Climatic periodicities recorded in lake sediment magnetic susceptibility data: Further evidence for solar forcing on Indian summer monsoon

The Indian summer monsoon exhibits considerable spatio-temporal variability.It is therefore important to understand its dynamics and the inherent periodicities.In this study,we have performed spectral and wavelet analyses of magnetic susceptibility data for sediments from Thimmannanayakanakere(TK)-a small lake in southern India.The main objective of this investigation is to identify and explain the possible origin of the prominent periodicities present in the magnetic susceptibility data.Significant periodicities in the TK χ_(lf)data are centered at 906,232,147,128,96,61,54 and 44 years,which might have a solar origin.The wavelet power spectrum of the raw and detrended χ_(lf)data confirms the findings of spectral analysis and also provides temporal variations of the significant cyclicities during the past3700 cal.years B.P.Positive correlation is documented between sunspot activity and TK xif data;crossspectral analysis of the reconstructed sunspot data and TK xif data suggest that there is a strong coherence between the two datasets as significant periodicities are documented in both.There is a good match between the TK xif and the reconstructed total solar irradiance data for the past 1200 years.However,an out-of-phase relationship is documented at certain time-intervals,which may be attributed to uncertainties in the age-depth model.The results obtained from this study show that solar variations are the main controlling factor of the southwest monsoon and,like other archives from different regions in India,the TK lake sediments have also recorded these solar signatures.     

Protracted zircon growth in migmatites and In situ melt of Higher Himalayan Crystallines:U-Pb ages from Bhagirathi valley,NW Himalaya,India

The Higher Himalayan Crystallines(HHC), in western Garhwal, Uttarakhand are located in a regionalscale intracontinental ductile shear zone(15-20 km wide) bounded by the Main Central Thrust at the base, and the South Tibetan Detachment System at the top. The migmatite zone in the centre has the highest grade of metamorphism in the NW Himalayas and show evidence of flowage. Zircons extracted from samples of metasediment, migmatite, biotite granite and in situ partial melt(tourmaline-bearing leucogranite) along the Bhagirathi Valley, preserve U-Pb isotopic evidence of magmatic history, magma source and effects of the Himalayan orogeny in the region. Three distinct periods of zircon growth in the leucogranite record the episodic influx of magma between 46 Ma and 20 Ma indicating a time span of more than 25 Ma between the onset of fluid-fluxed partial melting in the mid-crustal intracontinental shear zone and the emplacement of the magma into the upper crust in a post-collisional extensional setting. Metamorphic zircon growth was initiated about 46 Ma, when the partial melts were generated as the migmatite zone was exhumed.     

Crustal accretion and metamorphism of Mesoarchean granulites in Palghat-Cauvery Shear Zone,Southern India

This work provides unequivocal evidence of the existence of Mesoarchean granulite facies metamorphic event in the Palghat-Cauvery Shear Zone (PCSZ) of South India. Charnockite samples from two prominent hills at Kollaimalai (KM) and Pachchaimalai (PM) as well as from two quarries within the Bhavani Shear Zone (BSZ) have been analyzed for their Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr ages to investigate the existence or otherwise of the Archean granulite facies events within the PCSZ. The Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron ages for massive charnockites from both the hills appear to be contemporaneous at 2.9 Ga with the initial Sr isotopic ratios of 0.7012 and 0.7014, respectively. However, the Rb-Sr data for whole-rock samples of basic granulites from one of the quarries within the BSZ indicate open system behavior, while the charnockites from the other quarry have insufficient spread in ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁶Sr ratios and do not yield any isochron. The Sm-Nd data, on the other hand, do not distinguish between the massive charnockite and the lowland charnockite and yield Depleted Mantle model ages in the range 2.98±0.3 Ga for all of them. The ɛ^T _CHUR for all of these rocks are highly positive. Both the Sr isotopic ratios and positive ɛ^T _CHUR values for these rocks strongly suggest a mantle source for all of them. An upper age limit of ∼3.28 Ga may be assigned to the crustal accretion of the protolith of all these rocks on the basis of their Nd model ages. The Rb-Sr isochron ages of 2.9 Ga for the two massifs could be the age of granulite facies metamorphism. Thus, the metamorphism in the KM and PM Hills took place within ∼100 Ma of crustal accretion of these rocks and probably was part of the same geological event of crust formation and metamorphism. The open system behavior with respect to Rb-Sr isotopes in the basic granulite from Bhavani is possibly due to the migration of Sr isotopes, triggered during the later shearing of these rocks.