Calcic anorthosite from the nuggehalli schist belt,Karnataka state,India

Calcic anorthosite with plagioclase of 95 to 100% anorthite content has been discovered by the authors in the Nuggehalli schist belt of Karnataka State, India. It occurs near Jambur as a massive body, boulder in nature, admist talc-chlorite-actinolite-serpentine schist. Zoning exhibited by the plagioclase and the C-Twins are characteristic of their formation in a magmatic environment. Albite rims surrounding Anrich plagioclase indicate depositional zoning, and not the normal zoning as commonly visualised. The early formed plagioclase contained much less soda and, hence, there was a continuous storing up of the soda molecule in the residual liquid which later got precipitated as veins sweeping along grain boundaries and as rims around An-rich plagioclase to form depositional zoning. Sections of calcic anorthosite with plagioclase of all An percentage were encountered. They present evidences of differentiation within highly localised zones, as narrow as the size of a thin section. It is suggested here that the calcic anorthosite originated as a result of differentiation, that is, by the segregation of anorthite plagioclase from a gabbroic magma and that it came up along the central part of the rift as a post-tectonic intrusive body.