Elsevier

Precambrian Research

Volume 365, October 2021, 106381
Precambrian Research

Multi-dimensional scaling of detrital zircon geochronology constrains basin evolution of the late Mesoproterozoic Paranoá Group, central Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2021.106381Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Proposition of segmentation of the Paranoá Group in sequences and tectonic stages.

  • Geochronological data to establish the source areas of the Paranoá basin.

  • Multi-dimensional scaling of detrital zircon to evaluate Precambrian basins.

Abstract

Some of Proterozoic basin data are commonly difficult to assess due to the complexity of tectonic processes and lack of volcanic rocks and fossil record. The Mesoproterozoic Paranoá Basin in Central Brazil was investigated through stratigraphic framework integration, depositional environmental analysis and with detrital zircon and statistical analysis. Paranoá Group was evolved in three phases: i) Proto-Basin Stage represents the basal succession, including the transition from the continental environment (alluvial fans) to shallow water platform conditions; ii) Expansion Basin Stage, which includes the most significant sediment thickness and the essential contrasting depositional environment, including tide-dominated platform, storm dominated platform, supratidal and foreshore conditions and iii) Final Basin Stage represents the shallower environment condition, including mix siliciclastic – carbonate successions. The stages are related to different depositional space creation mechanisms: mechanical subsidence to the Proto-Basin Stage, thermo-flexural subsidence to the Expansion Basin Stage, and flexural subsidence to the Final Basin Stage. The detrital zircon data allied with multidimensional scale were crucial to constrain the basin's tectonic evolution. For the basal succession, the maximum depositional age is ∼1.5 Ga with the local crystalline basement (Aurumina Suite tonalitic and granodioritic gneiss). The source areas changed during the expansion stage, in which the sedimentary successions accumulated during this stage present maximum depositional age of ∼1.3 Ga and a widespread distribution pattern. In the final phase, the maximum depositional age is ∼1.1 Ga, including a complex distribution of ages representative of different source areas. The new and compiled data presented in this study provide new insights about the Goiás-Pharusian opening and implications on the configuration in the western margin of the São Francisco Craton.

Introduction

Intracontinental basins are known to be long-lasting systems (Bradley, 2008). They have complex subsidence histories, frequently containing significant unconformities, often marked by erosion and reworking of sediments previously deposited or marked by periods of non-deposition (Allen and Allen, 2013). These basins are essential records of long periods of the Earth’s history but establishing a depositional age and life span of such basins is a challenge in the Proterozoic. The intracratonic deposition is characteristic of the western portion of the São Francisco Craton, Brazil, where several Proterozoic basins conceal long temporal records and are key to unveil important aspects of Precambrian basin evolution.

The Mesoproterozoic Paranoá Group was deposited along the western São Francisco Craton and represents a cratonic margin basin exposed in the Neoproterozoic Brasília Fold Belt (Martins-Ferreira et al., 2018b, Seraine et al., 2020). Previous studies address two main unconformities for the Paranoá Group: a lower unconformity that separates the Paranoá from the underlying Group Traíras Group (Calymmian) units, and an upper unconformity that separates them from overlying the Bambuí Group (Ediacaran) units (Faria, 1995, Dardenne, 2000, Alvarenga et al., 2012, Campos et al., 2013). Locally, the Paranoá Group is overlain by a glaciogenic sequence of the Jequitaí Formation of the Bambuí Group (Martins-Ferreira et al., 2013). However, the basin evolution and depositional history of the Paranoá Group is lacking proper characterization and description. The absence of fossils in the rock record and igneous age data hinder the construction of a more detailed history of the depositional systems, sediment sources, and overall basin evolution.

Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology has been widely used to constrain the depositional age of sedimentary sequences worldwide and in the Paranoá Group (e.g., Pimentel, 2016, Matteini et al., 2012, Oliveira, 2016, Martins-Ferreira et al., 2018a, Seraine et al., 2020). The detrital zircon U-Pb age distribution is often required to enable stratigraphic correlations across the basin and highlight variations in the source of detrital material. Besides, it allows identifying changes in the geological setting, such as magmatic events in the source areas and possible characterization of unconformities and paraconformities.

