Download Geology of Paraná - Mineropar

Serra do Mar
Cenozoic
P hanerozoic
Tertiary
1,1
Pleistocene
1,8
Pliocene
5,3
Miocene
23
Oligocene
34
Eocene
53
Paleocene
Sediments
Primates p roliferate
First horses appear
65
142
Jurassic
First birds and
mammals appear
206
Paleozoic
Triassic
248
Permian
290
First Dinosaurs appear
Trilobites disappear
Carboniferous
354
Reptiles, primitive large
trees appear
Devonian
417
Amphibians appear
443
Terrestrial plants appear
495
545
First fishes
2500
First pluricellular organisms
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Proterozoic
Archean
Pre-cambrian
Sedimentary
rocks
Magmatic
rocks
Dinosaurs appear;
flowers
Cretaceous
Mesozoic
Sedimentary
rocks
Paraná S hield
First shells; trilobites prevail
oa
aB
ra d
Ser
ta
Morro da
Faisqueira
F
Morretes
F
Da Prata Range
Matinhos/Caiobá
Guaratuba Bay
Holoceno
Sedimentos marinhos e continentais intercalados
Granitos alcalinos com
biotita e barkevicita
Pleistoceno: Formação Alexandra
Sedimentos continentais
Biotita - granitos ácidos
Pleistoceno: Formação Alexandra
Sedimentos continentais e marinhos intercalados
Microclina gnais-granito
e gnais listrado
P ôrto Don Pedro II
F
Eo - Precambriano
Post - Triássico
Superagui
Ilha
das
Peças
Ponta Inácio Dias
Ilha das Peças
Paranaguá
Xistos cristalinos
Orto e paragnaisses
D
Ilha rasa da
I. da
Cotinga
Ponta do Poço
Barra
Pontal do Sul
do S
ul
D
Diques de diabásio
e andesitos
D
Graciosa Granite (Ibitiraquire Range).
Serra do Mar view from the Marumbi.
Overlain LANSAT and SRTM imagery. Rodrigo Stella
Volcanic center
The rise of Serra do Mar is associated with the first stages of separation of Africa and South America and the
consequent opening of the Atlantic Ocean 150 million years ago.
The continental separation process involved marked uplift of the entire southeastern coast of Brazil, during
which large blocks were vertically displaced, some up, some down along geological faults. Serra do Mar corresponds
to one of such uplifted areas to the east of the Santos fault. Its rise took place at approximately 65 million years ago,
tens of kilometers east of the current coastline position. From then on, erosion has displaced the Serra do Mar scarp
westward, the resulting sediments being washed to the sea to form marginal basins (e.g. Campos and Santos basins)
from which oil is now exploited.
Africa
South America
Lawrasia
granitic massives
What is granite?
How and when did Serra do Mar arise
Granite is an igneous kind of rock that forms at depths most
often lower than 10 km inside the Earth's crust from solidification
of magma (lava-like melted rock). Its very slow solidification due to
high temperature and pressure conditions allows mineral crystals to
grow large enough to bee seen without the aid of a microscope.
Quartz and feldspar are always present in granite. Amphibole and
biotite are dark mineral specimens often seen in such rocks. A large
variety of mineral specimens, such as zircon, titanite, and apatite,
among others, are also present, but in smaller quantities.
Dike
(igneous rock)
Granite
Sill
(igneous rock)
Graciosa Granite (Ibitiraquire Range) featuring Ciririca Peak.
Plagioclase feldspar
(whitish grains)
quartz (translucent grain)
about
10 km
Gneiss and migmatite, however, are metamorphic types that
result when pre-existing rocks are transformed under elevated
temperature and pressure conditions. They are crystalline rocks like
granite, but they show marked banding and orientation of mineral
grains.
Granite
Equator
Granite
Gondwana
A
Twenty-five hundred million years ago in late Paleozoic, all
landmasses on Earth aggregated into a single supercontinent
called Pangea.
