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The breakup of the South Atlantic Ocean: formation of failed spreading axes and blocks of thinned continental crust

in the Santos Basin, Brazil and its consequences for petroleum system development
I. C. SCOTCHMAN,1 G. GILCHRIST,2 N. J. KUSZNIR,3 A. M. ROBERTS4 and R. FLETCHER1,3
1 2

Statoil (UK) Ltd, 1 Kingdom Street, London W2 6BD, UK (e-mail: isco@statoil.com) Consultant, Statoil do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3 Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK 4 Badley Geoscience Ltd, North Beck House, North Beck Lane, Spilsby, Lincolnshire PE23 5NB, UK
Abstract: The occurrence of failed breakup basins and deepwater blocks of thinned continental crust is commonplace in the rifting and breakup of continents, as part of passive margin development. This paper examines the rifting of Pangaea Gondwanaland and subsequent breakup to form the South Atlantic Ocean, with development of a failed breakup basin and seaoor spreading axis (the deepwater Santos Basin) and an adjacent deepwater block of thinned continental crust (the Sao Paulo Plateau) using a combination of 2D exural backstripping and gravity inversion modelling. The effects of the varying amounts of continental crustal thinning on the o Paulo Plateau are discussed, contrasting depositional and petroleum systems in the Santos Basin and on the Sa the former having a predominant post-breakup petroleum system compared with a pre-breakup system in the latter. An analogy is also made to a potentially similar failed breakup basin/thinned continental crustal block pairing in the Faroes region in the NE Atlantic Ocean. Keywords: Brazilian rifted margin, continental breakup, Santos Basin, Sao Paulo Plateau, Faroes, Atlantic margin, subsidence, gravity inversion

Continental lithospheric thinning and rifted margin formation is a poorly understood process, the kinematics of which can be affected by many factors, including pre-existing lithospheric heterogeneities, variations in plate kinematics and the presence of mantle features such as plumes (e.g. Dunbar & Sawyer 1989; Corti et al. 2003; Ziegler & Cloetingh 2004). Evidence of complex kinematics of rifted margins is seen at many margins, such as the South Atlantic Ocean off Brazil and the NE Atlantic Ocean margin close to the Faroe Islands, both being discussed in this paper.

is poorly constrained as it took place during the Cretaceous normal polarity superchron between the M0 and C34 (83.5 Ma) magnetic anomalies.

The Santos Basin and the Sao Paulo Plateau Regional geology
Rifting and breakup of the Santos Basin and SPP areas appear to have been very complex with several apparent attempts to extend seaoor spreading north of the FFZ. This resulted in various intrusive and volcanic features located in the southwestern Santos Basin and to the east of the SPP, where the Avedis volcanic chain was interpreted by several authors as a failed spreading centre (Cobbold et al. 2001; Meisling et al. 2001; Gomes et al. 2002). However, recent exploration and drilling indicate these features to be probably of pre-rift origin and not the result of failed Early Cretaceous-aged breakup. They form large regional structural highs (the Tupi and Sugar Loaf structures of Gomes et al. 2009) which drilling indicates to have trapped extremely large volumes of hydrocarbons in overlying syn-rift and sag phase reservoirs. However, data presented in this paper suggest that an earlier attempt at breakup took place in the centre of Santos Basin, extending northeastwards into the basin centre from the area of likely oceanic crust emplaced in the southwestern Santos Basin (Meisling et al. 2001; Gomes et al. 2002). The formation of the SPP and the resultant development of the prolic pre-salt hydrocarbon province recently discovered in the area appear intimately related to this failed breakup event. Rifting in the Santos Basin began around 140 Ma in the Neocomian (Karner & Driscoll 1999), contemporaneous with eruption of the Parana volcanics (Renne et al. 1996; Fig. 2). Syn-rift deposition, overlying and interngering with late stage basalts

