Tectonic evolution of the Brasília Belt, Central Brazil, and early assembly of Gondwana

Abstract

Abstract The Brasília Belt comprises terranes and thrust-sheets that were tectonically transported towards the western passive margin of the São Francisco–Congo palaeocontinent during an orogenic episode resulting from collision of the Paranapanema and Goiás blocks and the Goiás magmatic arc against São Francisco–Congo at 0.64–0.61 Ga. The tectonic zones of the belt are, from east to west: a foreland zone with Archaean–Palaeoproterozoic granite–greenstone basement covered by Neoproterozoic anchimetamorphic sedimentary rocks (Bambuí Group); a low metamorphic grade thrust-fold belt of proximal shelf successions, mostly siliciclastic, containing rare basement slivers; metamorphic nappes in upper greenschist to granulite facies of distal shelf and slope metasediments and subordinate tholeiitic metabasalts; the Goiás massif, possibly a microcontinent; and the Goiás magmatic arc. The accretion of these terranes against the western margin of the São Francisco–Congo palaeocontinent took place during an early phase of Gondwana supercontinent amalgamation, when terranes accreted around São Francisco–Congo to create a proto-West Gondwana landmass, around which subsequent collisional and accretionary events followed, such as those in the Borborema–Trans-Saharan province ( c. 0.62–0.60 Ga); in the Ribeira–Araçuaí belt ( c. 0.58 Ga); along the Araguaia and Paraguay belts (collision of Amazonia, c. 0.54–0.52 Ga); and the accretion of Cabo Frio terrane in the Ribeira Belt ( c. 0.53–0.50 Ga).