Almeida Et Al 2000 PDF

Earth-Science Reviews 50 2000.
77111
www.elsevier.comrlocaterearscirev
The origin and evolution of the South American Platform

Marques de Almeida a, Benjamim Bley de Brito Neves b,1,
Fernando Flavio
Celso Dal Re Carneiro c,)
a

Department of Mining, Escola Politecnica, Paulo; Alameda Franca 432, Apart. 9, 01422-000, Sao
Uniersidade de Sao Paulo SP, Brazil
b

Department of Geology, Instituto de Geociencias, Paulo, P.O. Box 11 348, 05422-970, Sao
Uniersidade de Sao Paulo SP, Brazil
c

Department of Geosciences Applied to Teaching, Instituto de Geociencias, Uniersidade Estadual de Campinas, P.O. Box 6152,
13083-970, Campinas SP, Brazil
Received 9 March 1998; accepted 14 November 1999
Abstract
The South American Platform is defined as the stable continental portion of the South American plate not affected by the
Phanerozoic Caribbean and Andean orogenic zones. It is surrounded by these orogenic zones and extends to the
marginal Atlantic coast. The basement of the platform consists of Archean and Proterozoic continental crusts arranged
during three main sets of orogenic events: 1. Trans-Amazonian Paleoproterozoic., 2. Late Mesoproterozoic and 3.
BrasilianorPan African. The latter resulted in the consolidation of the youngest mobile belts of the platform basement. It is,
by far, the main phenomenon responsible for the overall pattern of tectonic components cratonic nuclei and fold belts. and
the formation of the general structural framework at the time when the platform was a portion of the Gondwana
supercontinent. During the Phanerozoic Eon, different cover stages were developed through six main sedimentary cratonic
sequences, of which the last one is exclusive to the South American continent. The final individualization stages and their
respective post-Paleozoic sequences were accompanied by a series of specific intracratonic processes, both tectonic rift
basins, overprint of new structural styles in previous basins. and magmatic basaltic and alkaline.. The activation processes
have generally been attributed to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Andean orogeneses on the north and
west. Nevertheless, a minor part of these events may have been caused by sublithospheric actions mantle-activated
processes. beneath the interior of the platform. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: tectonics; South America; platform; basement; platform covers; Archean, Proterozoic; Phanerozoic
1. Introduction evolution of the South American Platform, the oldest

part of the South American Plate.
This paper aims to synthesize the present state-of- Two of the present authors BBBN and CDRC.
the-art of the geological knowledge on the origin and think that it is time to update the most quoted paper
on Brazilian tectonics: the classical 36-page Brazil-
)
ian National Department for Mineral Resources Pro-
Corresponding author. Fax: q55-19-289-1562. duction DNPM. Bulletin 241, Origin and Evolution
E-mail addresses: ffma@vol.com.br F.F.M. de Almeida.,
bbleybn@usp.br B.B. de Brito Neves., cedrec@ige.unicamp.br
of the Brazilian Platform Origem e Eolucao da
C. Dal Re Carneiro.. Plataforma Brasileira., by Almeida, 1967 following
1
Fax: q55-11-210-4958. Almeida, 1966.: this broad synthesis on the Brazilian
0012-8252r00r$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 1 2 - 8 2 5 2 9 9 . 0 0 0 7 2 - 0
78 F.F.M. de Almeida et al.r Earth-Science Reiews 50 (2000) 77111
Geology was written before the development of the 1:5,000,000, unpublished., although many maps and
new global tectonics, with emphasis on the Precam- reports still remain unpublished. Most of the pub-
brian basement, as well as delineating the most lished material is in Portuguese, a fact that highlights
promising research lines to be followed. We try to the interest of such an essay. Facing the progress of
consider as much as possible all the produced geo- the geological knowledge on other better-studied
logical information since the appearance of the two continents, the authors believe that such a synthetic
papers of Almeida 1966, 1967.. All zones of the picture may help comparisons.
entire continent have been investigated under differ- In its modern concept, a platform or craton.
ent detail levels and at present the overall picture is represents a stable continental part of a plate, i.e., a
better known. The present progress on Brazilian stable portion of the Earths crust adjoining one or
geology may be evaluated in books Almeida and more active mobile belts Sengor, 1990; Park and
Hasui, 1984; Schobbenhaus et al., 1984., continen- Jaroszewski, 1994.. For South America, it means the
tal-scale geological maps of Brazil 1984, scale relatively undeformed portion of the continental
1:2,500,000, published by DNPM researchers and landmass during Mesozoic and Cenozoic times, not
colaborators; Delgado and Pedreira, 1995, scale strongly affected by the Andean and Caribbean.
1:7,000,000. and South America DNPM, 1997, orogenic processes from Venezuela in the north to
Fig. 1. Situation map of: 1. the South American Platform; 2. Phanerozoic covers; 3. Andean fold belt.
F.F.M. de Almeida et al.r Earth-Science Reiews 50 (2000) 77111 79
Argentina in the south at the northern border of the 2. Geology

Sierra de La Ventana fold belt.
Our major objective is to update the paper of
Relatie stability is one defining characteristic of
Almeida 1967. and to evaluate if the available data
a platform. The main stabilization phase of the South
support the initial definition of such platform. Some
American Platform was achieved by the transition
research needs seem to have been overcome, some
CambrianOrdovician. The concept of platform sta-
remain, and new ones have naturally appeared. Even
bility has been strengthened in the general scope of
the expression, South American Almeida et al.,
new global tectonics Brito Neves and Alkmim, 1993;
1978. instead of Brazilian Platform, has been
Park and Jaroszewski, 1994., resulting in objective
changed, because the former fits the geological limits
e.g., absence of orogenic diastrophism. and subjec-
of the stable portion of the continental plate better
Fig. 1.. In fact, the limits are surely not confined tive implications of the concept. For a given platform
some additional geological attributes have been rec-
within any geographicalpolitical boundaries.
ognized within well-defined time limits in
The reader should keep in mind that such an
relation to a previously defined mobile belt:
exercise involving 3.5 Ga of geological development
- Antiquity is the first one, for the common fact
and more than 10,000,000 km2 requires some preten-
that Archean and Proterozoic rocks usually domi-
tiousness. So, naturally such an intention faces some
nate such basement domains.
risks, as well as imperfections. All criticism is wel-
- Transitority is an essential characteristic, as it
come as a profitable tool for the improvement of a
involves a long history of evolutionary tectonic
future version.
phases.
During more than three decades, the Brazilian
- Diersity of structural associations in the frame-
tectonic and geological knowledge has experienced a
work of the basement and of some well-defined
great progress. Some models have guided such re-
cover sequences Phanerozoic or older..
search since the middle of the 60s. The former
Local occurrences of Precambrian cratonic sub-
influence of the geosynclinal theory was slowly re-
lithospheric processes mantle-activated. as well as
placed by the original Plate Tectonics towards the
records of cratonic tectonic activation lithosphere-
new Global Tectonics see, among others, Moores
activated. are common; these are promoted by defor-
and Twiss, 1995, Kearey and Vine, 1996.. In Brazil,
mation associated with surrounding younger mobile
basic nationwide mappings have been conducted by
belts. Besides all these qualitative criteria are often-
the DNPMCPRM 2 system, the RadamBrasil Pro-
quoted geophysical characteristics, such as large
ject, and state-owned mining and research institu-
lithosphere thickness, low seismicity rates, moderate
tions, as well as by private mineral companies and
to low heat-flow conditions and geothermal gradi-
public universities. These latter have received mod-
ents, etc. Park and Jaroszewski, 1994.. All of them
ern equipment for isotopic and geochemical analy-
are rather well recorded in this platform.
ses, geophysical prospecting, etc., and have gradu-
The records of the evolution of the platform
ated hundreds of MS and PhD students. A large
basement began in the Archean Table 1.. Most
amount of new data has been generated by state
radiometric ages belong to the Neo-Archean 2.82.5
institutions and by working agreements between uni-
Ga. but there is also an important number of values
versities and foreign research centers. The growth in
of Meso-Archean times 3.22.8 Ga. and a few of
geological research was recorded in 20 national geo-
Palaeo-Archean ages 3.63.2 Ga, chiefly younger
logical congresses since 1967 with annals., a count-
than 3.4 Ga.. The group of older ages tends to be
less regional symposia, and also in a series of papers
enlarged with the increasing sophistication of iso-
in international periodicals.
topic analyses see Table 1 and Brito Neves and
Sato, 1998.. Fig. 2 is a situation map of the quoted
geographical names, rivers, states, the principal cities
2
CPRM the Brazilian Company of Mineral Resources, and localities, but the reader is addressed to available
aiming to operate as the Brazilian Geological Surey. detailed maps for a precise location.
Table 1
The main tectonic events in the basement of the South American Platform, from the younger ones to the oldest:
10. Orogenic events of the Brasiliano collage, diachronous from a structural province to another. The last time interval 0.540.50 Ga. is
characterized by escape tectonics and fissural magmatism.
9. SunsasAguape belt, southwestern part of the Amazonian region BrazilBolivia., low-grade volcano-sedimentary assemblages.
- Cariris Velhos orogenic event a Wilsonian Cycle. along the central part of the Borborema Province.
8. Orogenic events in the southwestern part of the Amazonian region:

- GuaporerRondonianrSan Ignacio 1.451.30 Ga..
Massif Uruacuano Belt, high-grade rocks. and along the
- Disputable orogenic events in the southwestern part of the Central Goias
Espinhaco range Central Bahia and Minas Gerais, low-grade assemblages..
7. Widespread events of extensional tectonics Statherian Taphrogenesis..
- The Rio NegroJuruena Orogenesis arc plutonism. in the central-western Amazonian region is the unique evidence for plate
interactions.
6. Trans-Amazonian Orogeneses: main deformational events of Paleoproterozoic mobile belts. Granitic plutonism.
5. Some occurrences of metamorphic events, high-grade gneisses. Local juvenile rock-formation event.
4. Local occurrences of metamorphic events and granite plutonism.
3. High diversity of rock assemblages: orthogneisses Trondhjemites, tonalites, granodiorites, monzogranite and granites, TTG suites.,
gneissic granulites of both igneous and sedimentary origins., maficultramafic complexes, noritic dikes; volcano-sedimentary piles

