Platinum-group elements in the Eastern Deccan volcanic province and a comparison with platinum metals of the western Deccan

This study is the first detailed investigation of the platinum-group elements (PGE) at the eastern margin of the Deccan volcanic province of India. One of the PGE, osmium, is not included largely because of analytical problems. The study is focused on mafic volcanics and dykes from four areas including Amarkantak, Umaria, Shahdol and Chirimiri. The first two localities represent two lava piles of about 170 and 400 m thickness respectively. In Umaria, 16 flows have been demarcated based on petrography and field studies. The Shahdol samples are basal lava formations overlying Gondwana sediments (Carboniferous) and the Chirimiri samples are dykes. In this study, the western Deccan province is defined as the Western Ghats plus Kutch. On average, the PGE are ~20% higher in Amarkantak than Umaria and the flows are ~13% higher in PGE than the dykes. A Zr vs. Pd scattergram found a strong positive correlation for these two elements except for one Umaria sample which indicated severe Pd loss. A comparison of west and east parts of the Deccan volcanic province using primitive mantle normalization showed that higher values prevailed in the western province suite in the Ni-Ir-Ru-Pt region. In contrast, eastern province values dominated in the Pd-Au-Cu region at the ‘Cu’ end of the profiles. A strong dominance of Pd in the eastern Deccan was also of interest. A number of factors, for example, percentage partial melting of the source rock and the temperature and pressure of partial melting strongly influence the character of these profiles. The observed PGE profile characteristics probably result in part from a long distance of subsurface transport of Deccan magma from the western to eastern regions.