Ž . Earth-Science Reviews 50 2000 77–111 www.elsevier.comrlocaterearscirev The origin and evolution of the South American Platform Fernando Flavio Marques de Almeida a , Benjamim Bley de Brito Neves b,1 , ´ Celso Dal Re Carneiro c, ) ´ a Department of Mining, Escola Politecnica, UniÕersidade de Sao Paulo; Alameda Franca 432, Apart. 9, 01422-000, Sao Paulo SP, Brazil ´ ˜ ˜ b Department of Geology, Instituto de Geociencias, UniÕersidade de Sao Paulo, P.O. Box 11 348, 05422-970, Sao Paulo SP, Brazil ˆ ˜ ˜ c Department of Geosciences Applied to Teaching, Instituto de Geociencias, UniÕersidade Estadual de Campinas, P.O. Box 6152, ˆ 13083-970, Campinas SP, Brazil Received 9 March 1998; accepted 14 November 1999 Abstract The South American Platform is defined as the stable continental portion of the South American plate not affected by the Phanerozoic — Caribbean and Andean — orogenic zones. It is surrounded by these orogenic zones and extends to the marginal Atlantic coast. The basement of the platform consists of Archean and Proterozoic continental crusts arranged Ž. Ž . Ž. Ž. during three main sets of orogenic events: 1 Trans-Amazonian Paleoproterozoic , 2 Late Mesoproterozoic and 3 BrasilianorPan African. The latter resulted in the consolidation of the youngest mobile belts of the platform basement. It is, Ž . by far, the main phenomenon responsible for the overall pattern of tectonic components cratonic nuclei and fold belts and the formation of the general structural framework at the time when the platform was a portion of the Gondwana supercontinent. During the Phanerozoic Eon, different cover stages were developed through six main sedimentary cratonic sequences, of which the last one is exclusive to the South American continent. The final individualization stages and their Ž respective post-Paleozoic sequences were accompanied by a series of specific intracratonic processes, both tectonic rift . Ž . basins, overprint of new structural styles in previous basins and magmatic basaltic and alkaline . The activation processes have generally been attributed to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Andean orogeneses on the north and Ž west. Nevertheless, a minor part of these events may have been caused by sublithospheric actions mantle-activated . processes beneath the interior of the platform. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: tectonics; South America; platform; basement; platform covers; Archean, Proterozoic; Phanerozoic 1. Introduction This paper aims to synthesize the present state-of- the-art of the geological knowledge on the origin and ) Corresponding author. Fax: q 55-19-289-1562. Ž . E-mail addresses: ffma@vol.com.br F.F.M. de Almeida , Ž . bbleybn@usp.br B.B. de Brito Neves , cedrec@ige.unicamp.br Ž . C. Dal Re Carneiro . ´ 1 Fax: q 55-11-210-4958. evolution of the South American Platform, the oldest part of the South American Plate. Ž . Two of the present authors BBBN and CDRC think that it is time to update the most quoted paper on Brazilian tectonics: the classical 36-page Brazil- ian National Department for Mineral Resources Pro- Ž . duction DNPM Bulletin 241, Origin and Evolution Ž of the Brazilian Platform Origem e EÕoluc ¸ao da ˜ . Ž Plataforma Brasileira , by Almeida, 1967 following . Almeida, 1966 : this broad synthesis on the Brazilian 0012-8252r00r$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S0012-8252 99 00072-0