1. Correlations between silicic volcanic rocks of the St Mary's Islands (southwestern India) and eastern Madagascar: implications for Late Cretaceous India-Madagascar reconstructions.
- Author
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Melluso, Leone, Sheth, Hetu C., Mahoney, John J., Morra, Vincenzo, Petrone, Chiara M., and Storey, Michael
- Subjects
VOLCANIC ash, tuff, etc. ,PHENOCRYSTS ,STRUCTURAL geology ,PHYSICAL geology ,PRECAMBRIAN stratigraphic geology ,GEOLOGY - Abstract
The St Mary's Islands (southwestern India) expose silicic volcanic and sub-volcanic rocks (rhyolites and granophyric dacites) emplaced contemporaneously with the Cretaceous igneous province of Madagascar, roughly 88-90 Ma ago. The St Mary's Islands rocks have phenocrysts of plagioclase, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and opaque oxide, moderate enrichment in the incompatible elements (e.g. Zr = 580-720 ppm, Nb = 43-53 ppm, La/Yb
n = 6.9-7.2), relatively low initial87 Sr/86 Sr (0.7052-0.7055) and near-chondritic initial143 Nd/144 Nd (0.51248-0.51249). They have mineral chemical, whole-rock chemical and isotopic compositions very close to those of rhyolites exposed between Vatomandry-Ilaka and Mananjary in eastern Madagascar, and are distinctly different from rhyolites from other sectors of the Madagascan province. We therefore postulate that the St Mary's and the Vatomandry-Ilaka-Mananjary silicic rock outcrops were adjacent before the Late Cretaceous rifting that split Madagascar from India. If so, they provide a valuable tool to check and aid traditional Cretaceous India-Madagascar reconstructions based on palaeomagnetism, matching Precambrian geological features, and geometric fitting of continental shelves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2009
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