Unraveling one billion years of geological evolution of the southeastern Amazonia Craton from detrital zircon analyses

Author(s):Show less -

Rossignol, Camille ; Antonio, Paul Yves Jean ; Narduzzi, Francesco ; Rego, Eric Siciliano ; Teixeira, Livia ; Souza, Romario Almeida de ; Silva, Marco A. L. ; Lana, Cristiano ; Trindade, Ricardo I. F. ; Philippot, Pascal ; Avila, Janaina N.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: GEOSCIENCE FRONTIERS; v. 13, n. 5, p. 24-pg., 2022-08-26.

Abstract

Despite representing one of the largest cratons on Earth, the early geological evolution of the Amazonia Craton remains poorly known due to relatively poor exposure and because younger metamorphic and tectonic events have obscured initial information. In this study, we investigated the sedimentary archives of the Carajas Basin to unravel the early geological evolution of the southeastern Amazonia Craton. The Carajas Basin contains sedimentary rocks that were deposited throughout a long period spanning more than one billion years from the Mesoarchean to the Paleoproterozoic. The oldest archives preserved in this basin consist of a few ca. 3.6 Ga detrital zircon grains showing that the geological roots of the Amazonia Craton were already formed by the Eoarchean. During the Paleoarchean or the early Mesoarchean (<3.1 Ga), the Carajas Basin was large and rigid enough to sustain the formation and preser-vation of the Rio Novo Group greenstone belt. Later, during the Neoarchean, at ca. 2.7 Ga, the southeast-ern Amazonia Craton witnessed the emplacement of the Parauapebas Large Igneous Province (LIP) that probably covered a large part of the craton and was associated with the deposition of some of the world largest iron formations. The emplacement of this LIP immediately preceded a period of continental exten-sion that formed a rift infilled first by iron formations followed by terrigenous sediments. This major change of sedimentary regime might have been controlled by the regional tectonic evolution of the Amazonia Craton and its emergence above sea-level. During the Paleoproterozoic, at ca. 2.1 Ga, the Rio Fresco Group, consisting of terrigenous sediments from the interior of the Amazonia Craton, was depos-ited in the Carajas Basin. At that time, the Amazonian lithosphere could have either underwent thermal subsidence forming a large intracratonic basin or could have been deformed by long wavelength flexures that induced the formation of basins and swells throughout the craton under the influence of the growing Transamazonian mountain belt.(c) 2021 China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/16235-2 - The co-evolution of life and oxygen on early Earth: a South American perspective
• Grantee: Pascal Andre Marie Philippot
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - SPEC Program
• FAPESP's process: 18/05892-0 - Element and isotope geochemistry from iron formations and black shales: new insights into paleoredox conditions during the Paleo- and Neoproterozoic in North and Midwestern Brazil
• Grantee: Eric Siciliano Rego
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 19/16066-7 - Multiple isotope (O, S, Sr) constraints on the early Paleoproterozoic Great Oxidation Event from barite-bearing deposits of the Minas Supergroup, Minas Basin, Brazil
• Grantee: Camille Yann Rossignol
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• FAPESP's process: 18/02645-2 - Chronostratigraphy and isotopic tracing of the Paleoproterozoic Minas Supergroup
• Grantee: Camille Yann Rossignol
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 18/14617-3 - Time constraints, redox conditions and sediment sources attending the Proterozoic rise of atmospheric oxygen in Brazil
• Grantee: Francesco Narduzzi
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 19/17732-0 - Role of subaerial Large Igneous Provinces in modulating environmental and climatic changes during the Proterozoic rise of atmospheric oxygen in Brazil
• Grantee: Francesco Narduzzi
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• FAPESP's process: 19/12132-5 - High-resolution environmental record of banded iron formations through rock magnetic, crystallographic and geochemical properties
• Grantee: Livia Paula Vaz Teixeira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• FAPESP's process: 17/18840-6 - Testing the Amazônia-West Africa connection and true polar wander in the Neoproterozoic
• Grantee: Paul Yves Jean Antonio
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral