The northeastern Brazil and Gabon Basins: A double rifting system associated with multiple crustal detachment surfaces

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Abstract
Analysis of structural, stratigraphic, and gravimetric data from the Reconcavo, Tucano, and Sergipe‐Alagoas basins in northeastern Brazil and the Gabon basin in Africa shows that these basins originated in a double rifting system associated with multiple crustal detachment surfaces and that the direction of dip of the detachment surfaces was reversed at the Vaza‐Barris fault system. This geometry is in agreement with models and data from modern rifts, but it requires the existence of a predominantly extensional stress regime in the northern part of the South Atlantic during the early stages of oceanic evolution. Evidence for the existence of such a stress regime is given by application of kinematic constraints to Early Cretaceous reconstructions of the South Atlantic Ocean. Interpretation of the regional geologic setting suggests that the double rifting system and the point of final continental rupture were controlled by the preexisting structural orientation of the tectonic provinces in the Precambrian basement.

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