Full text
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| Author(s): |
Geane Carolina Gonçalves Cavalcante
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Geociências (IG/BT) |
| Defense date: | 2013-11-21 |
| Examining board members: |
Marcos Egydio Silva;
Carlos Jose Archanjo;
Maria de Fatima Aparecida Saraiva Bitencourt;
Leonardo Evangelista Lagoeiro;
Alexandre Uhlein
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| Advisor: | Marcos Egydio Silva |
| Abstract | |
The Araçuaí belt was formed by the collision between South American and African protocontinents during the Neoproterozoic. Its eastern part consists of an extensive migmatitic area (~300 km long x 50-100 km wide) where crop out anatexites and leucogranites (Carlos Chagas unit), migmatitic kinzigites and granulites that probably are the record of a widespread partial melting of the middle to lower crust. Field observations associated with microstructural evidences indicate that the deformation occurred when the rocks were incompletely solidified. Synkinematic temperature estimates realized using the TitaniQ (titaniun-in-quartz) geotermomether suggest that the minimum temperature for the quartz crystallization is ~750°C. Such temperatures combined with bulk rock composition of leucosome in the anatexites suggest that the viscosity of crustal rocks was dropped to at least 108 Pa s. Low viscosity values associated with field and microstructural evidences are consistent with the generation of at least 30% volume of melt during the orogeny. The presence of large volumes of melt promotes a drastic weakening of the mechanical strength of rocks and suggests that the anatectic crust of the eastern Araçuaí belt represents an analogue of present day hot orogen such the Himalayas. Detailed mineralogy investigation permitted to characterize the paramagnetic behaviour of the anatexites and the ferromagnetic behaviour of the granulites. Crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) measurements using the EBSD (Electron Backscatter Diffraction) technique reveal that the magnetic foliation results from the preferred orientation of the biotite [001] oriented normal to the flow plane. However, given the feeble linear anisotropy of this mineral, only a subsidiary contribution of its subfabric to the origin of the magnetic lineation (k1) was observed. Correspondence between [001] of feldspars and k1 is due to the CPO of small inclusions of ilmenite that mimic the CPO of their host minerals. Correlation between k1 of the Anisotropy of Anhysteretic Remanent Magnetization (AARM) and k1 of the Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) demonstrate that, at the specimen scale, the magnetic lineation has a contribution of the anisotropy of the ferromagnetic minerals. AMS measurements realized to recover the mineral fabric and investigate the migmatitic flow field revealed a complex strain pattern in which, considering the lineation trends, especially, it is possible to characterize three structural sectors. The north region (structural sector 1) with foliations dominantly sub-horizontal and lineation trending NW-SE is interpreted as a region of tectonic escape that may represent a horizontal channel flow. This oblique tectonic escape probably results from gravity forces (gravity-driven flow). The Southern region (structural sectors 2 and 3) with variable trending foliations (NE-SW, E-W and NW-SE) and lineation plunging to North and West, probably reflect a flow regime dominantly influenced by the E-W convergence of the African and South-American continents (collision-driven flow). Altogether, the characteristics of the various domains suggest that the deformation of the partially molten middle crust of the Araçuaí belt was the result of the combination of gravity forces due to the topographic load and tectonic forces due to the convergence between the African and South-American continents. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 10/03537-7 - Tectonoseismic Study of the Carlos Chagas Leucogranite and Adjacent Units, Araçuaí Belt (Eastern Brazil). |
| Grantee: | Geane Carolina Gonçalves Cavalcante |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |