Detrital zircon record of the Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic cratonic basins in the São Francisco Craton

• Five detrital zircon age distributions are distinguished.
• Variations depend on depositional age, location, and provenance.
• Rhyacian is the most common distribution, related with Transamazonian sources.
• Chapada Diamantina stores old crustal sources and Statherian–Calymmian magmatism.
• Paranoá Group records the derivation from juvenile Paleoproterozoic units.

Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic cratonic basins in the São Francisco Craton are classified into three megasequences: Statherian, Calymmian–early Ectasian, and Stenian–early Tonian sequences. The location, depositional age, and provenance of these sequences are reflected in their detrital zircon U–Pb age distributions. A minimum of five detrital zircon age distributions are distinguishable: i) the Archean and Rhyacian distribution, which is restricted to the Calymmian interval at Chapada Diamantina; ii) the Rhyacian distribution, which occurs in the Statherian, Calymmian, and Stenian intervals and generally precedes the Proterozoic distribution; iii) the Proterozoic distribution, which always succeeds the Rhyacian distribution and appears in the Brasília Belt and Southern Espinhaço; iv) the mixed Archean and Proterozoic distribution, restricted to the Stenian interval at the Southern Brasília Belt; and v) the Statherian distribution, which is present in the Statherian interval at Espinhaço Basin and is recycled into the Calymmian and Stenian intervals at Chapada Diamantina. Based on the Hf isotope compositions of the detrital zircons, most of the sequences are predominantly sourced from Archean juvenile terrains and from Archean and Paleoproterozoic evolved terrains. The exception is the Paranoá Group, western São Francisco Craton, whose positive ɛHf(t) values suggest juvenile Paleoproterozoic sources such as the Goiás Massif. The Archean zircons from Chapada Diamantina have Hf depleted mantle model ages ranging from Paleoarchean to Neoarchean and are mainly derived from the Gavião Block within northeastern São Francisco Craton. The model unify a dataset spanning hundreds of millions of years of the depositional record over a large area of central and eastern Brazil. The records will assist researchers in unraveling the sedimentary and tectonic history of the Archean and Paleoproterozoic continents from new data collected regionally and in other continents.