Petrochemistry of the lavas from proterozoic dalma volcanic belt, Singhbhum, eastern India

Abstract

The Dalma volcanic belt of the Singhbhum Precambrian terrain in eastern India is developed along the median zone of a linear basin flanked by Archaean cratonic basement to the south. The lavas, in a low grade metamorphic environment, preserve a strong compositional bimodality, with highly magnesian picritic volcanics developed at the base and low-K basalt flows above, constituting the bulk of the lava pile. The ultrabasic lavas have low concentrations of immobile incompatible elements, ratios of which are probably controlled by the source character. Dalma mafic flows are closely comparable in geochemical character to modern day mid-oceanic ridge basalts (MORB) with a dominance of light-REE-depleted basalts and ferrobasalts. However, in terms of certain element ratios (Th/Ta), deviation from MORB characteristics toward island arc tholeiites is apparent. In this respect the Dalma basalts appear to have a modified MORB composition and the closest chemical analogy may be basalts from back-arc basins, i. e. a supra-subduction zone environment. The bimodality of ultrabasic and mafic lavas is reminiscent of Archaean komatiitic provinces. The geochemical signature of the Dalma lavas, and the geological framework of the terrain, strongly point to a marginal basin domain developed in this crustal segment during the Proterozoic.