EPIDOTE-BEARING CALC-ALKALIC GRANITOIDS IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL

Abstract

A large number of Late Precambrian calc-alkalic epidote-bearing granitoids are found in the Central Structural Domain (CSD) - which comprises three segments: Seridó Fold Belt (SFB), Cachoeirinha-Salgueiro Fold Belt (CSF), and Riacho do Pontal Fold Belt (RPF) - and in some other localities in Northeast Brazil. In the CSF, meta to peraluminous, epidote-bearing granodiorites and tonalites intruded phyllites around 620 Ma ago, while in the SFB a larger variety of plutons with igneous epidote intruded Jucurutu gneisses and Seridò schists. Two-mica granodiorites with (±) garnet and igneous epidote (?) intruded amphibolite-grade metasediments of the RPF. Magmaric epidote is also present in tcondhjemitíc and shoshonitic plutons that intruded, respectively, Salgueiro schists and basement rocks along the southern boundary of the CSF, as well as in plutons in the Surubim-Caroalina complex, Pajeú-Paraíba and Sergipean Fold Belts. It is found in four textural relationships, two of which indisputably magmatic and two others of sub-solidus reactions. In the CSF, epidote-bearing granitoids solidified, with one exception, around 6 kbar - 7 kbar, according to their Al contents in hornblende. Lower pressures obtained for quartz diorite enclaves are due to Al loss through sub-solidus reaction with plagioclase producing granular epidote. They differ from similar Mesozoic granitoids in North America because, although their pressures of solidification are high, they intruded greenschist fades metasediments likewise Paleozoic plutons in Argentina (Pampean Ranges), New England (Sherbrooke-Lewiston area) and Nov Zealand (Victoria Ranges). In the CSF, these granitoids exhibit moderate Sr, Ba and Zr, low Nb (<20 ppm), are LREE-enriched and HREE-depleted, with variable negative Eu anomaly. In the SFB (e.g. São Rafael batholith,), granitoids are higher in Sr, with Ba contents equivalent to the CSF granitoids, Zr slightly higher and low Nb. They exhibit less sterep REE-patterns and lack Eu anomaly. In the RPF, granitoids display Sr, Ba and Nb contents equivalent to those in the CSF, Zr twice as high, and REE patterns with negative slope - lacking or exhibiting a discrete Eu anomaly. Epidote - bearing plutons in the CSF exhibit high δ18O (11 permil - 13 permil), and amphibplite xenoliths, probably from the source, have δ18O around 10.5 permil. Equivalent plutons in the SFB display δ18O) values (6 permil - 8 permil) slightly lower than those typical for epidote-bearing tonalites and trondhjemites in northwestern North America (7.5 permil - 9.0 permil, e.g., Hazard Creek Complex, Idaho). This demonstrates that epidote-bearing plutons originate from more than one kind of source material, always in the presence of a component in the magma derived from sedimentary or altered volcanic rocks. Processes leading to their formation are repeated through geological time and magmas intrude different crustal levels.