Grao-Para Group., greenstone belt associations, etc.
2. Widespread occurrences of high-grade terranes, mainly orthogneisses, and the oldest known occurrences of granite-greenstone LTG.
assemblages.
1. Sparse occurrences of high-grade complexes.
Fig. 2. Situation map of the quoted geographical names, rivers, main cities, states and localities.
All known up to now. Archean nuclei Fig. 3. such collages, plate interactions reached their cli-
have in some way been involved in the structural maxes, thus forming and successively reworking a
framework of the mobile belts of the three major series of accretionary, collisional or transpressional
subsequent Precambrian orogenic events: Transama- mobile belts, which formed different supercontinen-
zonianrEburnean mainly. in Paleoproterozoic times, tal domains. A high diversity of mineral deposits as,
2.21.8 Ga; Late Mesoproterozoic, 1.30.95 Ga; for instance, gold Martini 1998. was formed due to
and BrasilianorPan African, 0.90.5 Ga. During these processes. The existing names for such super-
Fig. 3. Archean nuclei and Paleoproterozoic mobile belts of the South American Platform.
continental collage domains are Atlantica Ledru et Western Gondwana e.g., Unrug, 1996, among oth-
al., 1994; Rogers, 1996. in the Paleoproterozoic, ers., from the end of the Neoproterozoic to the
Rodinia Hoffman, 1991; Unrug, 1996. at the time of beginning of the Phanerozoic. There is a clear una-
the MesoproterozoicNeoproterozoic boundary, and nimity among Brazilian Earth scientists on the con-
cept of this later supercontinental accretion as well data does not allow a good definition of the entire
as on a younger one, the Late PaleozoicrTriassic boundary zone. Moreover, any limit made at this
Pangea. stage would be arbitrary. Generally, this western
After the formation of each of these major col- boundary of the stable area is parallel to the western
lages, there were phases of taphrogenic processes Brazilian to western Uruguay and Paraguay. border,
with widespread continental break-up rifting, disper- but it is not a straight line. Actually, parts of the
sion, occasionally fission., thus providing the just- Basin, Pantanal
Brazilian territory Acre, Solimoes
accreted supercontinental landmass of which the area, etc.. show some tectonic influence folding,
South American Platform was part. with important shearing etc.. from the Andean Chain.
sites of intracratonic sedimentation and anorogenic As mentioned before, in the basement of the
magmatism Almeida and Hasui, 1984; Schobben- South American Platform, the BrasilianorPan-Afri-
haus et al., 1984.. The records of lithological assem- can collage succeeds two previous ones of similar
blages and other structural patterns for these kinds of extent and importance. The succession of intercon-
intracratonic Proterozoic events after the Trans- nected Brasiliano orogeneses formed the last funda-
Amazonian collage are well represented in the Ama- mental tectonic and structural arrangements for the
zonian northern part. and Sao Francisco regions basement of this platform. Therefore, all rocks and
central to eastern part. of the platform Brito Neves structures of the Precambrian Eon, of the Neopro-
et al. 1995.. terozoic and older eras, are somehow subordinated to
During the Late Paleozoic, the collage made by the framework of the Brasiliano collage.
the Hercynian cycle was responsible for the forma- All the orogenic phases of the Brasiliano collage
tion of a new supercontinent, Pangea. The South are not precisely known and one should not expect
American Platform area remained relatively stable that they have been synchronic from one structural
during the subsequent break-up of Pangea, from the province to another Table 1.. Some modern
end of the Triassic, and during the different Creta- geochronological data Chemale, 1998; Brito Neves
ceous stages of the Atlantic opening and related and Sato, 1998. have preliminarily indicated the
events. The same is true in the development of the main events of plate interactions are ca. 750 and 600
Pacific and Caribbean active and transform margins, Ma, for most of the Brazilian structural provinces
from that same time span up to now. This continental Almeida and Hasui, 1984.. Younger accretionary
portion has been persistently stable even if one con- events ca. 580550 Ma. have been detected only in
siders the tectonic and magmatic processes that oc- the southeastern part of the Platform at the Man-
curred in its interior, as natural cratonic responses to tiqueira Province, Fig. 2, from Rio de Janeiro to
the peripheral orogenies and continental break-up at Santo. the Rio Doce Orogeny and in
Esprito
the surrounding borders. the southwestern part of the Platform Pampean
The Patagonian block, south of the Hercynian Province, in Argentina., but all these records need
Sierra de la Ventana northeast Argentina. was not additional data. From the Neoproterozoic III ca. 590
part of the stable platform area. The Patagonian Ma. up to the beginning of the Ordovician ca. 500
block was diversely involved in orogenic processes Ma., an important group of tectonic events have
during the Phanerozoic, as can be seen by its present been recognized wich are connected to the latest
shape, dimensions and position among three active phases of the Brasiliano collage.: collisional im-
margins only one passive margin, on the east., and pactogenesis, extrusion or escape tectonics, post-oro-
because of the relatively young thermal age of its genic collapse, etc. Many of these intracratonic post-
basement mainly Mesoproterozoic and Neoprotero- collisional events of some provinces were coeval to
zoic.. the above-mentioned youngest accretionary oroge-
It is not an easy task to define a western limit nies Pampean and Rio Doce. of other provinces.
Figs. 1 and 3. between the platform the stable area. Stabilization of the basement structures and full
and the activatedrregenerated zones related to the platformal conditions only appeared at the beginning
Andean and Caribbean orogens for two main rea- of the Ordovician Period but the age for the final
sons. The lack of reliable geological and geophysical individualization of this platform is the Mesozoic
Era after continental drift.. During the Phanerozoic, both marine and continental environments. Among
pre-Ordovician Brasiliano structures provided differ- the less common lithotypes are: volcano-sedimentary
ent types of tectonic heritage for the development of sequences of mantle-activated rifts such as the Grao
the sedimentary platform cover in all types of basins. Para Group, Serra dos Carajas mineral province
This is the case of the precursor CambrianEarly Macambira and Lafon, 1995.; diversified sedimen-
Ordovician rifts of the Paleozoic syneclises, the ar- tary and volcano-sedimentary sequences quartzitic,
rangement of isopach lines in the syneclises, the peraluminous, calc-silicate-rich, manganese and
internal and external shapes of all sedimentary basins iron-rich rock assemblages.; as paragneisses and or-
and specially the particular case of the Mesozoic thogneisses possessing crustal affiliation, important
Cenozoic rift-basins. These effects are common for migmatization processes, local maficultramafic dike
all Paleozoic basins, but they are conspicuous in swarms, etc. References for these Archean types may
post-Triassic taphrogenic basins Cordani et al., be found in the Extended Abstracts of a symposium
1984. linked to the Atlantic opening. held in Brasilia by the Sociedade Brasileira de Ge-
ologia 1996..
Usually, larger Archean nuclei occur as central
core areas bound by Paleoproterozoic mobile belts.
3. The Archean The size of these nuclei is variable but only a few,
like the Xingu block, in the Amazonian craton, are
The available isotopic data for this eon can be of large dimensions Fig. 3.. The Archean lithotypes
placed more specifically in three time intervals: 3.4 are mainly preserved and best represented in
3.2, 3.02.8, and 2.72.5 Ga from the Paleo-Archean order of importance in the Amazonia Fig. 4.,
to the Neo-Archean. The frequency order of ages is Francisco Fig. 5., GoiasTocantins,
Sao
Lus
inverted due to a small critical number of isotopic AlvesRio de La Plata blocks Fig. 6.. These blocks
data. The values obtained up to now are not enough are only continental fractions of Neoproterozoic
to discriminate evolutionary stages for any Archean plates that played the role of cratonic areas during
nuclei in South American. The present geographi- the Brasiliano collage. It is not advisable to assign
calgeological areas for the Archean nuclei them- full cratonic characteristics even to these larger blocks
selves are relatively modest in size, even though as is usual in other continents, because of the
there is evidence that they were more extensive, widespread processes of structural reworking, mag-
shown by the common occurrence of reworked pro- matism and heating from the surrounding mobile
toliths in the interior of Paleoproterozoic mobile belts, specially those produced by the Trans-
belts Cordani and Brito Neves, 1982.. Also, it is Amazonian collage.
plausible to expect greater former extents, because of Smaller occurrences of Archean rock assemblages
the embryonic stage of geochronological research in are almost completely masked in the remote interior
this continent RbrSr and KrAr are still are the of Trans-Amazonian belts Ledru et al. 1994.. They
predominating methodologies of analyses.. This sce- are defined as basement inliers Cordani and Brito
nario may change in the future, with progress in Neves, 1982., where rejuvenating processes are con-
isotopic research and through the use of more power- spicuous and previous tectonic behavior is difficult
ful methods. to decipher.
The Archean lithostructural types, regardless of There are minor occurrences of Archean rocks in
the above-mentioned comments and age intervals, the interior of all Brasiliano provinces outside the
fully confirm the classical pair of terranes of the Paleoproterozoic structural domains including both
platform basement of the world: 1. high-grade or- the above described Archean nuclei and the
thogneisses of TTG-suite, granulitic orthogneisses, Trans-Amazonian mobile belts. of the Neoprotero-
maficultramafic bodies; and 2. low-grade green- zoic plates Brasiliano cratons or large massifs.
stone belts and similar volcano-sedimentary associa- and other large lithospheric segments. These minor
tions. Besides these granitegreenstone terranes, occurrences used to play two special roles: a.
other less common lithotypes have been identified in tectonic highs or local uplifted basement blocks,
Fig. 4. A general sketch-map for the northern part of the South American Platform 1. Guyanas and 2. Guapore shields with
emphasis on the Archean nuclei and the surrounding Paleoproterozoic MaroniItacaiunasq VentuariTapajos, Rio NegroJuruena. mobile
belts. The westernmost part of this Brasiliano Amazonian craton is composed of the Mesoproterozoic to Early Neoproterozoic. fold belts of
and SunsasAguape,
San Ignacio in the BrazilianBolivian territories based on Tassinari et al., 1996..
Fig. 5. The central and central-eastern part of the South American Platform. The main Paleoproterozoic Trans-Amazonian. mobile belts of
Eastern Bahia and Western Bahia surround the Archean cratonic nuclei. Links among the Western Bahia Belt, Mineiro belt south of the Sao
Francisco craton. and the Ticunzal and Eastern Goias Paleoproterozoic occurrences have been sketched. An outline for the Neoproterozoic.
Francisco craton is drawn only for reference.
Sao
Fig. 6. The Joinville Massif, positioned between three Brasiliano areasrfold belts. The main central area north of Blumenau Lus
Alves craton. is formed by high-grade Archean rocks reworked during the Trans-Amazonian collage. The Curitiba area, marginal to the
Ribeira belt marginal massif. is part of the same Trans-Amazonian collage but reworked at deeper crustal levels during the Brasiliano
events based on Basei et al., 1998..
and b. places where Proterozoic supracrustals Meso reflecting a series of accretionary and collisional
and Neoproterozoic in age. have been locally van- orogens between 2.2 and 1.8 Ga.
ished through drastic erosion and the basement may There are few radiometric ages between 2.5 and
crop out. 2.1 Ga Machado et al. 1996. for those early Paleo-
It is not yet possible to discriminate Archean proterozoic volcano-sedimentary basin fills, ancient
cycles for the basement of the South American Plat- restructured contexts being even rarer. A significant
form due to the small number of isotopic data, and number of nonsynchronous ages are available for the
the common reworking during later events. The main subsequent orogenic phases from one orogenic
Archean terranes rarely may be considered to be zone to another Sabate et al., 1990, Ledru et al.,
autonomous structures during Paleoproterozoic at a 1994.: the data are distributed from 2.2 up to 1.8 Ga,
regional scale of analysis. These terranes had short i.e., from the end of the Rhyacian 2.302.05 Ga. up
periods of stability because they were reworked at to the end of the Orosirian 2.051.80 Ga. periods.
different degrees. during the successive Paleopro- The development of the Trans-Amazonian belts from
terozoic accretionary and collisional events. Among northern Amazonia to Argentina. is therefore as-
the available geochronological and geological data sumed to be a result of a series of continuous and
the most important group seems to be the final interrelated orogenic processes accretionary and col-
events of the Archean 2.72.5 Ga., Jequie Cycle lisional., or a collage, which lasted until the end of
and Rio das Velhas event, as they have been Orosirian time. For the stable surrounding areas
informally named. At this time many continental Archean blocks. a series of coeval and later.
landmasses were consolidated, with repercussions to tectonic events of continental scale took place as
the further general geological conditions of the Paleo- anorogenic and post-orogenic granitic plutonism,
proterozoic. subvolcanic, intermediate extrusive and explosive
volcanism of acid character Surumu and equivalent
groups in Guyanas and Venezuela., shearing tecton-
4. The Paleoproterozoic ics escape tectonics?. accompanied by syenitic in-
trusives, etc. Even thick detritical sedimentary se-
quences of platform type were developed locally
4.1. Distribution Roraima group. in the same time span pre-1.8 Ga.,
while elsewhere surrounding the Amazonian blocks
Paleoproterozoic terranes predominate in most of and others., many orogenic belts of the same collage
the platform lithospheric blocks, with only rare ex- were active.
ceptions, like Pampia and Rio Apa which have The above described records are widespread all
provided only Mesoproterozoic age data up to now.. over the South American Platform, offering some
Moreover, many portions of the primary extension of kind of obstacles for the acceptance of the new
the Paleoproterozoic units and terranes have fre- IUGS time-scale Plumb, 1991., which prescribes
quently been masked due to the tectono-magmatic 1.6 Ga for the end of the Paleoproterozoic. Many
reworking resulting from subsequent Proterozoic Brazilian geologists have suggested 1.8 Ga end of
orogenic processes such as Rio NegroJuruena. and the Orosirian period. to be the end of this Protero-
collages. zoic Era, because of the continental importance of
Palinspastic Paleoproterozoic reconstructions must the Trans-Amazonian collage.
take into account different types of volcano-sedimen- In the Statherian period 1.801.60 Ga., after the
tary and sedimentary basins dalas, intracra- Trans-Amazonian collage, widespread phenomena of
tonic syneclises, rifts, continental margins, small epeirogenesis subsequent to crustal thickening and
oceanic basins and arc-related basins which de- granitogenesis. and taphrogenesis Brito Neves et al.,
veloped on and around the rigid substratum of the 1995. took place in this new super.continental land-
Archean landmasses. Subsequently, such basins mass. Such intracratonic tectonic events an insep-
gradually underwent further plate interaction pro- arable feature of the Paleoproterozoic platform
cesses and were reworked at different crustal levels., were characterized by extensional processes, rifting
with formation of volcano-sedimentary basins, mafic the basement of Borborema Province Pernambuco
dike-swarms, acid to intermediate volcanism extru- Alagoas, Caldas Brandao and Rio Piranhas massifs.,
sive, explosive, subvolcanic., maficultramafic plu- where it was deeply and diversely reworked by
tonism, etc. It is possible that the extensional pro- Brasiliano and other events. The Western Bahia mo-
cesses locally led to the formation of oceanic floor bile belt II in Fig. 5. crops out in small areas,
Pimentel et al., 1998a,b. as in the western part of because of the extensive Mesoproterozoic and Neo-

