40Ar/39Ar dating on volcanic rocks of the Deccan Traps,India

⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating results on seven volcanic rocks from four areas of the Deccan Traps, India, suggest that volcanic activity more than 70 Ma ago might have occurred at least in limited areas.In the Igat Puri area, the uppermost flow shows an⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of 63 Ma, whereas a lower flow has an age of around 82–84 Ma.⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of samples from the Bombay area also seem to favor the occurrence of volcanic activity more than 70 Ma ago. One rhyolite dyke from the Osam Hill in the Girnar Hill area shows a well-defined plateau age of 68 Ma, whereas two tholeiitic basalts from the Mahabaleshwar area indicate a total⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of around 63–64 Ma, though they show the effect of secondary disturbance in the age spectra.The volcanic activity(ies) more than 70 Ma ago may correspond to precursory one(s) for the main volcanic activity around 65 Ma ago in the Deccan Traps.