et
al. (2008), these rocks are the product of momentary atmospheric heating
that attenuated the NE trade wind system and resulted in decreased intensity
of upwelling. Thus, the increased rainfall implicit in the warming of the
surface of the oceans would have led to an increased supply of continental
organic matter and nutrients to the basin. Supporting this hypothesis is the
inference by Wagner et al.
(2008) of ingression of organic matter of continental origin (as determined
from average values of C27, C29, C31
n-alkanes) that would have preceded an increase in organic matter of marine
origin (based on C27 steranes) contemporary with the sudden
decrease in δ13Ccarb mentioned above and the
initiation of deposition of the organic-rich bed.
Processes
that transfer a large volume of organic matter from the water column to bottom
sediments should leave much more positive δ13Ccarb
values, instead of negative ones, when measured in carbonates present in black
shales (Jenkyns, 2010), and more negative values in coeval organic
matter (δ13Corg). Nevertheless, it is not uncommon
to observe negative excursions in the δ13Ccarb
curves associated with Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs), as seen in the Paquier
and Kilian levels (e.g., Ogg et al.,
2016; Gale et
al., 2021; Fig. 4 ) and at site 545 (Fig. 13 ). Explanations for these low
values in black shales revolve around an increase in light CO2 in
the marine reservoir originating from volcanogenic processes, dissociation of
gas hydrates and/or remobilization of coal deposits. However, as a rule, the
efficiency of such processes in affecting isotope values has yet to be
demonstrated (Jenkins, 2010).
It is important to note that the negative Kilian
and Paquier δ13Ccarb excursions are related to
regressive coastal onlap, during sea level fall (Haq, 2014; Ogg et
al., 2016; Gale et al., 2021;
Fig. 4 ). On the other hand, the Jacob Level occurred at the end of
a transgressive phase, time of eustatic maximum and registered positive values
in the "global" δ13Ccarb curve. If it is
already difficult to offer a genetic explanation for these different behaviors
for OAE 1b events, it is even more so in a world possibly lacking polar ice caps
that could have influenced eustatic shifts in sea level.
Various authors (e.g., Hay & Leslie, 1990; Wendler J.E. & Wendler I., 2016; Wendler J.E. et al., 2016; Sames et al., 2020) have associated third- and fourth-order sea level fluctuations with aquifer oscillations observed during greenhouse periods lacking polar ice caps. As part of the aquifer-eustatic model, they suggest that sea level drops during periods of great humidity and rises when the climate becomes more arid. According to Sames et al. (2020), δ13Ccarb and δ18Ocarb curves in a marine environment tend to record positive values during eustatic drops (warm Greenhouse - humid state), when TOC preservation also increases. The opposite pattern tends to be seen during warm Greenhouse - arid states. Thus, this model also fails to explain many notable decreases of δ13Ccarb values in black shales deposited during eustatic drops.
An alternative empirical interpretation based on conditions surrounding the Kilian and Paquier events may provide more consistency in explaining the negative excursions and may be applied to results obtained at Site 545. Organic-rich sediments originating from intense productivity and elevated depositional rates, as described by Pedersen and Calvert (1990), should be strongly affected by early diagenetic processes during aquifer-eustatic drops. At these times there would have been retention of greater volumes of water in continental aquifers and greater evaporation of seawater because of higher temperatures and an intensified hydrologic cycle (Wendler J.E. et al., 2016). Under such conditions, sulfate-reduction processes would have been favored, liberating CO2 rich in 12C and 16O that would have lowered primary δ13Ccarb and δ18Ccarb signals significantly. This hypothesis is supported by the lack of significant oscillations in the carbon isotope curve for the Jacob event, which occurred during a high-stand transgressive phase.
This interpretation, therefore, shows that anomalous and ephemeral local environmental conditions can explain Carbon and Oxygen isotope results measured in carbonates from black shales. It thus reduces the expectation of identifying anoxic events and organic-rich layers in organic carbon of global scope, whose effective indication must be supported by careful chronostratigraphic measurement.
