The middle interval of Mafra Formation (Itararé Group) has been investigated in the Mafra-Rio Negro area, eastern margin of Paraná basin. The 40m-cored section of well PM-6, drilled at the foot of the 70m-high Motocross Quarry, provide a 90m-composite column representative of middle-Mafra Formation. This interval is unconformably overlain by sigmoidal sandstones of the upper part of Mafra Formation, as displayed in the same quarry. Two types of cycles are found in middle Mafra. Several coarsening-upward cycles composed of varvites, massive sandstones/siltstones (local) and diamictites, are followed by a major fining-upward cycle, formed by sandstone, diamictite and varvite. Pebble to boulder-size dropstones occur in all facies. The upper FU-cycle, designated as deglaciation facies/cycle, has a complex distribution of thickness and constituent lithofacies. Local depocenters of the cycle are related to lows escavated by glaciers; they were filled by sediments derived from the receeding ice, in a classical, transgressive setting related to deglaciation. The middle-Mafra Formation forms the upper, transgressive-highstand system tracts of a depositional sequence, together with sandstones and diamictites of the lower, lowstand system tracts of lower Mafra Formation.
Glacial Sedimentation; Sequence Stratigraphy; Itararé Group; Paraná Basin; Permocarboníferous
