印度德干高原砖红壤与玄武岩风化红土磁学性质及其成因分析

印度中西部德干高原是由白垩纪末期65Ma以前多次喷发的玄武岩形成的高原。喷发间歇期间玄武岩遭受风化,形成了多层玄武岩风化红层。德干高原就是由这样一层层的溢流喷发玄武岩和风化红层相间而成,厚度达千米以上。在德干高原和南方各地的顶部普遍发育着砖红壤,该砖红壤在德干高原发育约25m厚,被认为是从玄武岩母质基础上原地风化形成,但是实地观察发现,砖红壤与玄武岩风化红土在结构、构造以及物质组成等方面均存在明显差别。常见的玄武岩喷发间歇发育的风化层厚2~3m,存在从上到下风化程度由强到弱,最后过渡到玄武岩母岩的明显层次与颜色的变化。但是德干高原玄武岩之上的25m厚砖红壤缺乏这种渐变特征,而且平坦的砖红壤顶部洼地中还发现了风积黄土层。对德干高原砖红壤、玄武岩以及玄武岩风化红土层分别采样,测量其全样粒度和磁化率、饱和磁化强度、饱和等温剩磁、非磁滞剩磁等常温磁学参数,挑选代表性样品进行磁滞回线和热磁分析。实验结果表明：1）砖红壤样品主要的磁性矿物是赤铁矿,有些同时还含微量磁赤铁矿,粒径相对较粗的玄武岩风化红土层的主要磁性矿物是磁铁矿和磁赤铁矿;2）玄武岩只含磁铁矿,并无磁赤铁矿或者赤铁矿。因此,不论是玄武岩风化红土,还是砖红壤,它们所含的磁赤铁矿以及赤铁矿都是在风化成土过程中形成的。砖红壤以赤铁矿为主和少量针铁矿,偶有样品含微量磁赤铁矿,说明该磁赤铁矿可能是母岩中的磁铁矿风化为赤铁矿的中间产物;3）玄武岩风化红土层与砖红壤不仅在磁性矿物特征方面存在差别,而且在全样粒度组成方面也存在明显差别,前者以>100μm为主,而后者以 < 100μm为主。此外,25m厚层状砖红壤除了缺乏由上而下风化程度由强变弱的差异与层次的特征之外,也缺乏砖红壤中残留的玄武岩碎屑,难以支持巨厚砖红壤由顶层玄武岩就地风化形成的说法。砖红壤厚层均匀特征似乎需要自下而上形成过程,即不断加入物质不断地风化成土才能够形成均匀厚层砖红壤。目前刚刚发现了徳干高原黄土堆积,其西北方向分布着印度沙漠,每年都有沙尘暴发生,向德干高原提供着物质来源。因此,砖红壤由风积物加积形成或许是要考虑的重要可能性之一。

     

Increased Particle Fluxes at the INDEX Site Attributable to Simulated Benthic Disturbance

Particle fluxes were measured 7 m above the sea bottom during the predisturbance, disturbance, and postdisturbance periods by using time series sediment traps attached to seven deep-sea moorings deployed in the INDEX experiment site in the Central Indian Basin. The predisturbance particle fluxes varied between 22.3 to 55.1 mg m -2 day -1 . Increased and variable particle fluxes were recorded by the sediment traps during the disturbance period. The increase observed was 0.5 to 4 times more than the background predisturbance fluxes. The increases in particle fluxes (~4 times) recorded by the sediment trap located in the southwestern direction (DMS-1) were the greatest, which could be the result of preferential movement of resuspended particles generated during the deep-sea benthic disturbance along the general current direction prevailing in this area during the experimental period. Also, the traps located closer to the disturbance area recorded greater fluxes than did the traps far away, across the Deep Sea Sediment Resuspension System path. This variability in recorded particle fluxes by the traps around the disturbance area clearly indicates that physical characteristics such as grain size and density of the resuspended particles produced during the disturbance had an important effect on particle movement. The postdisturbance measurements during ~5 days showed a reduction in particle fluxes of ~50%, indicating rapid particle settlement.     

Multiple factors in the origin of the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary: the role of environmental stress and Deccan Trap volcanism