GoiasTocantins
massif the Juscelandia,
Indianopo- proterozoic platform covers, but there are probably

lis and Palmeiropolis sequences. and in the central- southern links with the so-called Mineiro belt
western part of the Amazonian region, previous sites
Teixeira et al., 1996. of the Quadrilatero
Ferrfero
for the Rio NegroJuruena belt. For the latter, there area in Minas Gerais. It may also extend farther west
is strong evidence for a complete evolution of an State, where some lithostructural
to the eastern Goias
accretionary orogen, since the formation of an units of similar nature and age occur Ticunzal
oceanic floor up to a final coalescence of magmatic Group..
arcs during this period Tassinari et al., 1996.. For the southeastern and southern Brazilian states,
In the northern part of the platform the Amazo- Trans-Amazonian terranes often occur as part of the
nian region, Fig. 4., the Trans-Amazonian mobile infrastructure of the Brasiliano belts. They are di-
belts surround the Xingu Macambira and Lafon, versely reworked and usually difficult to be recog-
1995. and Pakaraima Archean blocks Cordani and nized. Many occurrences of Trans-Amazonian rock
Brito Neves, 1982.. These belts include a series of units have been detected in the basement of the
minor Archean crustal fragments as basement inliers. Aracua belt Guanhaes, Itacambira-Barrocao,
Some of them received classical names in geological blocks or rock units., Paraba
Gouvea, do Sul belt
literature such as Adampada, Imataca, Kanuku, etc. and Cabo Frio groups,
Juiz de Fora, Quirino-Dorania
Schobbenhaus et al. 1984.. To the west, fragments blocks or rock units., in the Ribeira belt Embu
of the Trans-Amazonian collage are still present as terrane.. These Paleoproterozoic occurrences are
interior remnants isotopically detected. in the whole noteworthy in the Joinville Massif Hasui et al.
Rio NegroJuruena belt Sato and Tassinari, 1996.; 1975. between the Brasiliano Ribeira and Dom Feli-
and even further to the west of this belt, these ciano belts, in two different domains Fig. 6.. They
fragments are being found in the basement of the are found not only in the southern marginal zone of
Mesoproterozoic belts on the BrazilBolivia bound- the Ribeira belt Curitiba Domain, Siga, 1995., where
ary zone Lomas Maneche Group, Litherland et al., Trans-Amazonian orthogneisses occur as paleosomes
1986.. of Brasiliano migmatites, but also all over the do-
These facts confirm that Trans-Amazonian col- main of gneissicgranulitic rocks with maficultra-
lages have dominated the whole northern part of this mafic bodies included. of the region of Lus Alves
platform. In the central and eastern-central part of Barra Velha Lus Alves Craton., in Santa Catarina
the continent, the Trans-Amazonian mobile belts state, of primary Archean ages Fig. 6.. For these
Fig. 5. also include some internal reworked Archean Archean domains there is evidence Siga, 1995. of
fragments the basement of Rio ItapicururSerrinha mesozonal Trans-Amazonian reworking isotopic re-
greenstone belt, Jequie block, Santa Izabel gneiss- setting included..
granulitic belt, etc.. and circumscribe very large Important Trans-Amazonian structures occur once

Archean blocks, like GaviaoLencois central Bahia., again in the southern portion of the platform, as a
Campo BeloClaudio south of Minas Gerais, Fig. dominant part of the Rio de La Plata Craton base-

3. and that in the central part of the GoiasTocantins ment in central Uruguay and northern Argentina
massif granitegreenstone terranes domain.. All of Fig. 7.. High-grade rocks some greenstone belts.
these Archean blocks present some kind of Paleopro- are dominant with typical eastwest structural trends,
terozoic reworking. orthogonal to the bordering Brasiliano belts of the
The Eastern Bahia mobile belt III in Fig. 5., Pampean province, Cordoban to the west, Ar-

which is sometimes called Atlantico or Salva- gentina. and Dom Feliciano to the east, Brazil and
dor-Juazeiro, probably continued northwards into Uruguay..
ferent roles as pieces of the basement of younger

mobile belts, each of them within a particular level
of crustal reworking. Trans-Amazonian structures are
well preserved only in Rio de La Plata Craton Dalla
Salda et al., 1998..
Common geological features of the Paleoprotero-
zoic mobile belts as final results of wide plate tec-
tonic interactions may be summarized as follows:
a. Supracrustal sequences of extensional basins
of continental basement rifts, syneclises, passive
margins, etc., with predominating clastic quartzites,
U- and Au-bearing conglomerates. and chemical-
clastic composition Fe- and Mn-bearing schists.,
partially to strongly involved in the Trans-Amazonian
deformation such as Parima, Kwitaro, Coeroeni, Ja-
cobina, Colomi, Areiao, Minas, Ticunzal, Cantagalo
Groups or Supergroups., etc.
b. Volcano-sedimentary supracrustal sequences
of oceanic affiliation, back-arc type and similar basins
active rifts., generally attributed to greenstone belts,
like those of the BaramaMazaruni Supergroup s. l.
from Venezuela to Amapa ., ContendasMirante,
SerrinharRio Itapicuru Bahia ., etc. These
supracrustal rocks occur in independent basins
parallel or longitudinal to the former ones. and they
may also underlie the abovementioned extensional
sequences.
c. Gneissic-granulitic orthogneisses, diversely
sorted rocks, of basic tholeiitic., intermediate to

acid tonalitic, trondhjemitic, granodioritic and
granitic., from low- to high-potassium shoshonitic.
content, usually strongly deformed rocks, which
Fig. 7. The Neoproterozoic blocks large, intermediate and small.
and the different types of Neoproterozoic fold belts surrounding
originated during Paleoproterozoic subduction pro-
and among them. The informal classification used for these belts cesses of oceanic realms and later collisional events.
is that of Condie, 1989, with some minor modifications. The d. Basement inliers of gneiss-migmatitic and
Neoproterozoic blocks of the southwest part of the figure were gneiss-granulitic compositions of original Archaen
diversely reworked partially regenerated. by Hercynian and An- ages entirely enclosed and submitted to the Trans-
dean orogeneses AA, PA, RP., and they are out of the platform
domains. CA Amazonian; PR Parnaba; SLWA Sao
Amazonian trends, which formed microplates, ter-

LusWest Africa; RN Rio Grande do Norte Caldas Brandao ranes, etc. during the evolutionary history of the
qRio Piranhas massifsqbasement of Serido belt.; SFCKA mobile belt.
FranciscoCongoKasaiAngola; AA ) ArequipaAnto-
Sao e. Some long and linear shear zones Sadowski,
falla; PA Pampia; RP Rio de La Plata; PP Parana- 1983., some of them accompanied by late orogenic
panema; KAL Kalahari.
syenitic and granitic plutons.
The Trans-Amazonian collage, as postulated here,
Therefore, for most of the central, southeastern was responsible for the widespread agglutination of
and southern parts of the platform, the original fea- all continental and microcontinental. nuclei which
tures and structures of the Trans-Amazonian mobile were consolidated at the end of the Archean by
belts have been diversely fragmented; they play dif- means of the Paleoproterozoic mobile belts. Larger

nuclei like Pakaraima, Xingu, Gaviao-Lencois, Cen- to have gone beyond the usual limits of a simple
etc., Fig. 3. and smaller ones were sub-
tral Goias, cratogenic tectonics. There are reliable indications,
mitted to different styles of tectonic activation during in the first area, and still disputed data for the second
the Paleoproterozoic orogenic stages and were as- area due to the lack of accurate geochronology. that
sembled together by mobile belts to compose a large these post-Trans-Amazonian processes evolved, from
continental landmass around 1.8 Ga Atlantica, as rift to drift, and then to the formation of true oceanic
suggested by Rogers, 1996.. The importance of this basins, and from these to orogenic belts, first in the
supercontinent, which is very well documented in the Upper Paleoproterozoic case of Rio NegroJuruena.
basement of South American and African platforms, and later on during Mesoproterozoic times probable
transcends the present geographical limits of both case of the Uruacuano belt..
continents. The connection of orogenic events, acting During Mesoproterozoic times, many of the Up-
together to build a final supercontinental landmass is per Paleoproterozoic linked fault systems and inte-
the reason for the use of the term collage. rior basins such as EspinhacoChapada Diamantina
and the Ara belt were submitted to tectonic
inversion. These included a considerable amount of
4.2. Tectonic and sedimentary enironments postdat- crustal shortening and formation of elevated oro-
ing the Trans-Amazonian collage graphic features when they were transformed into
special types of ensialic orogens, with characteris-
Different types of tectonic and sedimentary envi- tic lateral transitions to weakly deformed cratonic
ronments have diachronously succeeded the Paleo- covers.
proterozoic collage, as a physical and natural conse- The sedimentary, volcano-sedimentary and mag-
quence to lithospheric thickening and growth. There matic rock assemblages developed by the Statherian
is a remarkable set of continental-scale linked fault Taphrogenesis are present from Venezuela
system mostly normal faults. and related cratogenic Avanavero, Pedras Pretas mafic magmatism. in the
basins rift systems, volcanic traps, minor syneclises., north of the continent to the northern part of Ar-
mafic dike-swarms and, even, some continental pas- gentina Tandilia dike-swarm.. Only a minor part of
sive margins. The breaking processes of that conti- the assemblages has remained without any tectonic
nental landmass and their related sedimentary mostly overprint, such as a flat-lying cover of the litho-
detritical types., volcanic acid, intermediate, mafic spheric portions that became Brasiliano cratons. Most
and bimodal groups, dike swarms., volcano-sedimen- of the Statherian assemblages, as already mentioned,
tary, plutonic granites, anorthosites, maficultra- were partially or totally reactivated in the subsequent
mafic bodies. lithological records play a special role Proterozoic orogenic cycles, in Mesoproterozoic like
in this platform. These post-Trans-Amazonian crato- EspinhacoChapada Diamantina, Uruacuano, etc.. as
genic processes are part of a global phenomenon, well as in Neoproterozoic times as part of the
and a group of their earlier events 1.8 to 1.6 Ga. Brasiliano belts.. There is a special case of Stathe-
have recently been described as being of special rian rock associations that were only deformed dur-
magnitude, starting the Statherian Taphrogenesis, ing the last Brasiliano group of events, ca. 0.6 Ga.
according to a synthesis by Brito Neves et al. 1995.. i.e., about 1.1 Ga after their primary formation, like
It is difficult to estimate precise time intervals for the in the Jaguaribeano fold belt, Ceara State, Northeast
many cratogenic tectonic events paraplatformal Brazil.
and orthoplataformal which have activated the
post-Trans-Amazonian supercontinental landmass 4.3. Rio NegroJuruena belt
during a large time span of about 0.9 Ga from 1.8
up to 0.95 Ga. of which the Statherian period seems The Rio NegroJuruena belt, where a complete
to have been only the first remarkable step. evolution of an accretionary fold belt is recorded for
In the present central and western central part of the Statherian period, seems to be unique Tassinari
the Amazonian block and in the western part of the et al., 1996.. It occupies a wide space of the central

