Biographical sketch

Lalchand (Lalou) Gyaniram Gwalani (1945–2018; Fig. 1) is fondly remembered by the alkaline-carbonatite and exploration communities in India, Australia and beyond, for his exemplary work on the Amba Dongar, Gujarat (Gwalani 1981; Gwalani and Avasia 1984; Gwalani et al. 1986, 1990, 1993, 1995, 2000; Rock et al. 1994), Speewah, Western Australia, and other deposits. He was born on 29 September 1945 in Nagpur, central India, as the youngest among five sisters and two brothers in the family of Shri Govindram and Shrimati Bhagwan Gwalani. He graduated from Bishop Cotton Highschool and earned his BSc from Shri Mathuradas Mohota College of Science in 1966. In the late 1960s, he obtained his MSc degree from the Department of Geology, Nagpur University, and moved to Mumbai (at that time Bombay). There he met the veteran of Indian geoscience, Ratan Sukheswala, who is credited with the discovery of first carbonatite in India at Amba Dongar. Sukheswala was duly impressed with Lalou and offered him a research fellowship, which subsequently evolved into a doctoral project involving the outcrop mapping of several trachyte bodies, associated intrusive rocks and Cretaceous Bagh sediments between Dugdha and Naswadi in the Vadodara district of Gujarat. This research formed the basis for a book published in 1981. Soon after the completion of his doctorate, Lalou was offered a lecturer position at Nagpur University in 1976 (Fig. 2), while continuing his research at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai.

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Lalou Gwalani (1945–2018). Photo courtesy Shradha L Gwalani, with permission

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Fig. 2
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The young Lalou Gwalani behind his working desk at the Department of Geology, Nagpur University. Photograph taken on 20 June 1979. Photo courtesy Shradha L Gwalani, with permission

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In the 1980s, the renowned geochemist Claude J. Allegre visited India to conduct fieldwork and Lalou assisted him as a guide. Allegre was so moved by the knowledgeable and personable field guide that he invited Lalou as a visiting research scientist to the Institut de Physique du Globe (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France). Two years in Paris (1987–1989) were followed by collaboration with Ano Sabatico, Instituto de Geología Económica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), in 1989–1990, and with Nicholas M.S. Rock at the University of Western Australia in Perth, in 1991. During these overseas visits, Lalou had the opportunity to use the most sophisticated instruments including electron microprobes, which were a cutting-edge technology at the time. Voluminous data acquired in the course of these collaborations enabled Lalou and his students to publish a series of papers that addressed little-known aspects of alkaline magmatism in NW India (Gwalani et al. 1993, 1994, 2000). In 1993, Lalou was involved in the International Geological Correlation Project (IGCP) 314, funded by International Union of Geosciences-United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IUGS-UNESCO), on alkaline and carbonatitic magmatism and related deposits. As part of IGCP 314, Lalou along with R. Ramasamy organised workshop WB03, titled Mineralization and alkaline magmatism in the Deccan igneous province and in other parts of the world, at the 30th International Geological Congress in Beijing in 1996, where he convened a special session on carbonatites and alkaline rocks. The special issues related to IGCP 314 were published in the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences [issues 18(2) and 19(3)], the Indian Journal of Geochemistry (volume 19) and Mineralogy and Petrology [issue 80(3)].

After returning to Nagpur, Gwalani focused on teaching and research. Between 1998 and 2000, he visited Brazil as a Fellow Professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife. Around this time, Lalou developed a keen interest in editorial work, which started with a special volume of the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (Journal of Southeast Asian Earth Sciences at that time). In 2004, Lalou was invited to join the editorial board of Mineralogy and Petrology, where he served until his passing in 2018. Gwalani retired from Nagpur University in 2005 and accepted the appointment of Gledden Visiting Senior Fellow at the University of Western Australia (Perth) in 2006. Soon thereafter, he landed a consulting appointment with Speewah Metals Ltd. for the investigation of a carbonatite-hosted fluorite deposit at Speewah (Kimberley, Western Australia), which he held until 2012. After his retirement from consulting, Lalou devoted all of his time to editorial work, which included Mineralogy and Petrology, and special volumes for the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, Central European Earth Sciences, and Open Geosciences. He lived in Australia (Figs. 3 and 4), where he breathed his last in 2018.

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Lalou Gwalani with wife Jyoti and daughter Shradha at Mount Hawthorn, Perth, Western Australia. Photograph taken on 20 May 2017. Photo courtesy Shradha L Gwalani, with permission

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Lalou Gwalani, sipping coffee during a leisure moment in Cottesloe, Perth, Western Australia. Photograph taken on 26 January 2018. Photo courtesy Shradha L Gwalani, with permission

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Daughter’s tribute [Shradha Lalchand Gwalani]: my fond memories

To most people Dr Lalou Gwalani was an esteemed academic, an experienced geologist, a meticulous editor, and a devoted researcher of the field. He also had an extraordinarily rich spiritual and personal life. His life was full of family and friends who adored him. From where I stand, it is easy to see why his family and friends miss him immensely. He was a generous and a devoted husband to my mother, a dedicated son to his parents, a solid rock of a brother to his siblings, a lifelong loyal friend, and a dedicated disciple on his spiritual path. To me, he is always going to be ‘my dad’ and my first love. Since his passing, I have lived with his fond memories which bring me peace and happiness. A flashback of a few experiences still leaves a smile on my face.

