Lower and Upper Neoproterozoic magmatic records in Itaiacoca Belt (Paraná-Brazil): Zircon ages and lithostratigraphy studies

The Itaiacoca Belt is a sequence of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks that crop out east of Paraná and southeast of São Paulo states, in southern Brazil.This geologic–geochronologic study supports division of the Itaiacoca Belt into two major lithologic sequences. The older is a carbonate platform sequence (dolomitic meta-limestones/metamarls/calc-phyllites/carbonate phyllites) with minimum deposition ages related to the end of the Mesoproterozoic/beginning of the Neoproterozoic (1030–908 Ma:U–Pb, zircon of metabasic rocks). The younger sequence contains mainly clastics deposits (meta-arkoses/metavolcanics/metaconglomerates/metapelites) with deposition ages related to the Neoproterozoic (645–628 Ma:U–Pb,zircon of metavolcanic rocks). These ages are quite close to K–Ar ages (fine fraction) of the 628–610 Ma interval, associated with metamorphism and cooling of the Itaiacoca Belt.The contact between the dolomitic meta-limestones and meta-arkoses is marked by intense stretching and high-angle foliation, suggesting that the discontinuity between these associations resulted from shearing. It is proposed here that the term Itaiacoca Sequence, should represent the dolomitic meta-limestones, and the term Abapã Sequence represents the meta-arkoses/metavolcanics/phyllites. In a major tectonic context, these periods are related to the break-up of Rodinia Supercontinent (1030–908 Ma) and the amalgamation of the Gondwana Supercontinent (645–628 Ma).