The Dom Feliciano Belt in Southern Brazil and Uruguay

The Dom Feliciano Belt is an orogenic association that extends from southern Brazil to Uruguay parallel to the Atlantic coastline for over 1100 km. It was assembled in the Neoproterozoic, during the Brasiliano orogenic cycle, and is the result of interaction between the Rio de la Plata, Congo and Kalahari cratons, together with several microplates, juxtaposed along major shear zones. Along its extension, the Dom Feliciano Belt is exposed in three sectors: in the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, and in Uruguay. The blocks that acted as direct forelands to the belt in South America are smaller fragments to the main cratons: Luis Alves and Nico Perez. Three main lithotectonic domains are recognized in the belt, from east to west: a granitic batholith, a metasedimentary sequence and an association of foreland basins. Basement inliers are common, and evidence intense reworking and magmatism during the Neoproterozoic. Cryogenian to Ediacaran granitogenesis is widespread and voluminous, and usually displays an evolutionary tendency from medium- to high-K calc-alkaline, finishing with alkaline magmatism. The early evolution of the Dom Feliciano Belt is recorded in the Sao Gabriel Terrane, in which convergent tectonics is associated with intense juvenile magmatism, ophiolite complexes and accretion between 870 and 680 Ma. This is followed by two more deformational phases, identified in all three sectors. A convergent phase is associated with the deformation of the metavolcano-sedimentary complexes, shear zone nucleation and granitic magmatism associated with high-grade collisional metamorphism. This stage is constrained between c. 650–620 Ma in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, and between c. 630–600 Ma in Uruguay. The last stage marks a transition to strike-slip deformation, with common shear zone reactivation associated with refolding in the metamorphic associations and widespread post-collisional granitic and volcanic magmatism. This phase is predominant from 610 to 550 Ma. The opening of the foreland basins was initiated during this period, probably associated with transtension along the main structures. Late-stage deformation and magmatism is common until 550–540 Ma. Abundant geochronological data have been added to the Dom Feliciano Belt in the last decades, leading to more precise time constraints for most of the geologic processes in the orogen. Details of its tectonic model, however, are still matters of debate, in terms of both the setting of its main units and its position into the assembly of southwestern Gondwana.