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Carbonate deposits are numerous and have undeniable economic appeal for the oil industry. However, there are many uncertainties associated with different aspects of these lithologies. Understanding carbonate factories and their global distribution has been a subject of discussion in recent decades, especially concerning the products expected from different carbonate systems, their response to sea‐level variations and the transition between different depositional environments. Therefore, the goal of this study was to understand the role of sea‐level variations, and geodynamics in factories and the evolution of Albian depositional sequences on the south‐east continental margin of Brazil. Fifteen lithofacies consisting of seven facies associations and five third‐order sequences were identified. Sequence boundaries are unconformities formed by erosion or non‐deposition surfaces, representing either exposure periods or drowning events, and their correlative condensed sections. The first sequence, deposited in a shallow lagoon environment, recorded the onset of the T‐factory and the start‐up phase of the shelf. The second sequence represents a period of broad carbonate deposition in the basin, related to the catch‐up phase of the platform. The third sequence was established during a sea‐level rise and recorded the keep‐up phase of the platform and the transition from tropical to cool waters. The fourth sequence, was deposited in a deep marine environment and the fifth and last, recorded the shelf drowning. The succession typifies the beginning, the pinnacle and the end of carbonate deposition, spanning the initial and final highstand system tracts. The whole succession is part of a first‐order transgressive cycle that led to a factory transition and culminated with the definitive drowning of the depositional system.

The application of sequence stratigraphy concepts to continental deposits lacking the referece provided sea level has been a challenge, mainly because the temporal relationships between stratigraphic surfaces and systems tracts depend on the tectonic and climatic evolution of the area. Using the concept of accommodation space (A) and sediment supply (S), we identify specific stacking patterns of aeolian, lacustrine, fluvial and alluvial systems that correspond to the particular tectonic and climatic evolution of the southeastern portion of South America. With the end of the Early Cretaceous volcanism (133 Ma), the southeastern portion of South America underwent tectonic restructuring, which generated basins that encompassed continental sedimentary sequences. The tectonic events responsible for the accumulation of these sequences occurred during two primary phases. The first phase is related to Early Cretaceous thermal subsidence, which was more pronounced in the regions where the thickest Serra Geral Formation basaltic successions are found, resulting in the formation of Bauru Basin. The second phase was related to the Late Cretaceous uplift in southeastern Brazil as a result of magmatic/volcanic activity associated with the Trindade Mantle Plume. Stratigraphic analysis based on well-logs and outcrops and aided by petrographic studies identified three sequences that are bounded by regional unconformities that record important changes in the Bauru Basin's tectonic and paleoenvironmental conditions. The unconformity K-0 is related to the origin of the Bauru Basin in the Early Cretaceous. The Early Cretaceous Sequence 1 (Caiua Group) is interpreted as a second- order sequence, formed by aeolian and fluvial deposits and constituting a Fluvial-Aeolian Systems Tract. Unconformity K-1 that was generated in the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian – Campanian?) is related to the tectonic evolution of the basin and source area. Overlying Unconformity K-1, lacustrine, fluvial and alluvial deposits display progradational characteristics of the two-third- order sequences: Sequences 2A and 2B, constituted by the Fluvial-Lacustrine and Alluvial Systems Tracts, respectively, and separated by the Unconformity K-1A. Sedimentological characteristics, paleosols and stratigraphic architecture, suggest that A/S ratio was neutral in the late stage of the Sequence 1, whereas in the Sequence 2 there was an increase (Sequence 2A) followed by a decrease in the A/S ratio (Sequence 2B). Aeolian facies and paleosol P1 (Sequence 1), fluvial-lacustrine facies and hydromorphic soils (Sequence 2A), and alluvial facies and Paleosol P2 (Sequence 2B), indicate climatic changes in the South American during the Cretaceous. The stratigraphic framework, subaerial unconformities and paleosols provide key elements for subdividing of the Brazilian continental sequence into third-order sequences and systems tracts, for identification of allocyclic and autocyclic patterns in time and space.