U-Pb zircon SHRIMP data from the Cana Brava layered complex: New constraints for the mafic-ultramafic intrusions of Northern Goiás, Brazil

Abstract

The Cana Brava Complex is the northernmost and least well known layered intrusion of a discontinuous belt of mafic-ultramafic massifs within the Brasilia Belt, which also comprises theNiquelândia and Barro Alto complexes. Available geochronological data from a range of techniques (K/Ar, Ar/Ar, Rb/Sr, Sm/Nd and U/Pb) provide a range of possible ages (time span from 3.9 Ga to 450 Ma), hence a precise and reliable age for the Cana Brava Complex is still lacking. Also, preliminary isotopic and geochemical data of the Cana Brava Complex suggest a significant crustal contamination, which could have affected bulk-rock Sr and Nd systematics resulting in meaningless age determinations. In this paper, we present new U-Pb SHRIMP zircon analyses from four samples of different units of the Cana Brava Complexwhich suggest that the intrusion occurred during the Neoproterozoic, between 800 and 780 Ma, i.e. at the same age ofNiquelândia. Discordant older 206Pb/238U ages are provided by inherited zircons, and match the age of the metamorphism of the embedding Palmeirópolis Sequence.