The Araçuaí belt corresponds to the external portion of the western half of the Araçuaí-West Congo Neoproterozoic orogen. The Araçuaí belt fringes the São Francisco craton to east and is separated from the crystalline core of the orogen by the Abre Campo geophysical discontinuity. The southern Araçuaí belt involves four major lithologic units: the Archean and Paleoproterozoic gneisses of the Mantiqueira Complex, the Pedra Dourada Charnockite, the Paleoproterozoic Borrachudos Granitoid, and the metavolcanosedimentary rocks of the Dom Silvério Group. The Dom Silvério Group occurs in a NNE-SSW striking belt and consists of a thick package of metapelitic rocks with intercalations of quartzites, amphibolites, meta-ultramafics, banded iron formations, gondites and marbles. All units of the southern Araçuaí belt underwent four synmetamorphic phases of deformation in the course of the Brasiliano event. The first phase, synchronous to a regional amphibolite facies metamorphism, was associated to a general tectonic transport towards north along the left-lateral Dom Silvério shear zone and its low angle segment. The second and third phases represent progressive stages of a west directed shortening, which led to the development of local thrusts and pervasive folds in several scales. The fourth phase is extensional and reflects the collapse of the orogen.
TECTONIC IMPLICATIONS OF ARCHEAN CALC-ALKALIME AND THOLEIITIC MAG-MATIC EVENTS IN THE QUADRILÁTERO FERRÍFERO, BRAZIL Mafic amphibolitic dikes cutting tonalitic rocks with little evidence of metamorphism are one of the singularities in the crusta, evolution of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, in Minas Gerais. Petrographic, geochemical and geochronogical studies show that in the Bonfim Metamorphic Complex these rock types constitute two distinct magmatic series, one tholeiitic and the other calcalkaline. They were partially metamorphosed under the conditions of higher greenschist to lower amphibolite facies. In the calcalkaline tonalites the metamorphic reactions, which required the introduction of water, were difficulted by their massive structure. Therefore primary textures and mineralogy were mostly preserved. In the tholeiitic rocks of the dikes the metamorphism was more homogeneous because the primary igneous mineralogy, rich in pyroxenes, is more sensible to hydration reactions than the mineralogy of the tonalites. The access of the needed aqueous fluids certainly was more effective to the mafic rocks because fluids tend to be concentrated in zones of crustal weakness such as dikes. We conclude that the non-penetrative metamorphic recrystallization of the two rocks series under the conditions of the higher greenschist to lower amphibolite facies, and also the preservation of early Archean U/Pb ages in titanites of the tonalites, indicate that the studied region was not submitted to any penetrative tectonometamorphic event of higher metamorphic conditions than the lower amphibolite facies during the Proterozoic. Therefore we also conclude that the tectonometamorphic overprinting of the Transamazonian Event (2.2 My) in the Bonfim Metamorphic Complex and probably also in the rest of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero was heterogeneous, not affecting all áreas with the same intensity.
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