Genesis and evolution of a neoproterozoic magmatic arc : the cordilleran-type granitoids of the Araçuaí Belt, Brazil.

Abstract

The Araçuaí orogen (SE Brazil) is one of the largest (350,000 km2 ) and long-lived (ca. 630 – 480 Ma) granitic province in the world. The peculiarity of this Orogen is its wide variety of granitoids recording mid- to lower crustal P - T conditions that allow direct investigation of petrological processes occurring in the deepest part of the continental crust. This study investigates the field, textural, geochemical, geochronological and isotopic evolution of the pre-collisional Galiléia Batholith outcropping in the central part of the Araçuaí orogen. This metaluminous to slightly metaluminous (ASI = 0.97– 1.07) batholith, is a large is (ca. 15,000 km2 ), Neoproterozoic (ca. 632–550 Ma) weakly foliated, calc-alkaline, granitoid body characterized by the widespread occurrence of grossular-rich magmatic garnet and magmatic epidote. This is a rare mineral association in Cordilleran-I-type granitoids and of special petrogenetic significance. Field, petrographic, and mineral chemistry evidence indicate that garnet, epidote, biotite as well as white mica crystals (low-Si phengite), are magmatic. There is no difference in bulk rock major and trace element composition between the Galiléia and other garnetfree cordilleran-type granitoids worldwide. Thus the uncommon garnet+epidote parageneses are related to the conditions of magma crystallization, such as pressure, temperature and water content. Comparison between the mineral assemblages and mineral compositions from this study and those recorded in crystallization experiments on metaluminous calc-alkaline magmas, as well as within garnet-bearing metaluminous volcanic rocks and granitoids, indicates that the supersolidus coexistence of grossularrich garnet, epidote and white mica is consistent with magma crystallization at pressures greater than 0.8 GPa (above 25 km depth). This indicates that the Galiléia batholith was assembled in the lower crust during the accretionary/collisional stages of the Neoproterozoic Brasiliano Orogeny. It is evident that this granitic body represents a natural laboratory for studying the history of a lower crustal magma reservoir. Indeed the lifetime of deep magma chambers and the duration of magmatic activity in them remains a puzzle, contrary to young upper crustal magmatic systems. Despite being homogeneous with respect to mineralogy/texture and major/trace elements, all samples from the central part of the batholith record extreme variability in U-Pb magmatic ages from ca. 630 to 555 Ma. Trace element geochemistry and Hf isotopes from the igneous zircons – here interpreted as autocrysts (ca. 555 – 560 Ma) and antecrysts (> 560 Ma) – are all consistent with an open-system crystallization, rather than a simple cooling following fractional crystallization at the level of magma emplacement. We interpret the age variability recorded by the Galiléia samples as the result of a long-lived, uninterrupted injection of magmas of similar composition during assembly of the batholith. Such continuous injections of magma took place in the lower crust, keeping the system above its solidus through the 80 Ma of zircon crystallization. Unradiogenic 176Hf/177Hf and 143Nd/144Nd isotopic values of the Galileía samples indicate no direct mixing with mantle-derived magmas during the assembly and growth of the Galiléia batholith. This explains the scarcity of mafic products in the region. All of these characteristics need a more suitable geodynamic scenario. Indeed mineral textural, geochronological and isotopic similarities with other younger and older granitic plutons constructed within accretionary / fore-arc settings, better explain the characteristics showed by the Galiléia granitoids. Thus it is suggested that this giant batholith was assembled in an accretionary prism during the Brasiliano Orogenic stages. Eventually, it is likely that during the Brasiliano/Pan-African orogeny, accretionary prism, fore- and back–arc setting were sites of voluminous silicic magmatism and commonplaces for the stabilization of continental crust and its differentiation.