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Geochemistry and geochronology of the Rajmahal Flood Basalt Province, northeastern India: Genetic links to Kerguelen hotspot activity

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Abstract

New geochemical and geochronological data lead to a fuller understanding of different aspects of the Rajmahal flood basalt province. Earlier work was on surface Rajmahal flows as well as from the nearby Bengal Traps. Samples from a ~300 m borehole near the northwestern corner of the Rajmahal lavas, analyzed herein, reveal the presence of carbonatitic (aillikitic) material. This small province, including the Bengal Traps, thus exhibits quartz and olivine tholeiites, andesitic basalts, alkali basalts as well as carbonatitic material. The Sylhet Traps, lying ~500 km to the east of the surface Rajmahal flows, show geochemical similarities, but were probably formed ~10 Myr after Rajmahal volcanism. Sr–Nd isotopic plots suggest that (a) not all lavas in the Rajmahal Traps were homogenized isotopically prior to eruption and (b) the Sylhet Traps show a much wider variety of isotopic values at eruption, possibly caused by alteration. Published and new 40Ar/39Ar ages for both the Rajmahal and other mafic rocks postulated to have been formed by the Kerguelen Hotspot in the Southern Indian Ocean, are critically examined; emphasis is placed on the freshness of the rocks dated. It is shown that a number of ‘ages’ for both the Rajmahal Province, and for rocks recovered from the Kerguelen Plateau area, should be rejected as invalid measures of the time of crystallization, as altered material was dated. For the surface Rajmahal material, valid ages span ~120 (quartz tholeiites) to ~116 Ma (andesitic basalts); alkali basalts and olivine tholeiites (Bengal Traps) as well as the aillikite were also formed within this time interval. The postulated genetic link to the Kerguelen Hotspot and basalts in the Southern Indian Ocean appears valid; in particular, a section of the southern Kerguelen Plateau (~58°S; 75°E) has strong geochemical and temporal links to the Rajmahal Traps.

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Acknowledgements

The Gautam–Shibani Foundation has provided financial support for many years. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the late John Reynolds; his many innovations and ideas, as well as guidance to the careers of luminaries such as Grenville Turner and Brent Dalrymple, played a key role in the development of argon dating studies for the past 60+ years. Samples were generously supplied by Dalim Paul (GSI, Calcutta) – all the rocks reported on in Baksi et al. (1987); Doug MacDougall (Scripps Institute, USA) – five samples from the Mahoney et al. (1983) collection; Archana Tripathi (BSIP, Lucknow) – the samples from the Kirtanya borehole). The (late) Anil Kumar (NGRI, India) generously shared the results of his work on some samples from the Kirtanya borehole. Doug Archibald extended considerable help with the lab work in Queen’s University. I thank an anonymous reviewer and the Editor, for many helpful comments and Sydney Yun Sook and Uma Meghavati, for many helpful discussions. This effort is dedicated to the memory of my paternal great grandparents, Chomotkarini Mozumder and Satish Chandra Baksi, who lived in Nadia District by the banks of the Jalangi (Khore) River, in the last decades of the 19th century. You faced the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ including a plague epidemic, so that your direct descendants could live and prosper a century later, on four different continents.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Ajoy K Baksi

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Communicated by N V Chalapathi Rao

This article is part of the Topical Collection: Deccan Traps and other Flood Basalt Provinces – Recent Research Trends.

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Baksi, A.K. Geochemistry and geochronology of the Rajmahal Flood Basalt Province, northeastern India: Genetic links to Kerguelen hotspot activity. J Earth Syst Sci 131, 157 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-022-01855-8

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