| Abstract: | The Corumbáregion is located near the junction of two young (545–480 Ma) Brasiliano provinces: the Chiquitos-Tucavaca aulacogen which cross cuts the Amazon craton-Rio Apa block, and the Paraguay fold belt. Formation of the aulacogen and the Paraguay basin, which is interpreted as a foreland basin, was roughly synchronous with the 590 Ma metamorphism in the neighbouring old Brasiliano Brasilia fold belt. Deformation and metamorphism in the Paraguay belt are bracketed between 545 and 500 Ma, whereas folding in the aulacogen occurred between 500 and 480 Ma ago.The NE–SW-trending, Corumbágraben system is located on the eastern part of the WNW–ESE-trending, Chiquitos-Tucavaca aulacogen. The extensional structures of the Corumbágraben system are attributed to flexure of the Amazon craton along the western border of the Paraguay basin.Stratigraphic successions in the Corumbágraben system resemble those of the adjacent cover rocks of the Amazon craton: a lower detrital unit (Jacadigo Group and Boqui, Puga, and Cadieus formations), partly of glacial origin, and an upper carbonate-rich unit, (CorumbáGroup and Pororó, Cerradinho, Bocaina, and Araras formations) with local preservation of an Ediacara-like fauna. The whole sequence is probably Vendian. In the cover sequence around Cuiabá, the carbonate unit is capped by siliciclastic sediments. In comparison to the cratonic cover rocks, the Jacadigo Group, which is filling the Corumbágraben system, differs on three points: it is thicker, contains chemical manganese and iron sedimentary intercalations and was affected by a diagenetic to epimetamorphic event during which temperatures reached 250–280°C. These features are in good agreement with sedimentation of the Jacadigo Group in an extensional environment where Fe and Mn, of probable hydrothermal origin, would be generated by leaching of hypothetical, hidden intrusive mafic plutons associated with graben formation. |
