A Holocene record of floodplain development in the northernmost portion of the Araguaia Belt, southeastern Amazonia

This work aimed to understand the drivers of landscape evolution and floodplain formation in a Precambrian Shield area of southeastern Amazonia. This area evolved during the Quaternary into a denudational system with strong structural control, which produced valley side slopes between the Araguaia Belt (AB) and the topmost Parnaiba basin and narrow floodplains in the lower Vermelho River. These floodplains developed at approximately 11215-11410 cal yr BP with the deposition of muds on the weathered basement rocks of the Couto Magalhaes Formation in the Ab (CMF) long before sea-level stabilization on the Amazon coast. The chondrite and upper continental crust-normalized patterns, along with Al/Ti and La/Th ratios, clearly indicate that muds were derived from the CMF-AB. The strong positive correlation of most of the trace elements and rare earth elements (REEs) with Al and Ti indicates their control by aluminous clay phases and a similar transport process. Overbank flows of the Vermelho River resulted in the deposition and vertical accretion of sands from the fluvial channel over the floodplain, forming discontinuous marginal levees after 4520-4710 cal yr BP. The accreted sands with the predominance of Si, Zr, and Hf and the depletion of most of the major and trace elements are likely associated with quartz enrichment and a strong sorting of heavy minerals, which is also supported by Al2O3/SiO2 vs Fe2O3/SiO2. The tributaries of the lower Vermelho River were active until 3890-4095 cal yr BP, and subsequently, the channel was abandoned as a result of the filling process. At approximately 3440-3560 cal yr BP, the floodplain was influenced by prolonged and severe droughts that fully exposed the muddy deposits and caused the enrichment of Fe-Mnoxyoxide phases. The affinity of most of the potentially toxic elements with Al signifies that these floodplain deposits are a natural record for geochemical background studies.