Abstract:
In the extreme northwest of the Borborema Province was identified an alkaline massif named Brejinho Nepheline Syenite, emplaced in Paleoproterozoic gneisses of the Granja Complex. The investigation involved the mapping, detailed petrographic analyses and Rb-Sr geochronology, allowing to the reconstructionof the evolutionary history of this pluton in the tectonic context of the Borborema Province. Five petrographic facies have been mapped and the mineralogical and textural/structural analyses performance suggest the processes of fractional crystallization, with strong control of gravitational action and liquid immiscibility in the history of magmatic crystallization of the massif. The age of 554 ± 11 Ma was obtained by Rb-Sr wholerock geochronology and was interpreted as the minimum age for crystallization and emplacement of Brejinho Nepheline Syenite in the late Neoproterozoic. The tectonic context of the alkaline magmatism may be related to the extensional event responsible for the formation of Jaibaras Graben in western Ceará, as well as the emplacement of a number of granitic plutons whose ages range from 530 to 590 Ma. Similar situation was identified in the north of the Paleozoic Amazon Basin involved the Maicuru Alkaline-Ultramafic-Carbonatite Complex (589 Ma) emplaced in the Paleoproterozoic gneissic basement of the Amazoniam Craton. The geological framework places the Brejinho Nepheline Syenite after the strike-slip tectonics represented by Santa Rosa Shear Zone (Transbrasiliano Lineament), and before the formation of the Parnaíba Basin. Therefore, this alkaline magmatism may be interpreted as an important record of the rift phase that heralded the installation of the basin in the early Paleozoic. The identification of this alkaline massif, so far without any similar occurrence in the Borborema Province, opens new perspectives for research in basement of Parnaiba Basin, considering the tectonic and metallogenic importance that represents this type of magmatism.
Keywords:
Brejinho Nepheline Syenite; plutonic alkaline magmatism; Rb-Sr geochronology; Borborema Province