Tectonic evolution of the southern part of the sergipano fold belt, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT This thesis is a stratigraphic and structural analysis of the Itabaiana Dome Area in the southern part of the Sergipano Fold Belt, northeastern Brasil. The ESE-WNW trending Sergipano Fold Belt is a subgreenschist to amphibolite grade metavolcano-sedimentary wedge poiydeformed during the 7(X)-6()0Ma Brasiliano-Pan-African orogeny. Crystalline basement gneiss domes mantled by metasediments are found within the fold belt which lies between the Sao Francisco Craton in the south and the Pernambuco-Alagoas Massif to the north. An area of 4000km2 surrounding the Itabaiana and Simão Dias gneiss domes was mapped at 1:50,000 scale. A new stratigraphy has been established for this pan of the Sergipano Fold Belt. Two major Middle to Late Proterozoic sedimentary cycles have been recognised, each with a basal siliciclastic megasequence overlain by a carbonate megasequence. Four main stratigraphic groups have been established. The ≈330m thick Estancia Group consisting of metasandstones, peliles, and rnelacarbonates unconformably overlies the crystalline rocks of the craton and is laterally equivalent to the ≈200-1100m thick Miaba Group which consists of the Itabaiana quartzites; the Ribcirópolis phyllites, pebbly phyllites. diamictitcs and metavolcanics; and the Jacoca metacarbonates. The Miaba Group is unconformably deposited around the gneiss domes. The ≈700m thick Lagarto Group has been identified as a new lithotectonic element in the southern part of the Sergipano Fold Belt. This group is a coarsening-upward siliciclastic sequence that overlies the older rocks of both the craton and the fold belt. It consists of the Lagarto-Palmares mudstones, silistones, sandstones and lithic wackes together with the Jacare metasiltites and the Frei Paulo phyllites, metarhythmites, metagreywackes, minor metacarbonates and metavolcanics. The ≈200-2000m thick Vaza Barris Group, consisting of the Palestina diamictitcs and the Olhos D'agua metacarbonates, unconformably overlies the older rocks to the north of the Itaporanga fault The thickest Palestina diamictites occur in a WNW-ESE trending, fault-bounded depocentre which also received relatively deep water accumulations of the other formations. The siliciclastics generally thin towards the basement gneiss domes. whereas the carbonates thin away from the domes into the diamictite trough. The thickness and fades distributions of these units indicate tectonically controlled sedimentation, with basement highs supplying sediments from both the southern and northern margins of an asymmetric basin. The structure of the Itabaiana Dome Area is dominated by shallowly plunging. SSW vergent F1 and F2 recumbent to inclined folds and steep D2 thrust faults. D1 is characterised by WNW-ESE trending, SW vergent, nappe-like folds associated with a penetrative layer-parallel foliation. D2 is characterised by co-axial, up-right, tight and WNW-ESE trending folds, associated with penetrative axial surface foliations, lineations and high-angle, SSW vergent, oblique slip thrust faults. These regional thrust faults are probably inverted extensional faults. Late-stage, orogen-parallel movement generated transverse F1 kink-style folding and rotation of fault bounded domains. Regional lithostructural correlations between the southern and northern parts of the Sergipano Fold Bell indicate that the Sergipano Basin may be interpreted to have

been a WNW-ESE striking graben that deepened towards the ENE It was infilled by miogeuclinal-eugeoclinal sediments and evolved axially into a small oceanic basin, termed the Canindé sea, in its northeastern part. The preferred tectonic model for the evohirion of the Sergipano Basin is that of a linked system of listric extensional faults that merged into a basal detachment with a ramp flat geometry, Inversion of this extensional fault system due to oblique collision of the Borborema Province to the north with the São Francisco Craton to the south, produced sinistral transpression of the sedimentary wedge of the Sergipano Basin and resulted in the Sergipano Fold Belt The tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the Sergipano Fold Bel is similar to that found in other Brasilianio and Pan-African mobile belts. In particular the correlation af stratigraphy from the craton into the fold belt, the interpretation of sedimentation controlled by extensional tectonics siggest a model of basin formation by extension of then craton margins, development of pericratonic and small ocean basins which were then deformed by collision of continental fragments against the craton margins. This model agrees with those postulated of a supercontinent that evolved by fragmentation and amalgamation along long-lived zones of lithosphere weakness throughout the Proterozoic.