The Santos Basin


The Santos Basin is the southernmost of the petroliferous chain of basins along the western margin of the South Atlantic Ocean in Brazil (Fig. 1). These basins, the Santos, Campos and Espirito Santo Basins, resulted from rifting of the Gondwanaland supercontinent in the earliest Cretaceous with breakup and subsequent seaoor spreading. The Santos Basin is a NESW-trending basin that covers about 200 000 km2 of the Brazilian continental margin, bounded by the Cabo Frio Arch to the north and by the Florianopolis Platform to the south, both features being related to magmatic activity associated with the westward prolongation of the ocean fracture zones (Cainelli & Mohriak 1998). The western limit of the basin is dened by the uplifted Precambrian rocks of the Serra do Mar, a coastal range reaching up to 2000 m high, while to the east the basin is anked by the Sao Paulo Plateau (SPP). The Florianopolis Fracture Zone (FFZ) is a major transform feature which denes the southern limit of the Santos Basin and marks a major break in South Atlantic Ocean breakup history. To the south, seaoor spreading is constrained by the M4 and M0 magnetic anomalies (Mueller et al. 1997), dated at 125.7 and 120.6 Ma, respectively. To the north of the FFZ, the age of breakup

VINING , B. A. & PICKERING , S. C. (eds) Petroleum Geology: From Mature Basins to New Frontiers Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference, 855866. DOI: 10.1144/0070855 # Petroleum Geology Conferences Ltd. Published by the Geological Society, London.

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Fig. 1. (a) Bouguer gravity anomaly map (200 km high-pass lter) over the central area of Santos Basin showing the linear feature with strong negative gravity anomaly adjacent to the SPP. (b) Bathymetry (metres) and (c) free air gravity (mgal) data for the Santos and Campos and adjacent segments of the Brazilian rifted margin.

(Chang et al. 1992), comprises uviallacustrine siliciclastics which inlled much of the early rift topography. Subsequent deposition, during the late rift sag phase, comprised basinal lacustrine, organic-rich shales lapping onto coquinas of the Lagoa Feia Formation, which were deposited on structural highs and the basin anks (Pereira & Feijo 1994). The sag phase is overlain, generally unconformably (Karner & Gamboa 2007), by evaporites comprising intercalations of anhydrite and halite, reecting development of the post-rift South Atlantic Salt Basin (Fig. 3). These evaporites were deposited in the remnant sag basin system at or at most several hundred metres below ambient sea-level (Karner & Gamboa 2007) by marine incursions from the north (Davison & Bate 2004). While Davison (2007) favours formation in a deep rift basin, evaporite formation close to ambient sea-level is indicated by several lines of evidence: the microbilitic limestones immediately underlying the salt, forming the reservoir in hydrocarbon discoveries such as Tupi, probably accumulated in less than 3 m of water (J. Lukasik, pers. comm.), the layered evaporite sequence overlying the basal halite section on the SPP was probably formed under shallow water sabkha-type conditions with

periodic emergence and, nally, the large rift block bounding faults have a substantial post-salt displacement (e.g. Fig. 3, Section 2 inset). Thick evaporitic sections up to 2 km thick developed in the adjacent Santos Basin where there was more accommodation space, greatly inuencing basin ll during the later evolution of the basin with extensive halokinesis producing large salt diapirs and walls within the deepwater basin. In contrast, recent drilling on the SPP has found the structure to have thicker, well developed syn-rift and sag phase sections (Fig. 4; e.g. Gomes et al. 2009) which are capped by porous lacustrine limestones of algal, stromatolitic or thrombolitic origin which form the reservoir rocks in the recent large hydrocarbon discoveries in the area, such as Tupi (Mello et al. 2009). In contrast to the great thicknesses of evaporites seen in the Santos Basin to the west and Campos Basin to the north (Davison 2007), on the SPP a generally thinner layer of mobile salt overlies the syn-rift section; the rest of the evaporitic section of up to 2 km in thickness appears from seismic to be well bedded but is also tightly folded with diapiric structures (Fig. 3). This well bedded section above the mobile salt, previously identied as an extension of the Late Cretaceous

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Fig. 2. Santos Basin stratigraphy and breakup history.

turbidite play north of the Santos Fault, has been found by recent drilling to consist of bedded evaporites, comprising halite and anhydrite as well as complex evaporites such as carnallite, bischote, sylvite and tachyhydrite (Poiate et al. 2006). These complex minerals are end members of the evaporitic system, indicating development of extreme conditions. Karner & Gamboa (2007) suggest a date for evaporite deposition in the Santos Basin as 110 113 Ma, after which period major marine ooding of the basin took place, probably linked to breakup of the margin to the north adjacent to the Campos Basin. This was marked in the Santos Basin by deposition of Albian-age shallow marine carbonates, grey shales and sandstones which were followed by coarse turbiditic sandstones and shales deposited during progressive deepening of the basin, with the maximum ooding conditions being marked by dark grey-black shales of CenomanianTuronian age Itajai Acu Formation. In the proximal areas, a thick conglomerate package and shallow marine sandstones were deposited during the Santonian to Maastrichtian in

response to the rst phase of Serra do Mar uplift (dated at 100 80 Ma by Lelarge 1993). The age of the bedded evaporite deposition on the SPP is equivocal as no biostratigraphic data from recent wells has been published. Because of its extreme distal location, effectively isolated between the African and Brazilian margins, evaporite deposition under sabkha-type conditions may have continued up into the Albian as no equivalent shallow marine carbonate platform development is present, the evaporites being overlain by possibly Cenomanian or younger Late Cretaceous turbidites and shales. However, the age-equivalent section to the Albian carbonate platform may instead be present as shales at the base of the marine section overlying the evaporites. By the Late Cretaceous and through the Cenozoic, deepwater turbidite and shale deposition was predominant across both the Santos Basin and the SPP, characterized by a basinward progradation of siliciclastics over platform/slope shales and marls. However, the SPP remained relatively sediment-poor with only

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Fig. 3. Seismic cross-sections across the deepwater Santos Basin and SPP.

around 2 km drift section compared with 45 km or more equivalent thickness inboard in the Santos Basin.

Regional structure
Regional evaluation of the Santos Basin and SPP, using an approximate 4 4 km grid of 2D seismic data combined with both satellite

and ship-borne gravity and magnetic data, has shown that the structure of the basin is complex with a linear negative gravity anomaly stretching from the outer southwestern part of the basin northnortheastwards into the basin centre, with a large area to the ESE comprising the SPP (Fig. 1). Regional seismic across the linear gravity anomaly in the southwestern central Santos Basin (Fig. 3) shows a linear anomaly with volcanic features of oceanic

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Fig. 4. SPP seismic section illustrating the Tupi oil discovery.

afnity extending from a crustal igneous feature in the southwestern part of the basin northeastwards into the basin centre where it terminates in a major fault, the Santos Fault. The feature forms the northwestern margin of the SPP, giving rise to the observation that these two features are connected. The contrasting structural and stratigraphic characteristics of the SPP and the Santos Basin to the north are illustrated by seismic line 3 of Figure 3, showing the thick, well developed syn-rift section capped by over 2 km of largely bedded evaporites in the former, while the latter shows a thin syn-rift section capped by diapiric salt buried by thick Cretaceous Cenozoic turbidites. In contrast, the equivalent turbidite section on the SPP is only thinly developed, unlike either the Santos Basin or the other basins to the north (Campos and Espirito Santo Basins). In order to investigate the linear anomaly within Santos Basin and its relationship to the SPP, along with the anomalous structural and sedimentary development of the latter, crustal modelling was undertaken. This used subsidence analysis from 2D backstripping, based on a regional grid of eight seismic lines, in conjunction with determination of crustal thickness from gravity inversion based on the bathymetry and free air gravity anomaly (Fig. 1) as detailed below.

Continental lithosphere thinning and crustal thickness of the Santos Basin and Sao Paulo plateau
Crustal thickness, continental lithosphere thinning and Moho depth for the Santos Basin and SPP areas of the Brazilian rifted margin were studied by subsidence analysis using exural backstripping (Kusznir et al. 1995; Roberts et al. 1998) and gravity inversion performed in the 3D spectral domain (Parker 1972), the latter using a new method incorporating a lithosphere thermal gravity anomaly correction (Greenhalgh & Kusznir 2007; Chappell & Kusznir 2008).

Subsidence analysis
Subsidence analysis using exural backstripping to produce water-loaded subsidence, and gravity inversion using a new

method incorporating a lithosphere thermal gravity anomaly correction, were used to determine continental lithosphere thinning, Moho depth and continental crustal thickness for the Santos Basin and SPP areas of the Brazilian rifted margin. The results of the subsidence analysis using exural backstripping are described in Scotchman et al. (2006) and only a brief summary is given below. Water-loaded subsidence was determined using the 2D exural backstripping (Roberts et al. 1998) of proles across the Santos Basin and SPP. The assumption was made of the palaeobathymetric constraint of ambient sea-level for the base Aptian salt at the time of deposition, as discussed above. The water-loaded subsidence was then processed using the extensional basin formation model of McKenzie (1978) to determine continental lithosphere stretching and thinning for (i) the assumption that base salt subsidence from Aptian to present is due to both syn-rift and post-rift subsidence, and (ii) alternatively that base salt subsidence from Aptian to present is due to post-rift thermal subsidence only. An average age of 120 Ma for rift development across the basin was used in the modelling, an age older than the 110 113 Ma estimates for that of the Aptian salt (Karner & Gamboa 2007), to acknowledge the existence of syn-rift deposition beneath the salt. It is very likely that the base salt horizon within the Santos Basin experienced syn-rift tectonic subsidence, followed by continued thermal subsidence to the present day. In this likely scenario, treating the base-case salt water-loaded subsidence as only post-rift leads to an overestimate of the b stretching factors required to model the subsidence and the prediction of oceanic crust (with innite thinning) over much of the Santos Basin (Fig. 5a). This is clearly in conict with the seismic and gravity data as any ocean continent transition derived from this model is too far inboard. Conversely, the salt does not represent the whole of the syn-rift sequence and, as a consequence, treating the base salt water-loaded subsidence as representing the whole of the syn-rift and post-rift thermal subsidence underestimates continental lithosphere stretching and thinning (Fig. 5b). This assumption predicts nite (noninnite) thinning factors for the SPP, implying that this region is underlain by thinned continental crust. A region of highly stretched and thinned continental crust is predicted in the deepwater Santos Basin to the NW, separating the SPP from the Brazilian margin.

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Fig. 5. Beta factor maps for the Santos Basin and SPP from 2D backstripping from Scotchman et al. (2006): (a) assuming subsidence of base salt is post-breakup only; (b) assuming subsidence of base salt is both syn-rift and post-breakup.

Crustal thickness determination


The input data used in the Santos Basin and SPP gravity inversion study were satellite free air gravity (Sandwell & Smith 1997), digital bathymetry (Gebco 2003), sediment thickness to base salt derived from 2D/3D seismic reection mapping and ocean age isochrons to dene unequivocal oceanic crust (Mueller et al. 1997). Crustal thicknesses produced by the gravity inversion applied to the Santos Basin and SPP are shown in Figure 6. Gravity inversion results are shown both omitting sediment thickness information (Fig. 6a) and including sediment thickness (Fig. 6b) to give a more accurate depth to Moho where such data exists. Crustal crosssections with Moho depth determined using the gravity inversion method are shown in Figure 7 and indicate that crustal basement thickness in the Santos Basin decreases southwards. The low crustal thicknesses in the south of the deepwater Santos Basin, shown on cross-section 3 of Figure 7, and located to the north of the FFZ, suggest that the SW Santos Basin is underlain by oceanic crust. In contrast the SPP is underlain by crust between 12 and 16 km thick which is interpreted as thinned continental crust (Figs 6 & 7). Both the gravity inversion results and the exural backstripping subsidence analysis indicate that (i) the SPP is underlain by thinned continental crust and (ii) that a tongue of oceanic crust extends north of the FFZ into the deepwater Santos Basin.

Santos Basin, extending northeastwards into the central part of the basin, albeit with decreasing subsidence. Estimates of crustal thinning based on McKenzie (1978), backed by the regional geological reasoning, indicates that this represents both syn- and postrift subsidence of the base salt layer, suggesting the outer part of the southwestern Santos Basin is underlain by either oceanic crust or by extremely thinned continental crust, which forms a tongue extending northeastwards into the basin centre. Seismic sections across this area conrm this nding (Fig. 3), with associated igneous features interpreted as seawards dipping reectors observed within the basin. The results also indicate thinned continental crust to the SE of the feature beneath the SPP. The results of the gravity inversion work (Fig. 6) lead to similar conclusions with thin potentially oceanic crust in the outer part of the Santos Basin with decreasingly thinned crust northeastwards along the feature and less thinned crust beneath the SPP. These results indicate that the feature is likely to be a failed seaoor spreading centre, representing an early attempt at breakup and initiation of seaoor spreading through the centre of the Santos Basin north of the FFZ in the early Aptian. The results suggest that extreme thinning occurred in the southern part of the feature, which probably represents incipient oceanic crust. However, the breakup and seaoor spreading event appears to have been short lived, probably due to an adjustment of plate kinematics.