To Dummann et al. (2023), the Cretaceous opening of the Equatorial Atlantic gateway is considered to have been a driver of major changes in global oceanography, carbon cycling, and climate. To explore the effects of this episode, stratigraphic details and the analogy with the Red Sea or the Mediterranean Sea allow us to conclude that the plume that flowed from the South Atlantic Gulf must have influenced bottom circulation and sedimentary features elsewhere. As previously mentioned, anomalous Subtilisphaera spp. blooms and black shales are observed on the continental margin of Senegal in northern Africa (Jain & Millepied, 1975; Wu et al., 2019) and in the Maracaibo Basin in northern South America (Colmenares, 1994; Dot et al., 2015), both of which were bathed by the Tethys Sea and under the influence of the same easterly trade wind belt and Aptian-Albian resurgence as the area discussed above (Trabucho Alexandre et al., 2011).
Figure 14 , which integrates data from Dias-Brito
(1994), Chumakov et al.
(1995), Arai (2009,
2014) and Trabucho Alexandre (2011),
graphically shows the profound paleogeographic transformation that took place
in the Early Albian, from salt deposition in the CSA to installation of the
South Atlantic Gulf, when a new, definitive, more open connection with Tethys
Sea was established. Given a barrier limiting the connection between the
Tethys and the Pacific, the clockwise circulation imposed by the Coriolis
force in the Northern Hemisphere would have extended the effect of the bottom
currents to the coasts of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
This circulation pattern is similar to that modeled by Poulsen et
al. (2003) taking into consideration the opening of the gateway between
the North and South Atlantic Oceans. Despite certain chronological imprecision
in their study, covering dates from Early Albian to Turonian, their model
predicts vigorous circulation between the two oceans, substantial changes in
sea water temperature and salinity, and the transfer of atmospheric convection
over the North Atlantic to northwestern Africa, enhancing the westward wind
stresses over parts of the northern North Atlantic Ocean.
The influence of hypersaline waters was used by Erbacher et al. (2001) and Huber et al. (2011) to justify the exceptional preservation of foraminifera carapaces having elevated oxygen isotope values recovered from Oceanic Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1049, drilled at Blake Nose, North American continental margin. Although Huber et al. (2011) did not explicitly state that upwelling was the cause of these isotopic signals, they did suggest that the South Atlantic and the Caribbean may have been the sources of deep warm saline water masses that circulated from the latest Aptian into the Early Albian. The establishment of the South Atlantic Gulf has led to the increased occurrence of this phenomenon, which has the Jacob Level and the FO of Prediscosphaera columnata s.l. as potential chronostratigraphic data for many CSA basins. In the case of the ESA, BNE, and other basins along the northwestern African coast and northern South America, the acme of Subtilisphaera spp. may hold a similar chronostratigraphic value, although additional biostratigraphic support would be necessary.
One should also not rule out the possibility that the hypersaline plume leaving the South Atlantic Gulf may well have influenced other regions of Tethys, even if only ephemerally, promoting stratification of water masses in restricted basins or even renovating oxygen in bottom waters in others. Thus, it fully merits consideration as a possible variable for explaining the recurrence of anoxic events unrelated to traditionally cited global mechanisms, such as volcanism or eustasy (e.g., Leckie et al., 2002; Sabatino et al., 2018; Matsumoto et al., 2020) - these, in fact, may have played a much less significant role.
