Geochemical evidence concerning sources and petrologic evolution of Faial Island,Central Azores

Volcanic rocks that make up Faial Island, Central Azores, consist of four volcano-stratigraphic units, with ages between 730 ka and the present. Lavas range from alkali basalts to trachyandesites and belong to the alkaline-sodic series. The oldest unit is the Ribeirinha Volcanic Complex, generally characterized by low MgO contents. The Cedros Volcanic Complex is composed of basalts to benmoreites with low MgO contents. The Almoxarife Formation represents fissure flows, containing MgO contents similar to to slightly higher than those of the underlying Cedros Volcanic Complex. The youngest unit, the Capelo Formation, consists of mafic rocks with MgO values higher than those of the other units. Bulk-rock major and trace element trends suggest that differentiation of the three earliest units were dominated by fractional crystallization of plagioclase ± clinopyroxene ± olivine ± titanomagnetite. Capelo bulk-rock compositions are the most primitive, and are related to a period when volcanic activity was fed by deep magmatic chambers, and melts ascended more rapidly. Comparison among geochemical patterns of the trace elements suggests a strong similarity between the lavas from Faial and Pico islands. Corvo Island volcanism contrasts with the geochemistry of Faial and Pico lavas, reflecting its strong K and Rb depletion, and Th, U, Ta, Nb, La, and Ce enrichment. Absence of the Daly gap in the Faial volcanics is attributed to early crystallization of Ti-Fe oxides. The probable source of the Faial magma coincides with the MORB-FOZO array, which implies the presence of ancient recycled oceanic crust in the mantle source. Ratios of incompatible trace elements suggest the similarity of Corvo volcanic rocks with magmas derived from HIMU sources, whereas the Faial and Pico volcanic rocks could have been produced from sources very close to EMII-type OIB.     

Proterozoic melting in the northern peridotite Massif, Zabargad Island: Os isotopic evidence

The geodynamic history of the three Zabargad peridotite bodies is the key to their significance as samples of the upper mantle. Currently, there are two main hypotheses that differ greatly in their implications for the origin and age of the peridotite complex as a whole. In the first, the Zabargad peridotite bodies all represent young asthenospheric mantle that was juxtaposed with ancient crustal gneisses during the opening of the Red Sea. In the second, the complex may represent a single package of residual mantle and lower crust of Pan-African age that was uplifted during the Miocene. In order to distinguish between these two models, we have analysed five samples of Zabargad peridotite and two pyroxenites for Os isotopes. The ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os results range from 0.1198 to 0.1320 and correlate with Al₂O₃, allowing an age inference for the northern body, based on the Os isotopic evolution curve for the bulk Earth, of 1.4±0.3 Gyr. This is at least as old as the previously inferred Pan-African age and may be older, and agrees with previous suggestions that the northern and central peridotite bodies probably represent ancient continental lithospheric mantle, while the southern body represents recent asthenospheric mantle. Our results from both central and southern bodies are consistent with either crustal age hypothesis.     

Review of melting experiments on carbonated eclogite and peridotite: insights into mantle metasomatism

Experimental studies on the partial melting of eclogite and peridotite provide important clues on mantle metasomatism. Here, we review results from some of the recent experiments and show that melting of carbonated eclogite and peridotite can produce carbonatitic to carbonated silicate melt, in which carbonates melt preferentially before Ti oxides and silicates. Low-degree melting results in carbonatitic melt coexisting with Ti oxides and silicates. This process also leads to the fractionation between some high-field strength elements (Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, and HREE) and highly incompatible elements (U and Th) in the melt. When Ti oxides are nearly exhausted in eclogite, extremely high TiO₂ contents (e.g. 19 wt.%) are present in the melt with marked concentration of Nb and Ta. These results help to explain the features of carbonatitic metasomatism and the Nb–Ta spike in oceanic island basalts as identified in experimental studies. These studies also explain the reducing conditions that stabilize diamond in the deep mantle (>150 km) as well as the occurrence of diamond at different depths reported in various studies. Melting in such a reduced mantle can happen through redox reaction between diamond, pyroxene, and olivine, in which the initial liquid is a carbonated silicate melt. However, the theoretical oxygen fugacity (fO₂) in the asthenosphere is much lower than that predicted by the reaction and requires elevated fO₂, which can be caused by the addition of relatively oxidized materials from the lower mantle, deep asthenospheric material, and various recycled components. A combination of these processes generates locally oxidized domains in the deep mantle.     

