Transpressional deformation during Ediacaran accretion of the Paranaguá Terrane, southernmost Ribeira Belt, Western Gondwana

The Paranaguá Terrane is mainly constituted by an Ediacaran arc-related granitic complex, spread in a NE-SW trending elongated stripe, located in the Southern Ribeira Belt, South-Southeastern Brazil. The basement of these granites occurs as a disrupted folded belt composed of metasedimentary and gneissic-migmatitic rocks. The integration of structural and geophysical (gamma spectrometry and magnetometry) data from the Paranaguá Terrane and the adjacent tectonic units, suggests that the deformation in the study area is partially controlled by the geometry of the Luis Alves Cratonic Block, as well as the northern part of Dom Feliciano Belt. The irregular shape of this cratonic unit associated with N-NW tectonic transport direction caused strain partitioning in the area and the development of two structural domains: southern and northern Paranaguá. The southern part is characterized by sinistral transpressional shear zones, while the northern sector is dominated by thrust shear zones that represent a large frontal collision with oblique components. The hierarchy of the structural and microstructural features in the Paranaguá Terrane associated with geochronologic data suggest two deformational phases (D1 and D2) during a transpressive collisional system. The D1 progressive deformational stage is correlated to the main period of granitic crystallization during the Ediacaran and was divided in two moments: i) early D1 (640–610) associated with the regional metamorphism and thrust and folding tectonics with N-NW tectonic transport and; ii) late D1 (610-580 Ma) linked to the strain partitioning and development of the southern (simple-shear dominated) and northern (pure-shear dominated) structural domains with sinistral kinematics, granite emplacement and high-temperature mylonites. The D2 deformation stage (540–500 Ma) is mainly represented by the low-temperature mylonites and deformation under retrograde conditions.