Shrimp U-Pb age and Sr-Nd isotopes of the Morro do Baú mafic intrusion: implications for the evolution of the Arenópolis volcano-sedimentary sequence, Goiás Magmatic Arc

Abstract

The Arenópolis volcano-sedimentary sequence is located in the southern part of the Goiás Magmatic Arc and includes a ca. 900 Ma calc-alkaline arc sequence made of volcanic rocks ranging in composition from basalts to rhyolites, metamorphosed under greenschist to amphibolite facies. Small calc-alkaline gabbro to granite sub-volcanic bodies are also recognized. The Morro do Baú intrusion is the largest of these intrusions, and is made of gabbros and diorites. Zircon grains separated from one gabbro sample and analyzed by SHRIMP I yielded the mean 206Pb/238U age of 890 +/– 8 Ma, indicating that the intrusion is roughly coeval or only slightly younger than the Arenópolis volcanics. Contrary to the metavolcanics, which are juvenile, the Nd isotopic composition of the Morro do Baú gabbro indicates strong contamination with archean sialic material (TDM of 2.8 Ga and EpsilonNd(T) of –9.7), represented in the area by an allochthonous sliver of archean/paleoproterozoic gneisses (Ribeirão gneiss) which are the country-rocks for the gabbro/dioritic intrusion. The emplacement age of ca. 890 Ma represents a minimum age limit for the tectonic accretion of the gneiss sliver to the younger rocks of the Arenópolis sequence. The data suggest that this happened early in the evolution of the Goiás Magmatic Arc, between ca. 920 and 890 Ma.