Neogene marine sediments and biota encapsulated between lava flows on Santa Maria Island (Azores,north-east Atlantic): An interplay between sedimentary,erosional and volcanic processes

Sedimentary rocks are rarely preserved on reefless volcanic oceanic islands because their sediments are mostly exported from coastal areas towards the deep sea and such islands typically undergo subsidence. In contrast, the exceptional geological record of the uplifted Santa Maria Island (Azores) provides a unique opportunity to gain insight on such coastal systems. This study focuses on a locality at Ponta do Cedro (eastern Santa Maria Island), which features a series of marine fossiliferous sediments wedged between steep lava deltas. As demonstrated by local structure, these sediments correspond to clinoforms deposited on the steep submarine slope of an active volcanic island, implying transport from shallow waters to greater depths and subsequent colonization by benthic communities. Rapid volcanic progradation eventually sealed the deposits, allowing for their preservation and providing a rare snapshot of the ecology during those intervals, in addition to insights on sedimentary dynamics along submarine island slopes. This study reveals spatial relationships between wedges of sedimentary bodies encapsulated by lavas in the Ponta do Cedro section, and interprets depositional processes preserved in those strata based on sedimentological and palaeontological data. The dynamics of the environment are mostly related to relative sea-level changes, intense volcanic activity and regional uplift during the Neogene.     

K-Ar ages from the eastern Azores group (Santa Maria,São Miguel and the Formigas Islands)

Present estimates of the age of volcanic activity in the eastern Azores group are based on shelly fauna in a coquina zone separating the two basaltic sequences on Santa Maria. A Vindobonian (Middle Miocene) age has been assigned to the coquina zone. Our K-Ar data suggests that it was deposited 4–6 m.y. ago, i.e. Mio-Pliocene in age.The basaltic series exposed below the coquina zone on Santa Maria is 6–8 m.y. old and probably much older. The post-coquina basaltic complex is 4 m.y. old and younger. The Nordeste basaltic complex in the NE part of São Miguel and the basaltic flows of the Formigas Bank are also 4 m.y. old and younger. We suggest that the three latter basaltic sequences are chronostratigraphic equivalents.     

Pliocene and late Pleistocene (MIS 5e) decapod crustaceans from Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago: Central Atlantic): systematics,palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography

The presence of decapod crustaceans in the Pliocene and Pleistocene (MIS 5e) fossil record of Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago) is herein reviewed. Our study raises the number of fossil decapods from this island from one species to 10 taxa (three for the Pliocene and seven for the Last Interglacial). Four of these 10 taxa are reported for the first time in the fossil record, worldwide. A new species of a mud shrimp is also described (Upogebia azorensis n. sp.). Our study suggests that the Plio–Pleistocene decapod assemblages of the Azores did not differ significantly from modern ones, being dominated by species that are today widespread across the Webbnesia ecoregion, the Mediterranean Sea, and the eastern Atlantic shores, including the Azores. As far as can be judged from the limited fossil record, apparently no tropical crab species with a Cabo Verdean/Senegalese provenance reached the Azores during windows of opportunity associated with Glacial Termination 2 or with the initial setting of the Last Interglacial period. This contribution increases the total number of marine taxa reported for the Pliocene and Pleistocene outcrops of Santa Maria Island to 218 and 155, respectively, highlighting the scientific relevance of its palaeontological heritage.     

Hydrogeologic framework of Pico Island, Azores, Portugal

Pico, the youngest island of the Azores archipelago, is composed of basaltic volcanic deposits less than 300,000 years old. The principal aquifer system consists mainly of recent lava flows that are very permeable and whose head is influenced by tidal fluctuations. Groundwater abstraction is almost entirely by drilled wells. The hydraulic gradient is very low, about 10^–4, which agrees with observations made on similar volcanic islands. Groundwater also occurs in perched-water bodies, but the spring discharge from them is very low, about 10^–3 L/s. The transmissivity of the volcanic rocks ranges from 9.44×10^–3 to 3.05×10^–1 m²/s, indicating the heterogeneity of the aquifers. The hydraulic diffusivity, estimated from observations of the effects of tidal fluctuations, also confirms the high permeability of the aquifer system; the average value is higher than published values for other volcanic islands. A mixing process for fresh water and seawater, often coupled with ion-exchange mechanisms, explains the groundwater composition, which is mainly of the sodium-chloride type. The water salinity influences the groundwater quality, resulting in a chloride content that exceeds the recommended chloride limit in 91% of the wells . Water–rock interactions are dominant in the chemical evolution of the perched water, which is characterized by bicarbonate-anion type water. Electronic Publication     

