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Magmatic-hydrothermal evolution of the Sung Valley Carbonatite, northeastern India

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Abstract

The Sung Valley ultramafic–alkaline–carbonatite–complex (UACC) occurs as early Cretaceous intrusive body within the Proterozoic low-grade metapelites in the eastern Shillong Plateau, India. Carbonatites are the youngest unit of the UACC and occur as small dykes. The magmatic assemblage in the carbonatites consists of calcite, dolomite, fluoroapatite, phlogopite, pyrrhotite, magnetite and pyrochlore. Application of calcite-dolomite thermometry yielded a maximum temperature of ~670°C, constraining the lower limit of liquidus temperature for the Sung Valley Carbonatite (SVC). Magnetite-ilmenite thermometry provided an average temperature of ~540°C and fO2 range of −27 to −17 log units. The lower temperature and fO2 estimates using magnetite-ilmenite thermobarometry most likely indicate sub-solidus re-equilibration. Stability calculations in the system Fe–S–O–H suggest a pH range of 8.5−9.5 and maximum fO2 of −19.5 log units for the observed magnetite-pyrrhotite equilibrium. Textural evidences of pyrite replacing pyrrhotite and barite precipitation suggest an increase in the fO2 conditions during hydrothermal alteration of the SVC. The rare occurrence of hydrotalcite replacing magnetite and spinel suggests low-temperature hydrothermal alteration in conditions of increasing pH. The increase in pH during hydrothermal alteration in the SVC is further conformed by the replacement of Ta-, Nb-rich magmatic pyrochlore by Ta-, Nb-poor hydrothermal pyrochlore. The similarity of rare earth element (REE) patterns of calcite and apatite (normalised to chondrite) with whole-rock and the increase in pH during hydrothermal alteration in the SVC, which restricted REE remobilisation, collectively suggest that apatite and calcite account for the REE budget in the SVC.

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Acknowledgements

A part of this work forms the M.Sc. dissertation of RG. The authors thank Biswajit Mishra and Dewashish Upadhyay for providing access to EPMA and LA-ICPMS analytical facilities, respectively. Surajit Mishra is thanked for accompanying in the field. The photomicrographs used in the figures were captured using a Leica DM2700 microscope procured through a DAE-BRNS project (Ref. No: 52/14/04/2019-BRNS/10417) funded to PH. We sincerely thank both the reviewers for their constructive comments, which improved the manuscript. Editorial suggestions by George Mathew were helpful in revising the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Gauhati University, Guwahati, 781 014, India

    Rhituparna Gogoi & Pranjit Hazarika

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  1. Rhituparna Gogoi
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RG and PH carried out the fieldwork. RG had carried out all the thermodynamic calculations and plotted the data. Both RG and PH have interpreted the data and written the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pranjit Hazarika.

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Communicated by George Mathew

Supplementary material pertaining to this article is available on the Journal of Earth System Science website (http://www.ias.ac.in/Journals/Journal_of_Earth_System_Science).

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Gogoi, R., Hazarika, P. Magmatic-hydrothermal evolution of the Sung Valley Carbonatite, northeastern India. J Earth Syst Sci 132, 70 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02089-y

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