comment on 40ar 39ar dating of the rajahmundry traps eastern india and their relationship to the deccan traps by knight et al earth planet sci lett 208 2003 85 99 abstract knight et al presented age and chemical data on two sets of lava flows from the rajahmundry area on either bank of the godavari river the age and petrogenesis of these flows and their possible link to sections of the main deccan province are of importance to the understanding of many aspects of flood basalt volcanism i comment on a the use of geochemical fingerprints for lava identification correlation at rajahmundry superceding apparent field relations b their 40 ar 39 ar data and its refinement based on statistical tests and the alteration state of the samples c correlation of age data and the magnetic polarity of the lavas to the geomagnetic polarity time scale and d the possibility that both lavas at rajahmundry were formed by intracanyon flows derived from 1000 km away

40ar 39ar dating of mineral separates and whole rocks from the western ghats lava pile further constraints on duration and age of the deccan traps abstract there has been an ongoing debate for almost two decades on the age and duration of deccan trap volcanism some of the best available ages have been determined using the 40 ar 39 ar method but differences in sample location laboratory procedure type of analyzed material and ages of monitors may have been responsible for much of the apparent spread in the data we have collected and analyzed samples from close to the bottom and top of the main lava pile in the western ghats near bombay we confirm previous findings that alteration and ar recoil strongly affect these rocks particularly measurements made on whole rocks when mineral separates mostly plagioclase are analyzed the spread is much reduced we find a mean age of 65 4 0 7 ma for five flows near the base of the section jahwar and igatpuri formations and 65 2 0 4 ma for a dyke cross cutting the poladpur formation below the topmost mahabaleshwar formation this implies that at least 1800 m out of the 2500 m composite trap section were erupted in a short interval less than 1 ma long and close to 65 5 ma i e close to the cretaceous tertiary boundary we find that older ages near 67 ma found by several authors are essentially based on whole rock samples which display disturbed spectra when this can be checked i e when the spectra are published

mesozoic igneous activity in the maranha o province northern brazil 40ar 39ar evidence for separate episodes of basaltic magmatism low and high ti basaltic rocks of the maranha o province in northern brazil appear to be related to the opening of the atlantic ocean 40ar 39ar dating was carried out on powdered whole rock basalts both washed and unwashed in dilute nitric acid to document this relationship acid treatment does not alter the argon retention properties of retentive phases but is effective in removing alteration phases high ca k degassed at low laboratory temperatures our results identify that at least two periods of volcanic activity formed the maranha o province low ti basalts from the western sector are 200 190 ma and are related to the opening of the north atlantic high ti basalts from the eastern sector are 129 124 ma slightly younger than compositionally similar rocks in the serra geral flood basalt province of southern brazil and are related to the opening of the south atlantic other flood basalts such as the columbia river deccan rajmahal ferrar and siberian provinces were each predominantly formed in 1 2 ma the maranha o basalts remnants of separate igneous events spanning 70 ma should not be classed as a single flood basalt province the temporal complexities noted in the maranha o basaltic rocks appear to be related to the tracks of hotspots that led to the rifting of the atlantic ocean two sets of mesozoic basaltic rocks occur in southern africa india and south america resulting from events leading to the fragmentation and dispersal of sections of gondwanaland in each sub continent the two provinces were formed by events separated by 50 70 ma of these pairs only the maranha o and serra geral show geochemical similarities indicating compositionally distinct upper mantle source regions under sections of brazil separated by 3000 km

origin of the deccan trap flows at mahabaleshwar inferred from nd and sr isotopic and chemical evidence abstract the deccan flows at mahabaleshwar are divisible into a lower and an upper group based on nd and sr isotopic ratios which define two correlated trends this distinction is supported by incompatible element ratios and bulk compositions the data reflect contamination in a dynamic system of magmas from an lil depleted e juv 8 mantle by two different negative e juv endmembers one undoubtedly continental crust the other either continental crust or enriched mantle the depleted mantle source anomalously high in 87 sr 86 sr may have been in the subcontinental lithosphere or a region of rising indian ocean morb mantle

