Assinaturas iconológicas da sucessão sedimentar Rio Bonito no bloco central da jazida carbonífera de Iruí, Cachoeira do Sul (RS)

Abstract

Marginal-marine environments are permanently transitional areas, constraining the biocoenosis development. Ecological features such as salinity gradient, available oxygen content, energy in biotope and substrate consistency and exposure control the animal behavior and impact in the establishment of benthic life. In these environments, the salinity gradient works as a natural regulator of faunal distribution and its fluctuation, combined with the afore mentioned features, results in stressing physiological conditions for many organisms. Thus, the biogenic sedimentary structures produced by the endobenthic fauna in these environments commonly reflect this stress. The subsurface deposits of the Rio Bonito sedimentary succession in the central block of the Iruí coal mine (Cachoeira do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil) is composed of sedimentary facies associations that represent deposition in dominantly marginal marine and shallow marine settings, the later in minor scale. Ichnofabrics of Chondrites, Chondrites-Helmintopsis-Planolites, Cylindrichnus-Thalassinoides, Helminthopsis, Macaronichnus, Ophiomorpha, Palaeophycus, Planolites, Thalassinoides, and Thalassinoides-Palaeophycus occur in the marginal marine settings, while the Thalassinoides-Palaeophycus-Helminthopsis ichnofabric is present in the shallow marine deposits. The marginal-marine ichnofabrics are characterized by the low bioturbation index, the reduced size of burrows, and the low ichnodiversity, whereas the marine ones show a moderate to high degree of bioturbation and ichnodiversity. The ichnofabric pattern, its stratigraphic distribution, and its sedimentological relationships allow recognizing four ichnological signatures, three suggesting stress caused by changes in the salinity gradient, and one substratecontrolled. Ichnofabrics of Helmithopsis, Palapeophycus, and Planolites in lithofacies SiltArg suggest the dominance of oligohaline to freshwater conditions. Ichnofabrics of Thalassinoides-Palaeophycus and Cylindrichnus-Thalassinoides reflect the dominance of mesohaline conditions, each one representing, respectively, more calm and stable environments (impoverished Cruziana Ichnofacies suite), and moderate to high energy settings (mixed Skolithos-Cruziana Ichnofacies suite). The Thalassinoides-Palaeophycus-Helminthopsis ichnofabric represents an arquetypical Cruziana Ichnofacies suite, indicating shallow marine settings. The reduced size of the burrows, however, suggests dominance of polyhaline rather than stenohaline conditions and its local distribution allow infer deposition in embayments, which mimic the environmental conditions found in the lower shoreface/offshore transition zones. The Thalassinoides ichnofabric is substrate controlled, representing Glossifungites Ichnofacies suítes. It demarcates autocyclic stratigraphic surfaces in sequences C and D, and an allocyclic stratigraphic surface (sequence boundary) that separates the basal sequences from the sequence E. The integrated analysis of the ichnology and sedimentology of the studied deposits, in high resolution scale, allowed refine the pre-existent paleoenvironmental and stratigraphic interpretations of the Rio Bonito sedimentary succession in the study area.