Tectonic evolution of the Brusque Group, Dom Feliciano belt, Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil

Abstract

The Dom Feliciano Belt constitutes the main geotectonic unit of the southeastern portion of Brazil and Uruguay. It was formed by the end of the Neoproterozoic as a result of the interaction among the Rio de La Plata, Paranapanema, Congo and Kalahari cratons during the formation of Western Gondwana. The Brusque Group represents the supracrustal units of the Dom Feliciano Belt that occur in its northernmost part, which ends in the Brazilian coast and probable continuity in the Kaoko Belt in southwestern Africa. It is possible to constrain the evolution of the Brusque Group paleobasin to the Neoproterozoic, with the rift phase starting in the Tonian (940–840 Ma) and the main sedimentation occurring until 640 Ma, as indicated by the ages of the acid volcanic rocks intercalated with the metasedimentary sequence. The supracrustal rocks can be grouped in three main units lithostratigraphically organized from the oldest to the youngest: Rio Oliveira Formation (rift phase, predominating metavolcanic units), Botuverá Formation (metasedimentary) and Rio da Areia Formation (metavolcano–carbonatic). Between 640 and 600 Ma several metamorphism and deformation phases affected the Brusque Group. Around 600 ± 10 Ma the three granitic suites (São João Batista, Valsungana and Nova Trento) were emplaced within regional metamorphites, producing post-foliation S2 metamorphic aureoles. S2 represents the main foliation observed in the metavolcanosedimentary rocks that constitute the Brusque Group. The tectonic model for the evolution of Brusque Group can be better achieved only when the geochemical, isotopic and geochronologic information available for the Dom Feliciano Belt in Santa Catarina, is considered as a whole. Therefore it is here suggested that the Brusque Group initially evolved in an independent peri-cratonic basin setting separated from the Florianópolis – Pelotas-Aiguá magmatic arc by the Adamastor ocean, having been juxtaposed to it only around 600 Ma, when Brusque Group and the Florianópolis Batholith collided.