Alkaline rocks and carbonatites of Amba Dongar and adjacent areas, Deccan Igneous Province, Gujarat, India: 1. Geology, petrography and petrochemistry

Abstract

Rift-related, late Eocene (≈ 60 Ma) alkaline-carbonatitec intrusions cover ≈ 1200 km2 south of the town of Chhota Udaipur, and form a subprovince within the alkaline magmatism that accompanies the tholeiitic Deccan Traps. They were emplaced temporally between late Deccan Trap flows and late dykes of basalt and picritic basalt. The subprovince comprises five main geographic occurrences (sectors): (1)Amba Dongar: a ring-complex of Ca-Mg-Fe-carbonatites, nephelinites to tephriphonolites, and fluorite deposits; (2)Siriwasan-Dugdha: an intrusive complex of Ca—carbonatites, nephelinites and trachytic rocks; (3)Phenai Mata: a nepheline syenite plug and dykes, plus dykes of tephrites to phonolites and lamprophyres (intimately associated with a layered tholeiitic gabbro—granophyre intrusion); (4)Panwad-Kawant: dykes and plugs of lamprophyres and tephrites to phonolites; (5)Bakhatgarh-Phulmahal: late basic-ultrabasic dykes only. The alkaline rocks range from ultrasodic to ultrapotassic, but are mostly nonperalkaline. Silica-undersaturated examples show higher incompatible and LIL element contents (Rb, K, Nb, Zr, Sr, Ba, LREE, etc.) than the associated tholeiites. However, the late basic-ultrabasic dykes display an continuum of alkaline-tholeiitic compositions. Possible parent magmas are represented among the primitive undersaturated basic dykes (including lamprophyres). The trachytic rocks are subalkaline, and may be genetically related to a tholeiitic rather than alkaline parent magma.