Structural, Petrographic and Geochemical Characteristics of Mafic Dikes Intrusive in Metasedimentary Rocks of the Crixás Greenstone Belt, Goiás

Abstract

Mafic dikes and stocks are a common feature in the Archean terrain of Goiás, Central Brazil, where they occur asswarms of 2.3 - 2.5 Ga within the granite-gneiss complexes (2.8 e 2.7 Ga), as well as intrusions related to the komatiite andbasalt flows of the greenstone belts lower stratigraphic units, but were unknown within the upper metasedimentary units.Detailed study of core sections from several drill-sites in the area of the Crixás greenstone belt gold deposits showed thatdike intrusion occurred after the main Paleoproterozoic deformation and metamorphism of the metasedimentary units,and literature data indicate that the magmatic zircons from the dikes yielded an age of 2,170 ± 17 Ma. Petrographic andgeochemical data show that they have the composition of epicratonic high-Ti diabases, which are similar to the largecontinental flood basalts of the Paraná Basin. The age of the intrusions may be correlated with the short time-interval of theRhyacian (2.20 to 2.17 Ga), during which successive localized episodes of mantle plume volcanism occurred on the Earth.

Keywords

• Geochemistry
• Mafic dikes
• Paleoproterozoic
• Greenstone belt
• Crixás
• Goiás