cosmic markers 40ar 39ar dating and paleomagnetism of the kt sections in the anjar area of the deccan large igneous province abstract bhandari et al bhandari et al geophys res lett 22 1995 433 436 bhandari et al geol soc am spec paper 307 1996 417 424 reported the discovery of iridium bearing sediments sandwiched between basalt flows in the anjar area kutch province india they concluded that the signature of the k t impact had been recorded and that onset of volcanism in the deccan traps preceded the k t boundary excluding the possibility of a causal connection this paper reports complementary analyses of anjar outcrops by a joint indo french team where we focused on cosmic markers iridium and spinels in the intertrappean sediments and 40ar 39ar dating and paleomagnetism of the lava flows anomalous ir concentrations up to 0 4 ng g are confirmed with up to three thin and patchy enriched layers which cannot be traced throughout the exposed sections despite careful search no ni rich spinels were found eight basalt samples provided 40ar 39ar results four on plagioclase bulk samples four on whole rocks spectra for whole rocks all indicate some amount of disturbance and ages based on plagioclase bulk samples seem to be consistently more reliable hofmann et al earth planet sci lett 180 2000 13 28 the three flows underlying the ir bearing sediments are dated at 66 5 ma and two overlying flows at 65 ma magnetic analyses both thermal and by alternating fields uncovered clear reversed primary components in the upper flows and more disturbed normal components in the lower flows with evidence for an additional reversed component there are reports bajpai geol soc india mem 37 1996 313 319 bajpai j geol soc london 157 2000 257 260 that the intertrappean sediments contain uppermost maastrichtian dinosaur and ostracod remains above the uppermost ir bearing level and may not be mechanically disturbed we propose the following scenario to interpret these multiple field and analytical observations deccan trap volcanism started within uppermost maastrichtian normal chron c30n at 66 5 67 ma in the anjar area volcanism then stopped at least locally and lacustrine sediments were deposited over a period that could be in the order of 1 2 ma the k t bolide impact was recorded as a deposit of ir and possibly though not necessarily spinels volcanism resumed shortly after the k t boundary within reversed chron c29r as witnessed by the three reversely magnetised overlying basalt flows dated 65 ma this was responsible for erosion and destruction of part of the uppermost sediments including spinels if there were any and heterogeneous and non uniform redeposition of ir at a number of underlying sedimentary levels this was also responsible for the partial remagnetisation of the underlying flows these findings generally confirm and complement those of bhandari et al bhandari et al geophys res lett 22 1995 433 436 bhandari et al geol soc am spec paper 307 1996 417 424 and are compatible with the occurrence of the k t impact at the paleontological k t boundary and of deccan trap volcanism straddling the boundary and starting before the impact anjar provides evidence for minor volcanism somewhat earlier than suggested by some authors though still within normal chron c30n there is no indication contradicting the view that the bulk of deccan trap volcanism occurred over only three chrons c30n c29r c29n courtillot evolutionary catastrophes the science of mass extinctions cambridge university press 1999 courtillot et al earth planet sci lett 80 1986 361 374 vandamme et al rev geophys 29 1991 159 190

new 40ar 39ar dating of the grande ronde lavas columbia river basalts usa implications for duration of flood basalt eruption episodes by discussion abstract barry et al 2010 presented 40 ar 39 ar ages to argue for a very limited duration 0 4 m y for the eruption of the grande ronde lavas critical examination of their data sets shows 1 a number of their plateau ages are statistically invalid and 2 many of their groundmass matrix samples were altered and did not yield valid estimates of the time of crystallization in general their ages err on the young side reflecting partial 40 ar loss due to alteration and there is no compelling evidence therein to argue for very limited duration for the grande ronde basalt the imnaha grande ronde and wanapum basalt erupted within 0 7 m y starting at 16 4 ma by contrast the ages of barry et al 2010 span the interval 16 6 to 14 7 ma and in some instances are out of stratigraphic sequence

40ar 39ar dating of the brunhes matuyama geomagnetic field reversal magnetostratigraphic studies are widely used in conjunction with the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts to date events in the range 0 to 5 million years ago a critical tie point on the gpts is the potassium argon age of the most recent brunhes matuyama geomagnetic field reversal astronomical values for the forcing frequencies observed in the oxygen isotope record in ocean drilling project site 677 suggest that the age of this last reversal is 780 ka thousand years ago whereas the potassium argon based estimate is 730 ka results from 4039 ar incremental heating studies on a series of lavas from maui that straddle the brunhes matuyama reversal give an age of 783 11 ka in agreement with the astronomically derived value the astronomically based technique appears to be a viable tool for dating young sedimentary sequences

does deccan volcanic sequence contain more reversals than the three chron n r n flow magnetostratigraphy a palaeomagnetic evidence from the dyke swarm near mumbai

