Study of the origin and evolution of the moving belts of the Southern and Southeastern continental shelf of Brazil

• Grant number: 17/19505-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: November 01, 2017
• End date: July 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Geological Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Michel Michaelovitch de Mahiques
• Grantee: Jorge Luiz dos Passos Nascimento
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/17763-2 - Mudbelts from the South and Southeast Brazil: implications about the anthropogenic influence on the marine environment, AP.TEM

Abstract

Passive continental margins are a potential location for the high amount of sediment accumulations, or depocenters, mainly because of their large extension and the variety of coastal and oceanic processes. In general, the location of these depocenters are controlled for the wave base level, and reflects the oceanographic conditions by their morphology and internal stratigraphic pattern, by the way that the distribution of the sediments depends on the wind driven currents and oceanic circulation pattern, the relative sea level, the sediment supply and the distance of this and the depocenter. In this sense, the South and Southern Brazilian continental shelf have shown different types of deposits such as mud-depocenters that can be expressed like large mud belts, occurring over the middle shelf and eventually also over the outer shelf, where they are supposed to be influenced by the meandering pattern of the Brazil current. These deposits are an important goal for understood and reconstruct the Holocene paleo-processes. Furthermore, some of these depocenters can be nowadays in the activity of sedimentation, indicating anthropogenic actions over sediments content, such as persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals, and this accumulation can return to the water column with future changes in oceanographic conditions. The comprehension of the morphology and 3D seismostratigraphic architecture of these deposits are a gap of knowledge in the South and Southern Brazilian coast and points to a likely range of variety research issues. (AU)