Paleoenvironmental interpretation of Urucuia Group (upper cretaceous)

Author(s)

Roberta Marquezi Bueno

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Geociências
• Defense date: 2012-03-28

Examining board members

Francisco Sérgio Bernardes Ladeira; Alessandro Batezelli; Mário Luis Assine

• Advisor: Francisco Sérgio Bernardes Ladeira

Abstract

The Urucuia Group is located in the north central portion of the Sanfranciscana Basin and covers the states of Piauí, Bahia, Maranhão, Goiás, Tocantins and Minas Gerais. It is formed by a set of continental sandstones that date from the Late Cretaceous and deposited on a Phanerozoic bedrock and over Santa Fe and Posse Groups, both also located on Sanfranciscana Basin. The Urucuia Group consists of Posse and Serra das Araras Formations. The Posse Formation is characterized by deposits of sandy material in dune fields and braided fluvial system. Serra das Araras Formation was deposited on Posse Formation and is characterized by sand sheets and deposit of clasts. Since the area in which the Group is Urucuia is located virtually remained at the same latitude since the breakup of Gondwana, its paleoclimate records are related to climate change at the same latitude. The deposits indicate a desert situation that becomes increasingly wet though time. Environmental changes in the area were also recorded in paleosols of Urucuia Group. They were described in an outcrop in the state of Goias and two in the state of Tocantins. There have been used procedures of macromorphological and micromorphological description and X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy analysis with the purpose of obtaining relevant data about acting processes during their formations. The first palaeosol (profile SD) was found in the municipality of São Domingos (GO) and marks the contact between Posse and Serra das Araras Formations. This is, a time of environmental change, from deposits of dunes to deposits by sand sheets.He presents hydromorphic characteristics, root marks and micromorphological features as pedotubes, cutans and glebules. The second one (profile CV) was found in a road cut between Mateiros and Ponte Alta do Tocantins and stratigraphically is in the middle of Serra das Araras Formation. He has silicified horizons intercalated with non-silicified horizons and has cutans, pedotubes, glebules and crystals. The third profile, (ES) is located in Mateiros (TO), at the top of Serra do Espírito Santo, which also corresponds to the top of Serra das Araras Formation. It is strongly cemented with pedological silica and as there are soil features formed by silica such as silans and crystals. There are also pedotubes and glebules. The pedogenetic silicification is present in two paleosols that were described as formed in arid to semi-arid environments. In general, the found paleosols are indicators of an extremely hot and drought weather in the Group Urucuia area during Late Cretaceous. Locally they are able to provide more reliable data about their landscape position, vegetation and water movement in the profile, as evidenced by the common frequency of cutans formed not only by silica, but as well as by clay (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/13375-7 - Urucuia Group (MG, BA, PI, GO) palessols: contribution to the palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the upper Cretaceous in Brazil
• Grantee: Roberta Marquezi Bueno
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master