Solimôes megashear: Intraplate tectonics in northwestern Brazil

Mário V. Caputo

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.—Petrobrás, Rodovia Arthur Bernardes, 5511 Belém, Pará, C.E.P. 66800, Brazil

ABSTRACT
A belt of deformation in the Solimoes basin of northwestern Brazil extends east-northeast
from near the Peruvian border for about 1300 km. The belt is characterized by the en echelon
arrangement of folds and faults interpreted as the result of right-slip displacements in a trans-
pressive regime. The structures were formed during Late Jurassic time, probably due to
collision of South America with allochthonous terranes as the opening of the South Atlantic
Ocean began. The Iquitos arch near the western end of the megashear separates the Solimoes
basin from Subandean basins. The development of the Iquitos arch is interpreted to be related
to orogenic loading along western South America by the Andean mountain belt. In Brazil,
folds and faults associated with the Solimoes megashear hold hydrocarbons within Paleozoic
strata, and 15 gas and oil fields have so far been discovered.
INTRODUCTION Previous structural studies were carried out Uere, and Jaraqui Formations of Devonian age.
The Solimoes basin, about 600000 km 2 in by Szatmari (1983), Mosmann et al. (1984), Both sequences are composed of relatively fine-
area (Fig. 1), was named for the Solimoes River, Caputo (1985), and Porsche (1985). grained siliciclastic rocks. The third sequence
which is the name given to the upper Amazon contains cyclic evaporites and clastic rocks
River west of the city of Manaus. The basin is in STRATIGRAPHY composing the Jurua, Caruari, and Fonte Boa
the most remote part of the South American The Solim6es basin contains a sedimentary Formations, which accumulated from Late
tropical rain forest; it is bounded on the north by section, intruded by diabase sills, as thick as Devonian through Permian time.
the Precambrian Guyanan shield and on the 3500 m and ranging in age from Late Protero- Triassic and Jurassic (Jurua Mirim Forma-
south by the Guapore shield. zoic to Cenozoic (Fig. 2), but I am concerned tion) red beds were deposited in the western part
The Solimoes basin is divided by an intraba- here primarily with the Phanerozoic section. of the Solimoes basin. Diabase dikes and sills
sinal arch (the Carauari arch) into two sub- The Paleozoic rocks are divided into three depo- (up to 950 m thick) were emplaced during Tri-
basins, Jandiatuba and Jurua. It is separated sitional sequences containing eight formations assic and Jurassic time (Porsche, 1985; Silva,
from the Subandean basins of Pastaza (Peru) (Silva, 1988). 1987, 1988), and three large diabase sills are
and Acre (Brazil) on the west by the Iquitos arch The basal sequence consists of the Benjamin easily identified on seismic lines throughout the
and from the Amazon basin on the east by the Constant Formation of Ordovician age, and the region.
Purus arch. second sequence includes the Jandiatuba, Bia, Cretaceous (Alter do Chao Formation) and

Figure 1. Location and structural framework map of Solimôes basin with main structural features.

246 G E O L O G Y , v. 19, p. 2 4 6 - 2 4 9 , March 1991

 E 3 Sandstone O Shale (EH T i l l i t e Anhydrite Ct±] Basement
Is Hi M u d s t o n e U a I Chert lv vl D i a b a s e H-r^ L i m e s t o n e v n Metavolcanics

Figure 2. Chronostratigraphic chart of Solimdes basin. Diabase sills are Triassic to early Late Jurassic in age.

