ABSTRACT: The Ediacaran Salinas Formation exposed in the northern Araçuaí orogen is made up of syn-orogenic turbidites deposited between 580 and 560 Ma. Aiming to investigate how tectonic and sedimentary processes interact during the development of a flysch basin, we carried out a detailed field-based sedimentological and stratigraphic investigation of the Salinas Formation in its type-area located in northern Minas Gerais. Lithofacies and lithofacies assemblages recognized in the unit represent proximal to distal turbidite fan deposits, all of them affected by soft-sediment deformation. Based on the amount of lateral displacement and sediment volume involved, we distinguished four classes of soft-sediment deformation structures. The vertical facies changes of the whole Salinas Formation characterizes a coarsening-upward 1st-order sequence that record a general southwest-south progradation of a turbidite fan system fed from the north. The overall organization of the 25-60 m-thick fining-up cycles are especially elucidative of the interplay between tectonic and sedimentary processes during the accumulation of the Salinas turbidites. They initiate with thick sandstone beds deposited on top of intensively deformed strata, continuing with various sandy turbidite pulses, and ending with fine-grained sediments. In our view, they record the retraction and reorganization of the basin fill system after a sequence of seismic events.

ABSTRACT: The Rio Pardo salient, the large antitaxial curve described by the Araçuaí fold-and-thrust belt along the southeastern edge of the São Francisco craton, is one of the most prominent and one of the least studied features of the Brasiliano Araçuaí-West Congo orogenic system (AWCO). In addition to the Archean/Paleoproterozoic basement, the salient is comprised of metasedimentary rocks mainly from the Neoproterozoic Macaúbas Group and the Salinas Formation. Its western limb occupies a portion of the Espinhaço ridge, where the NS-trending structures of the Araçuaí belt progressively curve NE and E, thereby defining the hinge zone along the Serra Geral on the Minas-Bahia boundary. The eastern limb is NW-trending and marked by a major shear zone. In models postulated to generate the AWCO through the closure of the Neoproterozoic Macaúbas basin, this large curve plays a critical kinematic role. Yet, in spite of this, its development is still not fully understood. How did this curve originate? Which factors controlled its generation? Our field study performed in the northern Araçuaí orogen characterized the kinematic picture of the salient, and led to a model that addresses these questions. The results we obtained indicate that the Rio Pardo salient developed in response to four deformation phases. The contractional D1 and D2 phases are coaxial and responsible for a craton-directed tectonic transport along the salient’s outer arc, which is coupled with an overall southward motion of the inner arc, thereby giving rise to a rather complex kinematic picture. Furthermore, structures of the D1/D2 phases define a zigzag pattern with alternating NE- and NW-trending segments along the salient’s leading edge. Along the NE-trending segments, the metasedimentary rocks are thrust northwestwards on top of the craton basement, while along the NW-trending segments, the supracrustal rocks are displaced along dextral to reverse-dextral transpressional shear zones located on the basement/cover contact. Structures of the D3 phase, which are well developed in the hinge zone, record a final WSW-ENE contraction, which was responsible for rotation of the preexistent fabric elements around NNW-trending axes and the enhancement of the salient curvature. The D4 phase is extensional and is recorded by two large-scale structures, the Chapada Acauã and Tingui normal shear zones, as well as by the normal-sinistral reactivation of the Itapebi strike-slip shear zone that marks the salient eastern limb. We interpret the initiation of the Rio Pardo salient during the collisional 565-575 Ma D1/D2 phases essentially as a primary arc that is mainly controlled by the geometry of the Macaúbas precursor basin. The thickened internal portion of the Rio Pardo salient was affected by extensional tectonism at c. 530 Ma, and is recorded by the D4 deformation phase, which is currently ascribed to the extensional collapse of the Araçuaí-West Congo orogen.