The influence of water on melting of mantle peridotite

This experimental study examines the effects of variable concentrations of dissolved H₂O on the compositions of silicate melts and their coexisting mineral assemblage of olivine + orthopyroxene ± clinopyroxene ± spinel ± garnet. Experiments were performed at pressures of 1.2 to 2.0 GPa and temperatures of 1100 to 1345 °C, with up to ∼12 wt% H₂O dissolved in the liquid. The effects of increasing the concentration of dissolved H₂O on the major element compositions of melts in equilibrium with a spinel lherzolite mineral assemblage are to decrease the concentrations of SiO₂, FeO, MgO, and CaO. The concentration of Al₂O₃ is unaffected. The lower SiO₂ contents of the hydrous melts result from an increase in the activity coefficient for SiO₂ with increasing dissolved H₂O. The lower concentrations of FeO and MgO result from the lower temperatures at which H₂O-bearing melts coexist with mantle minerals as compared to anhydrous melts. These compositional changes produce an elevated SiO₂/(MgO + FeO) ratio in hydrous peridotite partial melts, making them relatively SiO₂ rich when compared to anhydrous melts on a volatile-free basis. Hydrous peridotite melting reactions are affected primarily by the lowered mantle solidus. Temperature-induced compositional variations in coexisting pyroxenes lower the proportion of clinopyroxene entering the melt relative to orthopyroxene. Isobaric batch melting calculations indicate that fluid-undersaturated peridotite melting is characterized by significantly lower melt productivity than anhydrous peridotite melting, and that the peridotite melting process in subduction zones is strongly influenced by the composition of the H₂O-rich component introduced into the mantle wedge from the subducted slab. Received: 7 April 1997 / Accepted: 9 January 1998     

Manganese partitioning during hydrous melting of peridotite

Manganese contents and the iron/manganese ratio of igneous rocks have been used as a method of probing the heterogeneity in the Earth’s mantle during melting of peridotite and pyroxenite lithologies. Most previous work has assumed that changes in these parameters require differences in either source lithology or composition based on experiments indicating that manganese is slightly incompatible during melting and that the iron/manganese ratio is fixed by the presence of olivine. However, the presence of volatiles in the mantle drives melting at lower temperatures and with different compositions than in volatile-free systems, and thus the partitioning of Fe and Mn may in fact vary. We have produced silicate liquids in equilibrium with a peridotite assemblage under hydrous conditions at 3 GPa that show that Mn can also be unexpectedly compatible in garnet at 1375 °C and that Mn partitioning between solids and liquids can be strongly affected by temperature and liquid composition. The compatibility of Mn in garnet provides a mechanism for large variations of Mn contents and the Fe/Mn ratio in silicate melts that solely involves melting of mantle peridotite with only small compositional changes. Correlations between Mn variations and other indices indicative of melting in the presence of garnet may provide a means of more completely understanding the role of garnet at high pressures in peridotite melting.     

A new experimental technique for extracting liquids from peridotite at very low degrees of melting: application to partial melting of depleted peridotite

A new technique that allows extraction of liquids from peridotite at degrees of melting as low as 0.2 wt% is presented. Microfractures that formed in the graphite sample container at the beginning of the experiments were used as traps for the liquid phase. Glass-filled cracks (or 'microdikes') unaffected by quench crystallisation were produced in all experiments and were analysed using standard electron microprobe techniques. Reversal experiments demonstrated that, at moderate degrees of melting (4.4 and 6.5 wt%), the segregated liquid was in equilibrium with the neighbouring peridotite. At very low degrees of melting (0.3 wt%), the liquid in the microdikes failed to fully equilibrate with the peridotite after 5 days and the sandwich technique was used in combination with the microdike technique to approach more closely the equilibrium composition of near-solidus partial melts. The microdike technique was used to study melting of a depleted peridotite at 1 GPa and 1,220 to 1,360 °C.Editorial responsibility: T.L. Grove     

