Granulite-facies metamorphism at ca. 570-580 Ma in the Porangatu Granulite Complex, central Brazil: implications for the evolution of the Transbrasiliano Lineament

Abstract

The Porangatu Granulite Complex is exposed in the central part of the Neoproterozoic Tocantins province in central Brazil, along the boundary between the Brasilia Belt to the east and the Araguaia Belt to the west. This is part of the transcontinental Transbrasiliano-Kandi shear system. The complex includes garnet-rich enderbite and charnockite, high-grade gneisses as well as lenses of garnet-bearing mafic granulite or amphibolites, and in situ anatectic charnockite, elongated in the NNE-SSW direction along the Talisma Shear Zone (TSZ). These rocks represent suites of ortho-derived rocks of calc-alkaline affinity and small contributions of tholeiitic basalts and aluminous paragneisses. The structural framework records thrust components probably related to the early stages of an oblique collision during the evolution of Neoproterozoic Brasiliano orogens, and can be understood as involving a collisional system of two crustal blocks, initially with thrust components which in its final stage evolved to a transcurrent system with dextral movement. This led to intense imbrication, generation of mylonitic foliation, stretching lineation, tectonic banding and rotation of structures and minerals. The heterogeneous and progressive ductile deformation was accompanied by metamorphic re-equilibrium in late Neoproterozoic time. Granulite facies conditions reached a metamorphic maximum at temperature and pressure above 850°C and 10 kbar, in an almost anhydrous environment, with or without anatexis. Zircon U-Pb SHRIMP analyses for two selected rock samples indicated the combined age of 580 ± 7 Ma for a charnockite and 548 ± 48 Ma for a mafic granulite from which the charnockite is throught to have been derived. The mafic granulite contains zircon grains of ca. 2.1 Ga, indicating Paleoproterozoic igneous protoliths involved in Neoproterozoic high-grade metamorphism. In addition, older inherited zircon grains of ca. 3.1 and 2.0 Ga ( 207 Pb/ 206 Pb ages) in charnockite also confirm the existence of older Archaean and Paleoproterozoic material in this region, possibly derived from the Goias Massif. A 0.88 Ga inherited zircon grain is suggestive of derivation from the Goias Magmatic Arc. This Neoproterozoic age for the high-grade metamorphism is substantially younger than those reported for other granulites in the Brasilia Belt (ca. 0.65 Ga), suggesting that the Porangatu Granulite Complex is more probably associated with the evolution of the younger Araguaia Belt. The new field, structural, petrographic and geochronological data suggest that the Porangatu Granulite Complex was involved in a high-temperature ductile strike-slip shear zone juxtaposing terrains of different ages (Archaean, Paleoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic), crustal nature and level (lower and middle continental crust), strongly reworked during the final stages of the Brasiliano orogeny, and represents the exposed roots of the Tocantins orogen.