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The Eastern Pampean Ranges comprise high-grade supracrustal sequences with linear belts of mafi c-ultramafi c bodies representing ophiolite remnants. New U-Pb and Nd isotopic data suggest that the tectonic evolution of the Pampean Ranges started ca. 640 Ma with the deposition of supracrustal sequences in a backarc basin between a Neoproterozoic magmatic arc to the east and the Pampia terrane to the west. Ophiolite remnants of this backarc basin yielded a wholerock isochron indicating the age of 647 ± 77 Ma (2σ) and ε Nd (initial time [T]) of +5.2. Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe U-Pb data for detrital metasediments show provenance patterns with two main age populations: the older 1.1-0.9 Ga, and the younger between ca. 0.7 and 0.6 Ga. The Neoproterozoic population is relatively more abundant in sediments of the easternmost units of the Eastern Pampean Ranges and becomes less abundant toward the west. Depleted mantle ages show a similar pattern, with ages generally increasing from east (1.42 Ga) to west (1.76 Ga), suggesting the presence of Neoproterozoic sources to the east of the ranges. The provenance data do not support previous evolution models for the Eastern Pampean Ranges, according to which the supracrustal sequence represents the passive margin of the Río de la Plata craton. Early Cambrian collision and high-grade metamorphism mark the fi nal stages of evolution of the belt and were shortly followed by calc-alkaline metaluminous and peraluminous granitic magmatism ca. 530-514 Ma. The results suggest that the geological evolution of the Eastern Pampean Ranges took place between ca. 640 and 514 Ma, coeval with other Brasiliano orogens in Brazil (e.g., the Paraguay and Araguaia fold belts).

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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).