The Rio Claro and Piraçununga formations cover extensive areas of the Paulista Peripheral Depression, dominantly in the region of Rio Claro and Piraçununga cities. These units lie over the Corumbataí and Pirambóia formations, exhibiting discordant contacts. The Rio Claro and Piraçununga formations are composed of fine to medium sand facies, showing local cross-stratifications and parallel beddings with thin interbeddings of mud and gravel. These sands were dated by the Thermoluminescence Method, which indicated they were from the Pleistocene age. The oldest age (745,000 years BP) was found in deposits of the Rio Claro Formation; the other ages varied from 400,000 years BP to 145,000 years BP, for both formations. The youngest age (15,000 years BP - close to Pleistocene/Holocene limit) was found in colluvial deposits, which rest on the Piraçununga Formation.
Quaternary; thermoluminescence method; Rio Claro and Piraçununga Formations
