Structural Modeling Based on Sequential Restoration of Gravitational Salt Deformation in the Santos Basin (Brazil)
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Marine and Petroleum Geology xxx (2012) 1e17 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Marine and Petroleum Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpetgeo Structural modeling based on sequential restoration of gravitational salt deformation in the Santos Basin (Brazil) Sávio Francis de Melo Garcia a,*, Jean Letouzey b, Jean-Luc Rudkiewicz b, André Danderfer Filho c, Dominique Frizon de Lamotte d a Petrobras E&P-EXP, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil b IFP Energies Nouvelles, France c Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto/MG, Brazil d Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France article info abstract Article history: The structural restoration of two parallel cross-sections in the central portion of the Santos Basin enables Received 8 December 2010 a first understanding of existent 3D geological complexities. Santos Basin is one of the most proliferous Received in revised form basins along the South Atlantic Brazilian margin. Due to the halokinesis, geological structures present 22 November 2011 significant horizontal tectonic transport. The two geological cross-sections extend from the continental shelf Accepted 2 February 2012 to deep waters, in areas where salt tectonics is simple enough to be solved by 2D restoration. Such cross- Available online xxx sections display both extensional and compressional deformation. Paleobathymetry, isostatic regional compensation, salt volume control and overall aspects related to structural style were used to constrain basic Keywords: fl Salt tectonics boundary conditions. Several restoration algorithms, such as simple shear, exural slip and free methods, section restoration were used to restore the sedimentary deformation, including salt gravity gliding. The results of the 2D Santos Basin restoration are consistent with five major sequences of sedimentary evolution: (1) the brittle pre-salt passive margins deformation, (2) the significant and fast salt deposition, (3) the initial post-salt deformation with predom- South Atlantic inant rafting tectonics, (4) the Late Cretaceous progradational deposition and coeval development of deep water compressional minibasins, and (5) the Cenozoic sedimentary deposition, with less intense salt tectonics. A 1D subsidence analysis based on the 2D restored results is shown as a useful restoration control tool. The 1D results indicate that an initially proximal infill evolves towards distal regions under salt tectonics control. The 1D diagrams also record the history of the overburden movements through lateral depocenter migration in minibasins areas, submitted to large horizontal salt spreading. The results highlight an important isostatic movement during salt deposition, large but not enough to eliminate a needed depression to accommodate the thick evaporites. By quantifying the halokinetic lateral deformation through time, the results suggest less intensity of the phenomenon throughout the Paleogene, with minor impacts on the petroleum system in this period. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction restoration methods. Numerical tools are needed to control both decompaction and flexural isostasy in cases in which there are major Salt tectonics is one of the most complex deformation processes changes in properties, such as density and compressibility, between operating in sedimentary basins. Most current methods of sequential evaporites and other sediments. restorations imposed to geological events, however, are based on The study area in the deep water of the Santos Basin is intensely simplified geometrical approaches. Several poorly controlled deformed by salt tectonics. This passive margin basin is situated simplifications are generally required to simulate such mode of offshore Southeastern Brazil, the most prolific petroleum province of deformation, and are not really integrated with geological processes the South Atlantic (Fig.1). The deep offshore region, close to the study and properties, limiting applicability and effectiveness of the area, constitutes a new frontier for petroleum exploration. The basin was developed upon stretched and thinned continental crust of a ruptured Gondwanian margin (Zalán et. al., 2011). The wide * fl Corresponding author. Present address: Petrobras E&P-EXP,Av. Chile, 330,13th oor, expression of the Santos Basin bathymetry gives rise to the São Paulo Rio de Janeiro, ZIP 20031-170, Brazil. Tel.: þ55 21 2144 0613; fax: þ55 21 2144 1818. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] Plateau, which was developed over a thick salt layer, a fundamental (S.F.deM. Garcia). element of the basin evolution. 