Evolution of Brasiliano-age granitoid types in a shear-zone environment, Umarizal-Caraubas region, Rio Grande do Norte, northeast Brazil

Abstract

A sequence of Brasiliano-age granitoid types is exposed in a small area near the cities of Umarizal and Caraúbas in Rio Grande do Norte State, Northeast Brazil. Porphyritic K-alkali-calcic monzogranite is an important facies of the oldest Caraúbas intrusion (RbSr whole rock isochron age of ca. 630 Ma), which suffered solid-state deformation due to movements on a major NE-trending shear zone. The intrusion of the Prado and part of the Quixaba bodies was probably controlled by the shear zone. These two bodies include mafic/intermediate rocks, some of which contain two pyroxenes, and have hybrid, partly alkaline and partly shoshonitic geochemical characteristics. Rock types and ages are similar to those of some Pan-African occurrences in southwestern Nigeria. The Tourão body, intruded at ca. 590 Ma, presents preferred mineral orientations which are probably largely magmatic, since little evidence is found for widespread solid-state deformation. On the other hand, its intrusion may have been facilitated by the presence of the shear-zone faults. The rocks form a monomodal felsic K-alkali-calcic suite. With the exception of the Quixaba body, all these earlier granitoids are magmatic epidote- and magnetite-bearing porphyritic monzogranites with trace element geochemical characteristics of modern syn-collisional granites. The latest intrusion at ca. 545 Ma is mainly represented by potassic quartz syenites and related rocks, some of which contain fayalite or ferrohypersthene. These rocks possess neither well developed mineral orientations of magmatic origin nor signs of solid-state deformation. They are mineralogically similar to, but younger than some of the “bauchites” of central Nigeria. Geochemical signatures are comparable with those of modern within-plate granites. All granitoids present high ( 87Sr/ 86Sr)i ratios which range from 0.708 to 0.712, and increase with decreasing age. Such ratios are compatible with important or dominant crustal contributions. On the other hand, the more mafic rocks are likely to have formed from enriched mantle.