201. Geochemistry of detrital zinc-rich chromite in conglomerates from eastern India
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Dipak C Pal, Biplab Chandra Sarkar, Sarthak Ghosh, Rahul Sen, Ashim Jana, Soumik Mukhopadhyay, and Deepak K Sinha
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Geochemistry and Petrology - Abstract
On the western part of the eastern Indian shield, Archaean basement (Bonai granite) is overlain by radioactive conglomerate. The conglomerate contains well-rounded, fractured Mg-poor (2O3) Zn-rich chromite (>35.0 wt.% Cr2O3) containing up to 15.5 wt.% ZnO. This is the first reported occurrence of detrital zinc-rich chromite having such unusually high ZnO from India, and to our knowledge, the third reported occurrence in radioactive quartz-pebble conglomerate after Witwatersrand, South Africa and Tarkwa, Ghana. Zinc-rich chromite grains are either clean or contain exsolution blebs/lamella of rutile. The conglomerates show evidence for post-depositional hydrothermal fluid influx and fluid-induced mineral alteration. The strong negative correlation between Zn and Fe2+, Al and Cr, and Al and Fe3+, and strong positive correlation between Zn and Al suggest secondary incorporation of Zn and Al by substitution of Fe2+ and Cr (and Fe3+), respectively, leading to partial transformation of (Fe)(Cr,Al,Fe3+)2O4 towards ZnAl2O4 composition. The chromite grains were possibly derived from komatiite. The timing of Zn enrichment, either at the provenance prior to sedimentation, or at the depositional site post-dating sedimentation, remains unresolved.
- Published
- 2022
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