Twelve Late Cretaceous to Holocene depositional sequences,

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grouped in four supersequences, have been recognized in the Pelotas, Santos, Campos, Espirito Santo, Cumuruxatiba, Sergipe-Alagoas, Potiguar, Barreirinhas, and Foz do Amazonas basins along the Brazilian continental margin.

In general, the sequences are bound by sharp breaks on seismic sections separating distinct seismic-stratigraphic patterns. The most common breaks include: the top of Albian-Cenomanian post-rift carbonate rocks; the top of lower Eocene or Paleocene, coincident with a change in the subsidence regime of the margin; the boundary between lower and upper Oligocene; the base of lower Miocene that marks the beginning of a well-developed progradational episode; the base of middle Miocene, and an upper Miocene top, both indicating major transgressions along the continental margin.

The sequences were analyzed and correlated along the basins by their main seismic and geologic parameters, being recognized by different depositional styles.

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