GoiasTocantins block, the extensional events seem part of the Amazonian block from the north Vene-
zuela and Brazil. to the south at the small Rio Apa The exuberance of such preserved occurrences
block BrazilParaguay boundary.. Its lateral limits should be emphasized areas of millions of square
are still poorly defined, both to the east Trans- kilometers Schobbenhaus et al. 1984. without
AmazonianrPaleoproterozoic belts. and to the west any similar good expositions in the world Brito
Mesoproterozoic belts.. It is mainly composed of Neves et al., 1995., even though some of them are
gneissic and migmatitic rocks of granitic, granodi- found in the Amazonian rain forest. Sedimentary and
oritic and tonalitic nature, with occasional preserved volcano-sedimentary basins of different nature and
supracrustal assemblages, which follow a dominant types, diversified anorogenic plutonism, etc., have
NWSW trend. Granitization, migmatization phe- privileged large portions of this supercontinent joined
nomena and high-grade metamorphism upper am- by the Trans-Amazonian collage before and after
phibolite facies. predominate along the entire belt; Rio NegroJuruena Orogeny. whose most represen-
granulitic rocks are local. tative areas are in the Amazonas region and in the
Important series of anorogenic plutonic rocks and central-eastern part east of meridian 508W Gr.. of
some other volcano-sedimentary assemblages of the continent. The pre-Neoproterozoic occurrences
cover rocks characterize this graniticmigmatitic belt were certainly larger than the present known records.
as a result of younger Paleoproterozoic to Mesopro- Although geological knowledge is far from com-
terozoic cratogenic episodes namely Parguazense, plete, it is possible to describe a series of cratogenic
Madeira, etc... The general knowledge of this belt is basins, characterized by different degrees of tectonic
not yet satisfactory; problems still remain unsolved stability which display sedimentary sequences
as the concept of the Rio NegroJuruena belt is mostly detritical rocks., volcano-sedimentary flood
derived from geochonological reconaissances rather basalts and anorogenic volcano-plutonism. Strati-
than from geological fieldwork. From Tassinari graphic systematizations is difficult because of the
1981. to Tassinari et al. 1996., the amount of lost original lateral dimensions, erosional descontinu-
geochonological data have increased considerably. ities, partial or total younger tectonic overprints
With the abovementioned circumstances, where Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic.. Additionally,
the coherence of various geochronological data are there is a natural problem to be faced: hundreds of
doubtless remarkable including SmNd investiga- local informal names were introduced by different
tions, Sato and Tassinari, 1996. this belt has been geologists working at reconaissance scales. This suc-
interpreted as a product of the coalescence of mag- cession of cratogenic events ranges in time from the
matic arcs between 1.751.55 Ga, following subduc- Late Paleoproterozoic up to the beginning of the
tion processes of oceanic realms and adding juvenile Neoproterozoic from 1.91.8 up to 0.95 Ga..
components to the continental lithosphere. The above Part of these events should represent tectonic
described anorogenic plutonic rocks and platform responses of the interior of the continental plate to
covers display ages varying from 1.6 up to 1.0 Ga plate interactions at their margins like Rio Negro
and most of them postdate the main belt develop-
Juruena, San Ignacio, SunsasAguape, etc... There
ment. is another series of cratogenic events displaying evi-
dence of autonomous processes of sublithospheric
activation mantle-activated areas and rifts. such as
5. The Mesoproterozoic Cachoeira Seca, Quarenta Ilhas, Nova Flo-
resta all of them in the Amazonian region.,
5.1. Distribution
Salvador-Ilheus and similar mafic magmatism
post-Espinhaco belt Bahia., etc., which have pro-
The geological information on the Mesoprotero- vided important tholeiitic basic and alkaline magma-
zoic in South America is largely heterogeneous both tism.
in quality and quantity. In many aspects, the crato- In the interior of some Brasiliano fold belts, away
genic events show some degree of similarity with from the cratonic domains for this cycle, part of the
those of the upper part of Paleoproterozoic same Paleo and Mesoproterozoic rock units of a
Statherian.. previous cratogenic nature. are present; some of
them have already been mapped in Riacho do Pon- two very well-preserved Mesoproterozoic orogenic
Brasilia belts, etc... Many others may
tal, Aracua, developments. The older is the San Ignacio belt,
occur, but the discrimination is difficult due to the composed of schists, meta-arkoses and paragneisses
tectonic overprint of the Neoproterozoic orogeneses. ca. 1340 Ma., pierced by a considerable amount of
granite ca. 1310 Ma. and characterized by migmati-
5.2. The Mesoproterozoic collage zation processes; it is a kind of central nucleus. The
SunsasAguapei belts surround the previous central
Mesoproterozoic fold belts are a minority in areal nucleus of San Ignacio structures and are mostly
extent among the tectonic realms of the South Amer- composed of clastic metasedimentary sequences of
ican Platform. With quite few exceptions, the Meso- rifts and passive margin settings., mature and imma-
proterozoic mobile belts were the place and target of ture rocks, with some maficultramafic magmatic
strong restructuration as basements of the Neopro- contributions. The ages of the igneous rocks, related
terozoic orogens, which have preferred younger to the closing orogenic events pegmatites, alkaline
structural sites younger thermal age zones. for their rocks., are about 950 Ma. All the eastern lateral
development. Only Mesoproterozoic mobile belts lo- portions of these belts in Brazil western portion of
cated in the interior of Brasiliano cratonic domains the Amazonian craton. is marked by anorogenic
could be preserved from the widespread Neoprotero- rapakivi granites, Sn-bearing, with the same age
zoic regeneration. range from 1.5 to 0.95 Ga., which seems to charac-
The Mesoproterozoic collage, as first assumed terize impactogenic processes on the foreland do-
here, seems to have been completed in two main main. A clearer discrimination, both in area and age

orogenic phases, ca. 1.3 Ga San IgnaciorGuapore, records, between the westernmost Mesoproterozoic
Uruacuano, Espinhaco. and ca. 0.95 Ga belts of the Amazonia and the older one of Rio
SunsasAguape, Cariris Velhos and possibly the NegroJuruena domain is an objective for further
Grenvillian, to be mentioned.. Even described as research.
minor in areal extent, such Mesoproterozoic mobile b. In the central part of Brazil, along the eastern
belts were responsible for the agglutination of a very
border of the GoiasTocantins massif there is a
large supercontinent, Rodinia according to Hoff- group of structural features rifts. and rock units
man, 1991.. The Paleoproterozoic orogeneses have clastics, acid to intermediate volcanics. of continen-
already prepared wide stable cratonic areas in order tal character, generated during the Statherian Taphro-
to assemble such a supercontinent, to which the genesis. Probably, the same cratogenic extensional
Mesoproterozoic mobile belts contributed as comple- tectonic processes occur west of these rifts where
mentary and final agents of agglutination. large maficultramafic bodies are known Barro Alto,
a. The westernmost remnants of the worldwide Niquelandia, Canabrava. as well as rock units of
net of Mesoproterozoic mobile belts are now found oceanic affiliation Juscelandia and correlatives.. All
in the basement of the Andean Chain, in the north these structures and assemblages were submitted to
Garzon-Santa Marta belt. and in the south Oc- orogenic processes, from low- the first group, in the
cidentalia Terranes., therefore they are not part of east. to high-metamorphic grade the second group,
the South American Platform basement. Part of these in the west. during Mesoproterozoic times, around
western belts may eventually reach the basement of 1.3 Ga, probably following strong events of colli-
the South American Platform in the area of the sional interaction. These orogenic processes have
Pampia block, but such discrimination is beyond the been a common source of debate, especially because
presently available data. Probably, such belts are of the masking overprint of the Brasiliano structural
remnants of a greater and longer Mesoproterozoic and metamorphic features. Actually, this Mesopro-
orogenic development the Grenvillian. best repre- terozoic belt further became part of the internal
sented and preserved in the northern platforms. domain thick skin. of the thrust-and-fold belt of
In the South American Platform, Litherland et al. Brasilia, during Neoproterozoic times. So, the identi-
1986. have distinguished in the common Brazilian fication of the Mesoproterozoic Uruacuano. di-
and Bolivian area in the western Amazonian block astrophic records is generally full of obstacles and is
even denied by some geologists. This orogeny is a metamorphism, shearing, granite plutonism, etc.,
fact supported by a large amount of geological and younger than 0.9 Ga. is strong. Nevertheless, previ-
isotopic data. ous Mesoproterozoic processes could be recognized
c. Drawing a parallel arc with the Uruacuano and differentiated with the use of SmrNd and UrPb
belt, hundreds of kilometers to the east, the Stathe- geochronological methods.
rian linked fault system of Espinhaco and Western In general, the information rescue and the recog-
Chapada Diamantina from Piau to Minas Gerais nizing degree of Mesoproterozoic structures is al-
state was subject to tectonic inversion, with ways in inverse proportion to the level of reworking
important crustal shortening, producing a long linear by Brasiliano structures. It also depends on the qual-
fold belt by the interaction of ancient rifted basement ity of the available geochronological data. In the
blocks. It is characterized by a discontinuous folding South American Platform basement such work is still
style, whose intensity increases from east to west, being carried out, but it is time to consider the
usually low-level regional metamorphism, rare importance of the Mesoproterozoic collage and its
granitic magmatism and basement reworking, and a structures, developed during two different orogenic
problable age within the Ectasian Period - 1.4 Ga; stages. Nowadays, when the collage and fusion of a
) 1.2 Ga.. Between 1.1 and 0.9 Ga an important Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia. is often
event of regional mafic magmatism sills and dikes. discussed, we realize that the improving knowledge
took place in previously deformed rock units, indi- of this platform tends to increase its importance.
cating post-tectonic extensional activity of the Meso-
proterozoic tectogenesis, partially masked by the
strong overprint of Brasiliano structures mainly in 6. The Neoproterozoic
the southern parts, Minas Gerais State. For both the
Uruacuano and Espinhaco belts, additional data The early beginning of Neoproterozoic first wit-
geological and isotopic are necessary to re- nessed the last orogenies of the previous era and the
solve the remaining problems. consequent fusion of continental landmasses prior to
d. In the northeastern part of the platform, in the 950 Ma.. The subsequent scenery, still in the Tonian
basement of a typical Brasiliano Province, Bor- period, all over Western Gondwana, was character-
borema, south of Patos lineament, there are notewor- ized by diachronous taphrogenic processes gradually
thy records of accretionary orogenic processes, which completing the fission of the Mesoproterozoic super-
have only recently been identified. From the south- continent diachronously up to 750 Ma. that installed
western border of the Parnaba Basin up to the a new cycle of global tectonics, the Brasiliano itself.
Atlantic coast, the lithological and structural evi- Two major groups of tectonic components then
dence for this belt occupy a large WSWESE area started to interact.
about 800 km long and over 200 km wide. Its a. Neoproterozoic blocks, large, intermediate and

northern segment, the Pianco-Alto
Brgida beltrter- small lithospheric fragments derived from the break-
rane, displays records of bimodal and subordinate out of the previous supercontinent, which start to
MORB magmatism and the volcano-sedimentary as- work out as rigid domains, such as plates, mi-
sociation of a probable forearc basin, of ca. 1.11.05 croplates, microcontinents, terrranes, etc. Fig. 7..

Ga. Southwards, the segment of the PajeuParaiba b. Different evolutionary stages of the Brasiliano
fold beltrterrane is characterized by hundreds of fold belts or the Neoproterozoic basins., positioned
calc-alkaline sheet-like bodies, stocks, batholiths and inter and intra these Neoproterozoic blocks. A practi-
arc-related volcano-sedimentary associations, all of cal and elementary way to represent and to classify.
them indicating subduction and collisional processes such basinsrorogenic belts is based on their pre-
around 1.00.95 Ga. Although still the object of inversion lithostratigraphic records. These tools are
ongoing investigations Van Schmus et al., 1995., capable of showing original paleogeographic envi-
these are the best records for an accretionary Meso- ronments and tectonic settings. Some of these pri-
proterozoic orogeny Cariris Velhos events in mary basins syneclises, rifts, rift systems,
the continent. The Brasiliano overprint folding, aulacogens, gulfs, oceanic branchs, small oceanic
and oceanic basins which display several informal features may give the false impression that they are
names as Adamastor, ANEKT, Brasilides, generally larger than their previous dimensions, and
Goiano, Ribeirao da Folha, etc.. could only once again this brings problems to their correct
preserve some of their original characteristics, even graphic representations.
after the many stages that have gradually trans- The segments of pre-Neoproterozoic collage oc-
formed them into fold belt segments. Naturally, some curring in the internides of the Brasiliano fold belts
other basins or part of basins offer more generally present evidence of regeneration: tectonic,
difficulties to identify their original characteristics. thermal-metamorphic, compositional, etc. and some-
times all of them together. When these lithological
6.1. The Neoproterozoic blocks (the probable sons units became ductile they may be mixed up with
of Rodinia) Neoproterozoic gneissicmigmatitic domains. Some-
times, when mostly submitted to brittle tectonics
The major fragments of the Upper Mesoprotero- they may appear as remarkable rigid flakes, slivers,
zoic supercontinent fission have worked out as plates overthrusted fractions, etc.. local structural features.
or subplates., whose remaining continental por- The discrimination of the whole pre-Neoproterozoic
tions were transformed into the so-called Brasiliano lithostratigraphic contexts in the interior of the many
cratons Amazonian, Sao LusWest
Africa, Sao Brasiliano fold belts is an open question. This is
FranciscoCongo, Rio de la Plata, etc.., as tenta- clear as much as these contexts are positioned far
tively shown in Fig. 7, outlining the end of the from the cratonic domains, at distal sites.
Neoproterozoic collage. All these fragments were The behavior of the Neoproterozoic blocks during
somewhat reworked during the Brasiliano events, the orogenic Brasiliano processes varied to some
and these phenomena were especially more relevant extent, as Neoproterozoic plates and microplates
for the small blocks, with variable intensity from subplates., as microcontinents, as internal structural
shallow to deep crustal levels. Besides the ample highs of fold belts, etc. Besides, they were the
exposition of basement rocks usually defined as cra- basement for ensialic sedimentary basins, both in
tons, massifs, basement highs, etc., there is in interior and continental margins. It is necessary to
the infrastructure of the Brasiliano belts other direct add the role of terranes, for some of these smaller
and indirect evidence including isotopic data. of blocks, in the sense of erratic blocks considerably
important portions of the pre-Neoproterozoic base- displaced from their original positions TroiaTaua,
ment, which were severely reworked and are now probably Lus
Guanhaes, Alves block, etc... Marginal
part of gneissicmigmatitic complexes. parts of some major blocks were occupied by Brasil-
In fact, when these blocks are figured out Fig. 7. iano continental magmatic arcs -like west of
there is a certain amount of implicit subjectivity in
GoiasTocantins, south of PernambucoAlagoas,
aspects such as number, size and shape. For instance, east and west of Pampia, etc.. and thrust-and-fold
along the periphery of the major blocks it was not Francisco Peninsula as a whole, southeast-
belts Sao
possible to represent all the parcels involved and
ern part of Amazonia, etc... Therefore, the placing of
reworked. as basement of the circumscribing fold Neoproterozoic blocks Fig. 4., as descendants of a
belts, under both thin-skin and thick-skin structural supercontinental fission, has natural deficiencies and
conditions. uncertainties.
As fractions of the Mesoproterozoic superconti- There is evidence that the interaction of some
nent fission, these blocks are composed of segments Neoproterozoic blocks involved consumption of
of the Trans-Amazonian and Upper Mesoproterozoic oceanic realms positioned among them, thus generat-
collages, especially of the former one. It is necessary ing accretionary orogenies and subsequently colli-
to consider that some blocks were substantially mod- sional and transpressional orogenic types. When an
ified and that some others have increased in area by oceanic basin was not present, the interactions of the