Tertiary (Solimoes Formation) red beds have
overlapped the Paleozoic section, so there are no
Paleozoic outcrops in the basin.
STRUCTURAL PATTERN
Seismic sections reveal that the deformation
belt along the Solimoes zone is characterized by
subparallel, braided, high-angle faults and by en
echelon folds and faulted folds systematically ar-
ranged in trends typical of wrench-tectonic pat-
terns according to Wilcox et al. (1973) and
Christie-Blick and Biddle (1985). The Solimoes
megashear is 70-100 km wide and about 1300
km long, extending from the Acre basin to the
Purus arch. Competent diabase sills, over 900 m
thick, intruded in the stratigraphic section per-
haps have prevented more ductile deformation,
because the folds are of large amplitude, having
a closed area of about 10-40 km 2 .
Central transpressive highs are present in this
belt where the uplifted basement is beneath Cre-
taceous strata and Tertiary red beds (Fig. 3). En
echelon folds and faults trending oblique to the
main belt contain oil and gas fields. The ar-
rangement of these folds and faults, as well as
the braided aspect of the main deformation belt
as a whole (Fig. 1), is similar to wrench-tectonic
patterns shown by Tchalenko (1970) for defor-
mation belts in Iran and in his experimental
studies.
Along the Solimoes belt, three sets of faults
are observed on seismic lines. Set A developed
with a N70°-80°E trend, and members of this
set split and coalesce in an anastomosing pattern
on maps. This set is composed of synthetic and P
faults according to Tchalenko's terminology. At
places they bound positive flower structures
(Harding, 1985) with vertical separations, across
the faults, of hundreds of metres. In the south-
western part of the Solimoes belt, in places
where the basement has been uplifted, the verti-
cal separation is more than 1000 m (Fig. 1).
Set B is made up of en echelon faults and
faulted folds trending from N65°E to N30°E, at
low angles (10°-45°) to the trend of the meg-
ashear. This variation in direction may be con-
trolled in part by regional simple shear acting on
some older Precambrian basement lineaments
trending N20°-30°E, N50°-65°E, N20°-30°W,
and N45°-60°W (Cordani et al., 1984; Porsche,
1985). It is apparent that zones of weakness with
N20°-30°E and N50°-65°E trends have con-
trolled the position and orientation of the en
echelon faults. These faults follow the same
orientation of the mentioned basement lin-
eaments (Porsche, 1985; Caputo, 1985).
Wrench tectonics generated reverse faults and
associated folds and deformed the Paleozoic sed-
imentary sequence. These folds and faults record
significant horizontal shortening and large verti-
cal separations (up to 500 m) such as that shown
on seismic lines (Fig. 4) and in boreholes. Meas-
urements of crustal shortening along the Soli-

GEOLOGY, March 1991 247

 JANDIATUBA SUBBASIN JURUA SUBBASIN PURUS ARCH
» ^ ^ B

-1000

-3000

-5000
-Q- DRY W E L L
-Q- GAS W E L L
I T I TERTIARY
I K | CRETACEOUS

I J* I JURASSIC -TRIASSIC
I P I PERMIAN
I C I CARBONIFEROUS
I D I DEVONIAN
I 0 J OROOVI CI AN
I W I DIABASE
L+ + L BASEMENT

JANDIATUBA TREND TRANSPRESSIVE HIGHS

Figure 3. Structural sections along (A-B) and across (C-D) Solimoes basin. Cretaceous and Tertiary strata were not involved in faulting. Erosion
has stripped off Paleozoic section from transpressional highs.

moes megashear trend were obtained directly by

the addition of horizontal separations and fold NW SE
curvatures in en echelon faulted folds (Porsche,
1985). This indicates a right-lateral slip of about
10 km along the principal displacement zone.
Five of these regularly spaced en echelon
trends have been mapped so far, namely (from
west to east) Jandiatuba, Jutai, Ipixuna, Jurua,
and Urucu (Apoluceno Neto and Tsubone,
1988) (Fig. 1). Reserves of the Solimoes basin
(Jurua and Urucu trends) have been estimated
as 362 Mbbl of crude oil and gas equivalent.
Set C consists of nearly vertical subsidiary
faults trending N45°W and N70°W. This set is
not well developed and may represent the ten-
sional component of wrenching with minor hor-
izontal displacements or reorientation of subsid-
iary shear stresses.
In summary, the orientation and arrangement
of the folds and faults along the trend support SEISMIC LINE : 5 0 - R L - 1 3 8
the interpretation that they are associated with a
major megashear. The Carauari arch was a pa- Figure 4. Seismic line 50-RL-138 shows reverse fault located in en echelon Jurua trend. Cre-
leohigh prior to deposition of Upper Devonian taceous (K) and Tertiary (T) strata were not tectonically disturbed. P-C = Permian-Carboniferous;
strata, but it was uplifted anew by regional Dev = Devonian. Source: Petrobras.
transpression, as deduced from the extensive
erosion in the arch area prior to deposition of
the Alter do Chao Formation (Fig. 3). These strongly convergent, relatively rigid crustal Jurassic-Triassic intrusive rocks prior to deposi-
structures provide a good example of intraplate blocks. tion of the Alter do Chao Formation of Albian
tectonics. In the western part of the Solimoes basin, the age (Fig. 3). Farther to the west-southwest, in
basement immediately underlies Cretaceous the central Acre basin, there is a basement high
CENTRAL TRANSPRESSIVE HIGHS strata over wide areas (Fig. 3). In the northern that may also be related to transpression along
The central transpressive highs are interpreted Eirunepe area, for example, the basement- the megashear system. Along the northeast part
to have resulted from the dominant right slip sedimentary interface has been uplifted more of the Solimoes megashear belt, close to the
along the megashear in sites where vertical uplift than 1000 m. As a consequence, erosion Purus arch, deformation has also been severe.
of the basement took place between two stripped off the entire Paleozoic section and The Juma structure is interpreted to be a result

