Evolução geoquímica das crostas lateríticas e dos sedimentos sobrepostos na estrutura de Seis Lagos (Amazonas)

Abstract

The study of the mineralogical and geochemical evolution of the lateritic crusts and the overlying sediment in the structure of Seis Lagos (Amazonas State) has been based on the analyses of samples from the surface lateritic crusts and from three boreholes as well. In the chemical characterization of the examined material, it has been used both classic and spectroanalytic methods, while in the mineralogical characterization, x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetry (DTA and DTG) have been employed. Energy dispersive system analyses (EDS) have been performed and applied to the micromorphologic study of the crusts and sediments from the Esperança Basin. In siderite samples, it has been determined 13C and 18O isotopic contents as well as the 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios. The Rb/Sr method has been used in an attempt to date whole samples and siderites from the carbonatic breccias. The textural, mineralogical and geochemical features observed, both in the surface crusts and in the profile of the borehole number 1, point to a lateritic origen for those materials. The carbonatitic signature of the crusts is indicated by typical minerals of carbonatites and associated rocks such as ilmenorutile, Nb-rutile, Nb-brookite, pyrochlore and monazite, which are resistant to lateritic processes; by high and anomalous contents of Nb, REE, as well as, Mn, Th, Co, Zr, Sc, V, Mo and Be. The profile of the borehole number 3 is arranged in well distinct horizons, what is characteristic of lateritic profiles, shows chemical and mineralogical compositions indicative of a lateritic derivation from aluminosilicatic iron-poor rocks, as those of the wall rocks (granites and gneisses) of Seis Lagos. The sediments of the Esperança Basin show evidence of being derived from the different horizons which make up the lateritic profiles, with a significant vegetable- and animal-derived organic contribution. The materials which constitute the carbonatic breccia are thought to be originated from lateritic ferruginous crust due to the existing geochemical similarities among them, to the presence of resistate minerais of the ferruginous crust and to the presence of essentially iron-bearing minerais, typical of sedimentary-diagenetic environment, such as pyrite and siderite. The carbonaceous clay proved to be derived from lateritic clayey horizons, as those of the profile of the borehole 3, and the deposition of this layer took place in a moment of lower subsidence rate in the Esperança Basin, when the ferruginous crust, positioned at higher levels, were being eroded and the cayey horizons were exposed. The sapropelite layer indicates, considering its large thickness, that a development of a long-lasting acid and reducing environment might have taken place; its chemical and mineralogical composition received contributions from latentes, mainly from the clayey horizons; and the pyrite formation has been the sanie of that of the carbonatic breccia. The beige-colored clay bed, as it is indicated by its chemical and mineralogical composition, was also formed by clayey-horizons material. In the carbonatic breccia of the Esperança Basin, typical caxbonatite minerals have not been found, except for the resistates (ilmenorutile, Nb-rutile, Nb-brookite, pyrochlore and monazite) and siderite, where the last one is not a common constituent of those rocks. Lateritic minerals, however, such as gibbsite and those of the crandallite group have been found. The geochemical filiation reported among crusts, carbonatic breccias, clay/sapropelite and clayey lateritic horizons is noteworthy. The nonalignment of the points plotted in isochronic diagram (87Rb/86Sr vs. "Sr/"Sr), obtained either from the whole sample or the individual siderite analyses of the carbonatic breccia are not compatible with homogenous rocks, as it would be expected for carbonatites, although they are with the thick sedimentary pile. The mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic data demonstrate that the carbonatic breccia composition does not correspond to that of the carbonatites and thus the sediments of the Esperança Basin, including the carbonatic breccia, might have had the various horizons of the lateritic profiles as their source, where the ferruginous crust might have largely been the source for the sediments of the base of column (probably the basal portion of the basin) as well as the clayey horizons of the upper beds might have been. This made possible that, along all the extension of the stratigraphic column, the geochemical signature of the carbonatitic source rock, from which the laterites were generated, was transferred to the sedimentary rocks as well as it was also preserved in the laterites.