Fossil mammoths from Santa Cruz Island, California

Mammoth remains on Santa Cruz Island, one of the four Northern Channel Islands of California, are very sparse, in marked contrast to those reported from Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands of the same island group. A probable major reason for this scarcity is that Quaternary deposits are greatly restricted on Santa Cruz Island. It is proposed, contrary to popular opinion, that fossils found on Santa Cruz Island were derived from animals which died on the island, and were not transported there by humans. Reasons for this conclusion are that the size and geological context of the fossils are similar to those of the largest mammoth fossils of Santa Rosa Island, and that, in spite of extensive investigations by many persons, mammoth remains have not been found in middens, either on the islands or on the adjacent mainland.     

Hydrological Modeling and Prehistoric Settlement on Santa Rosa Island,California, USA

Fresh water availability was an important variable that influenced prehistoric human settlement on California's northern Channel Islands. Previous attempts to understand settlement on the islands use watershed size as a proxy for water at canyon mouths. In semi‐arid regions, this approach has limitations because streams may lose much or all of their flow to groundwater. We developed a distributed hydrological model for Santa Rosa Island that incorporates geospatial and temporal data for climate (precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed, relative humidity, temperature), soils, vegetation, and topography to simulate the complex land‐surface‐groundwater behavior of island hydrology for hypothetical wet, dry, and median centuries. Our simulations show that water flow is greatest in drainages on the northwest and east coasts of the island. This correlates with some of the earliest and most persistent settlement on the island. During the most extreme droughts of the last 2000 years during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (1150–600 cal BP), island populations contracted to a small number of large coastal villages. We argue that this was related in part to the greater availability of surface water at these locations. This study expands the theoretical and methodological scope of past studies that have applied hydrological simulation to archaeological investigations.     

Sedimentology of subaqueous volcaniclastic sediment gravity flows in the Neogene Santa Maria Basin, California

Subaqueous tuff deposits within the lower Miocene Lospe Formation of the Santa Maria Basin, California, are up to 20 m thick and were deposited by high density turbidity flows after large volumes of ash were supplied to the basin and remobilized. Tuff units in the Lospe Formation include a lower lithofacies assemblage of planar bedded tuff that grades upward into massive tuff, which in turn is overlain by an upper lithofacies assemblage of alternating thin bedded, coarse grained tuff beds and tuffaceous mudstone. The planar bedded tuff ranges from 0.3 to 3 m thick and contains 1-8 cm thick beds that exhibit inverse grading, and low angle and planar laminations. The overlying massive tuff ranges from 1 to 10 m thick and includes large intraclasts of pumiceous tuff and stringers of pumice grains aligned parallel to bedding. The upper lithofacies assemblage of thin bedded tuff ranges from 0.4 to 3 m thick; individual beds are 6-30 cm thick and display planar laminae and dewatering structures. Pumice is generally concentrated in the upper halves of beds in the thin bedded tuff interval. The association of sedimentary structures combined with semi-quantitative analysis for dispersive and hydraulic equivalence of bubble-wall vitric shards and pumice grains reveals that particles in the planar bedded lithofacies are in dispersive, not settling, equivalence. This suggests deposition under dispersive pressures in a tractive flow. Grains in the overlying massive tuff are more closely in settling equivalence as opposed to dispersive equivalence, which suggests rapid deposition from a suspended sediment load. The set of lithofacies that comprises the lower lithofacies assemblage of each of the Lospe Formation tuff units is analogous to those of traction carpets and subsequent suspension sedimentation deposits often attributed to high density turbidity flows. Grain distributions in the upper thin bedded lithofacies do not reveal a clear relation for dispersive or settling equivalence. This information, together with the association of sedimentary features in the thin bedded lithofacies, including dewatering structures, suggests a combination of tractive and liquefied flows. Absence of evidence for elevated emplacement temperatures (e.g. eutaxitic texture or shattered crystàls) suggests emplacement of the Lospe Formation tuff deposits in a cold state closely following pyroclastic eruptions. The tuff deposits are not only a result of primary volcanic processes which supplied the detritus, but also of processes which involved remobilization of unconsolidated ash as subaqueous sediment gravity flows. These deposits provide an opportunity to study the sedimentation processes that may occur during subaqueous volcaniclastic flows and demonstrate similarities with existing models for sediment gravity flow processes.     

