Crustal architecture beneath Madurai Block, southern India deduced from magnetotelluric studies: Implications for subduction–accretion tectonics associated with Gondwana assembly

Abstract

The Madurai Block in southern India is considered to represent the eroded roots of an arc-accretionary complex that developed during the subduction–collision tectonics associated with the closure of the Mozambique Ocean and final suturing of the crustal fragments within the Gondwana supercontinent in the Late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian. Here we present a magnetotelluric (MT) model covering the main collisional suture (Palghat–Cauvery Suture Zone) in the north into the central part of the Madurai Block in the south comprising data from 11 stations. Together with a synthesis of the available seismic reflection data along a N–S transect further south within the Madurai Block, we evaluate the crustal architecture and its implications on the tectonic development of this region. According to our model, the predominantly south dipping seismic reflectors beneath the Madurai Block define a prominent south-dipping lithological layering with northward vergence resembling a thrust sequence. We interpret these stacked layers as imbricate structures or mega duplexes developed during subduction–accretion tectonics. The layered nature and stacking of contrasting velocity domains as imaged from the seismic profile, and the presence of thick (>20 km) low resistivity layers ‘floating’ within high resistivity domains as seen from MT model, suggest the subduction of a moderately thick oceanic crust. We identify several low resistivity domains beneath the Madurai Block from the MT model which probably represent eclogitised remnants of oceanic lithosphere. Their metamorphosed and exhumed equivalents in association with ultrahigh-temperature metamorphic orogens have been identified from surface geological studies. Both seismic reflections and MT model confirm a southward subduction polarity with a progressive accretion history during the northward migration of the trench prior to the final collisional assembly of the crustal blocks along the Palghat–Cauvery Suture Zone, the trace of the Gondwana suture in southern India.