Ages of Detrital Zircon from Siliciclastic Successions South of the Sمo Francisco Craton, Brazil: Implications for the Evolution of Proterozoic Basins

In this work we report 207Pb/206Pb LA-ICPMS ages of 152 detrital zircons from lower greenschist facies quartzites from Proterozoic basin successions of the southern border of the São Francisco Craton, southern Minas Gerais State, Brazil. These are the intracratonic São João del Rei basin, the intraplate continental margin Andrelândia basin, and the Serra do Ouro Grosso sequence, developed on a crystalline basement older than 1.8 Ga, and deformed and metamorphosed during the Brasiliano Orogeny, ca. 0.59–0.50 Ga. The data constrain both the ages of the sources and the interval of sedimentation. The detrital zircons of the Serra do Ouro Grosso sequence were derived predominantly from the erosion of a Neoarchean crust, 2.5–2.8 Ga old, with only one grain showing a Paleoproterozoic age (2, 245±83 Ma) older than the Transamazonian event. Zircons extracted from a shelf quartzite of the lowermost sequence of the São João del Rei basin indicate derivation from the 1.8–2.2 Ga Transamazonian crust, with subordinate contribution from the 2.5–2.9 Ga Archean crust. The 1, 809±41 Ma age is interpreted as the maximum limit for sedimentation in this basin. The results confirm the regional correlation with the Espinhaço Rift successions. The zircons extracted from an autochthonous quartzite of the Andrelândia sequence yielded ages in the 1.0–2.2 Ga range, with a modal class at 1.2–1.3 Ga. Only two of the forty analyzed zircons yield Archean ages. The youngest zircon yields 1, 086±85 Ma. The zircons from the allochthonous quartzite yield ages between 1.0–2.7 Ga, with a modal class at 2.1–2.2 Ga. Only five of 45 analyzed grains yield Archean ages. The youngest zircon has an age of 1, 047±77 Ma. The results indicate that the detrital sediments deposited during the second marine flooding event of the Andrelândia sedimentation were mainly derived from the erosion of Mesoproterozoic and Paleoproterozic rocks. The 1, 047±77 Ma age is interpreted as the maximum depositional age for the described association.