Melt/peridotite interaction in the Southern Lanzo peridotite: Field, textural and geochemical evidence

This paper presents field, petrographic–structural and geochemical data on spinel and plagioclase peridotites from the southern domain of the Lanzo ophiolitic peridotite massif (Western Alps). Spinel lherzolites, harzburgites and dunites crop out at Mt. Arpone and Mt. Musinè. Field evidence indicates that pristine porphyroclastic spinel lherzolites are transformed to coarse granular spinel harzburgites, which are in turn overprinted by plagioclase peridotites, while strongly depleted spinel harzburgite and dunite bands and bodies replace the plagioclase peridotites. On the northern flank of Mt. Arpone, deformed, porphyroclastic (lithospheric) lherzolites, with diffuse pyroxenite banding, represent the oldest spinel-facies rocks. They show microstructures of a composite subsolidus evolution, suggesting provenance from deeper (asthenospheric) mantle levels and accretion to the lithosphere. These protoliths are locally transformed to coarse granular (reactive) spinel harzburgites and dunites, which show textures reminiscent of melt/rock reaction and geochemical characteristics suggesting that they are products of peridotite interaction with reactively percolating melts. Geochemical data and modelling suggest that <1–5% fractional melting of spinel-facies DMM produced the injected melts. Plagioclase peridotites are hybrid rocks resulting from pre-existing spinel peridotites and variable enrichment of plagioclase and micro-gabbroic material by percolating melts. The impregnating melts attained silica-saturation, as testified by widespread orthopyroxene replacement of olivine, during open system migration in the lithosphere. At Mt. Musinè, coarse granular spinel harzburgite and dunite bodies replace the plagioclase peridotites. Most of these replacive, refractory peridotites have interstitial magmatic clinopyroxene with trace element compositions in equilibrium with MORB, while some Cpx have REE-depleted patterns suggesting transient geochemical features of the migrating MORB-type melts, acquired by interaction with the ambient plagioclase peridotite. These replacive spinel harzburgite and dunite bodies are interpreted as channels exploited for focused and reactive migration of silica-undersaturated melts with aggregate MORB compositions. Such melts were unrelated to the silica-saturated melts that refertilized the pre-existing plagioclase peridotites. Finally, MORB melt migration occurred along open fractures, now recorded as gabbroic dikes.

Our data document the complexity of rock-types and mantle processes in the South Lanzo peridotite massif and describe a composite tectonic and magmatic scenario that is not consistent with the “asthenospheric scenario” proposed by previous authors. We envisage a “transitional scenario” in which extending subcontinental lithospheric mantle was strongly modified (both depleted and refertilized) by early melts with MORB-affinity formed by decompression partial melting of the upwelling asthenosphere, during pre-oceanic rifting and lithospheric thinning in the Ligurian Tethys realm.     

板内玄武岩来源于再循环碳酸盐化榴辉岩的地球化学证据: 以四子王旗新生代玄武岩为例

本文对中国东部中新世四子王旗玄武岩开展了详细的全岩和橄榄石主、微量元素及全岩Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf-Mg同位素研究, 据此探讨它们的成因及源区性质。研究发现, 四子王旗玄武岩具有类似于高μ(HIMU)型地幔起源熔体的微量元素分布特征, Zr、Hf、Ti的负异常, 高的Zr/Hf比值(Zr/Hf=49.3~54.8), 以及低于正常地幔范围的δ²⁶Mg值(-0.51‰~-0.49‰), 表明其来源于碳酸盐化地幔源区。它们还具有低的Sc含量(10.1×10^-6~10.5×10^-6)和高的Gd/Yb比值(8.7~9.4), 结合它们橄榄石斑晶低的Fo值, 高的NiO含量和Fe/Mn比值, 揭示其母岩浆为碳酸盐化榴辉岩部分熔融产生。四子王旗玄武岩具有亏损的Sr-Nd-Hf同位素(⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr=0.70370~0.70449;ε_Nd=+6.3~+6.4;ε_Hf=+9.7~+10.3), 以及较低的Pb同位素组成(²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb=17.94, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb=15.44, ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb=37.89), 指示它们源区为年轻的再循环洋壳物质, 很有可能来自于滞留的西太平洋板片。四子王旗玄武岩位于南北重力梯度带以西并远离海沟, 意味着滞留的西太平洋板片在物质上对上覆地幔的影响范围较之前认识的要更广。