Photo: Gil Piekarz
Fortaleza
Ilha do Mel
Cotinga
Geologist Reinhard Maack’s original diagram (Geografia Física do Estado do Paraná, Curitiba 1968)
Guaratuba
Pangea
s
eiro
Pinh
dos
Barra do Norte
Nhun
d iaq u
eara
Neo - Precambriano
Quarternário
Baía
Rio
F F D
D D
Guaraqueçaba
Ilha das
Laranjeiras
Ilha
Rasa
Porto de
Cima
F
R. V
Col. Serra Negra
Antonina
Coastal Plain
Equator
Enseada do
Benito
M. Do Bicho
351m
Formation of granites bodies
From the Devonian scarp known as São Luiz do Purunã to the western border of
the state, the Paraná Shield is overlain by the PARANÁ BASIN, a massive sequence of
sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Silurian to Cretaceous age that sustains the state's
Second and Third plateaus. In the early stages of the basin´s evolution, South America
and Africa were still unseparated parts of a supercontinent named Gondwana, and their
geographic locations were very different from today's.
Vis
Ibitiraquire Range
Serra do Mar arises
The geological evolution of Paraná is followed when the state is crossed westward.
The oldest rocks, formed more than three billion years ago, are found on the coastal
plain. There, and all over Serra do Mar and the First Paraná Plateau, igneous and
metamorphic rocks of Archean to early Paleozoic age outcrop in the region known as
the PARANÁ SHIELD, whose strong relief reflects how resistant to weathering its rocks
are.
ouro
arad
Faz. Ìtalo
Graciosa Range
Earth forms
4560
Primeiro
Se
Morro da
Tijuca
Morro da
Palha
Ararapira
sa
racio
rra G
lto
Paranaguá
Serra do Mar fault scarp
First unicellular organisms
4000
Hadean
Sediments
Paranaguá Bay
Plana
Morro do Gato
Photo: Gil Piekarz
Quaternary
Mankind,
Northern Hemisphere
glaciation
(Marumbi Granite)
Morro Bico Torto
Serra Taquari
Photo: Gil Piekarz
Today
Holocene
Geology
Features
Marumbi Range
987m
Escarpa Rio neg
ro
Microcline feldspar
(pale-red crystal)
biotite
(small dark crystal)
Partial melting
Diagram showing the positioning
of a granite at the time of its formation,
and other igneous structures.
Breakup of
Gondwana begins
In the Triassic period, the fragmentation of Pangea began, which in its
first stages led to the formation of two continents, Lawrasia in the north
and Gondwana in the south. Gondwana would later break up to form
South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India.
Breakup of Gondwana starts 140 million years ago in the Cretaceous
period, with the separation of South America and Africa and the
spreading of the South Atlantic Ocean.
Photo: Arno Siebert
million years
Vale do rio
São João
Pico do Marumbi
1547m
Morro Três Pontões
1575m
Graciosa Granite (Ibitiraquire Range), with the Paraná Peak in the background.
Photo: Antônio Liccardo/ acervo Mineropar
Age
EPOCH
Construído por Reinhard Maack
Vale do rio
Ipiranga
Pico da
Farinha Seca
Morro Cadeado
1450m
Anhangava
1001m
Source: Pró-Atlântica/Mineropar
PERIOD
zona litoral em redor da baía de Paranaguá
(Graciosa Granite)
Source: Pró-Atlântica/Mineropar
ERA
P araná Bas in
EON
Graciosa Range
Agulha da Cotia
Pico Paraná
Serra da Bocaina 1525m
1922m
1300m
Ferraria
Serra Capivari
Caratuba
Guaricana
Ibitera-mirim
Grande
Alto da Graciosa
1898m
Espigão do Feiticeiro
1551m
1359m
1640m
1471m Chapéu do Sol
Serra Ibitiraquire
708m
(Serra dos Órgã
1002m
os)
i
You are here
Bloco - diagrama esquemático da Serra do Mar e da
The presence of granite massives gives the
Serra do Mar in Paraná a special characteristic: it
not only represents a scarp or plateau border
range, but it also shows significant altitute
variations due to differential erosion. But what is
is the reason for this? The granite massives, being
surrounding by older, less resistant gnaissic and
migmatitic rocks, form topographical highs
between 400 m and 900 m above the the plateau.