distribution and geochronology of oregon plateau u s a flood basalt volcanism the steens basalt revisited the timing and petrogenesis of mid miocene flood basalt volcanism in the northwest united states has been extensively addressed yet the chemical characteristics and temporal details of the steens basalt exposed on the oregon plateau are poorly defined steens basalt volcanism has generally been accepted to have occurred at 16 6 ma coeval and or just prior to the onset of columbia river basalt group volcanism to the north new major and trace element analyses and nine 40 ar 39 ar ages ranging from 15 51 0 28 to 16 58 0 18 ma were obtained on oregon plateau flood basalt lava flows from stratigraphic sections in close proximity to steens mountain additionally new 40 ar 39 ar ages were obtained on the uppermost and thirty first lava flow down from the top of the 1 km section of steens basalt exposed at steens mountain and yield eruption ages of 16 59 0 10 and 16 55 0 10 ma respectively field relations between these basalt sections suggest that multiple eruptive centers were present in the vicinity of steens mountain the chemical and chronologic data presented in this study illustrate that flood basalts with the steens basalt chemical signature erupted across the southern oregon plateau over a much greater timespan than what is typically quoted for the steens mountain type section these data suggest that the main volume of steens basalt volcanism erupted over at least an 1 m y duration from eruptive loci in the vicinity of steens mountain while likely much less voluminous volcanism and lithospheric input of mafic magma appears to have occurred for n2 ma across the oregon plateau these new geochemical and geochronological constraints verify a common temporal link between steens malheur gorge region and columbia river basalt group crbg volcanism this direct temporal link requires that petrogenetic and tectonic models of mid miocene northwestern u s flood basalt volcanism recognize that the northern columbia plateau and southern oregon plateau portions of this mid miocene basalt province were erupting simultaneously during portions of the regional event 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

intracanyon flows in the deccan province india case history of the rajahmundry traps the rajahmundry traps form small exposures of basaltic flows on either side of the godavari river near the east coast of india and they are thought to be late cretaceous early paleocene in age because they lie 400 km from the nearest surface exposures of the deccan traps their mode of formation remains unknown furthermore the rajahmundry traps show normal magnetic polarity indicating that they cannot be exact time equivalents of the large volumes of the deccan traps which show reversed magnetic polarity geochemical analyses reveal that the rajahmundry traps are of very uniform composition geochronological studies suggest an age of 64 ma marginally younger than the main sections western ghats of the deccan traps the only section of the main deccan province that may be stratigraphically equivalent on the basis of age geochemical signatures and magnetic polarity is the kolhapur formation at the southern end of the deccan province near the west coast 800 km from the rajahmundry traps we suggest that the rajahmundry traps and other basaltic material found near the mouth of the godavari river represent remnants of intracanyon flows that flowed eastward down the ancestral river systems of peninsular india away from the domed structure caused by the plume that led to the formation of the deccan traps similar intracanyon flows that have traveled 600 km from their source to the pacific coastline are well documented in association with the columbia river basalt province united states in the case of the rajahmundry traps the distance traveled would appear to be 1000 km

geological and 40ar 39ar age constraints on late stage deccan rhyolitic volcanism inter volcanic sedimentation and the panvel flexure from the dongri area mumbai abstract post k pg boundary deccan magmatism is well known from the mumbai area in the panvel flexure zone represented by the salsette subgroup it shows characters atypical of much of the deccan traps including rhyolite lavas and tuffs mafic tuffs and breccias spilitic pillow basalts and intertrappean sedimentary or volcanosedimentary deposits with mafic intrusions as well as trachyte intrusions containing basaltic enclaves the intertrappean deposits have been interpreted as formed in shallow marine or lagoonal environments in small fault bounded basins due to syn volcanic subsidence we report a previously unknown sedimentary deposit underlying the dongri rhyolite flow from the upper part of the salsette subgroup with a westerly tectonic dip due to the panvel flexure we have obtained concordant 40ar 39ar ages of 62 6 0 6 ma 2 and 62 9 0 2 ma 2 for samples taken from two separate outcrops of this rhyolite the results are significant in showing that i danian inter volcanic sedimentary deposits formed throughout mumbai ii the rock units are consistent with the stratigraphy postulated earlier for mumbai iii shale fragments known in some dongri tuffs were likely derived from the sedimentary deposit under the dongri rhyolite iv the total duration of extrusive and intrusive deccan magmatism was at least 8 9 million years and v panvel flexure formed or continued to form after 63 ma possibly even 62 ma and could not have formed by 65 64 ma as concluded in a recent study

