Petrological features of the Santa Teresa Granitic Complex Southeastern Uruguay

The Santa Teresa Granitic Complex, located in the north-eastern region of the Rocha Department (Eastern Uruguay), is an epizonal Late-Brasiliano granite intruded in the low-grade metasedimentary sequence of the Rocha Group. Twelve different facies types, each with distinctive structural-petrographic features, were recognized during detailed mapping (1:50,000) of the central-eastern Dart of the granitic complex and form two magmatic suites. The Santa Teresa Calk-alkaline Suite is composed of mostly porphyritic 3a-3b granites with variable amounts of biotite, sphene, allanite, magnetite and microgranular enclaves and belongs to a middle to high potassium calk-alkaline series with high silica contents. In contrast, the Sierra de la Blanqueada Peraluminous Suite has a great variation of grain size, including 3a-3b granitic facies with variable content of muscovite, biotite, tourmaline, ilmenite and monazite. Zircon morphology was studied in both suites and also shows their calk-alkaline and peraluminous nature. The Santa Teresa Calk-alkaline Suite had a Late- to Post-orogenic setting whereas the Sierra de la Blanqueada Peraluminous Suite was formed during the crustal thickening related to a syn-collisional environment. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.