|
Figure 14:
Early Albian paleogeographic
evolution at times of salt deposition (left) and when lagoonal circulation
began in the Tethys South Atlantic, creating a relatively warm, high saline
plume that flowed out into the North Atlantic (right). Maps modified from Arai
(2014). |
Adopting the base of the Ibura evaporites as a stratigraphic criterion to define the Aptian/Albian limit in the CSA, ESA, and BNE basins, has allowed us to present a new interpretation regarding the formation of these salts and the overlying carbonates. We suggest that the ephemeral epicontinental Arai Sea, covering a large portion of northeastern and central Brazil, became an important supplier of waters from the Tethys Sea to the intra-Gondwana rift. The waters would have reached the CSA through the Espírito Santo Basin favoring deposition of anhydrite and halite in the basins of the central portions of the rift and precipitation of an uncommon suite of soluble salts in more restricted areas of this elongated evaporitic system- the Sergipe, Gabon, and Congo basins, in the north, and the Santos Basin, in the south. Hydrothermal sources, infiltration through the SAMB via fractures and faults, and runoff from neighboring continents, within the dynamic context of the developing rift, ensured the volume of water and the chemical composition needed for precipitation of a gigantic volume of salts in a short time (530 to 1.000 ka).
The rupture of the EZ, the last link between Africa and South America at the northern end of the CSA, and the end of evaporite precipitation, still in the earliest Albian indicated by the FO of Prediscophaera columnata in Site 364, favored the explosion of life and the deposition of organic-rich rocks in the basins of the CSA, ESA, and BNE, an event associated with the Jacob Level, the oldest OAE1b. The anomalous bloom of Subtilisphaera spp. was the major expression of this phenomena. Soon thereafter, a carbonate gulf became established in the CSA with a lagoonal pattern of marine circulation that created warm, hypersaline waters that flowed out from it as a plume that began to influence the ESA, BNE and even Tethys Sea.
At times, the water mass flowing out from the South Atlantic Gulf ascended to the surface along the South American and African margins under the influence of the easterly trade wind belt. As conceptualized for the Mediterranean Sea, it is probable that the high exit velocity of the plume from this gulf was a second factor that induced recurrent resurgence and allowed anomalous Substilisphaera spp. blooms, as recorded at Site 545, Mazagan Plateau, and was accompanied as well as by other regional transformations in biota, sedimentation, and geochemical variables. Not only did the first pulse of brine flow out of the CSA after the EZ collapsed, but episodic tectonic and/or halokinetic events exposed and induced salt dissolution to form denser deep water in the CSA, which led to an increase in the velocity of hypersaline plumes, further favoring upwellings elsewhere during the Albian.
It is thought that this wedge of salty bottom water reached the Black Nose Plateau of North America, which would explain the positive δ18Ocarb values and the excellent preservation of the foraminifera recovered from Site 1049C drilled by ODP. The great extent of this plume's influence raises the possibility that this phenomenon may also have contributed to the recurrent anoxic events in other structurally isolated basins of Tethys Sea.
To explain the origin of a thin black shale level associated with a negative δ13Ccarb excursion at Site 545 required an alternative interpretation, one related to intense early diagenetic processes resulting from resurgence-related sulfate-reduction in periods of aquifer-eustatic drops. This example calls attention to the real possibility that local phenomena may have exerted greater influence on the deposition of anoxic strata than global phenomena.
The hypothesis presented here opens up new perspectives for future studies based on the premise that the South Atlantic Gulf played an important role in global marine circulation from the Albian onward.
The authors sincerely thank Bruno Granier, Stefan Schroeder, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive criticism that helped us to improve the article. They are also grateful to colleagues Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Lúcio Riogi Tokutake, Marcos A.B.S. Filho, Mario Lima Filho, Mitsuru Arai, Peter Szatmari, Diógenes de Almeida Campos, and Getúlio Cardoso for reviews, suggestions, and/or criticism of specific parts or all of the text, or assistance in obtaining references. The authors also acknowledge Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos for logistical and financial support and/or scientific training for the authors.
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Upwelling intensity dataset for Site 545, DSDP, Mazagan Plateau, coast of
Morocco (= Upwelling caused by Western African trade wind, in Figure
11 ).
