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2 - The geology of the Crato Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2009

David M. Martill
Affiliation:
University of Portsmouth
Günter Bechly
Affiliation:
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart
Robert F. Loveridge
Affiliation:
University of Portsmouth
David M. Martill
Affiliation:
Reader in Palaeobiology in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth
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Summary

Introduction

The Crato Formation crops out around the northern, eastern and south-eastern flanks of the Chapada do Araripe plateau that sits at the boundaries of southern Ceará, western Pernambuco and south-eastern Piauí in north-eastern Brazilian caatinga (Martill, 1993; Neumann and Cabrera, 1999).

The formation comprises a heterolithic sequence of clastic and carbonate strata currently restricted to within the Araripe Basin and a few smaller, interconnected basins such as the Serra do Vermelha and Cedro Basins (Assine, 1990, 1992; Carvalho, 2001). It is remarkable for its exceptionally well-preserved fossil assemblages and its limestones are economically important for cement manufacture and building materials (see Chapter 5). Parts of the formation, especially some of the limestone units, are also remarkable for their lateral continuity considering how thin some of the units are and how lithologically variable the sequence is vertically. There have been few detailed studies of the geology, stratigraphy or sedimentology of the Crato Formation as a stratigraphic unit, but the palaeontology of the lowermost of its limestone members has received considerable attention. The unit was first mapped in detail during the Projeto Santana as a separate entity (Moraes et al., 1976), although its definition was unclear. Beurlen (1962, 1963) provided a series of cross-sections across the Chapada do Araripe demonstrating its unconformable relationship with the basement and overlap by younger strata.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Crato Fossil Beds of Brazil
Window into an Ancient World
, pp. 8 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

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