IGNEOUS PETROLOGY

ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALT

BY

MADHUSMITA PRIYADARSHINI

REG NO. 23ES40014

INTRODUCTION

Fissure-fed continental flood basalts are typical of extensional

tectonics and continental rifting. For continental flood basalts,
the name "traps" is frequently used. The flows are
extraordinarily fluid and quickly erupted, covering enormous
areas with massive amounts of magma. CFB volumes are
difficult to quantify, and erosion removes large parts in many
regions, therefore these figures are only intended as rough
indicators of the degree of volcanic activity. The massive flood
basalt cumulations scale down to multiple smaller, rift-related
volcanic provinces. Cogenetic mafic intrusions, including as sills,
dikes, and the more massive layered mafic intrusions, have
frequently been discovered through erosion in these volcanic
heaps

Table1: the major recognized CFB provinces

Tectonic setting of CFBs

The relationship between CFB volcanism and the process of

continental rifting is an important component of CFB volcanism.
Rifting can be minimal (as are the associated volcanics), or it
might result in continental fracture and the emergence of a
new ocean basin. Failed rifts or aulaco-gens are rifts that do not
lead to new oceans. Another CFB connected with a failed rift is
the Siberian Traps.
The Parana, Karroo, North Atlantic, and Antarctic provinces
formed in areas where continental fragmentation occurred,
leading to the entrance of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans,prior
to the disintegration of Gondwanaland during the Jurassic and
Cretaceous periods. The earlier Karoo and Antarctic flood
basalts erupted just before the Indian Ocean's Jurassic opening,
while the later Parana-Etendeka were antecedents to the South
Atlantic's initial rifting in the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous.

Fig:1;Flood basalt provinces of Gondwanaland prior to break-up and separation

Mantle plumes, or hot areas, are frequently associated with
continental break-up and are now widely accepted as the
primary origin of LIPs, including continental flood basalts. The
combination of rifting and plume formation produces
extremely high thermal output, which most likely resulted in
the local development of CFBs. In the case of India's Deccan,
the period of intensive igneous activity predated the rifting
between India and Africa by around 50 million years. This
massive flood basalt province appears to have resulted from
hot spot activity alone, but the period was also marked by the
split of India and Madagascar.
This is consistent with Richards et al. (1989) and Campbell
and Griffiths (1990)'s observations that a new plume has a huge
bulbous head followed by a narrow tail. When the plume
initially reaches the surface, it causes significant melting and
entrainment of the surrounding mantle, resulting in an initial
burst of high thermal and volcanic activity. LIPs are now
thought to be caused by the starting-plume period, when the
big head first approaches the surface. The Deccan's peak
volcanic activity about 60 to 65 Ma b.p. is tantalisingly close to
the infamous Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, which was marked
by a mass extinction.It is believed that Deccan volcanism
released enough gas and aerosols into the atmosphere to cover
the sun for years, making it an alternative contender to comet
impact as the cause of the extinctions.
Back-arc spreading is yet another possible mechanism for
some CFBs. Many geologists believe that the Columbia River
Basalt Group formed as a result of back-arc spreading behind
the Cascade arc in a continental setting. At the moment, the
most frequently accepted process includes frictional drag
between the subducting plate and the overlying mantle. This
would cause the mantle above and close to the subducting
plate to be dragged downward with the plate, necessitating the
flow of mantle further behind the subduction zone to
compensate for the mantle drawn down and away.
Decompression melting in the rising mantle could result in CFB
volcanism or, eventually, back-arc oceanic crust.
DECCAN BASALTS