0264-8172/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2012.02.009 Please cite this article in press as: Garcia, S.F.M., et al., Structural modeling based on sequential restoration of gravitational salt deformation in the Santos Basin (Brazil), Marine and Petroleum Geology (2012), doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2012.02.009 2 S.F.M. Garcia et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology xxx (2012) 1e17 In this work, a comprehensive restoration technique integrating 1D burial geohistories, salt amount monitoring and regional setting constraints as supplementary calibration tools is applied in order to minimize the strong impact of simplifications on basin evolution results. Paleobathymetry models, flexural isostasy and the moni- toring of the variation of thicknesses within a consistent structural style are used to guide and constrain all restoration steps. There- fore, the structural modeling character of this work is not just a technique application but also a geological methodology aimed to integrate concepts and data. 2. Geological setting The Santos Basin constitutes a good example of a passive margin basin, filled by sediments deposited during rift and drift phases. It results from an asymmetrical partition of the Gondwanian “super- continent” whereby the Brazilian rifted margin remained wider than the conjugate African margin. The Santos Basin spreads over 3.52 Figure 1. Regional location map outlining the study area (red polygon) including two x105 km2 down to 3000 m water depth. The current knowledge of its restored cross-sections (black lines), six available wells (yellow circles) and four architecture comes from more than one hundred wells and studied pseudo-wells (red circles). Contours represent water depth in meters, rein- forced by the blue shading sea floor topography. Notice the aborted spreading center in numerous 2D and 3D seismic surveys. It is bounded to the Northeast the southern region, and its northward propagation along a pre-salt fault trend. Its by the Cabo Frio High and to the Southwest by the Florianópolis possible continuity within the study area could account for a local crustal thinning Platform (Fig. 1). The studied area covers around 6000 km2. anomaly. 2.1. Stratigraphy Several authors, such as Guerra (2008), Rouby et al. (1993) and The stratigraphic framework of the Santos Basin presented Szatmari and Demercian (1993), discussed the evolution of the herein (Fig. 2) is in agreement with the general proposal of Moreira Santos Basin using restoration methods. Cobbold et al. (2001), et al. (2007). The maximum sedimentary thickness of the Santos Meisling et al. (2001) and other authors have also interpreted the Basin is approximately 12 km (Pereira and Macedo, 1990). The complex thin-skinned deformation above the Aptian salt in this crystalline basement outcropping onshore is characterized by basin using structural analyses and regional interpretation. More granites and gneisses of Precambrian age (Neoproterozoic Ribeira recently, a new framework including a failed sea floor spreading Belt). The Guaratiba Group represents the carbonate, siliciclastic center in the southern limit of the basin as well as an outer high and evaporitic sediments of the Camboriu, Piçarras, Itapema, Barra located on the São Paulo Plateau have been described in several Velha and Ariri Formations, deposited before the drift phase, during papers and presentations (Braga et al., 2003, Carminatti et al., 2008, periods of major and minor fault activations (rift phase). The Scotchman et al., 2006), highlighting the diverse nature of the significant basaltic volcanism of the Camboriu Formation that underlying basement. underlays these formations and unconformably covers the pre- Figure 2. Simplified stratigraphic chart of the Santos Basin outlining the fiveteen horizons interpreted in the seismic profiles during the study. The major Early Cretaceous pro- gradation event is highlighted between the horizons 04 and 09. Please cite this article in press as: Garcia, S.F.M., et al., Structural modeling based on sequential restoration of gravitational salt deformation in the Santos Basin (Brazil), Marine and Petroleum Geology (2012), doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2012.02.009 S.F.M. Garcia et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology xxx (2012) 1e17 3 Cambrian basement is regarded as the economic basement for basin regions. Sand-rich gravity flows are described in distal petroleum exploration. These Neocomian basalts were followed by structural lows controled by salt tectonics. This sedimentary continental sedimentation of the Piçarras and Itapema Formations, package represents the onset of a retrogradational pattern that in half-grabens formed by faulting and block rotation during the accounts for the largest marine transgression in the Santos Basin initial rift phase (Barremian). and which culminated in the Turonian oceanic anoxic event (OAE-2 An unconformity separates the Barremian sequences