Chemical evolution, petrogenesis, and regional chemical correlations of the flood basalt sequence in the central Deccan Traps, India

The lava sequence of the central-western Deccan Traps (from Jalgaon towards Mumbai) is formed by basalts and basaltic andesites having a significant variation in TiO₂ (from 1.2 to 3.3 wt%), Zr (from 84 to 253 ppm), Nb (from 5 to 16ppm) and Ba (from 63 to 407 ppm), at MgO ranging from 10 to 4.2 wt%. Most of these basalts follow a liquid line of descent dominated by low pressure fractionation of clinopyroxene, plagioclase and olivine, starting from the most mafic compositions, in a temperature range from 1220° to 1125°C. These rocks resemble those belonging to the lower-most formations of the Deccan Traps in the Western Ghats (Jawhar, Igatpuri and Thakurvadi) as well as those of the Poladpur formation. Samples analyzed for⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr give a range of initial ratios from 0.70558 to 0.70621. A group of flows of the Dhule area has low TiO₂ (1.2–1.5 wt%) and Zr (84–105 ppm) at moderate MgO (5.2–6.2 wt%), matching the composition of low-Ti basalts of Gujarat, low-Ti dykes of the Tapti swarm and Toranmal basalts, just north of the study area. This allows chemical correlations between the lavas of central Deccan, the Tapti dykes and the north-western outcrops. The mildly enriched high field strength element contents of the samples with TiO₂ > 1.5 wt% make them products of mantle sources broadly similar to those which generated the Ambenali basalts, but their high La/Nb and Ba/Nb, negative Nb anomalies in the mantle normalized diagrams, and relatively high⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, make evident a crustal input with crustally derived materials at less differentiated stages than those represented in this sample set, or even within the sub-Indian lithospheric mantle.