Geochemistry and sedimentary provenance of the Upper Cretaceous Uberaba Formation (Southeastern Triângulo Mineiro, MG, Brazil)

ABSTRACT: The campanian Uberaba Formation, which crops out around the homonymous town, is composed of greenish lithic sandstones and conglomerates with possible volcanoclastic contribution. In this unit, heavy minerals such as ilmenite, garnet, perovskite and magnetite, besides clinopyroxene, plagioclase, quartz, calcite and apatite, are found. The Uberaba Formation geochemistry is marked by high grades of Ba, Ta, La, Nb and Th, with flat (no Eu anomaly) and highly fractionated (LaN/YbN = ca. 128) chondrite-normalized rare earth elements. Mineral chemistry analyses of detrital garnets from the Uberaba Formation indicate the predominance of chorlomite with an affinity to crustal garnets (G3). The sedimentary provenance of the Uberaba Formation corresponds to a mixing of materials from the alkaline districts of the Alto Paranaíba and from the erosion of the Serra Geral Formation and the Canastra and Araxá groups. Diamond-producing conglomerates which crop out nearby, in Romaria, were considered by some authors as correlated to the Uberaba Formation. However, the composition of garnets recovered from those conglomerates is different, plotting in the field of mantle garnets (G9/G10). We consider, then, that those units are not correlated, and that the Uberaba Formation is not a possible source for the alluvial diamonds found in the homonymous river.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Quintão,Dennis Arthuso, Caxito,Fabrício de Andrade, Karfunkel,Joachim, Vieira,Florence Rodrigues, Seer,Hildor José, Moraes,Lúcia Castanheira de, Ribeiro,Luiz Carlos Borges, Pedrosa-Soares,Antônio Carlos
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Sociedade Brasileira de Geologia 2017
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2317-48892017000200159
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