Magneto-Mineralogical Characterization and Manifestations of Magnetic Fabrics from the Gneissic Rocks and Associated Intrusive Bodies in and around Bankura and Purulia Districts, West Bengal, India

Abstract

The present study aims to unravel the mineralogical, chemical and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) from gneissic rocks and associated pegmatitic bodies from Bankura–Purulia region, West Bengal (India). Petrographic studies were done to detect the textural relationship of minerals that contribute susceptibility with that of the silicates. The study of polished thin-sections under reflected light microscope showed the presence of titano-magnetite and magnetite as dominant magnetic minerals. More than one generation of magnetic minerals were found which are linked to different conditions of temperature and tectonics that prevailed during their oxidation. AMS studies depicted the overall nature of magnetic fabrics (and other related parameters like mean susceptibility, magnetic foliation, magnetic lineation, corrected degree of anisotropy, shape parameter) in the region. The susceptibility ellipsoids were dominantly oblate in the region as evident from the P j –T j plots. The absence of linear relationship between mean susceptibility and degrees of anisotropy proves that the fabrics are independent of bulk ferromagnetic susceptibility and controlled by deformational features. The equal area plots of the principal susceptibility axes and representation of maximum susceptibility axes in the rose diagram revealed parity between the field and magnetic fabrics thus pointing to a tectonic control of fabrics. Moreover, the pegmatitic bodies based on AMS parameters are found to have emplace syn-tectonic to basement deformation which impinged a linear feature (both in mesoscopic fabric and magnetic fabric) to the otherwise undeformed intrusive bodies.