Inventory and assessment of geosites to stimulate regional sustainable management: the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

The reviewed and integrated geoheritage inventory of the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, resulted in 43 geosites distributed in eight geological frameworks. The selected geosites are representative of a geological history from the Neoproterozoic (Brasiliano-Pan African Cycle) to the recent, covering a minimum 700-Ma timespan. Considering the dynamic character of geoheritage inventories, the results presented in this work were based on previous local, town-based surveys, which were reviewed under the light of new geological data and geoconservation methods. Both qualitative and quantitative geosites assessments were used to discuss their geological representativeness and relevance, as well as legal aspects regarding protection and perspectives for future use. This resulted in a detailed inventory that reflects the current geological knowledge in the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, and may be used to make a general diagnosis of the scientific value, state of conservation, risk of degradation and potential use of the geoheritage. Moreover, it reinforces the importance of locally- and regionally-relevant sites for sustainable land management using geoheritage and to direct the decisions related to the conservation and use of this abiotic part of nature in the region.

Contamination in mafic mineral-rich calc-alkaline granites: a geochemical and Sr-Nd isotope study of the Neoproterozoic Piedade Granite, SE Brazil.

The Piedade Granite (approximately 600 Ma) was emplaced shortly after the main phase of granite magmatism in the Agudos Grandes batholith, Apiaí-Guaxupé Terrane, SE Brazil. Its main units are: mafic mineral-rich porphyritic granites forming the border (peraluminous muscovite-biotite granodiorite-monzogranite MBmg unit) and core (metaluminous titanite-bearing biotite monzogranite BmgT unit) and felsic pink inequigranular granite (Bmg unit) between them. Bmg has high LaN/YbN (up to 100), Th/U (> 10) and low Rb, Nb and Ta, and can be a crustal melt derived from deep-seated sources with residual garnet and biotite. The core BmgT unit derived from oxidized magmas with high Mg# (approximately 45), Ba and Sr, fractionated REE patterns (LaN/YbN = 45), 87Sr/86Sr(t) approximately 0.710, epsilonNd(t) approximately -12 to -14, interpreted as being high-K calc-alkaline magmas contaminated with metasedimentary rocks that had upper-crust signature (high U, Cs, Ta). The mafic-rich peraluminous granites show a more evolved isotope signature (87Sr/86Sr(t) = 0.713-0.714; epsilonNd(t) = -14 to -16), similar to Bmg, and Mg# and incompatible trace-element concentrations intermediate between Bmg and BmgT. A model is presented in whichMBmgis envisaged as the product of contamination between a mafic mineral-rich magma consanguineous with BmgT and pure crustal melts akin to Bmg.