     

Origin of high fluoride contents in groundwater of the Santa Maria Formation, Guarany Aquifer System, southern Brazil

Fluoride anomalies （up to 11 mg/L） have been detected in the porous confined Santa Maria Aquifer （Guarany Aquifer System） in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil, leading to endemic fluorosis. Two hypotheses are investigated concerning the fluoride origin： contamination by long-term phosphate-fertilizer application due to extensive tobacco plantation or lithogeochemical affiliation from regional rocks. The results are discussed based on statistical and geochemical modeling and stable isotope data of water, nitrate and sulfate. Field monitoring of phreatic and confined aquifer during two years and laboratory leaching and retention experiments were performed. Regional statistical analysis （factorial and cluster analysis） on the basis of 350 wells discriminates four different hydrochemical groups in the confined aquifer, considering magnesium, calcium bicarbonate, sodium chlorinate and sodium bicarbonate as specific parameters. The last two groups reach higher fluoride contents and represent deeper aquifer levels where geochemical modeling shows carbonates （calcite and dolomite） are of super-saturation. The laboratory experiments confirmed that local soils with high CTC and aluminum contents （Udults） represent an efficient geochemical barrier, preserving the aquifer from fluoride contamination and supporting remediation strategies for fluoride removal. δ^18O and δD groundwater data and the local meteoric water line （LMWL） indicate that local precipitation is the main groundwater recharge source in the area.     

Re-evaluating the origins of late Pleistocene fire areas on Santa Rosa Island,California, USA

At the close of the Pleistocene, fire regimes in North America changed significantly in response to climate change, megafaunal extinctions, anthropogenic burning and, possibly, even an extraterrestrial impact. On California's Channel Islands, researchers have long debated the nature of late Pleistocene “fire areas,” discrete red zones in sedimentary deposits, interpreted by some as prehistoric mammoth-roasting pits created by humans. Further research found no evidence that these red zones were cultural in origin, and two hypotheses were advanced to explain their origin: natural fires and groundwater processes. Radiocarbon dating, X-ray diffraction analysis, and identification of charcoal from six red zones on Santa Rosa Island suggest that the studied features date between ~ 27,500 and 11,400 cal yr BP and resulted from burning or heating, not from groundwater processes. Our results show that fire was a component of late Pleistocene Channel Island ecology prior to and after human colonization of the islands, with no clear evidence for increased fire frequency coincident with Paleoindian settlement, extinction of pygmy mammoths, or a proposed Younger Dryas impact event.     

The Statherian itabirite-bearing sequence from the Morro Escuro Ridge,Santa Maria de Itabira,Minas Gerais,Brazil

The itabirite-bearing metasedimentary sequence from Morro Escuro Ridge comprises the basal units of the Espinhaço Supergroup and makes up a small tectonic inlier developed during one of the Brasiliano orogenic events (800-500 Ma), amongst horses of the Archean TTG gneisses, including sheared granites of the anorogenic Borrachudos Suite (∼1700 Ma). The metasedimentary rocks are comprised of low-to intermediate-amphibolite facies schists, quartzites, conglomerates and banded iron formation (itabirite) correlatable with the sequences of the Serro Group, which underlies the metasedimentary rocks of the Espinhaço Supergroup in the Serra da Serpentina Ridge. A maximum Statherian deposition age (1668 Ma) was established using SHRIMP U–Pb isotopic constraints on zircon grains from conglomerate and quartzite units overlying the itabirite. The itabirite is predominantly hematitic and its geochemical characteristics are typical of a Lake Superior-type BIF deposited in a platformal, suboxic to anoxic environment distant from Fe-bearing hydrothermal vents. Close to the contact zone with amphibolites of the Early Neoproterozoic Pedro Lessa mafic suite, an increase of the magnetite content and crystallization of metasomatic Mg-hornblende and Ce-allanite can be observed. These mineralogical changes developed preferentially along the igneous contact zone but are probably co-genetic with the formation of alteration haloes in zircon grains during the Neoproterozoic Brasiliano orogeny (506 ± 6 Ma).