Intracontinental basaltic magmatism in the sedimentary succession of the Tucuruí Group: An important record of the final evolution of the Araguaia Belt

• Published in: Journal of South American earth sciences 2021-11, Vol.111, p.103463, Article 103463
• Main Authors: Gorayeb, Paulo S.S., Dutra, Alessandra C.S., Cruz, Danilo J.N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Araguaia belt; Cambrian; Rift basin; Tholeiitic IOB; Tucuruí group; Volcano-sedimentary succession
• ISSN: 0895-9811; 1873-0647
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103463

The region of Tucuruí, northeastern Pará, is located in the transition between the Amazon Craton and the Araguaia Belt. In this region, there is an extensive graben filled by a volcano-sedimentary succession, 35 km wide that extends over 100 km in the NNW-SSE direction and which is represented by the Tucuruí Group. This group consists of a succession of basaltic flows and diabase sills interbedded with sub-arkose and siltstones. Together with the metasedimentary rocks of the Tocantins Group, these rocks represent the latest records of the Araguaia Orogen in the extreme North of Brazil. The volcanic deposits consist of basalt flows and volcanic breccias associated with diabase sills. The flows are predominantly composed of massive and locally amygdaloidal basalts and basaltic breccias. The basalts are aphanitic, fine-grained or glassy, holo-to hypocrystalline, and are made up of labradorite, augite, Fe–Ti minerals oxides, sulfides, and apatite. The massive basalts have intergranular or intersertal texture, whereas the amygdaloidal basalts are characterized by fibro-radial zeolites, epidote, and chlorite. The basaltic breccias are composed of elongated, hypovitreous basalt fragments encompassed by a volcanoclastic matrix with siltstone films and anastomosed siliceous-zeolitic materials. The basalts are subalkaline with tholeiitic Ocean Island Basalts affinity, intraplate, and are interpreted as products of fissural volcanism in a subaerial environment. Deformation is predominantly ruptile, and fluid remobilization occurs along faults and fractures, generating veins of quartz, carbonate, chlorite, and epidote by hydrothermal processes at low temperatures (anki-metamorphism). The sedimentary succession of the Tucuruí Group represents a paleo-segment formed in a shallow marine environment influenced by storm waves. The evolution of the succession is related to the installation and fill of a rift basin during the final stage of evolution of the Araguaia Belt at the Neoproterozoic/Paleozoic transition. This event is related to the extensional tectonics that marked the transition from a ductile to ruptile regime in the late stage of evolution of the Araguaia Orogen, and it represents a rare record of the end of the Brasiliano Cycle on the Brazilian Platform. •Volcano-sedimentary Tucuruí Group is preserved in a graben structure extending over 100 km in the NNW-SSE in Northern Brazil.•Tucuruí Group consists of a succession of basaltic flows, volcanic breccias and di