Discussion and conclusions The failed breakup model for the Santos Basin
The results of the subsidence modelling from exural backstripping indicate a zone of high subsidence in the southwestern

Rifting and breakup history of the Santos Basin/Sao Paulo Plateau


By 140 Ma in the Neocomian, rifting followed by breakup of the southernmost South Atlantic Ocean took place south of the crustal

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Fig. 6. (a) Crustal thickness map of the Santos Basin derived from gravity inversion assuming zero sediment thickness showing thick continental crust underlying the SPP and thinned crust beneath the linear anomaly in the SW Santos Basin. (b) Crustal basement thickness map derived from gravity inversion incorporating sediment thickness data from seismic reection grid showing thinned continental crust underlying the SPP and oceanic crust beneath the SW Santos Basin.

lineament subsequently re-activated as the Albian-aged FFZ. North of this lineament, rifting began around 140 Ma (Fig. 8a), probably contemporaneous with the intrusion of the Ponta Grossa dyke swarm and extrusion of the Parana volcanics, associated with the Tristao da Cunha hotspot. Initiation of seaoor spreading occurred south of the FFZ by 126 Ma, while to the north sag-sequence deposition took place in the rift basin system with deposition of the lacustrine source rocks and sandstones. During this time the Tristao da Cunha hotspot appears to have moved into the rift area north of the FFZ with intrusion of igneous bodies. Associated with the hotspot, the spreading centre south of the FFZ may have tipped-out into the rift basin on the northern side where it developed into incipient breakup and seaoor spreading on an ENE SSW trend towards the Brazilian coastline around 120 Ma.

Crustal thinning appears to have affected the area with associated thick development of sag-phase sedimentation, particularly over what is now the SPP. Extreme crustal thinning took place along the line of the incipient breakup north of the FFZ, with likely emplacement of oceanic crust in its southern part, north of the FFZ, in what is now the southwestern part of the Santos Basin. However, this phase of incipient breakup and seaoor spreading appears to have failed in the early Aptian and resulted in the formation of a failed breakup basin/seaoor spreading axis in what is now the central part of the Santos Basin with an adjacent area of thinned continental crust which became the present-day SPP. During the late Aptian, deposition of thick halite took place in the subsiding sag basins along the whole rifted margin, which had been ooded intermittently by marine water, most likely from the

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Fig. 7. Crustal cross-sections showing crustal basement thickness and Moho depth determined from gravity inversion across the Santos Basin and SPP.

north via the early rifts in the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, as the Rio Grande High appears to have prevented access by marine waters to the basin system from the south (Scotchman et al. 2008). The SPP area was at this time still on the African side of the rift system and remained relatively high, forming the eastern ank of the Santos failed breakup basin. Here the lack of large-scale regional subsidence appears to have resulted in the deposition of very shallow water algal/thrombolitic/stromatolitic lacustrine/brackish water limestones capping the syn-rift shales, forming the reservoir in recent discoveries such as Tupi. The area remained a positive feature during the subsequent deposition of evaporites with shallow, sabkha-like deposition of bedded evaporites. These largely comprise halite and anhydrite, but occasionally with complete evaporation leading to Mg- and K-salt precipitation. Breakup nally appears to have taken place to the east of the SPP in the late Aptian Albian, with evidence that this took place from the north (Scotchman et al. 2008), with formation of the oceanic fracture zones such as the FFZ, which as noted above appears to have re-activated an older crustal lineament. The Santos Basin to the west was ooded by shallow seas with deposition of carbonate platforms along the Brazilian ank and development of early turbiditic sandstones and shales in the deepest parts of the basin. The Albian carbonates appear to be not present or below seismic resolution on the adjacent SPP, although a lateral facies change to deep marine shales is also possible, making it difcult, without biostratigraphic data, to resolve if deposition of the marginal bedded evaporite sequence ended in the Aptian or continued into the Albian. Regional evidence perhaps favours the latter hypothesis

