José Antônio Cupertino

The Recôncavo basin

The Reconcavo basin forms the southern end of the inland Reconcavo-Tucano-Jatoba rift system, whose propagation to the north was arrested by the transverse Pernambuco shear zone, causing final rifting and continental break-up to propagate along an alternative path that gave rise to the present continental margin. Between the rift system and the Sergipe-Alagoas basin located along the Atlantic margin lies the triangular Sergipe Microplate that rotated counterclockwise during the early stages of rifting between South America and Africa. Both rift zones, and the microplate between them, are cut in two by the NW-SE trending Vaza-Barris transfer zone along which the border fault of the Reconcavo−Tucano-Jatoba rift flips its position. Thus, to the northeast of the transfer fault the North Tucano and Jatoba basins master faults are placed on the western rift margin; conversely, to the southwest of the Vaza-Barris transfer zone, the Central Tucano, South Tucano, and Reconcavo basins have the main boundary faults on the eastern border of the rift system. Other important cross faults also occur, and among them, the NW-SE Mata and Catu faults, which control the most prolific hydrocarbon trend of the rift, have been interpreted as formed separately as release faults in the hanging wall block of major normal faults.