40k 40ar dating of the main deccan large igneous province further evidence of ktb age and short duration most mass extinctions coincide in time with outpourings of continental flood basalts cfb some 20 years ago it was shown courtillot v besse j vandamme d montigny r jaeger j j cappetta h 1986 deccan flood basalts at the cretaceous tertiary boundary earth planet sci lett 80 361 374 courtillot v feraud g maluski h vandamme d moreau m g besse j 1988 deccan flood basalts and the cretaceous tertiary boundary nature 333 843 846 duncan r a pyle d g 1988 rapid eruption of the deccan flood basalts at the cretaceous tertiary boundary nature 333 841 843 that the age of the deccan traps was close to the cretaceous tertiary kt boundary and its duration under 1 myr we have undertaken a new geochronological study using the unconventional 40k 40ar cassignol gillot technique which is particularly well suited to the potassium poor deccan lavas the mean of 4 determinations from the topmost ambenali and mahabaleshwar formations is 64 5 0 6 ma they straddle the c29r c29n reversal boundary for which they provide a new constraint the mean age of 3 determinations from the oldest jawhar formation is 64 8 0 6 ma the difference in age between top and bottom of a 3500 m composite section probably comprising 80 of the total deccan volume is statistically insignificant with the overall mean age being 64 7 0 6 ma n 7 our results are consistent with the most recent 40ar 39ar determinations knight k b renne p r halkett a white n 2003 40ar 39ar dating of the rajahmundry traps eastern india and their relationship to the deccan traps earth planet sci lett 208 85 99 knight k b renne p r baker j waight t white n 2005 reply to 40ar 39ar dating of the rajahmundry traps eastern india and their relationship to the deccan traps discussion by a k baksi earth planet sci lett 239 374 382 confirming that there should be no systematic difference between the two methods when they are used in an optimal way an earlier smaller but significant pulse of volcanism between 68 and 67 ma extending over at least 500 km in latitude in the northern part of the deccan cfb has also been identified after 2 to 3 ma of quiescence the second major phase of volcanism occurred near 65 ma expanding over most of the area covered by the first pulse and another 500 km to the south consistent with drift of india by 300 to 450 km at not vert similar 150 mm yr during the quiescence period new paleontological data from the remote rajahmundry section keller g adatte t gardin s bartolini a bajpai s humler e in prep the cretaceous tertiary boundary in deccan traps of the krishna godavari basin of southeastern india epsl to be submitted suggest that this second pulse can itself be divided into two major pulses one starting in c29r and ending at the kt boundary the second starting in the upper part of c29r and ending within c29n

comment to distribution and geochronology of the oregon plateau u s a flood basalt volcanism the steens basalt revisited by m e brueseke et al j volcanol geotherm res 161 2007 187 214 abstract the 40 ar 39 ar stepheating results of brueseke et al 2007 are critically evaluated firstly for possible alteration of the samples dated steps passing the alteration index test baksi 2007a can then be used to derive plateau ages which must satisfy rigorous statistical tests of the eleven samples studied by brueseke et al 2007 only four yield plateau values that reflect eruption ages these suggest steens basalt was erupted within a relatively short period of time 0 2 m y considerably less than the 1 m y suggested by the authors the seeming difference between the plateau ages for the steens mountain basalts obtained by these authors and two earlier attempts is resolved by a proper adjustment of ages at various laboratories for interlaboratory calibration differences and by rejecting ages from altered samples the age of the important steens mountain geomagnetic polarity transition is 16 59 0 03 ma

laser probe 40 ar 39 ar ages of early and late stage alteration assemblages rosario porphyry copper molybdenum deposit collahuasi district i region chile sensibly identical laser probe 40 ar 39 ar dates of 32 9 or 0 5 2sigma and 32 9 or 0 6 ma are determined for respectively early stage hydrothermal biotite and late stage hydrothermal muscovite from the giant rosario porphyry copper deposit in the collahuasi district of northern chile the age determinations were carried out on ca 1 cm 2 1 to 0 5 mm thick wafers of altered rock or on smaller chips broken therefrom obviating the requirement for mineral separation and permitting direct petrographic control of the analytical procedure the age data although not unambiguous imply that this extremely large hydrothermal center was emplaced over a short interval hydrothermal activity in this central andean transect migrated eastward over a period of ca 3 to 4 m y from copaquire through quebrada blanca to rosario the intensity of mineralization increasing with time rosario chuquicamata and la escondida the largest of the west fissure domeyko fault system array were apparently emplaced coevally in the terminal stage of the late eocene early oligocene metallogenic episode

