Deep seismic reflection profiling of sedimentary basins offshore Brazil: Geological objectives and preliminary results in the Sergipe Basin

The first deep seismic reflection profiles offshore Brazil were acquired in Campos Basin and processed to 10 s TWT in 1984. Starting in 1989, Petrobrás acquired an extensive data set of deep seismic profiles using special acquisition equipment capable of effectively penetrating through the sedimentary layers and imaging the whole crustal architecture. These deep (18 s TWT) seismic reflection profiles extend across the Atlantic-type marginal basins, from the platform to the deepwater province, presently considered frontier regions for petroleum exploration. This work addresses the geological objectives of a deep seismic profile in the Sergipe Basin and discusses the results obtained by integrating regional seismic, gravity and magnetic data. When combined, these data provide evidence that deep seismic reflectors observed in the Sergipe Basin are related to intracrustal-upper mantle structures rather than sedimentary features. The deep seismic reflection profile in the Sergipe Basin also suggests that, rather than a non-volcanic passive margin, the deepwater extension of this basin is marked by several magmatic structures, including thick wedges of seaward-dipping reflectors and volcanic plugs. These magmatic features are associated with basinforming processes resulting from lithospheric extension during the breakup of Gondwana in the Early Cretaceous and subsequent emplacement of oceanic crust. These results are compared to the crustal scale structures observed in the Campos Basin, in the southeastern margin of Brazil. The interpretation of the deep structure of these basins indicates that final separation between the South American and African plates formed passive margins characterized by different patterns of crustal attenuation underlying the rift blocks.     

An infrared study of the double nucleus in NGC 3256

We present new resolved near- and mid-infrared (mid-IR) imaging and N -band spectroscopy of the two nuclei in the merger system NGC 3256, the most IR luminous galaxy in the nearby Universe. The results from the spectral energy distribution fit to the data are consistent with previous estimates of the amount of obscuration towards the nuclei and the nuclear star formation rates. However, we also find substantial differences in the infrared emission from the two nuclei which cannot be explained by obscuration alone. We conclude that the northern nucleus requires an additional component of warm dust in order to explain its properties. This suggests that local star-forming conditions can vary significantly within the environment of a single system.