Marumbi, da Prata, Graciosa, dos Órgãos, and
Baitaca ranges are examples of such highs.
gu
2000 km
Paraná Peak - 1,969m
ra
0
(Graciosa Granite)
pe
40 S
Ibitiraquire Range
Geologically speaking, three groups of landscape elements outstand here: the rocky massives, the hills
between the latter and the sea, and the coastal plain. The groups differ in age, each one showing its own,
interesting history.
Su
60o W
o
Serra do Mar is the geomorphologic entity that takes shape
from a more than 1,000 km long, 5 to 10 km wide fault escarpment
that separates the Brazilian Highlands and the Atlantic coast. The
range extends from Espírito Santo to Santa Catarina with mean
altitude differences of 1,000 m, its highest point being the 1,969
m high Pico Paraná.
Serra do Mar fault scarp
e
20o S
ld
20o S
na
o
Ca
80 W
These large granite bodies formed more
than 10 km below the surface 550 million years
ago. They now outcrop because of continued
tectonic uplift of the Earth's crust combined with
slow erosional processes. Marumbi, da Prata, and
Graciosa are examples of ranges formed by such
rock bodies, usually referred to by the same name.
Geology and the landscape
What is Serra do Mar
Source: EMBRAPA(www.embrapa.br)
Geological map of Paraná
La
ra
nj
ei
ra
s
40o W
Geological Site
0o S
0o S
The rocky massives
da
s
N
Ba
ía
60o W
Photo: Gil Piekarz
Geology of Paraná
Quartz and fedspar-rich band
Marumbi Granite (Marumbi Range)
Dark anphibole-rich band
B
Magma injection
The PARANÁ BASIN evolved for more than 300 million years, in long
transgression-regression cycles of an ancient sea that surrounded Gondwana. These
cycles, immensely slow as compared to human lifetime, resulted in different marine,
lacustrine, fluvial, and glacial rocks in Paleozoic times.
Serra do Mar
scarpment
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Equator
In Jurassic times, a desert named Botucatu, that spread for more than 1,500,000
km2, covered parts of southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.
Terrains in the coastal plains of Paraná have a maximum altitude of 20 m above the current sea level. They consist of sandy marine sediments younger than 120,000 years that deposited
under large sea level variation conditions during glacial (cold) and interglacial (warm) stages over the last 1.8 million years of the Quaternary Period.
Oceanic crust
The breakup of Gondwana, and the consequent separation of South America and
Africa as the South Atlantic Ocean spread, took place in the Cretaceous. As part of the
breakup process, extensive, up to 1,500 m of superposed basalt flows covered more than
1,200,000 km2 of the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the Paraná Basin. The remarkably
fertile soil known as Terra Roxa derives from weathering of such basalt flows. By the end
of the Cretaceous, desertic terrains (the Bauru Basin) spread over the basalt flows in
northwestern Paraná as recorded by the Caiuá sandstone. Unlike the Terra Roxa,
however, soils formed from these rocks are poorly fertile and highly susceptible to
erosion.
The Coastal Plain
Migmatite
Continental crust
End of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago
Continental plataform
Serra do Mar
scarpment
Serra do Mar
Mid-ocean Ridge
Ilha do Mel
ATLANTIC OCEAN
Equator
Oceanic crust
Costal Plain
Oceanic crust
Atlantic Ocean
Opening of the Atlantic Ocean with the breakup of Gondwana
Source: Decifrando a Terra, 2000.
The youngest geological units in Paraná are sediments of Quaternary age. Most
representative examples are those generated under arid to semi-arid conditions over
parts of Curitiba and Tijucas do Sul, those formed from weathering of crystalline rocks
along the Serra do Mar range, marine sand deposits along the eastern coast, and also
countless alluvial deposits along water streams in the state.
Present
Terrains in the coastal plains of Paraná have a maximum altitude of 20 m above the
current sea level. They consist of sandy marine sediments younger than 120,000 years
that deposited under large sea level variation conditions during glacial (cold) and
interglacial (warm) stages over the last 1.8 million years of the Quaternary Period.
