STRUCTURAL EXPRESSION OF THE TRANSBRASILIANO LINEAMENT IN THE SOUTH PORTION OF THE PARNAÍBA BASIN
Transbrasiliano Lineament; Parnaíba Basin; Strutural Expression
The Transbrasiliano lineament (LTB) is a NE-SW trending shear zone, with length of over 2700km in the brazilian territory. About 900km of the LTB occur in the precambrian basement of the Parnaíba Basin (BPar), inferred as a plastic shear zone with dextral strike-slip kinematics, on the basis of geological and geophysical data, as well as field observations in NW of Ceará and eastern Tocantins states. In the basin itself, reactivation of the LTB is expressed at the surface by NE-trending lineaments which correspond to faults or fractures intercepting paleozoic to triassic units of BPar. This dissertation addresses the structural signature and age of reactivations of the LTB in the southern region of the basin, east of Palmas (border region between Tocantins, Maranhão and Piaui states). In the crystalline basement, the dextral kinematics of LTB also displays a late, low temperature stage, probabbly of Ediacaran-Cambrian age, like observed at Northwest Ceará state. In the BPar lithostratigraphic units, reactivation events under brittle or hydroplastic conditions are recognized. In the studied region, an older event displays a sinistral transcurrent kinematics expressed as NE-trending deformation bands and faults of meso to macroscale, combined with oblique slip structures, either dilatational (including joints and normal faults) or conjugate/antithetic strike-slip or oblique slip-structures. Their orientations range from NNE to NNW, being observed in the Sambaíba, Pedra de Fogo and older formations. SE of Alto Parnaíba (Maranhão State), remarkable flower structures controling strata-thickening in Pedra de Fogo Formation attest syndepositional tectonic activity during the Neopermian. A second set of structures are extensional joints or oblique slip and normal faults associated with a N/NNE extension, overprinted in the eojurassic basic rocks of the Mosquito Suite and older units. Volcanogenic sandstones correlated to the Corda Formation overly basic sills south of Lizarda. A third set of structures, characterized by NE-trending normal or normal-oblique slip faults reflect a NW extension also observed along the eastern border of BPar, being correlated to the rifting event in the Brazilian Eastern Margin during the Eocretaceous. Finally, a fourth event, with more restrict occurrence, involves NE extension, being also observed in the Urucuia Group sandstones, sugesting a Neocretaceous age for both.