Early Cretaceous Sung Valley ultramafic-alkaline-carbonatite complex, Shillong Plateau, Northeastern India: petrological and genetic significance

Summary

The Shillong Plateau of northeastern India hosts four Early Cretaceous (105–107 Ma) ultramafic-alkaline-carbonatite complexes (UACC), which have been associated with the Kerguelen plume igneous activity. Petrological and geochemical characteristics of one of these UACC, the Sung Valley, are presented. The Sung Valley UACC was emplaced in to the Proterozoic Shillong Group of rocks and consists of ultramafics (serpentinized peridotite, pyroxenite, and melilitolite), alkaline rocks (ijolite and nepheline syenite), and carbonatites. Serpentinized peridotite, pyroxenite, and ijolitic rocks form the major part of the complex, the others constitute less than 5% of the total volume. Ijolite and melilitolite intrude peridotite and pyroxenite, while nepheline syenite and carbonatite intrude the ultramafic rocks as well as ijolite. Mineralogically, the carbonatites are classified as calcite carbonatite with minor apatite, phlogopite, pyrochlore and ilmenite. The serpentinized peridotites are wehrlitic. Chemical compositions of the silicate rocks do not show a distinct co-genetic relationship amongst them, nor do they show any geochemical relationships with the carbonatites. No noticeable fractionation trend is observed on the chemical variation diagrams of these rocks. It is difficult to establish the genetic evolution of the Sung Valley UACC through fractional crystallization of nephelinitic magma or through immiscible liquids. On the basis of petrological and geochemical data and previously published isotopic results from these rocks, it is suggested that they have been derived from a primary carbonate magma generated by the low-degree melting of a metasomatized mantle peridotite.