Deccan erupted when India was located in the Indian Ocean,

over where Reunion is now. A few recent studies have revealed
that there have been short pulses of major eruptions lasting a
few thousand years in the Western Ghats, where the lava
package is the thickest. If such "spikes" were accurate, they
would have had a huge impact on climate and biota. The
Deccan Volcanic Province's origin has long been questioned.
The question is whether the magmas were generated by
melting a massive mantle plume, conventional plate tectonic
processes, or the impact of a big extraterrestrial bolide.
The Deccan Traps eruption is frequently cited as a dramatic
demonstration of mantle plume activity. The Deccan magmas
were created by melting a massive "plume head" that rose
from the core-mantle barrier. A long tail connected the plume
head to the source, forming the Chagos-Laccadive volcanic
chain. A jump of a ridge that is now the Central Indian Ridge
broke off the chain around 40 million years ago, and the
original plume tail is now causing volcanism on Reunion Island.
It was also assumed that the Deccan basalts erupted mostly
through crustal fissures, and a scenario of shallow mantle
melting was postulated in which pre-existing rift zones were
reactivated and magma simply poured out of cracks.
Some speculated that a big bolide hit offshore near the
"Bombay High" area, melting the lithosphere and releasing
massive amounts of magma that erupted as the Deccan lavas.
This hypothesis has not been widely accepted, owing to the
fact that it is not a testable hypothesis and requires further
investigation.Given the above context, we will avoid any
genetic implications and refer to the Deccan melting source
region as "Deccan Melting Anomaly (DMA)" throughout this.

GEOCHEMISTRY

The Deccan flood basalt province is primarily tholeiitic,

although it also contains alkalic lavas and intrusions,
carbonatite intrusive complexes, and silicic lavas and intrusions.
Carbonatites and alkalic lavas, with some of the latter bearing
mantle xenoliths, are restricted to rift zones along the Deccan's
periphery. A simple volume analysis of the erupted lavas
indicates that Deccan tholeiites or their parent magmas were
produced in far greater quantities than carbonatites and alkalic
magmas.Presumably, parent magmas of tholeiites were
generated at higher potential temperatures and by much
greater degrees of melting than the alkalic and carbonatitic
magmas.
Constraining the composition of the parent magma(s) is of
first order relevance because it limits the temperature
conditions attained during magma segregation from the source
with which it is entirely equilibrated at a given depth or over a
depth range. In the event of eclogite melting, the erupted
basalts would just be the result of bulk melting (>70%) of a
basaltic source (eclogite is merely a high pressure
metamorphosed basalt). In this situation, the extra
temperature required to generate a big volume of magma
would be quite low (120°C). The primary magmas in the
peridotite melting scenario would have to be high temperature
picritic magmas that had lost a significant proportion of olivine
through fractional crystallisation during their ascent through
the crust.Excess temperatures of 250°C would be required in
this case.

Isotropic composition

Mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) are thought to be the product

of shallow melting of the asthenosphere, also known as
"shallow convecting mantle."The isotopic trends displayed by
distinct Deccan formations depart from a "common signature"
area proposed by Peng and Mahoney to be the real mantle
source composition of the Deccan tholeiites. The "common
signature" is notable for overlapping the composition of
Reunion lavas. Many scientists have proposed that
contamination of the magmas by primarily Archean/
Proterozoic crust is the origin of isotopic divergence in the
Deccan.
As a result, the scientists concluded that the isotopic
contamination signal had to be acquired by the magmas before
to entering the shallowest reservoirs, where they experienced
further mixing and crystallization-differentiation. There is
agreement in the Deccan that the isotopic trace of continental
crustal contamination is strongest for the Bushe Formation of
the Western Ghats.

Trace element chemisrty

Several writers have proposed that the alkalic magmas formed

from garnet peridotite, while the tholeiites, which are common
in the Deccan province, formed at a deeper depth inside the
spinel peridotite field. The high-Ti and low-Ti picrites from
Gujarat were also plotted. The three high-Ti picrites have an
alkalic affinity and a greater Sm/Yb ratio, indicating that they
may have had parent magmas that were created at a shallower
depth inside the spinel peridotite field. The least pressure at
which the residue can include garnet if the source is peridotitic
is 2.8 GPa; however, if the source is eclogite or garnet
pyroxenite, the minimum pressure is 1.6 GPa.The fact that
Deccan tholeiites are overwhelmingly LREE-enriched
(chondrite-normalized) suggests that there was no or only a
little recycled eclogite component in their source.