Note: Upwelling intensity values from 0 to 4 were obtained by adjusting relative abundances of radiolarians and sponge spicules (Leckie, 1984) with palygorskite percentages (Chamley & Debrabant, 1984). The bold black numbers were obtained from the graph of clay minerals (scanned). Linear interpolation ensured the identification of depths common to the two datasets.
|
Depth (m) |
Sponge spicules |
Radiolarians |
Linear interpolation for palygorskite % |
Upwelling intensity |
|
Depth (m) |
Sponge spicules |
Radiolarians |
Linear interpolation for palygorskite % |
Upwelling intensity |
|
354.51 |
|
|
18.0 |
|
|
429.55 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
6.8 |
2.5 |
|
355.2 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
18.6 |
1.0 |
|
432.63 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
9.3 |
2.6 |
|
360.97 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
24.0 |
0.0 |
|
436 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
12.0 |
3.0 |
|
362.09 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
25.0 |
0.7 |
|
436.94 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
12.8 |
3.0 |
|
363.97 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
29.7 |
0.8 |
|
440.98 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
16.0 |
3.1 |
|
366.24 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
35.3 |
1.3 |
|
442.54 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
16.6 |
3.1 |
|
367 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
37.2 |
1.0 |
|
445.5 |
3.0 |
4.0 |
17.6 |
2.8 |
|
369.59 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
43.6 |
1.2 |
|
446.08 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
17.8 |
3.1 |
|
370.14 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
45.0 |
1.3 |
|
451.98 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
19.9 |
3.2 |
|
372.59 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
40.9 |
1.8 |
|
452.28 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
20.0 |
3.2 |
|
375.59 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
36.0 |
2.0 |
|
454.74 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
30.1 |
3.5 |
|
376.18 |
2.0 |
1.3 |
35.0 |
2.0 |
|
455 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
31.2 |
3.5 |
|
377.9 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
29.8 |
2.1 |
|
455.29 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
32.4 |
3.5 |
|
379.41 |
4.0 |
2.0 |
25.2 |
2.7 |
|
459.58 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
50.0 |
4.0 |
|
382.57 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
15.6 |
2.8 |
|
459.72 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
49.9 |
4.0 |
|
382.78 |
4.0 |
3.1 |
15.0 |
2.8 |
|
464.5 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
47.5 |
3.9 |
|
385.1 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
14.7 |
3.1 |
|
464.84 |
3.0 |
4.0 |
47.4 |
3.6 |
|
389.54 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
14.2 |
3.0 |
|
468.05 |
3.0 |
2.0 |
45.8 |
2.9 |
|
392.25 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
13.9 |
3.0 |
|
469.57 |
2.5 |
3.0 |
45.0 |
3.0 |
|
395.44 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
13.6 |
3.0 |
|
471.05 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
44.0 |
3.2 |
|
398.48 |
4.0 |
0.0 |
13.2 |
1.7 |
|
474 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
42.1 |
2.5 |
|
402.48 |
4.0 |
0.0 |
12.8 |
1.7 |
|
474.55 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
41.7 |
2.1 |
|
404.64 |
4.0 |
0.0 |
12.5 |
1.7 |
|
476.15 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
40.7 |
3.4 |
|
407.5 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
12.2 |
3.0 |
|
477.48 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
39.8 |
3.1 |
|
407.85 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
12.1 |
3.0 |
|
480.38 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
37.9 |
3.0 |
|
409.14 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
12.0 |
3.0 |
|
481.78 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
37.0 |
3.0 |
|
410.6 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
11.4 |
3.0 |
|
483.5 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
35.9 |
3.0 |
|
422.63 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
6.8 |
2.5 |
|
484.34 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
35.3 |
2.9 |
|
426.5 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
5.3 |
2.5 |
|
487.3 |
2.0 |
3.0 |
33.4 |
2.6 |
|
426.66 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
5.2 |
2.8 |
|
490.45 |
1.0 |
4.0 |
31.3 |
2.5 |
|
427.25 |
4.0 |
3.9 |
5.0 |
2.8 |
|
494 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
29.0 |
1.8 |
