U-Pb (LA-ICP-MS) of detrital zircon and whole rock Nd and geochemical constraints on the provenance, depositional age and tectonic setting of the metasedimentary Piriá Basin, northern Brazil: implications for the evolution of the Gurupi Belt

Abstract

The Piriá Basin (Piriá Formation) is a hemi-graben shaped basin that developed over Precambrian rocks of the Gurupi Belt. The lithological content comprises four interfingered lithofacies: (1) arkose and greywacke with pelite layers, (2) laminated siltstones and pelites, (3) arkose with hummocky stratification, and (4) oligomictic conglomerate. This sequence was formed in alluvial fans (conglomerate), and fluvial systems (arkose, greywacke, siltstones and pelites) that were established and evolved during the migration of the subsidence. The sedimentary sequence underwent anquimetamorphism and very weak tectonic deformation. U-Pb analyses of detrital zircon set the maximum depositional age at 591 Ma and indicate several sediment sources, that range in age from the Neoproterozoic to the Archean. The main sources are from the Rhyacian, which is the main period of continental crust formation in the São Luís cratonic fragment and the basement of the Gurupi Belt. Neoproterozoic sources were important in the eastern segment of the basin. Ages from unknown sources in the region so far have also been recorded. Combined, the U-Pb zircon data, the whole-rock geochemical and Sm-Nd results, and the petrographic information revealed proximal felsic to intermediate provenance, in addition to recycled sedimentary sources. As a whole, our data suggest that the Piriá Formation was deposited in a post-orogenic basin related to the final stage of evolution of the Brasiliano cycle of orogenies, which built up the Gurupi Belt.