Radiocarbon geochronology of the Santos Basin continental slope

• Grant number: 24/18181-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Geological Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Michel Michaelovitch de Mahiques
• Grantee: Letícia Zanin de Oliveira Freitas
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/14356-5 - The Santos Bifurcation: present and past, AP.TEM

Abstract

The development of the Fapesp project "The Santos Bifurcation: Present and Past" (2020/14356-5) allowed a significant number of radiocarbon dates to be carried out on the continental slope of the Santos Basin (37 dates to date). However, these dates do not constitute the first radiocarbon data in the area, with Mahiques et al. (2011) being the first compilation of radiocarbon information regarding the south-southeastern continental margin of Brazil.The data cited above (from Mahiques et al. 2011) present some problems. An initial observation is that the geographic coordinates do not present the desired precision. In addition, the calibrated data did not extend to the current 50,000 years (Heaton et al. 2020; Hogg et al. 2020), which are currently available. Other dating methods are available in the literature for the continental slope in the Santos Basin, including Portilho-Ramos et al. (2006), Portilho-Ramos et al. (2018), Camillo et al. (2020) and Waelbroeck et al. (2019), among others. Another factor concerns the different reservoir effects used, since no consensus has been established on this subject over the last 20 years (Angulo et al. 2005; Alves et al. 2015).Within the scope of the SANBIF project, this procedure is tremendously important, as it will allow us to obtain a clearer picture of sedimentation rates, not only in the Santos Bifurcation area but also along the entire continental slope of the Santos Basin.