Compartimentação Morfoestrutural da Serra dos Martins-RN

Abstract

Serra dos Martins, located in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, is a plateau disconnected from Planalto da Borborema, considered as a structural massif, having as its shape a softly flat top, structured on Paleogene sediments (Fm. Serra dos Martins), and granitic rocks as its basal unit. An important aspect to consider in this section is the sediment capping found at the top of the said terrain in the high sectors of the northern Northeast, in which this sort of lithology is not common. Thus, this paper intends to present a proposal for morphostructural partitioning for Serra dos Martins, by mapping and characterizing the sections and the surroundings of the said plateau, using Digital Terrain Model (DTM) obtained from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission images (STRM), in an attempt to correlate the terrain shapes to the structuring material and processes. Such mapping and characterization, performed using ArcGIS software, allowed the identification of 2 (two) sectors and thirteen (13) sub-sectors. The analysis developed in the present study field shows that its geology and morphologic-procedural conditions alone do not explain the fact that there is a sedimentary cover in the concerned plateau. Furthermore, the tectonics has important contribution as one of the action mechanisms in the generation of high plateaus with sedimentary Paleogene.