RESUMO: O lineamento Piúma, situado na porção sul do estado do Espírito Santo, está entre as feições morfo-estruturais mais proeminentes da província Mantiqueira Setentrional. Constitui uma feição linear regional, bem marcada em imagens de sensoriamento remoto e mapas topográficos, com aproximadamente 70 km de comprimento e direção N50°W, entre as cidades de Iconha e Conceição do Castelo (Espírito Santo). Para investigar sua natureza e o papel que desempenha na evolução tectônica da Província Mantiqueira e da bacia de Campos, adjacente, foi feita uma analise estrutural detalhada, levada a efeito através de trabalhos de campo, processamento e interpretação de dados geofísicos. Os resultados obtidos indicam que o lineamento Piúma se traduz numa zona de cisalhamento rúptil, caracterizada pela presença de falhas e juntas com direção preferencial N50W e mergulho para SW. Essas estruturas registram a ação de dois movimentos distintos e incompatíveis, que marcam a ação de dois regimes tectônicos: distensão NNE-SSW e transtração E-W. Comparando-se os resultados com a literatura disponível para a margem continental sudeste brasileira, conclui-se que o lineamento Piúma, provavelmente, se desenvolveu em algum momento após o evento orogenético ediacarano Brasiliano, em resposta a uma distensão NNE-SSW, posteriormente sendo reativado como uma zona normal dextral a transtracional dextral, possivelmente relacionada à abertura do rifte do Atlântico Sul, no Cretáceo Inferior.

ABSTRACT: The Piúma lineament, located in the Southern Espírito Santo State, Brazil, is one of the most prominent linear morphostructural features of the northern Mantiqueira Province. The lineament stands out in satellite images and topographic maps, extending for about 70 km in a N50°W direction, between the towns of Iconha and Conceição do Castelo (Espírito Santo). In order to investigate the nature and role played by the Piúma lineament in the tectonic evolution of the Mantiqueira Province and adjacent Campos Basin, we carried out a detailed structural analysis based on fieldwork, as well as geophysical data processing and interpretation. The results we obtained indicate that the Piúma lineament is a brittle shear zone characterized by N50W-trending and SW-dipping shear fractures, faults and joints. These structures record two distinct and incompatible motions, thereby recording the operation of two tectonic regimes: NNE-SSW extension and E-W transtension. Comparing our results with the literature on the Southeastern Brazilian Continental Margin, we conclude that the Piúma lineament more likely developed after the Ediacaran Brasiliano orogenic event in response to an NNE-SSW extension, experiencing later a reactivation as normal dextral to dextral transtensional zone, probably in connection with the South Atlantic rifting in the Lower Cretaceous.

Apresenta-se, nesse trabalho, o resultado de uma investigação petrológico-geoquímica realizada em granitóides da Suíte G1 do Orógeno Araçuaí, localizados entre as cidades de Governador Valadares e Ipanema (MG). Nessa região, a Suíte G1 é constituída pelas litofácies enderbito-tonalítica, granodiorítica-tonalítica e granítica, as quais possuem características químicas semelhantes às de uma série cálcio-alcalina expandida, metaluminosa a levemente peraluminosa do tipo I. Os dados obtidos revelaram, também, que as litofácies individualizadas correspondem a distintos estágios evolutivos do magmatismo granítico, com as fácies enderbitotonalítica e granítica, representando os extremos menos e mais diferenciados, respectivamente. Em conjunto com as rochas vulcânicas do Grupo Rio Doce, os componentes da Suíte G1 estudados materializam o edifício plutônico-vulcânico do arco magmático do Orógeno Araçuaí, formado em uma margem continental entre 630 e 585 Ma.

This article presents the results of a petrogenetic and geochemical study carried out for granitoid plutons of the G1 Suite of the Araçuaí orogen, exposed in the region between Governador Valadares and Ipanema (MG). The G1 Suite comprises three distinct lithofacies, namely enderbitic-tonalitic, granodioritictonalitic and granitic, which show chemical characteristics similar to an expanded calc-alkaline, metaluminous to slightly peraluminous I-type assemblage. Investigation results indicate that each individual G1 lithofacies represents an evolutionary stage of granitic magmatism, the enderbitic-tonalitic and granitic corresponding to the least and most differentiated components, respectively. Together with the volcanic rocks of the Rio Doce Group, the studied G1 rocks made up the magmatic arc of the Araçuaí orogen, developed on a continental margin between 630 and 585 Ma.