Basalt magmatism along the passive continental margin of SE Brazil (Campos basin)

1992

The SE-Brazil passive continental margin is characterized by tholeiitic magmatism that is particularly widespread in the marginal Campos basin, facing the inland flood basalts of the adjacent Parana basin. Campos magmatism is represented by Early Cretaceous (EC; 134–122 Ma) flood basalts and minor Upper Cretaceous-Early Tertiary basalt flows and intrusives, which were emplaced in a basin with attenuated crustal thickness (20 km). Petrography, mineral chemistry, wholerock geochemistry and Sr−Nd isotope composition emphasize that the EC-Campos basalts have suffered extensive seawater interaction which caused enrichment in MgO, FeO total, K2O, Rb and Ba, and depletion in SiO2 and CaO, while Zr…