The Siderian crust (2.47-2.30 Ga) of the Goiás Massif and its role as a building block of the São Francisco Paleocontinent

Abstract

The basement of the northern Brasília Belt, in Central Brazil, is dominated by large volumes of TTG magmatism generated during the Early aleoproterozoic, and represents a continental block formed prior to the welding of the São Francisco paleocontinent during the Rhyacian, holding important information concerning the mechanisms and products of Paleoproterozoic crustal growth and amalgamation. New U-Pb zircon geochronological data was obtained from metagranitoids and mafic–ultramafic intrusions from the Almas-Conceição do Tocantins Domain (ACTD). This was coupled with geochemical data from the metagranitoids to better constrain the processes of continental crust evolution in this region during the Siderian period. Two main plutonic episodes were recognized in the mapped area: (i) an early suite (2.47 Ga) dominated by tonalites and trondhjemites with subordinate biotite granites (Ribeirão das Areias Complex – RAC); and (ii) a later suite (2.30 Ga) including tonalites and trondhjemites (Ribeirão Itaboca Suite – RIS). Most of the RAC trondhjemite-tonalite-granodiorite (TTG) rocks are marked by fractionated REE patterns with high (La/Yb)N = 15–107 and samples have medium to high Sr/Y ratio (28–257). These TTG include both high- and low-Al types and high- and medium-pressure groups. The RIS TTG suite displays higher HREE contents with high (La/Yb)N = 65–89 and high Sr/Y ratio (59–95) and contains the high-Al type and the medium pressure group. In spite of the wide age gap between them, both RAC and RIS are characterized by TTG rocks formed in a subduction-like tectonic setting. The biotite granites are related to a magmatic stage after the TTG formation. Mafic rocks of the Gameleira Suite have an abundance of zircon, interpreted as crustal contamination, with dominant 207Pb/206Pb age populations of 2.48 and 2.30 Ga, and are interpreted to be associated with an extensional magmatic event following the Siderian period. Regional geotectonic correlations within the São Francisco Craton based on data compiled from the literature indicate a significant volume of Siderian crust generation that has been overlooked in continental amalgamation models and that TTG magmatism is a more common geochemical signature in Paleoproterozoic rocks than has been previously suggested.