To better constrain basin infill through time and consequently the tectono-sedimentary evolution, we investigated the detrital zircon contribution together with multidimensional scaling investigation the Mesoproterozoic Paranoá Group through newly acquired and compiled databases of zircon U-Pb detrital ages. Geochronological, sedimentological, and sequence stratigraphy studies are thus applied to shed light on the possibility of new depositional hiatus across the sedimentary succession. These data are essential to unravel the original basin framework and unconformities within the basin. In a broader context, the data presented in this paper have implications on the formation of the Goiás-Pharusian passive margin and timing of the breakup of the São Francisco-Congo cratons during the Meso-Neoproterozoic, and later configuration of West Gondwana.

Section snippets

Geological setting

Proterozoic sedimentary strata are widely exposed in the Brasília Belt (Fig. 1), central Brazil, which is one of the most complete and complex Neoproterozoic orogens in western Gondwana (Pimentel, 2016). The Brasília Belt developed in response to the convergence of the Amazonas, São Francisco, and Paranapanema Cratonic blocks. The lithostratigraphic units of the Brasília Belt include the Araí, Traíras, Paranoá, Canastra, Vazante, Ibiá, Araxá, and Bambuí Groups (Pimentel et al., 2001, Valeriano

Stratigraphy of the Paranoá Group

The combined analyses carried out in previous studies indicate that sediment deposition in the Paranoá Group occurred in a shallow marine environment, with persistent fluctuating base level (Campos et al., 2012, Campos et al., 2013). The only exception is the group's basal unit (Ribeirão São Miguel Formation), where deposition occurred as alluvial fans under subaerial conditions.

The Paranoá Group probably represents a long-lived basin with a complex subsidence history (Martins-Ferreira, 2017)

Material and methods

We present new U-Pb data of detrital zircon grains from three samples of the Córrego do Barreiro Formation (1612_Brazlândia samples) and Ribeirão Piçarrão Formation (MS34 sample). Compiled U-Pb data from previous studies including Paranoá Group samples (Pimentel et al., 2011, Martins-Ferreira, 2017, Matteini et al., 2012, Oliveira. 2017, Martins-Ferreira et al., 2018a, Seraine et al., 2020) were used to compose a comprehensive age database. U-Pb samples and standard data can be found in

Results

In total, this study includes 1076 detrital zircon grains from the Paranoá Group (Matteini et al., 2012, Oliveira. 2017, Martins-Ferreira et al., 2018a, Seraine et al., 2020; this study). New detrital zircon analyses were obtained in the Ribeirão do Piçarrão (55 concordant grains), and Córrego do Barreiro formations (52 grains) by Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The Córrego do Barreiro Formation detrital zircon is legacy data and the results of reference

Discussions

In this study, we suggest three primary sequences and stages (Lower, Intermediate and Upper), evidenced by the presence of three distinct detrital zircon populations (1.5 Ga, 1.4–1.3 Ga, and 1.1 Ga), stratigraphic interpretation and multidimensional scaling data (Table 1).

The Lower sequence comprises four stratigraphic parasequences and it is composed of Ribeirão Miguel, Córrego do Cordovil, Serra da Boa vista, Serra Almécegas and Serra do Paranã formations, showing a maximum depositional age

Conclusions

The tectonic and depositional histories of the Paranoá Basin are much more complex than previously considered and the combination of U-Pb detrital zircon ages with multi-dimensional scaling have shown to be essential to clarify basin evolution. Considering the stratigraphic framework and maximum depositional ages, the Paranoá Group can be divided into three main sections. Each sequence marks three distinct evolution stages of the Paranoá Basin: Initial, Expansion, and Final. The Initial Stage

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Marina Seraine: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. José Eloi Guimarães Campos: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Marco Antonio Caçador Martins-Ferreira: Conceptualization,

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Geosciences Institute of the University of Brasília (UnB), Brazil for providing fieldwork financial and logistic support and the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) for the master's scholarship granted to the first author. Process number: 170906/2017-5.

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