At the climax of the last glacial period 18,000 years ago, the sea level was
approximately 20 m below its current position, and extensive coastal plains cut by
water streams were present. The coastline of Paraná was more than 100 km east of
the current one. Use your imagination to visualize the transforming landscape. In the
geological time, that would take no longer than a blink.
Evolution stages of Serra do Mar
After the climax of the last glacial period 5,600 years ago, glaciers started to melt and
the sea level rose rapidly to 3 m above its current position. The coastline was 2 to 5 km
west of where it is now. Paranaguá and Guaratuba bays were much larger then, and
the number and conformation of islands was quite different from today's. After 5,600
years, the sea level dropped to its current position, which led the younger parts of the
coastal plains of Paraná to take shape..
The gold cycle
CRETACEOUS - 146 Ma
Uplift
Santos Fault
Sea level
Santos Basin
Geological time
LATE CRETACEOUS - 80 Ma
If the 4.6 billion years of geological history were scaled to one single year,
Mankind would have been on Earth since 8:14 p.m. December 31 i.e., within the last 3h
ours and 46 minutes. Dinosaurs, that lived for 100 million years, would have lived no
more than 8 days and 12 hours. Serra do Mar as it presents itself today would have
arisen within the last 5 minutes of the year.o.
Eroded
Sea level
PALEOCENE - 65 Ma
Early Serra do Mar
Sea level
Mankind appears
PALEOCENE - HOLOCENE - PRESENT
Pre-Cambrian
Santos Basin
Sea level
450
400
Paleozoic
350
300
250
200
150
Mesozoic
100
50
Marked tectonic uplift of terrains west of Santos Fault 65 million years
ago, related to the continental separation process. The early Serra do Mar
arises tens of kilometers east of the current coastline.
Current Serra do Mar location
4,600
500
Erosion of the uplifted area to a large plain, rocks being washed away to
form sedimentary basins like the petroleum-rich Santos Formation.
Santos Basin
Santos foult
reactivation
550
Breakup of Gondwana triggers continental drift, with the separation of
Africa and South America. The eastern margin of South America uplifts
(southeastearn Brazil).
0 (present)
Santos Basin
Cenozoic
Source: A Grande Barreira da Serra do Mar, 2004. De Álvaro Rodrigues dos Santo.
From Paleocene on, Serra do Mar scarp erodes to its current location.
The first alluvial gold records in Brazil date to approximately 1570, the regions of Paranaguá,
Guaraqueçaba, and Cananéia (then part of the Capitany of San Vicente) being the first gold mines
worked in the young Portuguese possession. Until gold was found in Vila Rica, State of Minas Gerais,
around year 1660, production, that had never been actually large, was limited to the Capitany of
São Vicente. One of the 14 hereditary capitanies into which the Brazilian coast had been segmented,
this one, that extended for 45 coastal leagues between Bertioga (SP) and Ilha do Mel (PR), belonged
to Martim Afonso de Souza.
The Seventeenth Century marked in the State of Paraná a prosperous cycle of alluvial gold
production. The search for the metal, that begun in Paranaguá and Guaraqueçaba, sprawled to
Morretes, Porto de Cima, and São João da Graciosa, and then, crossing Serra do Mar, to the region
of Curitiba and the First Plateau. At that time, Paranaguá was the most meridional village in Brazil,
and Curitiba was the most meridional and occidental one in the countryside of Brazil.
The region that now corresponds to the State of Paraná, that flourished in the Seventeenth
Century, was almost left to oblivion after the discovery of richer gold deposits first in Vila Rica (MG),
and then in Cuiabá and in Goiás, where the gold rush consequently focused. Large population shifts
followed that, which resulted in Paraná villages being doomed to decades of decline until a new
economic cycle was brought about by the tropeiros (muleteers).
Realization:
SERVIÇO GEOLÓGICO DO PARANÁ
Partners:
Idealization
Gil F. Piekarz
Geology
Rodolfo J. Angulo
Maria Cristina de Souza
Gil F. Piekarz
Graphic Design
Arno Siebert
André Ramiro Pierin
Map of Paranaguá region in 1,653.
(Anonymous author - Museu Ultramarino de Lisboa)
English version
Antonio Mattana