Aerogeophysical systematics applied to the geological reconnaissance of the Eastern Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain, Borborema Province: The Ipojuca-Atalaia Batholith

Over the past few decades, geological and geophysical studies in the Borborema Province (NE Brazil) have evolved considerably, especially in the North and Central subprovinces. However, the Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain, inserted in the South subprovince, does not have, up to now, detailed geophysical and geological studies, mainly due to a thick soil profile, which make difficulty the geological survey in the region. The aerogeophysical study of an area located in the Ipojuca-Atalaia Batholith, Eastern part of the Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain allowed the delimitation of the lithogeophysical and magnetic geophysical domains, main directions of the lineaments, main shear zones, and their behavior in depth through the upward continuation and the Euler Deconvolution. The set of integrated magnetometric data revealed that the region was intensely deformed by a set of transcurrent shear zones of NE-SW direction. Aerogammaspectrometric data enabled the improvement of the geological mapping (1) of the Western part of the Ipojuca-Atalaia Batholith granitic plutons and gneisses and (2) of the limits of the batholith with the adjoining crustal sub-domains. The integration of the whole set of aero magnetometric and aero gammaspectrometric data also provides a basis for a better understanding of the tectonic evolution of the studied area and the Ipojuca-Atalaia Batholith. The radial power spectrum, proposed by Bhattacharyya (1966) and reevaluated by Spector and Grant (1970), was applied to the anomalous magnetic field image, to segregate response from magnetic sources (shallow and deep) and trace the linear components of the spectrum which, in turn, depict intervals of the depths of the magnetic sources. •Crustal boundary in the Eastern Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain revealed by aeromagnetic data.•Accretionary process in Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain and its implications in the Borborema Province.•Gamma-ray spectrometry for the characterization of the plutons of the west portion of Ipojuca-Atalaia Batholith.