He was a firm believer of the family unit staying together. When my father accepted the post of post-doctoral fellow in Paris, my mother and I moved to Paris with him. In France, I had to go through childhood immunisations all over again. I feared vaccine needles and going to the doctor always made me anxious and upset. To cheer me up, he would take me to a toy store and get me a toy. This had become a ritual. Every time I saw the doctor, I got a toy. I then looked forward to seeing the doctor and getting my bribe.

This incident happened when we were commuting on a busy afternoon on the Paris metro. When we were getting off our train at our stop, I dropped one shoe on the train tracks. I was too embarrassed to walk without a shoe. He put me, an 8-year-old, on his shoulders and took to me the shops and got me a beautiful shoe. That day he made me wear a shoe just like a prince to Cinderella. So, this is how he is my first love.

Even up until the day he passed away, he showed his love and affection for my mother and me. We gave him a bell to call us if he needed anything and in case one of us was not in the room. Every time I left the room, he would ring the bell and there I was at his side again. When I would ask “What can I do for you?” all he did was look at me lovingly and said “Nothing”. When I think about his death, I just feel a sense of peace and contentment. To me this means that he is in a better place.

I penned this poem as part of the eulogy I wrote, and it encapsulates the sentiment of this tribute:

“Your love has been a silent candle lighting my life path.

Your gentle ways have guided me to where I am.

Your dedication as a husband and father made us this little eclectic family.

Your passion for your profession took to me places and gave me a chance to experience this world from different lenses.

You took me to our Spiritual Master when I was just mere 7 days old, for that I will be ever grateful.

I love you immensely and miss you to the moon and back.

Stay happy and stay safe in the lap of God.”

About this special issue

The present Special Issue, titled Carbonatite and alkaline magmatism and associated mineralization, is a tribute to Lalou Gwalani. It comprises nine papers highlighting various aspects of these very important rocks, from mineral chemistry to isotope geochemistry. However, one common thread to all these contributions is petrogenesis. The contributing authors use multiple lines of evidence to reconstruct the evolutionary pathways of alkaline magmas in the mantle and different lithospheric settings. The issue opens with an article by Sharma et al., which discusses lamprophyres and dolerite dykes in the Phenai Mata area near the Amba Dongar complex. These authors demonstrate that processes such as differentiation, magma-chamber replenishment and mush entrainment determine the petrographic diversity of alkaline complexes associated with basaltic volcanism in large igneous provinces. An article by Srivastava et al.. provides a review of ultramafic-alkaline-carbonatite intrusions on the Shillong Plateau and in the Mikir Hills of NE India. These authors argue that the Sung valley and Samchampi – Samteran complexes show an isotopic affinity to the so-called Group-I tholeiitic rocks of the Rajmahal traps and owe their origin to carbonate-bearing sources in the lithospheric mantle. Hurai et al. present a study of plagioclase megacrysts containing composite crystal-glass inclusions in a basaltic diatreme in the Carpathian back-arc basin. On the basis of inclusion data and C-O-Sr isotope ratios, they infer that heterogeneous silicate-carbonate melt fractions can be generated during metasomatism and partial melting of supra-subduction mantle wedges. In the next article, Kogarko explores interrelations between kimberlite and carbonatite sources. Her interpretation of compositional differences between these magma types is that alkalis present in Ca-Si “perovskite”, bridgmanite and the “new aluminous phase” can be transferred to the reservoir of carbonatite and alkaline-silicate magmas, whereas K-Na fractionation at a depth of ~ 600 km results in the formation of kimberlites. Vinci et al.. discuss three carbonatitic rocks from La Queglia, Italy with unusual textures (ocellar, spinifex-like and glauconite-bearing) and provide evidence for their derivation from a garnet-bearing mantle source with High-µ affinities. Nalluri et al. describe the composition of micas and amphiboles from quartz-syenite intrusions in the Cudappah Intrusive Province, India. On the basis of thermobarometric estimates, these authors propose that these rocks derived from two different parental magmas of anorogenic alkaline and orogenic calc-alkaline affinity, respectively. The contribution by Vozniak et al. focuses on calcic garnets from lamprophyric, carbonatitic and melilitic rocks in the Kola Alkaline Province and link the compositional variations in these minerals to magma evolution and deuteric processes. Cipriani et al. report on carbonate-bearing fluorapatite from altered Tertiary volcanics of the Veneto Volcanic Province in northern Italy and the first occurrence of cronstedtite in these rocks. These authors argue that their petrogenesis is linked to a nelsonitic melt or an evolved alkaline melt derived from a mantle source metasomatized by carbonate-rich fluids. The issue concludes with a study of rare-metal minerals (monazite, pyrochlore, etc.) in the Pakkanadu – Malakkadu carbonatites within the Dharmapuri Rift Zone of southern India by Mahapatro et al.. These authors argue that the parental magma originated in a fertile intraplate rift setting and underwent further enrichment in rare metals at a carbohydrothermal stage.