O Neógeno e Pleistoceno da Amazônia Central: Palinoestratigrafia, Paleoambiente e relação com os eventos evolutivos do Rio Amazonas

Abstract

Outcrop-based facies analysis of 25 m-thick Neogene succession was carried out in the Eastern Solimões Basin, Central Amazonia. The Miocene Solimões Formation includes lake/overbank, suspended-load meandering fluvial channel with subdelta crevasse, and flood plain/crevasse splay deposits, confirming the previously interpreted Pebas-Solimões megawetland system. The Upper Pleistocene Içá Formation unconformably overlies the Solimões Formation and comprises mixed load to bedload meandering fluvial channel and floodplain deposits. The Solimões Formation's palynostratigraphy was carried in this exposed succession and a drill core (196-291 m), generally in organic matter-rich mudrock. The occurrence of exclusively continental fossils associated with phytoclasts and freshwater algae such as Ovoidites confirm the wetland setting restricted to Western Amazonia. Monoporopollenites annuulatus and other grasses indicate an oscillation between shrub and tree phases linked to dry and humid interval fluctuations. The upper Miocene-Pliocene ages for the Solimões Formation obtained since amplitudes zones identified mainly Crassoretitriletes vanraadshovenii, Echiperiporites akanthos, Echiperiporites stelae, Fenestrites spinosus, Psilastephanoporites tesseroporus, Grimsdalea magnaclavata, and Alnipollenites verus. The first appearance of Alnipollenites verus is modified for the Miocene. Reworked palynomorphs found in this succession indicate autocyclic processes related to the environmental dynamic, while acritarchs indicate erosion of Paleozoic source areas. The Andean tectonics affected Central Amazonia dramatically, causing the progressive uplift of the Solimões Basin and the emergence and demise of the Pebas-Solimões mega-wetland succession. This progradation event was amplified by the expressive sea-level fall in the middle-Tortonian (11-8 Ma), resulting in the Andean Amazon River's onset. The generated unconformity resulted in a gap and bypass sediment of ~ 9,5 Ma. Only in the Late Pleistocene, the Solimões Basin subsided, causing the implantation of a mixed- to bedload meandering system that represents the sedimentation restart of the Amazon River in the Central Amazonia.