Effects of a regional décollement level for gravity tectonics on late Neogene-Quaternary deep-sea clastic sedimentation in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, Brazil

Abstract:

Sets of 2D multi-channel seismic and chronostratigraphic data allowed us to undertake analyses of source to sink processes and triggering mechanisms of the gigantic megaslides previously documented off the NW and SE steep slope settings of the Foz do Amazonas basin. These megaslides comprise two sets of stacked allochthonous masses within the Upper Miocene-Quaternary sedimentary record, now described as Mass-Transport Complexes (MTCs): the Amapá Megaslide Complex (AMC) and the Pará-Maranhão Megaslide Complex (PMMC). Individual megaslides of both MTCs can mobilize to deep waters up to kilometer thick sedimentary series as allochthonous masses with different flow directions, degrees of sediment disruption and internal coherence. Megaslides spread downslope over areas as large as thousands of km², attaining dimensions comparable to the world's largest mass-transport deposits. The basal and largest megaslide of the AMC (AM1 megaslide) is a quite unique example of mass-transport deposit, since it is interpreted as a dominant carbonate allochthonous mass sourced from a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic platform. According to stratigraphic correlations with global sea-level positions, platform instability would have been triggered between the late Miocene and the end of the Early Pliocene by gravitational collapse of the mixed platform under its own weight, after successive subaerial exposures which were able to generate karstification processes. Siliciclastic-type megaslides, on the other hand, are all sourced from large upslope slide and/or rotated blocks (up to 60 km large in the case of the PMMC).Stratigraphic correlations evidenced that horizon equally acts as the upper décollement level for the gravity tectonic system that operates in the regional scale of the Foz do Amazonas basin. In such a context, results of this work evidence complex links between variable modes of gravity deformation (gravity tectonics and mass wasting), all induced by instability created from a condensed section prone to produce pore fluid overpressure.