Neoproterozoic granitogenesis, like GoiasTocantins blocks caused deformation of the continental sedi-
whose western border is a Brasiliano magmatic arc., mentary or volcano-sedimentary piles between them
PernambucoAlagoas, Rio Piranhas, etc. These new with deep reworking of the basement underlying
such basins. The available geochronological data by the convergence of the Neoproterozoic blocks.
indicate important interactions, general convergence All these combined processes developed a complete
activities with subduction, first in the Criogenian new global cycle Brasiliano., whose consequence
period ca. 750 Ma., in the Neoproterozoic III ca. was the agglutination of a newer supercontinental
600 ma., and in some particular cases, from the end landmass Western Gondwana., Neoproterozoic to
of Neoproterozoic III to the early beginning of the Cambrian in age, which joined together only some of
Cambrian 580540 Ma. From one province to an- the many descendantsrfragments of Rodinia.
other, such interactions and their orogenic events are To cover some important aspects of the Brasiliano
not synchronous. cycle the classification scheme of Condie 1989. was
Centripetal convergence of the Neoproterozoic choosen, because lithostratigraphic composition and
blocks may be assumed for the orogenic processes tectonic mobility are prevailing factors among a
and tectonic consolidation of most of the provinces, series of variables which allow good inferences about
like Borborema, Tocantins, etc. In all provinces the the earlier tectonic settings of these Neoproterozoic
arrrangement of blocks, as figured out Fig. 7., after fold belts Fig. 7.. First, the two remarkable main
the Brasiliano orogeny, had a last component of kinds of Proterozoic rock associations, QPC s
lateral displacement along linear shear zones linea- diamictitequartzitepelitecarbonate association
ments., which seems to be connected with collisional syneclises, continental margins, miogeosynclines,
impactogenesis. and late-collisional escape tecton- etc., of proximal domains of the fold belts. and
ics. events. These shear zones, present in all Brasil- volcano-sedimentary association latu sensu litho-
iano provinces, are additionally responsible for sphere-activated and mantle-activated rifts, forearc
several varied volcano-sedimentary post-tectonic, and backarc basins, of distal domains of the fold
pull-apart. basins and intrusions alkaline granites, belts. are present in the far interior of most fold
granodiorites. diachronously formed from one belts. For this second more general case, three differ-
province to another, from ca. 590 up to ca. 500 Ma. ent subtypes of rock associations are distinguished
These associated events of sedimentation immature here: BVAC s bimodal volcanic arkose-con-
continental clastic. plus varied volcanism and anoro- glomerate, turbidites; Greenstones large propor-
genic plutonism are considered together Alpha se- tions of volcanic with both calc-alkaline and tholei-
quence. as representative of an important tectonic itic affinities, absence of komatiites; and also special
transition stage, preceding the general conditions of and local associations with remnants of oceanic floor
tectonic stability of the Ordovician period, during and subduction complexes ophiolites and related
which the platform started to achieve striking stabil- deep-sea sediments.. Another subsidiary type of
ity and to develop their first real cratonic mature. fold belts included here are those which constitute
cover sequences. magmatic arcs, which are usually situated on
marginal parts of the Neoproterozoic blocks, as pre-
6.2. Origin, classification and arrangement of the viously mentioned.
Brasiliano fold belts The present distribution of the Brasiliano fold
belts, post-collage and post-Mesozoic continental
The early origin of the Brasiliano fold belts is drift, may be described as forming four main struc-
related to the formation of sedimentary and tural provinces: Borborema northeast of the
volcano-sedimentary sites led up by the Tonian platform., Tocantins central part., Mantiqueira
Taphrogenesis, which broke up the Mesoproterozoic southeast and south. and Pampean southwest of the
supercontinent Rodinia.. Subsequent convergent ac- platform., which have already been named and dis-
tivities started to take place and led to the subduction cussed by Almeida et al. 1981.. This is a kind of
of oceanic realms and the tectonic inversion of the preliminary and useful geographicalgeological clas-
different systems of original Tonian and younger. sification, even with recognized paleogeographic and
basins, continental rifts systems, interior syneclises, tectonic connections among these provinces.
proto-oceanic basins, etc. The final picture was the Another possible approach for the arrangements
collision and transpressional movements conducted of these belts is attractive, as that emphasizing the
chelogenic character of the belts surrounding the laterally giving way to to thick-skin distal area.
major Neoproterozoic blocks which have acted as domains. Nevertheless, instead of a general unique
seed-nuclei., namely: Peri-Amazonian, Peri-West name like peri-Sao Francisco, for example. many
Africa, Peri-Franciscan, Peri-Rio de la Plata, Peri- local geographical names based mostly on physio-
Kalahari, etc. Regarding such classification and dis- graphic aspects Rio Preto, Braslia, Rio Grande,
tribution, it is necessary to remark that generally the Rio Pardo, Sergipano, etc.. were used to
Aracua,
rock assemblages as above discussed. are arrranged designate the same long peripheral belt, hiding the
displaying lateral gradations from the Neoprotero- importance of such mutual and global relationships.
zoic blocks themselves to the interior of the fold The initial tectonic settings for these fold belts
belts. This means, from more stable types, miogeo- were rather variable, as a function of the nature of
clines and similar proximal environments QPC rock the basement, the extension factor of the Tonian
associations. to more unstable types, distal environ- event., the relative position to the Neoproterozoic
ments BVAC, Greenstone, Ophiolites., with blocks, sedimentary sources and volcanism, etc. The
the rock associations increasing volcanic components same is true for inversion tectonic conditions, in
to the more distal parts. The regional metamorphism many different interactive conditions, obliquity of
and folding phases also usually displays the same the convergence, intensity and type B or A. of
polarity, with the gradual intensification of both subduction, aspects of crustal shortening, etc. Some
features towards the distal domains, far from the fold belts show evidence of tectonic inheritance from
Neoproterozoic blocks. the previous Mesoproterozoic and Paleoproterozoic
The informal names used to designate fold belts frameworks, like in the Borborema province from
may lead to problems and deserve comments, be- Cariris Velhos trends., Aracua from Espinhaco and
cause sometimes the influence of a geographical Trans-Amazonian trends., the northern part of Man-
point of view may be hiding some important geolog- tiqueira from Trans-Amazonian trends. and so on.
ical facts about close relationships and previous con- Conversely, some fold belts seem to have originated
tinuities among the fold belts. For instance, there are straight from the first structural lines of the Tonian
fold belts positioned among different blocks that rifting, without any apparent influence of basement
may be up to 5000 km long, with no fundamental trends such as those of Araguaia east of Amazonia .
discontinuities to be discussed, like that from the and Rockelides, the western part of Sergipano belt,
Rockelides lateral to the West Africa block. up to Rio Pardo belt, etc. The natural diversity of fold