as the Albian section in the deepwater Santos Basin anking the northern side of the SPP comprises anoxic organic-rich black shales which form the main post-salt hydrocarbon source in the basin (Katz & Mello 2000). Marine organic shale deposition generally requires a restricted basinal setting, for example, Demaison & Moore (1980), and a narrow seaway between the coastal carbonate platform and the SPP located over the thermally subsiding failed spreading centre could easily full such a role, providing additional excellent hydrocarbon source potential. When seaoor spreading nally occurred in the area, perhaps as late as the end Albian Cenomanian, the split between Africa and South America was completed and the Rio Grande High breached. The whole area then underwent rapid subsidence with the spread of deepwater turbidite deposition which had ooded both the Santos Basin and the SPP. Figure 8 illustrates the simplied kinematic model for the breakup of the Brazilian African margin, showing development of the failed breakup basin (the Santos Basin) and the SPP.

Petroleum systems
The syn-rift Lagoa Feia lacustrine facies shales are the main hydrocarbon source rock in the basin system along the Brazilian Atlantic Ocean margin (Katz & Mello 2000), where they have charged postsalt turbidite reservoirs of Late Cretaceous to Cenozoic age to form a very prolic petroleum system with giant oil elds in basins such as the Campos, Espirito Santo and Santos (Guardado et al. 2000). Post-salt source rocks, particularly of Albian and Cenomanian

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Fig. 8. Conceptual breakup models for (a c) the South Atlantic in the Santos Basin and SPP and (d f) the North Atlantic in the Faroes/Faroe Shetland Basin (modied from Fletcher 2009).

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Fig. 9. (a) Crustal thickness map for the NE Atlantic Ocean showing thinned continental crust beneath the FaroeShetland Basin while the Faroes continental block comprises relatively un-thinned continental crust. (b) The iSIMM Deep Seismic line illustrating the deep structure of the Faroes/FaroeShetland Basin (from White et al. 2008).

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Turonian, also provide important charging to these drift-phase deepwater reservoirs in the Santos and Espirito Santo Basins. The syn-rift sourced petroleum system occurs in both the Santos Basin and the SPP; in the former the main reservoirs are in the post-salt turbidites while in the SPP the main reservoir is the pre-salt carbonate section capping the thick syn-rift/sag phase section. Importantly, due to the greatly different heatow and burial depth between the Santos Basin and the SPP, the hydrocarbon phase is different. Within the Santos Basin, the subsidence associated with the failed seaoor spreading ridge resulted in the deep burial of the syn-rift source rock beneath a thick Late Cretaceous Cenozoic turbidite section of 45 km (e.g. Fig. 3 seismic line 3), up to twice that of the equivalent section on the SPP, which remained a relatively positive feature. It is therefore not surprising that light hydrocarbons and gas, such as the giant Merluza gas eld, predominate in this part of the Santos Basin. On the SPP, the large volumes of oil (28328API) have been discovered, reportedly in the syn-rift carbonate reservoir with estimated resources of 2050 109 barrels, and a large gas discovery, Jupiter, discovered on the ank of the SPP. As well as greatly increased burial depths, the thermal regime in the Santos Basin differs from that on the SPP: at a depth of 3 km below mud-line, the typical temperature in the former is around 100 8C compared with 60 8C on the SPP (Poiate et al. 2006). The temperature differences appear to reect both a lower heatow on the SPP and the effects of the thick evaporites blanketing the structure. Therefore the development of the prolic pre-salt oil province on the SPP appears related to its unique structural development compared to the other basins along the Brazil Atlantic Margin: the thinned crust allowed development of a thick, well developed syn-rift/sag phase section with resultant excellent source and reservoir rocks, relatively low subsidence compared with the adjacent Santos Basin and relatively low temperatures due to lower heatows and the thick evaporites, allowing the source rocks to remain in the oil window compared with the Santos Basin, where the equivalent source rock kitchens are in the gas-window or are burnt out.

