Origin and evolution of the granitic intrusions in the Brusque Group of the Dom Feliciano Belt, south Brazil: Petrostructural analysis and whole-rock/isotope geochemistry

Abstract

In the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina the Dom Feliciano Belt, formed by the tectonic juxtaposition of different crustal blocks during the Brasiliano-Pan African Orogenic cycle, can be divided into three domains. In the central domain, three granitic suites intrude the metavolcanosedimentary sequence of the Brusque Group: São João Batista (SJBS), Valsungana (VS) and Nova Trento (NTS), from the oldest to the youngest. This extensive magmatism, here referred to as granitic intrusions in the Brusqe Group (GIBG), is coeval with the thermal peak in the host metamorphic successions, but postdates its main foliation. A progressive deformation starting from the magmatic stage throughout the cooling history points to the influence of the late stages of deformation recorded in the Brusque Group.The SJBS consists of gray to white leucocratic, equigranular granites, with aluminous minerals such as muscovite, garnet and tourmaline. The porphyritic VS is the largest of the suites and is characterized by its cm-sized K-feldspar megacrysts in a coarse-grained biotite-rich matrix. The granites from the NTS are equigranular, light gray to pink in color and have biotite as the main mafic mineral, but magmatic muscovite, tourmaline and hornblende can occur as well.Geochemically, the GIBG are mildly peraluminous and show a calc-alkaline affinity. Most intrusions have a high REE fractionation, but some SJBS granites show a characteristic pattern with no fractionation and strong negative Eu anomalies (“seagull pattern”). Elevated Sr(i) values, between 0.707 and 0.735, and negative εNd values as low as −24 points to the melting of old evolved crust. The Nd (TDM) ages are scattered between 1.54 and 2.76 Ga, with a predominance of values around 2.0 Ga.The GIBG have a strong crustal signature that most closely connects, within the regional units, to that of the metasedimentary rocks of the Brusque Group and its crystalline basement, the Camboriú Complex. All three suites seem to have been produced during a same regional melting event, but at different crustal levels and reflecting heterogeneities within the same source rocks. Most evidences imply that sedimentary source rocks were especially important to the SJBS, which probably originated in a shallower environment, whilst the VS and NTS represent the melting of deeper crystalline crust, probably sharing some magmatic interaction.