The Santos Formation ( pt, Formacão Santos) is a

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

of the

Santos Basin The Santos Basin ( pt, Bacia de Santos) is an approximately large mostly offshore sedimentary basin. It is located in the south Atlantic Ocean, some southeast of Santos, Brazil. The basin is one of the Brazilian basins to have resulted from th ...

offshore of the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian states of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, Paraná and Santa Catarina. The predominantly conglomeratic

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

formation with interbedded

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

s dates to the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

period;

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

epochs and has a maximum thickness of .

Etymology

The formation is as the Santos Basin named after the city of Santos, São Paulo.

Description

The Santos Formation is thick,Kiang Chang et al., 2008, p.32 and consists of reddish lithic conglomerates and

s, interbedded with grey

s and reddish clays. These facies are interbedded and change laterally into the Itajai-Açu and Juréia Formations. The

depositional environment In geology, depositional environment or sedimentary environment describes the combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes associated with the deposition of a particular type of sediment and, therefore, the rock types that will be ...

is thought to be transitional continental to marginal marine, ranging from

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

braided river A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment l ...

s and deltas. Biostratigraphic data indicate a

age (

).Clemente, 2013, p.23

References

Bibliography

* * {{cite LSA , last=Kiang Chang , first=Hung , last2=Assine , first2=Mario Luis , last3=Santos Corrêa , first3=Fernando , last4=Setsuo Tinen , first4=Julio , last5=Campane Vidal , first5=Alexandre , last6=Koike , first6=Luzia , year=2008 , title=Sistemas petrolíferos e modelos de acumulação de hidrocarbonetos na Bacia de Santos , url=http://geomuseu.ist.utl.pt/GSP2012/GSP2009/Casos%20de%20estudo%20SP/GSP%20Bacia%20Santos.pdf , journal= Revista Brasileira de Geociências , volume=38 , pages=29–46 , accessdate=2017-09-04 Geologic formations of Brazil Santos Basin Cretaceous Brazil Upper Cretaceous Series of South America Maastrichtian Stage of South America Campanian Stage Santonian Stage Coniacian Stage Turonian Stage Cenomanian Stage Conglomerate formations Sandstone formations Shale formations Alluvial deposits Fluvial deposits Deltaic deposits Formations Formations Formations Formations

Etymology

Description

See also

References

Bibliography