Cordoba in Argentina western part of Rio de La belts resulting from the Brasiliano collage is still
Plata.. Different names have been used along this challenging a synthesis.
belt Araguaia, Tocantins, Paraguay, Cordoban or Moreover, different kinds of granitization pro-
East Pampean, etc.. in order to cover the many cesses have accompanied all the phases of evolution
different geographic segments rather than to state of the Brasiliano fold belts up to the completion of
true different geological aspects themselves. Another this collage and postdating it Cambrian period..
example is the case of the fold belt or group of fold Examples are the many gneissicmigmatitic com-
belts. surrounding the S. Francisco peninsula just a plexes and products of migmatization processes that
part of the Sao FranciscoCongoKasaiAngola can be seen in Borborema and Mantiqueira provinces,
Craton. which exihibits a litho-stratigraphical and which mostly include basement rocks and Neopro-
structural coherence along thousands of kilometers. terozoic supracrustals and which open a series of
First, with proximal facies of ancient continental problems for stratigraphic classification. These show
passive margins QPC assemblages. and their lateral special geodynamic conditions high isothermal gra-
passage to distal and deeper proto-oceanic and dients. for the Brasiliano, which is in agreement with
oceanic sites, up to some local ophiolitic remnants. widespread isotopic rejuvenating phenomena RbSr
Second, this peri-continental paleogeographic con- and KAr systems, mainly. for most of the pre-
text was transformed into a more or less continuous Neoproterozoic rock associations.
arrangement of centripetally convergent thrust-and- The general structural trends of the South Ameri-
fold belts, with thin-skin domains proximal areas. can Platform and its final geographicalgeological
shape, still as part of the Western Gondwana, were be described below. When tectonic stabilization was
dominated by the network of shear zones, as already reached, after the Cambrian Period, volcanism was
mentioned, which was followed by a series of other almost completely absent during the calmer and
lithogenetic activities sedimentary, volcanic and plu- longer post-Cambrian stabilization stage. During this
tonic., which lasted until the end of the Cambrian. second major stage, since the first half of the Ordovi-
Among these shear belts, the position, role and be- cian period, true cratonic sequences the concept of
havior of the Transbrasiliano Lineament Schob- Sloss, 1988., composed of marine and continental
benhaus et al., 1984., which transversely intersects sediments, started to develop successively until Tri-
the entire platform, from NNE to SSW and in so assic and Jurassic times.
doing practically divides two distinct arrangements The best representation for these sequences are
for Neoproterozoic blocks and fold belts, should be now in the larger Gondwana or Paleozoic syneclises:
mentioned. To the west, the large Amazonian block 600,000 km2 ., Amazonas 400,000 km2 .,
Solimoes
with its peripheral belts is the dominating feature. To
Parnaba 700,000 km2 ., 1,100,000 km2 . and
the east of it, the number of blocks of different ChacoParana 600,000 km2 ., this last mostly in
sizes. and types of fold belts is greater, and the array Argentina. The stratigraphy of these basins as well
of the Brasiliano collage is much more complex see as the coastal younger ones. have been revised a few
Fig. 7.. There is considerable evidence for the poly- Eiras et al., 1994.,
years ago, as follows: Solimoes
cyclical movements along this continental shear zone, Amazonas Cunha et al., 1994., Parnaba Goes and
from Precambrian to Recent times, and the same is 1994., Acre Feijo and de Souza, 1994., Parana
Feijo,
true for many others lineaments. and ChacoParana Milani et al., 1994.. The range
The primary displacements promoted along the of thicknesses varies from 3000 to 5000 m from one
shear zones is not known well enough because most depocenter to another. The sedimentary fill of Acre
of the studies have offered more qualitative than basin 200,000 km2 ., to the west of the Solimoes
quantitative results, mainly of reconnaissance map- syneclise, includes equivalents of these sequences,
ping. Some authors estimate hundreds of kilometers but its evolution presents some similarities to those
for strikeslip movement for the case of Trans- of the subandean basins. The sequences are also
brasiliano and Patos lineament, for instance. have present in the bottom of many interior and coastal
partially been confirmed by structural, isotopic and MesozoicCenozoic rifts such as ParecisrAlto Xingu
geophysical studies of the adjacent domains. During 500,000 km2 . Araripe, TucanoJatoba, Barreiri-
all the Phanerozoic Eon, but especially in the Meso- nhas, SergipeAlagoas, etc. Fig. 8..
zoic and Cenozoic eras, these shear belts behaved The cratonic sequences are separated from each
like polycyclical sites or zones of tectonic move- other by interregional unconformities; they go
ments huge vertical displacements have been con- through five major tectono-sedimentary cycles six,
firmed., as preferential sites of the tectonic heritage if the Alpha sequence is also included., agreeing
as shown by the analysis of all sedimentary basins with Soares et al. 1974, 1978.. These sequences
see Cordani et al., 1984.. correspond to successive major events of the plat-
form surface lowering below the regional base level
and its subsequent uplift. Each of these cycles des-
7. The Phanerozoic platform cover ignated by a Greek letter from alpha to zeta. is an
assembly of stratigraphic groups and formations, even
The stages of the litho-structural development of of isolated beds, in some cases, between regional
the cratonic cover of South American Platform vary unconformities. Many problems and obstacles are
considerably and are well recorded Fig. 8.. From common for thickness estimates after previous ero-
the Cambrian period onwards they comprise count- sional events. of the former sedimentary column, as
less volcano-sedimentary and sedimentary covers changes of thickness due to compacting, post-deposi-
some of them associated with plutonic suites. stages. tional geometric modifications, poorly defined
The first of these or the transition stage Almeida, andror insufficient chronological data, etc. Never-
1967. corresponds to the Alpha sequence, which will theless, this approach seems to be the most practical
Fig. 8. General records of the post-Paleozoic activation of the South American Platform, with emphasis on the following: 1. Archean and
Paleoproterozoic domains: 1, 2. Guyana and Guapore shields; 3. Sao Francisco craton; 4. Rio de la Plata Craton covered.; 2.
Sedimentary coer, including A. Subandean basins; B. Solimoes basin; C. Amazonas basin; D. Parnaba
basin; E. Parana basin; F.
Chaco-Parana basin; G. Parecis basin; H. Alto Xingu basin; 3. Andean belt; 4. Exposed Upper JurassicLower Jurassic olcanic rocks;
5. Main dike swarms; 6. Triassic alkaline rocks; 7. Upper Cretaceous alkaline rocks; 8. Lower Cretaceous alkaline granites (and aried
olcanism); 9. Tertiary alkaline rocks; 10. Southernmost boundary of the platform.
way to synthesize all the cover stages of the platform The paraplatformal Alpha sequence actually rep-
and its Phanerozoic tectonic history. resents deposits late to post-tectonic. and associated
magmatism of the then recently agglutinated Gond- of sedimentation and slight magmatism. when tec-
wana continent, rather than a real cratonic sequence. tonic quietness started to be restored a gradual and
After this stage of transition in the general gradual diachronous restabilization., from the Upper Creta-
and diachronous tectonic conditions, from mobile ceous to the Present, replacing the previous dramatic
belts to stable cratonic domains, the Paleozoic Gond- events of the actiation stage.
wana basins from the Ordovician up to Jurassic
times received the deposition of four true cratonic 7.1. Transition stage Alpha sequence
sequences Beta, Gamma, Delta and Delta-A., of
marine and continental environments, with their nat- This sequence includes sedimentary mostly im-
ural particuliarities from one basin to another. Dur- mature continental clastic., volcano-sedimentary
ing these times, the closest plate border was the acid to intermediate rocks and some mafic magma-
Pacific margin Zalan, 1991., and its complex his- tism are common. with plutonic anorogenic. rocks,
tory of accretion and microcollision caused many from the Neoproterozoic III up to the end of the
base-level changes and influenced these sedimentary Cambrian, diachronous from one basin to an-
cratonic covers and their unconformities. other, following the different steps and times of
In post-Paleozoic times the interior of the plat- consolidation of the four main structural Brasiliano
form started to be intensively activated due to tec- provinces. It is naturally complex and diversified
tonic processes of formation of the present active from place to place, and generally fills rifts and
and passive margins of the South American conti- pull-apart basins of modest sizes, which often crop
nent. This complex actiation stage and its corre- out on the periphery of the syneclises. A basal
sponding sedimentary and volcano-sedimentary unconformity to Neoproterozoic lithostructural rock
recording Epsilon sequence. show important dif- units is common and some of them reveal constraints
ferences and variations, both in physical space and in of a previous larger size, preceding the Phanerozoic
time, i.e., from the Upper Paleozoic first recordings erosional phases. A generally well-marked upper
in the northern part of the platform. to Upper Creta- unconformity is defined with the Ordovician andror
ceous. In the Guyana shield, at the northern part of Silurian sediments Beta or Gamma sequence, the
the platform, Triassic rifts and mafic dike swarms latter being the most common case..
are synchronous to the opening of the North Atlantic. In the northern part of the platform, representative
In the southern part of the platform, important traps rock units for this sequence have not yet been recog-
of basaltic magmatism Serra Geral Group and rela- nized. Alkaline ultramafic bodies occur along the
tives., over 1,000,000 km2 , were mostly formed in axis precursor rift system. of the Amazonas
early Cretaceous times. Along the coastal Atlantic syneclise, Cambrian in age ca. 500 Ma., attributed
area this stage of evolution presents first a series of to late-Brasiliano impactogenesis led by the Araguaia
rifts with associated mafic magmatism, followed by belt Peri-Amazonian..
proto-oceanic domains, gulfs and the alike, near the The best representations of cratonic cover rocks
middle part of Cretaceous. Actually, Epsilon se- are found in the molassic foredeeps Alto Paraguai,
quence does not strictly follow the general require- Lagarto-Tobias Barreto, Itaja, CamaquarGuaritas
.
ments for a cratonic sequence. However, this is a and some minor intradeeps Jua, part of Camarinha.
practical and useful way to group a series of interre- of the Brasiliano provinces. Similar deposits are also
lated episodes and their lithogenetic products, at least present in post-collisional extrusion pull-apart.
due to expositive reasons. basins, always associated to extensional phases of
The last cover sequence Zeta. mainly assembles the major shear belts Jaibaras, Cococi, Piranhas,
the sedimentary phases connected with the individu- Camarinha, etc. basins and subbasins., whose
alization of the South American Platform, i.e. those previous larger size may be inferred from their lo-
having the Atlantic shoreline as the regional base cally preserved remnants. Volcano-sedimentary se-
level. It is indigenous and it was formed pari passu quences filling these basins are hundreds to thou-
with the last geomorphological evolution of this sands meters thick, mostly with immature clastic
platform. It is also representative of younger stages deposits plus volcanic rocks. and discontinuous
folding style. The brittle structures dominate. Granitic 7.2.1. The Beta sequence
plutonism is rare, except in the case of the Joinville The Beta sequence is formed by continental sedi-
Massif the northern part of the Lus Alves block., ments presenting transitions to fossiliferous marine
where an important suite of alkaline to peralkaline deposits, thus characterizing the first important ma-
granites make the main elevations of the Serra do rine trangression on to the recently consolidated
Mar Almeida and Carneiro, 1998., from Sao Paulo
platform, from west to east Solimoes-Amazonas,
to Santa Catarina states, in close association with Parana basin. and from south to north Parnaba
many occurrences of these basins. basin.. Its lower limit is very well marked by the
These types of basins are related to the pres- post-Cambrianrpre-Ordovician unconformity and its
ence of shear belts basin-forming tectonics. and upper surface limit is represented by the Eo-De-
they were protected against younger erosion episodes vonian unconformity.
due to the close presence of a Lower Paleozoic cover In the Solimoes basin, the Benjamin Constant
mostly belonging to the Gamma sequence. The num- Formation is the oldest marine sedimentary record-
ber and size of the Eo-Paleozoic occurrences ing for this sequence and of all Brazilian basins
decreases sharply where these conditions are not sandstones and black shales, at subsurface.. All
found. syneclises and many interior some coastal. rifts
Moreover, there is preliminary evidence of larger present a fair representation for this sequence, with
and thicker areas of the occurrence of such basinal continental and subsequent predominant marine sedi-
rocks beneath the Parnaba and Parana syneclises, ments. Among the former can be mentioned some
occupying the precursor triggering grabens for devel- minor occurrences of shallow marine and glacial
opment of these Paleozoic basins. Cambrian deposits deposits in Amazonas, Parnaba and Parana Assine
of this type have been found by deep wells along et al., 1994. syneclises. The sediments of this se-
their main depositional axes. quence often crop out in the periphery of the basins,
but most of them occur under subsurface conditions
as in the Parana basin Assine et al., 1998a,b..
7.2. The Stability stage
The relative tectonic quietness from Ordovician 7.2.2. The Gamma sequence
up to Upper Jurassic at some places, these tectonic This sequence is present in all Brazilian syneclises
conditions stopped in Triassic times, and even before as well as in the main paleozoic rift systems. It
them. was defined as the stability stage Almeida, corresponds to a complete transgressiveregressive
1966, 1967.. It was developed under orthoplatformal marine cycle, from the Early Devonian to the end of
conditions, when continuous and mature cover se- the Lower Carboniferous, limited at the top and the
quences of marine mostly, but not exclusively, bottom by two important interregional unconformi-
Lower Paleozoic. and continental provenances could ties.
widely be formed, even beyond the present erosional basin there are recordings of
In the Solimoes
boundaries of the major syneclises and rifts. marine and glacio-marine sediments. In the Ama-
Unconformities of an interregional character are zonas basin the recording of a complete sedimentary
used to limit successive cratonic cover sequences: cycle begins and ends with deltaic-fluvial sediments,
the Beta OrdovicianSilurian., Gamma Devo- successively passing throughout neritic, euxinic,
nianLower Carboniferous., Delta Upper Carbonif- glacio-marine and neritic facies. In the Parnaba
erousTriassic. and Delta-A TriassicJurassic. are syneclise and in the TucanoJatoba rift system,
composed of mature sediments. Magmatism was recordings are also complete and similar to that of
practically absent during this long stage over 350 Amazonas, but with remarkable erosional uncon-
Ma in some basins., though its end is diachronous formity and stratigraphical vacuity at its top. In the
and generally marked by Mesozoic basaltic magma- Parana syneclise the recordings for the first phases of
tism, locally starting to appear at the end of the the transgressive cycle Parana Group., from con-
Permian period Amazonas Basin.. glomerates and clear sandstones to black shales, are
very well documented, but a strong erosion event Triassic period. Sometimes this subsequence is sepa-
removed the sediments of the regressive phase. The rated from the lower main sequence Delta. by local
same rock units of Parana are found in the bottom of unconformities. This subsequence represents one of
the rift systems of the Parecis basin. the largest deserts in the history of the Earth which
This is the most general stage of the Lower covered areas of the post-Hercynian supercontinent.
Paleozoic covering in the South American Platform, This post-Triassic part Delta A. of the same general
under stable tectonic conditions and strong marine development since the end of Lower Carboniferous.
influence. The huge erosional unconformity of its top of the cycle has been separated as a subsequence, but
is a platform milestone that was attributed to the this is not a generally accepted concept. The end of
influences of the orogenic Hercynian events on the this subsequence is diachronous and it is related with
western margin of the continent the Andean Chain.. the early breakout of the supercontinent from the
Permian to Lower Cretaceous., marked by rifting
processes and basaltic magmatism. This new series
7.2.3. The Delta sequence and the Delta-A subse- of tectonic-sedimentary realms then developed were
quence best defined as part of the Epsilon sequence.
The last Paleozoic tectonic-sedimentary cycle has
a complex evolution, limited by an Upper Permianr 7.3. The post-Paleozoic actiation Epsilon and
Eo-Triassic unconformity. A climatic and paleogeo- Zeta sequences
graphic differentiation can be observed in the sedi-
mentary recordings of this sequence, from the north- As previously emphasized, the South American
ern semi-arid conditions, fluvial and marine sedi- Platform became individualized as the western part
ments. to the southern glacial, glacio-marine. basins. of Pangea West Gondwana. in the Cretaceous, and
and Amazonas syneclises display
The Solimoes since then it has been separated from the African
continental sediments with marine intercalations, with Platform. The initial taphrogenic rift systems, gulfs.
typical and important evaporitic deposits. In the processes preceding such a drift were generally initi-
basin, this sequence is characterized by low
Parnaba ated in the Triassic period, even a little earlier, it had
subsidence rates, shallow marine to continental sedi- its culminating in the Lower Cretaceous ca. 120130
ments and progressive evidence for desertic environ- Ma., with diachronic continental manifestations
ments from their basal beds to the top. tectonic and lithogenetic processes. all over the
Permo-Carboniferous glacial deposits are widely continent. These phenomena were first described as
distributed in Gondwana Eyles, 1993; Smith, 1997.. Wealdean reactivation Almeida, 1967. and later
In the Parana syneclise the delta sequence is charac- on as Mesozoic activation Almeida, 1972.. Most
terized by thick glacial deposits with marine interca- of the papers on such a complex subject considered
lations five different horizons.. Semi-arid to arid it as reflecting the continental drift, but it is neces-
conditions are recorded only near the top of the sary also to add and to remember the influence of the
sequence. The final phase of the tectono-sedimentary coeval processes of orogenetic interactions subduc-
cycle is composed of terrigenous sediments, from tion, microcollision, faults. on the Andean and
litoral and shallow marine zones whose upper limit Caribbean margins of the plate.
reached the Triassic ages. Similar rock assemblages A review of these processes will follow the differ-
are present in the Parecis basin, and there are also ent geographicalgeological areas different struc-
some remnants of this sequence preserved in other tural provinces., from north to south, which have
interior TucanoJatoba . and even in some coastal different behavior in terms of the most important
rifts SergipeAlagoas.. features.
The subsequence Delta-A was proposed Soares
et al., 1974, 1978. to assemble the sediments of 7.3.1. The Guyana shield
desertic environments prevailing at the top of the This was the first region of the platform where the
previous sequence, characterizing wide continental processes of activation took place, especially that of
conditions geocracy of Pangea., from the Early basic magmatism. Eo-Triassic up to Eo-Jurassic
ca. 225; ca. 180 Ma. dike swarms, NNWSSE Countless diabase sills and dikes intruded into the
trending are common Cassipore diabases. from Paleozoic lithostratigraphic pile, with a known maxi-
Amapa up to the French Guyana territory, and from mum thickness of 809 m observed in the Solimoes
there to the continental boundary. Dikes of the same subbasin. Aires 1983. estimated about 340,000 km3
nature and age are also common in the states of for the whole volume of intrusive magmatic material,
Roraima, Para and Amazonas Brazil. as well as in pointing out that the total thickness of the sills is
Suriname and Guyana. Such processes of magma- larger under two main general conditions: where the
tism and rifting are considered to be related to the basement of the basin is deeper and where the total
opening of the North Atlantic, which was effective thickness of post-diabase beds is larger. Moreover,
all over the Guyana Shield. these large thicknesses of basaltic magmatism are
The Takutu rift attributed to the same tectonic generally situated where the major Precambrian shear
cause. is a NESW trending semi-graben about 3000 zones cross cut each other. The oldest known sills
km long, 3050 km wide, which developed from are from the beginning of the Triassic period ca.
Roraima Brazil. to Guyana along older reactivated. 250 Ma.; therefore, coeval to the above-mentioned
Proterozoic structures of the Guyana Central Pre- Cassipore diabase. A younger episode of sill and
cambrian shear zone Costa et al., 1991.. The gen- dike intrusion is known from the end of Jurassic to
eral structure seems to be controlled by normal faults the Neocomian stage.
reactivated along the main trend of the shear zone The influence of the Andean orogenesis on this
and by some NWSE trending transcurrent faults. region has been less investigated and is little known,
The preserved volcano-sedimentary pile exhibits partially due to of the considerable extent and thick-
about 1500 m of basaltic flows, which dated from ness of the younger cover sequences Zeta.. Influ-
180 up to 150 Ma the Apoteri Formation ences and tectonic responses for these Andean
covered by 5500 m of clastic sediments minor orogenesis are recognized in the Solimoes Basin,
clasticevaporitic., mainly siltstone red-beds and situated between the structural arches of Purus east.
deltaic sandstones of the Late Jurassic to Lower and Iquitos this latter separating Solimoes from
Cretaceous ages. Mesozoic alkaline plutonism is also Acre-Pastaza, a sub-Andean basin. and having as a
present, as the examples of Catrimani syenite of Precambrian basement rocks of the Rio Negro
Roraima Fig. 8., with age ca. 100 Ma and the Juruena belt. Detected faults and folding systems of
alkaline ultramafic and carbonatitic province of Seis Late-Jurassic and Eo-Cretaceous ages have affected
Lagos, in Amazonas state Rio Negro valley., which real Paleozoic cratonic sequences, and the sources
was tentatively attributed to the Upper TriassicrEo- for such stress fields have their origin in the subduc-
Cretaceous ages. A very thick Nb-bearing duricrust tion processes of the Nazca plate. There is a very
characterizes the Seis Lagos region, from which
important fault zone, the megasuture of Solimoes
samples of the fresh bedrock have not yet been Caputo and Silva, 1991., about 1000 km long,
obtained. developed by a system of faults N7080E trending,
which is a good example of intraplate tectonics
derived from the active margin.
7.3.2. The Amazonas basin
The Amazonas syneclise itself is usually divided
into three major subbasins, as follows: Solimoes 7.3.3. The Guapore shield (south of Amazonas-
Amazonas and Baixo Ama-
Alto Amazonas., Medio basin)
Solimoes
zonas. All of them received continental sediments Once again, the most conspicuous events of the
Formation. from the Albian stage to
Alter do Chao post-Paleozoic activation for this southern part of the
the Upper Cretaceous Turonian stage. and several Amazonas basin are recorded by the occurrences of
Cenozoic covers. The same is true for the western diabase sills and dikes, also piercing rocks of the
Acre basin, at the boundary of the platform west- basement and many others of Proterozoic and
ward of Amazonas., under the Andean zone of influ- Phanerozoic evolution. Basaltic flows are present in
ence. both Mato Grosso and Rondonia states, with Jurassic
and Cretaceous ages. The well-known basaltic flows intrusions of tholeiitic nature. The relationship be-
of the southwestern part of this shield, Tapirapua and tween the basaltic magmatism of the Borborema
Anari, are the northernmost occurrences of magmatic Province and their ancient tectonic features activated
rocks affiliated with those of the Parana Basin in the Mesozoic time. is not always clear. Occur-
Epsilon sequence.. They are covered by Cretaceous rence of tholeiitic basalt magmatism generally coin-
sandstones of the Parecis Formation Zeta sequence., cides with fault lines that formed the sedimentary
which is correlated to the Bauru Group, to the south, basins, a reality both for the interior and for the
in the Parana Basin. Some kimberlite intrusions, continental margin areas.
Cretaceous in age, are present in this western part of There are several hypotheses for these occur-

