The northwestern margin of the Gondwana, in the Neocarboniferous period, was influenced by a large transgressive-regressive event, depositing thin carbonate sequences from Andean basins to center-southern portions of the paleocontinent, such as the stratigraphic boundaries of the Parnaíba Basin. The Higher Member of the Piauí Formation in the Parnaíba Basin, studied in the region of José de Freitas, displays richly fossiliferous carbonate deposits overlapped by prograding clinoforms, defining the transition from a transgressive system tract to an highstand system tract. The facies and stratigraphic analysis of this succession allowed the individualization of 17 sedimentary facies and microfacies grouped in four facies associations (FA): the FA1 – Campo de Dunas – is below to the further FA and is composed by thin and average sandstone, with well selected and rounded grains, displaying plane parallel stratification with high level of bioturbation, cross-tubular stratification and translatant subcritically climbing ripple cross-lamination. The FA2 - Shallow sea deposits – is composed by a carbonate plain with tubular and continuous layers of solid carbonate and fossiliferous peloids interspersed with thin lenses of bituminous shale. The FA3 – Frente Deltaica and FA4 – Prodelta consist of pelitic layers and thin and average sandstones, arcosians and quartz sandstones, marked by surfaces of subaerial exposure with shrinkage cracks, cemented by carbonate, arranged in continuous tabular layers or in the form of sigmoidal lobes, as well as liquefaction structures of the types load cast and flame, and fluidization of the type disruption of layers, which distort the strata. The facies data corroborate the idea that the sea in the Pennsylvanian retrograded up to the border of the Parnaíba Basin, and later with the Appalachian orogeny (300 Ma) the top of the Parnaíba River arched and stepped back the marine incursion, followed by a progradational event on marine deposits.
|
