ALBERT

Description: New zircon U-Pb (SHRIMP and LA-ICPMS), elemental and Nd-Sr geochemistry data on rhyolitic metavolcanic and metavolcaniclastic rocks of NE Brazil characterize widespread arc-related phenomena during the Neoproterozoic, related to the Conceição-type or Stage I plutonic rocks. U-Pb zircon dating pinpoint the main phase of magmatic activity at ca. 635-600 Ma in the 700-km long sigmoidal Piancó-Alto Brígida domain, but other important flare-ups might have taken place at ca. 670-690, 730-760, 810-820 and 860-880 Ma. A comprehensive compilation of detrital zircon data from metavolcanosedimentary successions of the entire Borborema Province (n=5532) confirms the occurrence of a quasi-continuum Neoproterozoic spectra punctuated by peaks at those same age intervals separated by minor lulls. Low Th/U rims of zircon crystals dated at ca. 577 Ma provide an estimate of the age of regional transpressional metamorphism. Samples of all age ranges are mostly calc-alkaline, magnesian and peraluminous, with moderately to highly fractionated LREE enrichment, negative Nb-Ta anomalies akin to convergent settings, and plot mainly within the volcanic arc field in tectonic discrimination diagrams. Nd-Sr isotope systematics indicate the involvement of juvenile Neoproterozoic melts from the mantle wedge, which upon mixing with Archean-Paleoproterozoic basement and contamination with the host metasedimentary rocks yield Mesoproterozoic TDM mainly at 1.14-1.44 Ga, near-chondritic εNd(t) and 87Sr/86Sri 0.703-0.710. We put forward a model involving a major continental back-arc zone related to the development of the Conceição magmatic arc, akin to the modern-day Taupo volcanic zone of New Zealand, crosscutting NE Brazil and presumably continuing through the schist belts of Nigeria and Cameroon. The main magmatic flare ups might have been induced by extra-arc phenomena, such as collision of the West African paleocontinent with the northwestern Borborema edge due to closure of the exterior Goiás-Pharusian Ocean, force-speeding subduction in the interior V-shaped oceanic basins that constituted the Transnordestino-Central African Ocean and generating clockwise windshield-wiper-like rotation of the blocks back towards the São Francisco-Congo paleocontinent in a complete Wilson Cycle.

Description: Archean orogenic gold deposits are hosted in the Rio das Velhas greenstone belt in the eastern sector of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, Southern São Francisco Craton region, southeastern Brazil. These include the gold deposits along the NE-trending Córrego do Sítio lineament, stretching for some 15 km, and the Pilar deposit, object of the present study. These deposits occur in an area close to the boundary of the São Francisco craton, which is commonly interpreted to have preserved the Archean and Paleoproterozoic crust from the effects of Ediacaran-Cambrian Araçuaí orogenic front. The gold deposits were formerly interpreted as exclusively Archean (ca. 2.7 Ga). However, recent geochronological data suggest the imprint of the late Ediacaran-Cambrian Brasiliano Orogeny in host rocks of these deposits, as structural modification or hydrothermal alteration assemblages that postdates Archean mineralization. To elucidate those issues, contextual (thin section) in-situ U–Pb SHRIMP dating was conducted on hydrothermal monazite crystals from the Carvoaria and Cachorro Bravo deposits of the Córrego do Sítio lineament and from the Pilar gold deposit. Hydrothermal monazite in mineralized metapelites from Carvoaria yielded a U–Pb Discordia with intercepts at 2,514 ± 22 Ma and 555 ± 19 Ma. Three younger, age-equivalent crystals are concordant and yielded a U–Pb Concordia age of 539 ± 9 Ma, identical within uncertainties to the lower intercept age. Monazite from the Cachorro Bravo deposit yielded U–Pb Concordia ages of 551 ± 10 Ma and 510 ± 11 Ma. Monazite from the veined (silicified) sulfide-schist from the Pilar deposit is depleted in U, precluding the calculation of robust U–Pb ages, and disclosed a mean 208Pb/232Th average age of 508.2 ± 6.4 Ma. These results reinforce the proposal of a strong Ediacaran-Cambrian imprint related to the final stages of the Brasiliano orogenic event, affecting Archean gold deposits throughout the Quadrilátero Ferrífero. Consequently, the results point to the importance of mapping Brasiliano-related structures that control the spatial arrangement of the gold deposits, such as the Córrego do Sítio lineament, consisting of an important exploration target. This major NE-SW trending strike-slip shear zone hosts several gold deposits and might represent an Archean structure reactivated during the Brasiliano Orogeny that possibly led the large volume of Ediacaran-Cambrian post-collisional hydrothermal fluids among the east sector of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero.

Description: A fundamental question of data analysis is how to distinguish noise corrupted deterministic chaotic dynamics from time-(un)correlated stochastic fluctuations when just short length data is available. Despite its importance, direct tests of chaos vs stochasticity in finite time series still lack of a definitive quantification. Here we present a novel approach based on recurrence analysis, a nonlinear approach to deal with data. The main idea is the identification of how recurrence microstates and permutation patterns are affected by time reversibility of data, and how its behavior can be used to distinguish stochastic and deterministic data. We demonstrate the efficiency of the method for a bunch of paradigmatic systems under strong noise influence, as well as for real-world data, covering electronic circuit, sound vocalization and human speeches, neuronal activity, heart beat data, and geomagnetic indexes. Our results support the conclusion that the method distinguishes well deterministic from stochastic fluctuations in simulated and empirical data even under strong noise corruption, finding applications involving various areas of science and technology. In particular, for deterministic signals, the quantification of chaotic behavior may be of fundamental importance because it is believed that chaotic properties of some systems play important functional roles, opening doors to a better understanding and/or control of the physical mechanisms behind the generation of the signals.