the shield, in the states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia. rences of magmatism as that based on the clockwise
movement of the South American plate Francolin
7.3.4. The northeast region and Szatmari, 1987., following a rotation pole about
During Late-Jurassic and Eo-Cretaeous two main 398W Gr., 78S. which caused NS extension stresses
graben systems, SWNE trending, were formed in in this part of the plate and EW compression at the
this region, divided by basement tectonic highs Lima same time Neocomian. in the African counterpart
Filho et al., 1996, among others.. The Afro-Brazilian the area around Cameroon.. The so-generated or
depression Central Atlantic, with CaborPer- similar. stress fields have thus reactivated many
nambuco, SergipeAlagoas, ReconcavoTucano Precambrian fault lines of the Borborema Province,
Jatoba basins and BahiaEspirito Santo basins. and according to the different stages of the continental
AraripePotiguar from west Pernambuco to the Rio drift. They initiated a series of Mesozoic grabens and
Grande do Norte coastal area, Equatorial Atlantic., favored intrusion of diabase dikes around 120130
whose sedimentary remnants are trapped and pre- Ma, especially from central and south Ceara to Rio
served in the bottom of the deeper grabens, receiving Grande do Norte State, which present general EW
many informal names of basins and subbasins. They trends, parallel to the southern border of Potiguar
present recordings for pre-rift Paleozoic sequences., Basin Ceara MirimrCabugi magmatism and related
rift and gulf stages Epsilon sequence. before the events..
marine sediments of Atlantic provenances Zeta se- In the coastal area, south of Recife CaborPer-
quence., from different Upper Cretaceous stages nambuco basin. it is necessary to mention the Ipo-
post-Albian.. juca volcanism of probable Albian age, which com-
syneclise, there are
In the interior of the Parnaba prises rhyolites, trachytes, basalts, different types of
widespread continental sediments associated to rift- tuffs, etc. of the same span of time as the alkaline
ing and basaltic magmatism Alpercatas amphi- granite of Cabo Santo Agostinho ca. 100 Ma., the
and Coimbra, 1996.. Over 150 m
clise, after Goes unique Phanerozoic anorogenic granites of the plat-
of fluvial-lacustrine deposits Corda and Pastos Bons form. In the domains of the Potiguar basin, there are
Formation. were deposited at that time. Triassic and some local occurrences of alkaline basalts of
Jurassic basaltic flows and diabase intrusions occur Oligocene to Miocene ages between 45 and 29 Ma.,
on the western part of the basin Mosquito mag- cutting across most of the sedimentary pile and
matism., while younger Eo-Cretaceous sills, dikes previous Mesozoic basaltic occurrences. During the
and minor basaltic flow are present in the eastern Oligocene some alkaline necks were positioned in
part Sardinha magmatism., associated with some the surroundings of Fortaleza, in Ceara State.
clastic sedimentary rock units. The first Mesozoic
occurrence of marine-related or marine sedimenta- 7.3.5. The Sao Francisco Craton and its eastern
tion is recorded in this area, as well as in the Aracua Fold Belt
previously mentioned rift system about the middle The Sao Francisco Craton behaved as a very
part of Cretaceous after the AlbianAptian stages.. stable area during the events of the post-Paleozoic
The Brasiliano Borborema Province, part of the activation. Rifting and sedimentation processes are
syneclise, presents
shield to the east of the Parnaba present in its western part Eo-Cretaceous, connected
many occurrences of basaltic magmatism, mainly with the Parnaba Basin. and along the Atlantic
Coastal Area. In spite of the importance of vertical present features Zalan et al., 1991. were developed
tectonics, the occurrences of mafic magmatism are after the Triassic period. Many other structural posi-
surprisingly scarce and local. tive areas with upward movements appeared with the
In the area of the Serra do Espinhaco Proterozoic activation processes: The Paranaba Arch, Rio Grande
cover sequence of the craton, partially reworked by Arch, Bom Jardim Arch, the Serra do Mar features,
the Brasiliano Aracua Fold Belt., at Minas Gerais, and others. These areas of positive tectonic move-
diabase dikes have isotopic ages from 220 up to 170 ments are responsible for the main outline of the
Ma Dossin et al., 1995.. Towards the coastal area basin after the Jurassic and Cretaceous times; they
there is a linear Precambrian shear belt found in had an important role on the emplacement of the
high grade rocks of the distal segment of the fold alkaline intrusions.
belt., NNWSSE trending, about 200 km long, from The first important magmatic episodes were
Vitoria Espirito Santo. to the northnorthwest, marked by emplacement of alkaline rocks of Eastern
which was reactivated and it was penetrated by Paraguay during the Eo-Jurassic or even Late Trias-
diabase dikes ca. 170 Ma. sic times. Diabase dikes of Late Jurassic gave way to
the basaltic flows of the Serra Geral during the Early
7.3.6. The Parana and ChacoParana Basins and Cretaceous. The whole area occupied by the basaltic
surrounding areas magmatism is over 1,200,000 km2 ; with local
Continental sediments with low subsidence rates isolithic lines including sills. that may reach up to
characterize the evolution of the Parana Basin in 1700 m. The estimated total volume of magmatic
Brazil Piramboia and Rosario do Sul formations, material is about 1,000,000 km3. This is, by far, one
Delta-A sequence. and homologous basins in of the most important occurrences of flood basalts of
Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina ChacoParana the world, both in terms of size and of volume. The
Basin.. From Late Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous, first flows of basaltic material are intertrapped with
these basins accumulated widespread, but not very eolian sediments of the Botucatu Formation, at dif-
thick, aeolian deposits Botucatu Formation in Brazil ferent stratigraphic levels. Similar lava flows are also
and their stratigraphic correlatives in the surrounding present in Uruguay Arequita Formation., Paraguay
countries.. and ChacoParana, in Argentina Russo et al., 1980..
The Botucatu Formation is outstanding in the The magmatic processes were relatively very fast,
Parana Basin Almeida, 1953. for the large distribu- most of them probably lasting around 10 millions of
tion and relatively uniform thickness. Dune fields are years, between 138 and 127 Ma after Turner et al.,
recognized in the sandstone beds. They were affected 1994.. It is still possible that these processes were
from the Neocomian onwards by the widespread still faster, according to Renne et al. 1992., only 3
basic magmatism of Serra Geral Formation. Taking or 2 million years based on ArrAr data.. Most of
into account the South American and African basins the basaltic flows present tholeiitic characteristics,
together, this area of desert sedimentation Delta-A without olivines. Only in the southern states of Brazil
subsequence. was over 2,000,000 km2 , and it may be are there occurrences of tholeiitic andesites, rhyolites
classified as the Dala table land. basin type and rhyodacites Melfi et al., 1988.. In the southern
Botucatu Dala. which was immediately succeeded part of Brazil as well as in Etendeka Namibia,
by the mafic magmatism and related unstable events Africa., the volcanic rocks are intercalated with ap-
of the Epsilon sequence. proximately a half hundred meters of rhyolitic lava
In the Parana Basin domal structures and linear flows. The basalt-rhyolitic suite of the Palma type, at
arches are common, parallel or not to the limits of the Parana State, southern Brazil Piccirillo et al.,
the basin. Many were formed during the activation 1988b. and the equivalent low-TiO 2 suite in Etendeka
stage. Some, like the NS Asuncion Arch, on the Erlank et al., 1984. are in correspondence both in
west of the main basin, presented a general trend for age and composition. After an isotopic study Piccir-
upward movements from Devonian times. The Ponta illo et al. 1988a. have concluded that the origin of
Grossa Arch has been pointed out as a wide domal the volcanism in the Parana Basin is related to a
structure prevailing before the continental drift; its distinct mantelic source, of lithospheric type, and not
to any mantelic isotopically homogeneous material, probably related to thermal effects. During the Late
of asthenospheric type e.g., mantle plume.. Turner Cretaceous SantonianMaastrichtian., a new and
et al. 1996. also inferred that more than one source autonomous basin was born. It is an interior syneclise
in the lithospheric mantle has formed the volcanism. filled up by the Bauru Group, about 300 m of
The Tristan da Cunha plume according to these continental sediments Zeta sequence., with some
authors was greatly passive in the process, contribut- basal volcanic intercalations, whose depocenters co-
ing with the heat that made easier the remobilization incide with the area of maximum thickness of the
of the ancient lithospheric material. The association underlying Serra Geral basalts. To the north, some
of the basalts to acid lavas seems to support their marginal elevations separate this basin from its co-
conclusions. eval and probably homologous. Alto San Franciscan
Diabase dikes are known in the Parana basin and basin, which also belongs to an Upper Cretaceous
all the surrounding crystalline areas of its basement age.
see Almeida et al., 1996.. The mafic dikes of the
Serra do Mar, between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro 7.3.7. The Southsoutheast region of Brazil
Fig. 8. are associated to lamprophyres and other This is a region where the activation phenomena
alkaline rocks, following NESW structural trends were much more intensive, including special phases
inherited from the basement Mantiqueira Province.. of vertical movements up to now which form un-
Another remarkable group of mafic dike swarms are usual landscapes. The region placed on the continen-
those parallel to the main axis of the Ponta Grossa tal shelf to the slope facing the Santos and Campos
arch, with a general NWSE trend, that present basins has as structures of the Ribeira Fold Belt
Lower Cretaceous ages, from the litoral area up to central part of Mantiqueira Province. as basement.
the interior of the Parana basin itself where they The Santos Basin is among the largest and deepest
occur cutting across previous basaltic flows Ussami sedimentary basins of the South Atlantic continental
et al., 1991.. margin. Its depocenters locally reach depths of 13
The alkaline magmatism is rather variable in terms km. By its turn, the adjacent uplifted continental
of rock types, saturated and unsaturated rocks, leuco area, between Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro
and melanocratic rocks; it includes some ultrabasic states, is a striking plateau with a huge line of
rocks, carbonatites and kimberlites. The favorite sites escarpments facing the sea usually called Serra do
are found in a sedimentary basin interior, not far Mar., whose normal elevations are between 1500
from their external boundaries, mainly in upward and 800 m, the highest peaks reaching 2200 m.
trending zones and reactivated fault lines. The ar- Along the Serra do Mar there are some normal
rangement of the intrusive bodies used to vary, some fault zones, parallel to the previous structures of the
of them have remarkable linear features, like that Brasiliano fold belt, a series of half-grabens, tilted to
from Jaboticabal interior of the Parana Basin. to the NNW, and filled up by Cenozoic continental
Cabo Frio Rio de Janeiro coastal area. and possibly sediments. This group of sedimentary basins is pre-
up to the Saldanha da Gama bank on the continental sent from the Parana Curitiba basin. up to Rio de
shelf., performing a curved zone of about 1500 km Janeiro states, with preserved sedimentary piles of
long about 60 km wide., where 26 varied alkaline hundreds of meters, associated to some alkaline mag-
intrusions are positioned, also including some occur- matism. The generative taphrogenetic process began
rences of volcanic flows in the interior of the Guan- in the Paleogene period, when the plateau reached a
abara, Volta Redonda and Rezende grabens Rio de general altitude around 1200 m heights below those
Janeiro state.. Almeida 1991. proposed that such at present., informally known as Japi Surface, of
alkaline bodies Fig. 8. formed a small circle related Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eo-Tertiary ages. Such a
to the rotation of the South American plate during plateau was formed by the erosion and levelling of
the opening of the South Atlantic from the Campa- preexisting large region with many basaltic and alka-
nian to the Eocene stage from 87 up to 42 Ma.. line rocks.
The Parana basin presented low rates of subsi- The origin and evolution of the Serra do Mar, its
dence after the episodes of basaltic magmatism, rift systems and magmatism and the Santos and
Campos basins still present a series of questions to Lucia trough, exihibits SENW general trends. In
be unraveled Almeida and Carneiro, 1998.. The first this case, basaltic flows, equivalent to those of Serra
magmatic events are those of diabase dikes NE Geral, cover the Precambrian basement, preceding
trending. of Late Jurassic ages. During the Neoco- the first taphrogenic movements that formed such the
mian there were the Serra Geral flow basalts pro- basin.
cesses, whose extent to South Africa. has been
discussed. Stratigraphic data from the Santos Basin 7.3.9. Salado Basin
Chang et al., 1992. and other inferences allows to The Salado Basin, in the Buenos Aires province
suppose the start of rising processes of the Serra do in Argentina, is close to the southern limit of the
Mar at about 90 Ma Turonian stage.. Based on the South American Platform. It is positioned between
fission method in apatites, Vignol-Lelarge et al. elevated blocks of the Martin Garcia island of Parana
1994., confirmed this age value, because they got river to the NNE. and the Sierras Buenaerensis at
an age of 86 Ma for the upward movement of the SSW., completely hidden by Cenozoic sediments.
area of the Ponta Grossa Arch. They also consider The Rio Salado trough was formed after the flow
the possibility of a general denudation event 2.5 km basaltic processes of Lower Cretaceous age and was
thick. during the Coniacian and Santonian stages first filled up by continental sediments. Since the end
immediately post-Turonian.. This range of ages co- of the Cretaceous period, and during Cenozoic times
incides with events of volcanic alkaline activity in total thickness of more than 6000 m of alternating
this southsoutheast region. continental and marine sediments developed. This
The first extensional processes recorded for this typical sedimentary basin of the Activation stage is
region Eo-Cretaceous. are marked by the beginning now integrated to the general environment of the
of the rift phase of Santos Basin, when many old Pampean plains.
fault lines placed in the Ribeira fold belt have gained
listric characteristics. With the progress of the 8. Concluding remarks
stretching stress fields, the Santos Basin started to be
formed and filled up at the beginning. by sediments The basement of the South American Platform
related to those of Botucatu Formation as well as was generated by three complex Proterozoic col-
with basaltic flows. After that, the Serra do Mar lages, all succeeded by processes of taphrogenesis
started its ascending movements ca. 90 Ma.. The and dispersion. The first collage took place during
erosional processes of the ascending source area and the Paleoproterozoic Trans-Amazonian., and agglu-
the weight of the volcanic-sedimentary pile in the tinated several Archean microcontinental nuclei of
basin have probably composed a self-sustained stress Neo-Archean age.. Long accrettionary and colli-
field that gradually increased both the elevation of sional mobile belts developed in this period which
the coastal area and the subsidence of the basin at culminated with the formation of a large continental
the seashore. The eastwards block movements led by landmass, around 1.8 Ga. This collage was followed
listric faults were responsible for the formation of by many intracratonic breaking and magmatic
the half-graben basins in the continental area, accord- episodes Statherian Taphrogenesis..
ing to the orientation of maximum stretching, as well During the mid and late Mesoproterozoic, a sec-
as by the usual dip sense of the Tertiary beds there ond collage event consolidated sparsely distributed
present Melo et al., 1985.. mobile belts according to different climaxes of activ-
ities, from 1.4 up to 0.95 Ga, which involved many
7.3.8. Southeast of Uruguay of the lithogenetic products generated by all previous
During Jurassic times, in the southeast of Uruguay taphrogenetic processes. By the end of this collage, a
southeast of Rio de La Plata block. tectonic troughs large continental landmass, of global character, had
were developed and filled up first with Eo-Creta- thus been performed Rodinia.. The Eo-Neoprotero-
ceous marine and later by continental sediments the zoic fission of this large landmass generated, at the
rest of Cretaceous., reaching total thicknesses near same time, different Neoproterozoic crustal blocks
2000 m Bossi, 1996.. The main area, the Santa and paleogeographic sites continental and oceanic
basins., whose arrangement defined the elements of margin taphrogenetic basins exihibit records in
interaction for the evolution of the Brasiliano Cycle. their volcano-sedimentary piles of all these tec-
The collage of the Gondwana supercontinent oc- tonic and magmatic phases. The last stage of plat-
curred due to interactions of such blocks and basin form evolution restabilization., post-continental drift
closures along at least three main phases: ca. 750, ca. is characterized by the evolution of the present phys-
600 and 550 Ma. Such collage promoted the forma- iography and its connected sedimentary features, both
tion of the Gondwana supercontinent, with the base- of the continental interior and of the continental
ment of the South America platform located in its shelf.
western side. The established structural framework
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Geologico
do Brasil e da Area
Oceanica Adjacente incluindo Vignol-Lelarge, M.L.M., Soliani, E. Jr., Poupeau, G., 1994.
Benjamim Bley de Brito Neves got his

