Tectônica rúptil e sismicidade na área de inundação do açude do Castamhão (CE): implicações para o risco sísmico

Abstract

This study describes brittle deformation and seismicity in the Castanhão Dam region, Ceará State, Brazil. This reservoir will include a hidroeletric power plant and will store about 6,7 billions m3 of water. Five main litostratigraphic unit were identified in the region: gneissic-migmatitic basement, metavolcanosedimentary sequence, granitoid plutons of Brasiliano age, Mesozoic basaltic dike swarm, and Cenozoic fluvial terraces of the Jaguaribe river. The region has experienced several faulting events that occurred at different crustal levels. Faults formed at depths less than about 12 km present left-lateral movement and are associated with epidote and quartz infillings. Faults formed at depths less than 7 km are mainly strike-slip present cataclastic rocks, fault breccia and gouge. Both fault groups form mainly NE-trendind lineaments and represent reactivation of ductile shear zones or new formed faults that cut across existing structures. Seismically-induced liquefaction fractures take place in Cenozoic terraces and indicate paleoearthquakes that may have reached at leat 6,8 MS. In short, this work indicate that the level of paleoseismicity is much greater than one observed in the instrumental record. Several faults are favourably oriented for reactivation and induced seismicity should be expected after the Castanhão Dam impoudment