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Geochemistry of calc-silicate rocks around Lunavada region, NE Gujarat: Implications for their protolith, provenance and tectonic setting

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Abstract

In this work, the calc-silicate rocks affiliated to the ‘Kadana Formation’, a youngest formation of the Lunavada Group have been investigated. These rocks are found to be embedded within associated rock types, viz., quartzites and metapelites in the form of isolated lensoidal bodies. Contact metamorphic textures and the typical mineral assemblage, viz., Act +Di + Cal + Qtz + Ttn ± Mc ± Pl ± Bt ± Ep ± Scp ± Chl with minor proportion of apatite, zircon and opaques can be observed in these calc-silicates. Major oxides, trace and rare earth elements were analysed to investigate the protolith type, provenance and tectonic setting of these rocks. Protolith must be calcareous sandstone with varied proportion of clay and deposited in shallow water environment as revealed by CaO, Al2O3 and FeO+MgO and Al–Zr–Ti ternary diagram, respectively. Low to moderate weathering of source rocks has been indicated by A–CN–K ternary diagram. Th/Sc vs. Zr/Sc and Th/Co vs. La/Sc plots confirm the continental source with felsic nature for these rocks and the calc-silicate samples fall within the active continental margin region of Sc–Th–Zr/10 diagram which also justify the kind of provenance for primary sediments.

Highlights

  • The calc-silicate rocks show major oxides, trace and rare earth element compositions which are very similar to those of their post-archean counterparts. Similarly, in the REEs vs. sample/REE chondrite normalized pattern, a moderate negative Eu anomaly is observed; these observations suggest that the chemical composition of the continental crust of the study area was similar to that of the post-archean continental crust.

  • Data plotted in Al2O3, CaO and FeO + MgO diagram of Barton et al. (1991) indicated that the protolith of calc-silicate rocks of the study area is calcareous sandstone with small and varied amounts of clay within it, as most of the samples fall within or very close to the greywacke zone.

  • CIA studies are pointing towards the low to moderate weathering of the source under the cold and arid conditions.

  • The Th–Sc characteristics (Th/Sc > 1) support a predominantly continental source for these rocks; similarly, values of Zr/Sc indicate a moderate amount of sediment recycling.

  • Higher abundances of incompatible elements imply predominantly felsic rocks in the source, which is also supported by LREE-enriched patterns. As per the Th/Co vs. La/Sc plot, mostly of granitic (felsic) composition is inferred for primary sediments for these calc-silicate rocks.

  • The study concludes that the primary sediments for the calc-silicates of the Lunavada Group were deposited in an active continental margin setting.

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(modified after Mamtani 1998).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Prof. H Kataria, Dean, Faculty of Science and I/c Head, Department of Geology, MSUB, for extending facilities and granting permission to carry out this research. The authors are grateful to the Director of the CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad for extending the analytical facilities. Dr. K S V Subramanyam, Dr. D Purushotham, Dr. M Ram Mohan and Dr. M Satyanarayanan of the CSIR-NGRI are sincerely thanked for the help rendered during sample preparation and analysis. The first author is also thankful to the DST-Women Scientist (WOS-A) project, for providing funding to carry out this work. We also thank Editor-in-Chief, Prof. N V Chalapathi Rao and Prof. Rajneesh Bhutani (Handling Editor), for smooth handling of the MS. We are indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions which improved the manuscript considerably.

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  1. Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, 390 002, India

    Gayatri N Akolkar & Manoj A Limaye

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  1. Gayatri N Akolkar
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Gayatri Akolkar: Conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, sample analysis, data curation, data interpretation and writing base draft. M A Limaye: Supervision of the project, data interpretation, and presentation.

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Correspondence to Manoj A Limaye.

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Communicated by Rajneesh Bhutani

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Akolkar, G.N., Limaye, M.A. Geochemistry of calc-silicate rocks around Lunavada region, NE Gujarat: Implications for their protolith, provenance and tectonic setting. J Earth Syst Sci 129, 198 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01463-4

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