Multiple accretion at the eastern margin of the Rio de la Plata craton: the prolonged Brasiliano orogeny in southernmost Brazil

The Neoproterozoic-Eoplalaeozoic Brasiliano orogeny at the eastern margin of the Rio de la Plata craton in southernmost Brazil and Uruguay comprises a complex tectonic history over 300?million years. The southern Brazilian Shield consists of a number of tectono-stratigraphic units and terranes. The S?o Gabriel block in the west is characterized by c.760?C690?Ma supracrustal rocks and calc-alkaline orthogneisses including relics of older, c. 880?Ma old igneous rocks. Both igneous and metasedimentary rocks have positive ??Nd(t) values and Neoproterozoic TDM model ages; they formed in magmatic arc settings with only minor input of older crustal sources. A trondhjemite from the S?o Gabriel block intruding dioritc and tonalitic gneisses during the late stages of deformation (D₃) yield an U?CPb zircon age (LA-ICP-MS) of 701?±?10?Ma giving the approximate minimum age of the S?o Gabriel accretionary event. The Encantadas block further east, containing the supracrustal Porongos belt and the Pelotas batholith, is in contrast characterized by reworking of Neoarchean to Palaeoproterozoic crust. The 789?±?7?Ma zircon age of a metarhyolite intercalated with the metasedimentary succession of the Porongos belt provides a time marker for the basin formation. Zircons of a sample from tonalitic gneisses, constituting the Palaeoproterozoic basement of the Porongos belt, form a cluster at 2,234?±?28?Ma, interpreted as the tonalite crystallization age. Zircon rims show ages of 2,100?C2,000?Ma interpreted as related to a Palaeoproterozoic metamorphic event. The Porongos basin formed on thinned continental crust in an extensional or transtensional regime between c. 800?C700?Ma. The absence of input from Neoproterozoic juvenile sources into the Porongos basin strongly indicates that the Encantadas and S?o Gabriel blocks were separated terranes that became juxtaposed next to each other during the Brasiliano accretional events. The tectonic evolution comprises two episodes of magmatic arc accretion to the eastern margin of the Rio de la Plata craton, (i) accretion of an intra-oceanic arc at c. 880?Ma (Passinho event) and (ii) accretion of the 760?C700?Ma Cambaí/Vila Nova magmatic arc (S?o Gabriel event). The latter event also includes the collision of the Encantadas block with the Rio de la Plata craton to the west. Collision and crustal thickening was followed by sinistral shear along SW?CNE-trending orogen-parallel crustal-scale shear zones that can be traced from southern Brazil to Uruguay and have been active between 660 and 590?Ma. Voluminous granitic magmatism in the Pelotas batholith spatially related to shear zones is interpreted as late- to post-orogenic magmatism, possibly assisted by lithospheric delamination. It marks the transition to the post-orogenic molasse stage. Localized deformation by reactivation of preexisting shear zones continued until c. 530?Ma and can be assigned to final stages of the amalgamation of West Gondwana.