Pyroxenite dykes with petrological and geochemical affinities to the Alaskan-type ultramafics at the northwestern margin of the Cuddapah basin, Dharwar craton, southern India: Tectonomagmatic implications

Abstract

Two previously reported lamprophyre dykes from the Kalwakurthy area, at the northwestern margin of the Cuddapah basin, Dharwar craton, southern India, are reinvestigated. Petrography reveals that they have an overall cumulate texture and comprise clinopyroxene (dominant phase), amphibole (mostly secondary), magnetite, ilmenite and chromite and are reclassified as clinopyroxenites. The chemistry of clinopyroxene and chromite, bulk-rock major and trace element composition and the Sr–Nd isotopic systematics of the Kalwakurthy dykes strongly favour the involvement of subduction-related processes in their genesis and are strikingly similar to those of the continental arc-cumulates and Alaskan-type ultramafics reported from the supra-subduction type of tectonic settings. Incompatible trace element ratios, involving high field strength elements, of these clinopyroxenites are also suggestive of the fluid-related metasomatism influencing their source regions. Petrogenetic modelling reveals that 10–20% partial melting of the fertile lithospheric mantle source was involved in their genesis. The tectonomagmatic significance of the studied clinopyroxenites is evaluated in light of the existing models invoking a Neoarchaean subduction in the evolution of the Dharwar craton. © 2019, Indian Academy of Sciences.