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Geochemistry of PGE in mafic rocks of east Khasi Hills, Shillong Plateau, NE India

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Abstract

The mafic rocks of east Khasi Hills of the Meghalaya Plateau, northeastern India, occur as an intrusive body which cut across the weakly metamorphosed Shillong Group of rocks. Other than Shillong Group of rocks, high grade Archaean gneissic rocks and younger porphyritic granites are also observed in the study area. The studied mafic rocks of east Khasi Hills cover an area of about 4 km 2 and represent structurally controlled intrusion and varying grades of deformation. Structurally, these mafic rocks can be divided into massive type of mafic rocks, which are more or less deformation free and foliated type of mafic rocks that experienced deformation. Petrographically, this massive type can be classified as leuco-hornblende-gabbro whereas foliated type can be designated as amphibolite. On the basis of major oxide geochemistry, the investigated mafic rocks can be discriminated into high titanium (HT) (TiO 2>2 wt%) and low titanium (LT) types (TiO 2<2 wt%). Use of several geochemical variation diagrams, consideration of chondrite-normalized and mantle-normalized REE and PGE plots suggest role of magmatic differentiation (with almost no role of plagioclase fractionation) in a subduction controlled tectonic environment. The PGE trends of the studied rocks suggest relative enrichment of palladium group of PGE (PPGE) compared to iridium group PGE (IPGE). Critical consideration of Sm vs. La, Cu vs. La, Pd vs. La and Cu/Pd vs. La/Sm plots strongly favours generation of the parent magma at a columnar melting regime with batch melting of cylindrical column of the parent mantle to the tune of ∼25%. The characteristic PGE behaviours of the presently investigated mafic rocks of east Khasi Hills can be typically corroborated as ‘orogenic’ (discordant) type. These rocks have an enriched mantle affinity with a co-magmatic lineage and they have been generated by slab-dehydration, wedge-melting and assimilation fractional crystallization process at a continental margin arc setting.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, for the financial support to carry out this research. The authors are grateful to the Head, Department of Geology, Calcutta University and the Director, CSIR– NGRI, for providing necessary laboratory facilities.

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  1. Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700 019, India

    Sampa Hazra, Jyotisankar Ray & Abhishek Saha

  2. Geochemistry Division, National Geophysical Research Institute, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500 007, India

    C Manikyamba & S S Sawant

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Hazra, S., Ray, J., Manikyamba, C. et al. Geochemistry of PGE in mafic rocks of east Khasi Hills, Shillong Plateau, NE India. J Earth Syst Sci 124, 459–475 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-015-0544-2

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