Fig.3:It shows a plot of [Sm]n vs. [Sm/Yb]n of Deccan tholeiites from across the
Deccan
Major element composition

Scientists examined the principal element composition of

Deccan tholeiites to partial melting experiments and discovered
that tholeiitic picrites containing 10% MgO are nearly
equivalent to experimental melts formed at the solidus from a
peridotite at 1 GPa. Spinel/plagioclase peridotite transition
occurs at 1 GPa, and garnet is not a stable mineral.
Figures 2.6a, b indicate that melts made from peridotite vary
greatly in MgO but just slightly in Al2 O3 and SiO2. They
correspond to melts formed between 1 and 2.5 GPa in the
MgO-Al2 O3 figure. These picrites appear to be primary or
near-primary magmas, possibly formed by a peridotitic source
in the DMA between 1 and 2.5 GPa. However, whether such
picrites may be formed from mantle eclogites is unknown.
As illustrated in Fig. 2.6b, common Deccan tholeiites fit well
within the field of orogenic eclogites. If there were ancient
orogenic type eclogites buried inside the Indian plate's deep
crust/lithosphere, they might have melted to a substantial
extent and contributed to the typical Deccan composition.The
significant crustal contamination required for the majority of
the Deccan traps by Sr, Pb, and Nd-isotopes may simply reflect
such melt inputs. The Deccan tholeiites may have a mixed
origin as a result of fractionation of picritic magmas from the
mantle, contribution of melts from deep crustal eclogites, and
maybe lower amounts of melts from shallow and mid-crustal
contaminated crust.

In passing, there is no doubt that peridotite source rocks were

involved in the formation of all alkalic magmas due to their
olivine (Fo89-91) phenocrysts and upper mantle peridotite
xenoliths. Some Deccan picrites and maybe other tholeiitic
formations exhibit little or no isotopic evidence of ancient
crustal melt contributions originating primarily from a
peridotite source.
PETROGENESIS OF CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS

The extraordinarily high volumes of mafic magma that are

extruded into subsiding basins in extensional continental
settings over a comparatively little period of time are what
define CFBs. The majority of CFBs are composed of fissure-fed
aphyric lava flows; however, because of the low viscosity and
fast eruption rate that result in vast lateral flows, no near-
source features like shields are left behind. Although more
advanced differentiates and alkaline varieties are also present,
tholeiitic basalts are the predominant magma type. Si, Fe, Ti,
and K concentrations in non-pi-critic flows are typically high,
while Mg is typically about 60. Because compatible trace
element concentrations of Ni and Cr are low, it is likely that
CFBs are not primordial magmas but rather have experienced
significant crystal fractionation before erupting.
Cox (1980) suggested that a magma reservoir ponded at the
crust's base as a spot for the low pressure fractional
crystallization of plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxene may explain
the CFBs' evolved chemical composition. The density of parent
magmas predicts that plumes should pond at the top of the
mantle beneath the less dense continental crust, but they may
stall at the base of the more rigid lithospheric mantle. Here,
shallow fractional crystallization along with some crust
assimilation would occur.High concentrations of incompatible
trace elements, especially the most incompatible ones like K2O,
LIL, and LREE, are another characteristic of CFBs. They require
numerous sources, including significantly enriched components
that are suggestive of continental crust and/or enriched
mantle, and they have various isotopic signatures but are
frequently enriched.
Figure.4: Diagrammatic cross section illustrating possible models for the
development of continental flood basalt.

CFBs were once thought to be the result of an intracontinental

rift. This model had a lot of MORE genesis' traits. The
continental crust thins and faults as a result of extension,
creating several pathways for magma to reach the surface. Sub-
lithospheric mantle material begins to rise diapically as a result
of thinning, and this is anticipated to cause decompression
partial melting in the rising mantle diapir.Many researchers
have come to the conclusion that a mantle hot spot plume
(especially during its massive beginning phases of growth) is
also an essential component of CFB magmatism due to the high
magma volumes in isolated locations. The alkaline nature of
some CFB material may possibly be explained by a deep plume
that is tapping the sub-660 kilometer enriched mantle
reservoir. As a result, the rift model in the Figure now features
a new hot spot plume that may have its origins in the OIB
source reservoir below 660 km in depth. Any scenario of CFB
genesis is likely to include the development of a ponded
magma chamber at the crust's base due to the evolved
character of CFB magmas.

Another instance of pure hot spot plume activity is the Deccan,

however there may have been tension between India and
Madagascar at the time. The Deccan's far higher magmatic
production is likely due to the extremely high thermal activity
that was present during the highly prolific Reunion plume's
early surface activity. The thermal output of a back-arc system
like this is typically not thought to be enough to produce the
volume of basalt present in CFB provinces like the Columbia
River Basalt Group. The development of the CRBG was probably
caused by a combination of back-arc rifting, mantle rise,
enhanced heat flow, and the Snake River-Yellowstone hot-spot
plume.