A review of the scenarios for the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary event is presented and a coherent hypothesis for the origin of the event is formulated. Many scientists now accept that the event was caused by a meteorite impact at Chicxulub in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Our investigations show that the oceans were already stressed by the end of the Late Cretaceous as a result of the long-term drop in atmospheric CO₂, the long-term drop in sea level and the frequent development of oceanic anoxia. Extinction of some marine species was already occurring several million years prior to the K/T boundary. The biota were therefore susceptible to change. The eruption of the Deccan Traps, which began at 66.2 Ma, coincides with the K/T boundary events. It erupted huge quantities of H₂SO₄, HCl, CO₂, dust and soot into the atmosphere and led to a significant drop in sea level and marked changes in ocean temperature. The result was a major reduction in oceanic productivity and the creation of an almost dead ocean. The volcanism lasted almost 0.7 m.y.. Extinction of biological species was graded and appeared to correlate with the main eruptive events. Elements such as Ir were incorporated into the volcanic ash, possibly on soot particles. This horizon accumulated under anoxic conditions in local depressions and became the marker horizon for the K/T boundary. An oxidation front penetrated this horizon leading to the redistribution of elements. The eruption of the Deccan Traps is the largest volcanic event since the Permian-Triassic event at 245 Ma. It followed a period of 36 m.y. in which the earth’s magnetic field failed to reverse. Instabilities in the mantle are thought to be responsible for this eruption and therefore for the K/T event. We therefore believe that the K/T event can be explained in terms of the effects of the Deccan volcanism on an already stressed biosphere. The meteorite impact at Chicxulub took place after the onset of Deccan volcanism. It probably played a regional, rather than a global, role in the K/T extinctions.     

A common parentage for Deccan Continental Flood Basalt and Central Indian Ocean Ridge Basalt? A geochemical and isotopic approach

A comparison of geochemical and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic compositions for Deccan Continental Flood Basalts (CFBs) and Central Indian Ridge (CIR) Basalts is presented: these data permit assessment of possible parental linkages between the two regions, and comparison of their respective magmatic evolutionary trends in relation to rift-related tectonic events during Gondwana break-up. The present study reveals that Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalt (MORB) from the northern CIR and basalts of Deccan CFB are geochemically dissimilar because of: (1) the Deccan CFB basalts typically show a greater iron-enrichment as compared to the northern CIR MORB, (2) a multi-element spiderdiagram reveals that the Deccan CFBs reveal a more fractionated slope (Ba/Yb_N > 1), as compared to relatively flat northern CIR MORB (Ba/Yb_N < 1), (3) there is greater REE fractionation for Deccan CFB than for the northern CIR MORB (i.e., La/Yb_N ∼ 2.3 and 1 respectively) and (4) substantial variation of compatible–incompatible trace elements and their ratios among the two basalt groups suggests that partial melting is a dominant process for northern CIR MORB, while fractional crystallization was a more important control to the geochemical variation for Deccan CFB. Further, incompatible trace element ratios (Nb/U and Nb/Pb) and radiogenic isotopic data (Sr–Pb–Nd) indicate that the northern CIR MORBs are similar to depleted mantle [and/or normal (N)-MORB], and often lie on a mixing line between depleted mantle and upper continental crust. By contrast, Deccan CFB compositions lie between the lower continental crust and Ocean island basalt. Accordingly, we conclude that the basaltic suites of the northern CIR MORB and Deccan CFB do not share common parentage, and are therefore genetically unrelated to each other. Instead, we infer that the northern CIR MORB were derived from a depleted mantle source contaminated by upper continental crust, probably during the break up of Gondwanaland; the Deccan CFB are more similar to Ocean island basalt (Reunion-like) composition, and perhaps contaminated by lower continental crust during their evolution.     

Ichthyofauna (Chondrichthyes,Osteichthyes) from the Upper Cretaceous intertrappean beds of Piplanarayanwar,Chhindwara District,Madhya Pradesh,India

A new fossiliferous intertrappean section is found 92 km southwest of the extensively studied intertrappean beds of Mohgaonkalan and Jhilmili in Chhindwara District, Central India. Application of the bulk screen‐washing method led to the recovery of a rich microvertebrate fauna represented by fish, amphibians, crocodiles, snakes and dinosaurs. In this paper, the ichthyofauna recovered from the new intertrappean section consisting of Igdabatis indicus Prasad and Cappetta, 1993, Lepisosteus indicus Woodward, 1908, Osteoglossidae gen. et sp. indet., Pycnodontidae gen. et sp. indet. and Siluriformes indet. is described. The ichthyofauna dominantly represented by the teeth of Igdabatis indicus is suggestive of a nearshore, deltaic or estuarine palaeoenvironment and Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age for the intertrappean beds. The remarkable similarity of the new intertrappean fauna to that of Asifabad and the infratrappean beds of Marepalli also is suggestive of coastal‐plain conditions all along the Godavari lineament in the Late Cretaceous. Although the presence of planktonic foraminifera in the intertrappean beds of Jhilmili in the Mandla Lobe of Deccan volcanic province has been inferred in terms of a short term marine incursion from the west coast along the Narmada lineament in the Early Palaeocene, currently there is no definitive evidence for the prevalence of marine or coastal‐plain conditions along the Narmada lineament at least in the latest Cretaceous.     