control of early formed vesicle cylinders on upper crustal prismatic jointing in compound pāhoehoe lavas of elephanta island western deccan traps india upper crustal prismatic joints and vesicle cylinders common in p hoehoe lava flows form early and late respectively and are therefore independent features however small scale compound p hoehoe lava lobes on elephanta island western deccan traps india which resemble s type spongy p hoehoe in some aspects contain vesicle cylinders which apparently controlled the locations of upper crustal prismatic joints the lobes are decimeters thick did not experience inflation after emplacement and solidified rapidly they have meter scale areas that are exceptionally rich in vesicle cylinders up to 68 cylinders in 1 m2 with a mean spacing of 12 1 cm separated by cylinder free areas and pervasive upper crustal prismatic jointing with t curved t and quadruple joint intersections a majority 76 5 of the cylinders are located exactly on joints or at joint intersections and were not simply captured by downward growing joints as the cylinders show no deflection in vertical section we suggest that large numbers of cylinders originated in a layer of bubble rich residual liquid at the top of a basal diktytaxitic crystal mush zone which was formed very early probably within the first few minutes of the emplacement history the locations where the rising cylinders breached the crust provided weak points or mechanical flaws towards which any existing joints formed by thermal contraction propagated new joints may also have propagated outwards from the cylinders and linked up laterally some cylinders breached the crust between the joints and thus formed a little later than most others the elephanta island example reveals that whereas thermal contraction is undoubtedly valid as a standard mechanism for forming upper crustal prismatic joints abundant mechanical flaws such as large concentrations of early formed crust breaching vesicle cylinders can also control the joint formation process

reevaluation of plate motion models based on hotspot tracks in the atlantic and indian oceans abstract plate motion models based on hotspot tracks in the atlantic and indian oceans predict minimal movement less than a few millimeters per year between these hotspots and their counterparts in the pacific ocean for the past 100 m yr whereas plate circuit exercises indicate relative motions of 20 mm yr hotspot based models also suggest that the rajmahal traps india were located 1000 km away from the kerguelen hotspot at 115 ma and the deccan traps india were located a similar distance from the reunion hotspot at 65 ma this is at odds with conclusions derived from paleomagnetism plate circuits and geochemical parameters that suggest a genetic link between flood basalt provinces in india and hotspots in the indian ocean these divergent views may be explained by plume action 1000 km from its center or errors in the hotspot motion models the latter hypothesis is scrutinized in this article by examination of the radiometric ages for hotspot tracks in the atlantic and indian oceans the

the cretaceous tertiary transition the fossil sequences from cores across the cretaceous tertiary boundary show a range of transition times and transition time intervals depending on the fossil indicators and the location of the site these variations together with the pattern of iridium distribution with depth at some sites differences in total amounts of iridium variations in noble metal abundances normalized to extraterrestrial concentrations the depositional effects that might be expected in a reducing environment and the clay mineralogy of the boundary layer clays put into question the interpretation that an extraterrestrial event was the cause of the faunal changes and the iridium anomaly in the vicinity of the cretaceous tertiary transition it seems more likely that an explanation for the changes during the transition will come from continued examination of the great variety of terrestrial events that took place at that time including extensive volcanism major regression of the sea from the land geochemical changes and paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic changes

40ar 39ar ages of flood basalt provinces in russia and china and their possible link to global faunal extinction events a cautionary tale regarding alteration and loss of 40ar abstract the hypothesis that the permo triassic boundary ptb mass extinctions were caused by flood basalt volcanism in russia siberian traps and or china the emeishan traps is investigated from the point of view of time of occurrence 40 ar 39 ar ages numerous published ages in the literature are rejected as good estimates of the time of crystallization the filters applied in this respect are a statistical reliability of plateau isochron sections of stepheating data and b the alteration state of the material that was dated alteration appears to be ubiquitous unsurprising since most of the material dated was used without acid leaching a procedure that is effective in yielding fresh er samples of 70 ages in the literature for the main pulse of siberian trap volcanism less than ten prove to be reliable ages similar techniques applied to 40 ar 39 ar for the emeishan traps leaves only a single reliable age for the magmatic episode these ages are compared to both published and new 40 ar 39 ar ages for the ptb as based on analysis of minerals from critical ash beds in china there is good overlap in the ages ptb 250 0 0 1 ma siberian trap lavas 250 1 0 4 ma lending credence to a genetic link between the formation of the siberian traps and the faunal extinction event at the ptb a similar link for the formation of the viluy traps russia and the late devonian extinction event is investigated only a single reliable 40 ar 39 ar age is available for the viluy traps and falls close to the interpolated age for the frasnian fammenian boundary the use of the unspiked k ar technique to yield accurate ages for such altered samples is questioned a review of u pb data pertinent to these problems suggests a close temporal link between the formation of the siberian traps and the ptb comparison of u pb and 40 ar 39 ar ages for the ptb raises questions about the accuracy of high precision sanidine ages possibly resulting from very slow leakage of 40 ar from this mineral