palaeopropagating tip of the Atlantic. A schematic diagram of the kinematics of breakup at the Faroes margin is shown in Figure 8b. Both the Santos Basin and the FSB appear to be failed breakup basins associated with attempted propagation of seaoor spreading and consequent thinning of continental crust, while the adjacent structural highs, the SPP and Fugloy Ridge respectively, represent areas of relatively thick continental crust, albeit with greatly differing amounts of thinning. The SPP underwent considerable thinning and subsidence which accommodated a thick syn-rift section containing both source and reservoir rocks capped by a thick post-rift evaporitic section, resulting in a prolic petroleum province. The Fugloy Ridge also experienced considerable crustal thinning but comparison with the SPP is difcult as the crust has probably been re-thickened by the addition of both igneous intrusions and extrusive volcanics after it was thinned. Thick volcanics on the Fugloy Ridge mean that the syn-rift section is hard to image, although recent seismic data indicate the development of a sedimentary sequence beneath the post-rift sequence (Roberts 2007), indicating the potential for the development of a petroleum province.

Conclusions
The modelling suggests that the linear gravity and magnetic feature identied in the Santos Basin represent abandoned seaoor spreading propagation with the formation of oceanic or proto-oceanic crust at its southwestern end. This represents an early attempt at seaoor spreading initiation north of the FFZ during the early Aptian. The breakup process also resulted in the formation of an adjacent area of thinned continental crust, the SPP, with subsequent deposition of a thick syn-rift/sag phase section containing both hydrocarbon source and reservoir rocks capped by a thick post-rift bedded evaporitic section. A prolic pre-salt petroleum province developed on this feature due to preservation of the syn-rift/sag source rocks and reservoirs by the relatively low heatows and subsidence compared with the adjacent Santos Basin. Breakup and seaoor spreading to the east of the SPP, marking the nal breakup of the South Atlantic Ocean, appear to have been initiated from the north (Scotchman et al. 2008) and occurred in the late Albian Cenomanian. Similar analysis of the FSB area of the northeast Atlantic Ocean suggests development of a similar failed breakup/seaoor spreading basin. Both the Brazilian and Faroes margins exhibit evidence for complex breakup kinematics, where lithospheric thinning originally occurred at two or more overlapping segments before becoming linked when the lithosphere ruptured. Sedimentary basins on the regions of thinned crust on rifted continental margins have potential to be hydrocarbon provinces.
The authors would like to thank Statoil for permission to publish this work and John Kipps and Michael McCambridge for their draughting of the gures and the many revisions.

Comparison of continental lithospheric thinning and rifted margin formation in the Santos Basin/Sao Paulo Plateau with the Faroe Shetland Basin and Faroes margin, NE Atlantic
The kinematics of continental lithosphere thinning and breakup at the Brazilian margin can be compared with those at the NE Atlantic Ocean in the Faroe Shetland area (Fig. 9). The Faroe Shetland Basin (FSB) and Fugloy Ridge appear to be analogous features to the Santos Basin and the SPP, respectively. The FSB, a major Cretaceous Cenozoic depocentre, is located between the West et al. Shetland Platform north of Scotland and the Faroes (Dore 1999) and contains a series of NE SW trending sub-basins formed by a complex tectonic history involving multiple phases of extension and volcanism (Carr & Scotchman 2003). The FSB underwent several periods of rifting, accommodated by extensional faulting from Devonian to Cretaceous times (e.g. et al. 1999; Roberts et al. 1999). The basin also experienced Dore lithospheric thinning in the Late Paleocene synchronously with crustal rupture and the onset of Atlantic Ocean seaoor spreading to the west of the Faroe Islands, at the Faroes margin (Fletcher 2009). This was accompanied by a massive outpouring of basalt which covers part of the FSB. The crustal thickness map of the Faroese region (Fig. 9a), derived using the method of Greenhalgh & Kusznir (2007) and the iSIMM refraction line (Fig. 9b) shows that the FSB is underlain by very thinned crust. Thin crust beneath the FSB is coaxial with thin crust at the Mre margin, and the FSB is postulated to be a failed breakup basin at the

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