Geology of Brazil

Much of the rock underlying Brazil formed during the Precambrian, including the São Francisco Craton which outcrops in Minas Gerais and Bahia.

Earlier, during the Archean, the São Francisco Craton developed between 3.2 and 2.6 billion years ago and grew as microcontinents collided with it, forming a series of mobile belts.

[2] Uranium-lead dating has revealed two periods of acid magmatism in central Brazil, which produced the Goias tin province in granite and rhyolite.

[5] High potassium feldspar granites, gabbro and diorite emplaced following the Pan-African orogeny 600 million years ago in Goias, in central Brazil.

[6] In the northeast, the Brasiliano-Pan-African orogeny period led to reverse-type metamorphism, similar to what is now found in the Himalayas and thrust nappe formations 150 kilometers to the west.

[7] In the southeast of the country, the remnants of two mountain belts record the collision between three sections of continental crust: the Brasilia, São Paulo and Vitoria plates.

[18] Along the coastline of Rio de Janeiro, an alkaline igneous complex intruded older Precambrian rocks with nepheline syenite, gabbro, shonkinite and clinopyroxenite.

[24] Within the Holocene, a short run climate change associated with the draining of a glacial lake is recorded in Brazilian stalagmites, indicating an intense South American summer monsoon.

Brazilian geological provinces: Transamazonas Province, Carajás Province, Amazonas Central Province, Tapajós-Parima Province, Rondônia-Juruena Province, Rio Negro Province, Sunsás Province, São Francisco Shield, Borborema Province, Tocantins Province, Mantiqueira Province, Amazonas Basin, Parnaíba Basin, Parecis Basin and Paraná Basin.
Approximate location of Mesoproterozoic (older than 1.3 Ga) cratons in South America and Africa. The São Luís and the Luis Alves cratonic fragments (Brazil) are shown, but the Arequipa–Antofalla Craton and some minor African cratons are not. Other versions describe the Guiana Shield separated from the Amazonian Shield by a depression, and the Saharan Metacraton as a part of this West African Craton .