248 G E O L O G Y , March 1991

of this. All three structures (the Acre basin high,
the Eirunepe high, and the Juma high) are
aligned with a N78°E orientation. The trans-
pressive highs may be related to changes in
wrench strike with reference to stress direction
(Fig. 1).
TIMING OF THE DEFORMATION
Deformation took place after the emplace-
ment of diabase sills and dikes from Triassic
(230 Ma) to early Late Jurassic (150 Ma) time
(Porsche, 1985; Silva, 1987). The igneous rocks
and the Paleozoic strata were folded and faulted
together, indicating that post-early Late Jurassic
tectonism took place in the region.
Following these events, widespread erosion
occurred before deposition of the Alter do Chao
Formation of Albian and younger age. This unit
is not tectonically disturbed (Figs. 3 and 4).
ORIGIN O F THE SOLIMOES
MEGASHEAR SYSTEM
The pre-Albian (pre late Early Cretaceous)
deformation may be closely related to the early
opening phase of the Equatorial and South
Atlantic oceans (Caputo, 1988). At this time the
South American lithospheric plate underwent
westward drift associated with strike-slip and ex-
tensional tectonism. Along the western edge of
the plate, subduction must have occurred at the
same time.
Feininger (1986) and Restrepo and Toussaint
(1988) have identified accreted terranes in
northwestern South America which are inter-
preted as microcontinental fragments, aseismic
ridges, or island arcs carried toward the growing
continent. Of particular interest is the vast Santi-
ago terrane of Ecuador and Peru (Feininger,
1986), which may have been emplaced against
cratonic South America in Late Jurassic time,
producing a southeast-directed paleostress.
Acidic volcanic rocks of the Chapiza Forma-
tion in Ecuador show that in Late Jurassic time
the border of cratonic South America consisted
of an emergent continental volcanic arc in
places.
I suggest that the final suturing of the Santiago
terrane produced shearing within the continent
during Late Jurassic time.
The allochthonous Eastern Andes terrane ap-
pears to have been accreted to northwestern
South America in Jurassic time, prior to a major
marine transgression during Early Cretaceous
time. The Cretaceous sedimentary rocks from
Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru are correlated
with the Alter do Chao Formation of the Soli-
moes basin. The arrival of relatively buoyant
masses of crust is interpreted to have caused the
orogenic stresses that generated the structures
along the Solimoes megashear and other similar
structures at distances far to the east in the
Amazon basin.
GEOLOGY, March 1991
ORIGIN OF THE IQUITOS ARCH
The Iquitos arch separates the intracratonic
Solimoes basin from the Subandean Pastaza and
Acre basins (Fig. 1). Paleozoic strata and
Jurassic-Triassic igneous rocks have been eroded
away in the arch area, and the Precambrian
basement was exposed by Late Jurassic to Early
Cretaceous time.
I believe that the Iquitos arch formed as the
result of flexural lithospheric uplift in response
to orogenic loading of the Andean belt along the
western edge of South America. Depressed areas
peripheral to the Andean belt (Subandean ba-
sins) were filled with marine and continental
deposits during Cretaceous and Tertiary time.
This mechanism of basin and arch develop-
ment is similar to that proposed by Walcott
(1970) for the Canadian Rocky mountain fore-
land. Overlap features along the apex of the
Iquitos arch indicate that its crest migrated east-
ward coeval with Cretaceous and Tertiary sedi-
mentation (Caputo, 1985).
CONCLUSIONS
The character and trends of faults and folds
along the Solimoes megashear correspond close-
ly to those associated with right-slip faulting and
agree with experimental patterns of Wilcox et al.
(1973) and Tchalenko (1970).
The role of preexisting basement discontinui-
ties was important in controlling the position
and nature of the en echelon structures. It is
possible that, in the sedimentary section, thick
competent diabase sills (over 900 m) have pre-
vented more ductile deformation. This wrench-
fault style has been used successfully as a guide
to finding significant accumulations of oil and
gas in the region.
Lateral displacements and large-scale trans-
pression along this major belt crossing the South
American plate during Late Jurassic time seem
to have been the main cause of oil trapping.
These events are associated with the initial
opening of the Equatorial and South Atlantic
oceans during the fragmentation of Gondwana.
The uplift of the Iquitos arch to the west is
interpreted as being associated with crustal
thickening along the western South American
margin as allochthonous terranes were accreted
to the craton. Stresses associated with these ac-
cretionary events may have affected the style of
deformation along the megashear far to the east,
within the continent.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank John C. Crowell, Kevin Burke, Kent
Nielsen, José Henrique Gongalves de Melo, and Nilo
Siguehiko Matsuda for discussions, suggestions, and
help with revision of this paper, and Petrobrás for
making this study possible.
Manuscript received May 29, 1990
Revised manuscript received October 2, 1990
Manuscript accepted October 15, 1990
249