Basin infilling in the southern-central part of the Sergipano Belt (NE Brazil) and implications for the evolution of Pan-African/Brasiliano cratons and Neoproterozoic sedimentary cover

The Neoproterozoic sedimentary cover deposited across the interface of several Pan-African/Brasiliano fold-thrust belts with their respective cratons is strongly similar and has been widely correlated throughout Gondwana. In particular, the upper part of the cratonic cover of the São Francisco Craton has been interpreted as a ring of foreland basin sediments. However, detailed studies carried out around the southern-central part of the Sergipano Belt (NE Brazil) and its interface with the northern margin of the São Francisco Craton demonstrate that: (1) sedimentation records the evolution of a passive continental margin and is divided into two cycles (I and II), each one comprising a basal siliciclastic megasequence overlain by a carbonate megasequence; (2) the cratonic cover comprises cycle I and part of the basal megasequence of cycle II; (3) all of these rocks spread continuously across the craton margin into the Sergipano Belt, where they occur around basement domes and are overlain by a metadiamictite formation and a metacarbonate formation that complete cycle II; and (4) basement and cover underwent the same Brasiliano (670–600 Ma) compressive deformation under sub-greenschist metamorphic conditions. These data deny the foreland basin model for the cratonic sediments to the south of the Sergipano Belt and, coupled with recent data on the evolution of other margins of the craton, indicate that the Neoproterozoic sedimentary cover derives from highs existing close to the centre of the ancient São Francisco Plate. This sedimentary cover was also influenced by highs of an Andean-type margin that evolved ca 900–640 Ma along the western side of the plate. Such evolution also applies to the Neoproterozoic cover of other cratons of the Pan-African/Brasiliano orogeny.