Geochemistry and petrogenesis of basalts from the West Siberian Basin: an extension of the Permo–Triassic Siberian Traps, Russia

New major and trace element data for the Permo–Triassic basalts from the West Siberian Basin (WSB) indicate that they are strikingly similar to the Nadezhdinsky suite of the Siberian Trap basalts. The WSB basalts exhibit low Ti/Zr (50) and low high-field-strength element abundances combined with other elemental characteristics (e.g., low Mg#, and negative Nb and Ti anomalies on mantle-normalised plots) typical of fractionated, crustally contaminated continental flood basalts (CFBs). The major and trace element data are consistent with a process of fractional crystallisation coupled with assimilation of incompatible-element-enriched lower crust. Relatively low rates of assimilation to fractional crystallisation (0.2) are required to generate the elemental distribution observed in the WSB basalts. The magmas parental to the basalts may have been derived from source regions similar to primitive mantle (OIB source) or to the Ontong Java Plateau source. Trace element modelling suggests that the majority of the analysed WSB basalts were derived by large degrees of partial melting at pressures less than 3 GPa, and therefore within the garnet-spinel transition zone or the spinel stability field.

It seems unlikely that large-scale melting in the WSB was induced through lithospheric extension alone, and additional heating, probably from a mantle plume, would have been required. We argue that the WSB basalts are chemically and therefore genetically related to the Siberian Traps basalts, especially the Nadezhdinsky suite found at Noril'sk. This suite immediately preceded the main pulse of volcanism that extruded lava over large areas of the Siberian Craton. Magma volume and timing constraints strongly suggest that a mantle plume was involved in the formation of the Earth's largest continental flood basalt province.     

First observation of microspherule from the infratrappean Gondwana sediments below Killari region of Deccan LIP,Maharashtra (India) and possible implications

A rare occurrence of a microspherule has been found in the infratrappean sediments, encountered below 338 m thick Deccan volcanic cover in KLR-1 scientific borehole, drilled in the epicentral zone of the 1993 Killari earthquake (Maharashtra, India). Palynological studies of the sediments indicate their age as Early Permian (Asselian, 298–295 Ma) for deposition. Transmission electron microscope studies reveal that the spherule from the infratrappeans, is having a similar composition to that of the Neoarchean amphibolite to granulite facies mid crustal basement. The spherule is non-spherical in nature, containing mostly FeO (10.70 ± 0.20 wt.%), CaO (13.8 ± 0.5 wt.%), Al₂O₃ (7.78 ± 0.30 wt.%), MgO (6.47 ± 0.3 wt.%), SiO₂ (47.46 ± 0.50 wt.%), TiO₂ (2.47 ± 0.3 wt.%), K₂O (1.89 ± 0.20 wt.%), and Cl (0.33 ± 0.05 wt.%). Since the Fe composition of the spherule is almost same as the basement rock (10.5 wt.%), and the chlorine content is also in the same range as the basement (0.04–0.24 wt.%), it would suggest possibility of an extraterrestrial impact over the Indian terrain during the erstwhile Gondwana sedimentation period that may be associated with the Permian–Triassic mass extinction, the most severe one in the Earth's history.     

Three-dimensional intraplate stress distributions associated with topography and crustal density inhomogeneities beneath the Deccan Volcanic Province

The generation of intraplate earthquakes has been attributed to perturbations in the stress regime, either due to surface and sub-surface loading or strength weakening of the rock mass. The present work aims at estimating the intraplate stresses associated with topography and crustal density inhomogeneities beneath the Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP). A layered crustal model with irregular interfaces of small amplitude has been used for elastostatic stress calculations. The computed principal stress differences show a significant concentration at 5–20 km depths beneath the western side of the region. The maximum magnitude of principal stress difference occurs beneath the Karad at a depth of 10 km with a value of 60 MPa. The deviatoric stress estimates are further superposed on inferred stresses due to the regional plate tectonic forces. These results show principal stress difference concentrations beneath the Koyna, Poona and Karad regions which may thus be more vulnerable to brittle failure. It is also seen that the principal total stress directions point to the strike slip motion at Koyna, similar to that which is associated with the 1967 Koyna earthquake.     

Astronomical and terrestrial causes of physical, chemical and biological changes at geological boundaries

The boundary horizons of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (Um Sohryngkew River section, Meghalaya and Anjar section, Kutch), the Permo-Triassic (Guling, Lalung, Ganmachidam and Attargoo sections, Spiti valley) and the Eocene-Oligocene (Tapti River section, Gujarat) have been identified in the sedimentary records of the Indian subcontinent. These sections have been studied for geochemical anomalies. The results are discussed in the framework of extra-terrestrial and terrestrial causes proposed to explain the physical, chemical and mineralogical observations at these boundaries. A critical analysis suggests that although the astronomical causes, particularly the bolide impacts, can easily explain the geochemical and physical changes, the terrestrial causes (volcanism) may have played a significant role in creating the biological stress observed in fossil records (mass extinction) at or near some of these boundaries.