Analyzing the gravity response of the Serra Geral Basalts and its impacts for the gravity interpretation in the northern Paraná Basin

The intraplate Paraná Basin encompasses an area of 1,127,400 km2 in the Brazilian territory and is characterized by the presence of thick basalt and intrusive units of the Serra Geral Formation. Around 70% of its surface is covered by flood basalts. The regional interpretation of the dataset, located in the northern portion of the basin, led to new insights regarding the structure of the basin and its relationship with the Proterozoic surroundings. A 3D model of the basalts, which at the center of the basin has a thickness around 2 km, was built in order to analyze its signal content and the effects in anomaly caused by the structure of the depocenter. The gravity effect of the basalt model on the Terrain Corrected Anomaly map was removed, using forward modeling, generating a new residual anomaly map giving a view of the depocenter anomaly without the interference of the basalts. The result suggests a SW-NE depocenter whose plan shape appears to be more irregular than previously thought and a basement structure divided into three clearly defined compartments separated by structural features, some defined in this work and others already known from previous studies. Following the workflow for regional gravity studies, the Moho gravity effect was also removed using three different crustal thickness models. The results of this step completely changed the low frequency framework of the dataset, addressing extensive highs spread from the central to the eastern portion of the survey area, not enhancing any anomalies related to known geological features mapped in prior geophysical studies.