pelos tracos de fissao
Datacao do domnio
meridional da Serra
do Mar Arco de Ponta Grossa.. In: Bol. Res. Expandidos, 38
Ph.D. at the University of Sao Paulo
USP. in 1975. During the last 40 years,
Congresso Brasileiro de Geologia, 38, Baln. Camboriu, 1994,
he worked on geological aspects of the
vol. 2 SBG, pp. 379380.
Borborema Province, including geologi-
P.V., 1991. Influence of pre-Andean orogenies on the
Zalan,
cal mapping, hydrogeology, tectonics
Paleozoic intracratonic basins of South America. In: Memo-
and isotope geology. Since 1984 he has
rias, 4 Simposio Bolivariano, Bogota. Tomo 1 trabajo 7..
worked as Full Professor at the Geo-
P.V., Wolf, S., Conceicao,
Zalan, J.C.J., Astolfi, M.A.M., Vieira,
sciences Institute of the University of
I.S., Appi, V.T., Zanotto, O.Z., Marques, A., 1991. Tectonics
and sedimentation of the Parana Basin. In: Proc., 7 Gondwana Paulo. Since 1996 he has been
Sao
member of the Brazilian Academy of
Symposium, Sao Paulo, 1991. Inst. Geoc. Univ. Sao Paulo,
Sciences. Presently he is a Brazilian rep-
Paulo, pp. 83117.
Sao
resentative at the Subcommission on Precambrian Stratigraphy of
Fernando Flavio Marques de Almeida the IUGS.
has been a Full-Professor at the Mining
Department of the Polytechnics School
of the University of Sao Paulo. Al- Celso Dal Re Carneiro got his Ph.D. at
though he graduated as a Civil Engineer Paulo USP. in
the University of Sao
1938. at the University of Sao Paulo he 1984. During the last 28 years, he
did his doctorate in Geology and dedi- worked on geological aspects of the Pre-
cated his career specifically to the Geol- cambrian of the Mantiqueira Province,
ogy and Geotectonics of Brazil. He be- including geological mapping, structural
gan his professional career on mineral geology, tectonics, geomorphology and
prospection at the Geology and Mineral- applied geology. Since 1986 he has
ogy Division of DNPM National De- worked as Professor at the Geosciences
partment of Mineral Production., after which he took up teaching Institute of the State University of

at the Escola Politecnica, until he retired in 1974. Between 1974 Campinas Unicamp.. Since 1996 he has
and 1978 he teached Geotectonics in the Geosciences Institute of been an associate member of the Brazil-
the same university, when he moved to a research position in the ian Academy of Sciences. Currently he is the coordinator of the
Technological Research Institute of the Sao Paulo State IPT., undergraduate course on Earth Sciences of Unicamp and a re-
where he remained till 1995. From 1985 and 1990 Prof. Fernando search project on the evolution of a Precambrian zone of Sao
also taught at the Geosciences Institute of the State University of Paulo State that has been subjected to environmental stresses
Campinas Unicamp.. His scientific production includes more caused by an intensive human occupation.
than two hundred papers, books and reports on Brazilian Geology.
He has received awards as: the Jose Bonifacio Gold Medal
1964., from the Brazilian Geological Society SBG.; Patriarca
Medal from Santos Municipality 1963.; Emeritus Professor of

the Escola Politecnica USP 1976.; Merit Medal from the Engi-
neering and Architecture Federal Council 1995.; Almirante

Alaro Alberto Prize from the Science and Technology Ministry
of the Brazilian Government 1986.; Honoris Causa Doctor from
the State University of Campinas 1991.; Caaleiro da Gra-Cruz
Medal of the Nacional Scientific Order of Merit 1995.. He was
Geologique
elected Vice-President of the Societe de France 1971.
and is a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the
Paulo State Academy of Sciences. He was Vice-President of
Sao
the Comission for the Geological Map of the World co-sponsored
by the IUGS.

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Earth-Science Reviews 50 2000.

The origin and evolution of the South American Platform

1. Introduction evolution of the South American Platform, the oldest

Argentina in the south at the northern border of the 2. Geology

ferent roles as pieces of the basement of younger

Benjamim Bley de Brito Neves got his

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