are flood basalt eruptions monogenetic or polygenetic a fundamental classification of volcanoes divides them into monogenetic and polygenetic we discuss whether flood basalt fields the largest volcanic provinces are monogenetic or polygenetic a polygenetic volcano whether a shield volcano or a stratovolcano erupts from the same dominant conduit for millions of years excepting volumetrically small flank eruptions a flood basalt province built from different eruptive fissures dispersed over wide areas can be considered a polygenetic volcano without any dominant vent however in the same characteristic a flood basalt province resembles a monogenetic volcanic field with only the difference that individual eruptions in the latter are much smaller this leads to the question how a flood basalt province can be two very different phenomena at the same time individual flood basalt eruptions have previously been considered monogenetic contrasted by only their high magma output and lava fluidity with typical small volume monogenetic volcanoes field data from hawaiian shield volcanoes iceland and the deccan traps show that whereas many feeder dykes were single magma injections and the eruptions can be considered large monogenetic eruptions multiple dykes are equally abundant they indicate that the same dyke fissure repeatedly transported separate magma batches feeding an eruption which was thus polygenetic by even the restricted definition the same magma conduit this recognition helps in understanding the volcanological stratigraphic and geochemical complexity of flood basalts the need for clear concepts and terminology is however strong we give reasons for replacing monogenetic volcanic fields with diffuse volcanic fields and for dropping the term polygenetic and describing such volcanoes simply and specifically as shield volcanoes stratovolcanoes and flood basalt fields

seimological studies at parkfield v characteristic microearthquake sequences as fault zone drilling targets studies at very high resolution of microearthquakes at parkfield california since 1987 reveal a systematic organization in space and time dominated by clustering of nearly identical regularly occurring microearthquakes characteristic events on 10 to 20 m wide patches within the fault zone more than half of the 4000 events in our 1987 to 1996 catalog exhibit this trait in general recurrence intervals 0 5 to 2 yr scale with the magnitude of the repeating events for the on scale range mw 0 2 to 1 3 in this study the similar waveforms superimposed locations quasi periodic recurrence and uniform size of these characteristic events permit relative hypocenter location accuracy of meters and predictable occurrence times within windows of a few months clustered characteristic events occur at depths as shallow as about 3 km and these are feasible targets for deep scientific drilling and observation at the focus of a subsequent small earthquake within an active plate boundary fault zone at parkfield the achievable location accuracy to which a hypocenter can be specified as well as the predictability of its occurrence time appear to be uniquely favorable for in situ fault zone measurements

testing the accuracy of the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts at 2 5 ma utilizing40ar 39ar incremental heating data on whole rock basalts abstract recent40ar 39ar dating and astrochronologic calculations indicate that the k ar derived gpts underestimates the ages of geomagnetic field reversals in the interval 2 0 ma we report tests to check the accuracy of k ar data utilized to date the reunion event 2 1 ma and part of the early pliocene portion 4 6 ma of the gpts 40ar 39ar incremental heating studies on whole rock basalts from the island of reunion yield an age of2 14 0 03 ma for the reunion event somewhat older than the earlier k ar value of2 07 0 02 ma on the same set of lava flows study of a single specimen from the newer volcanics australia indicates that the earlier k ar date was accurate but the new40ar 39ar results yield a plateau age 4 56 ma with a standard error of 0 6 as compared to the k ar value 3 the improved precision and accuracy resulting from such40ar 39ar incremental heating studies will play a key role in calibrating more precisely the gpts for the interval 10 0 ma

paleomagnetic constraints on the structure of the deccan traps abstract new paleomagnetic results from two widely separated areas of the deccan traps allow one to test the simple normal reversed normal nrn magnetostratigraphic model previously proposed the new data from the mandla region to the northeast of the main outcrop of the deccan traps together with earlier apparently conflicting results are all compatible with the nrn stratigraphy provided the flows are not strictly horizontal but have a synform antiform structure with 500 m amplitude and 150 km wavelength the structure parallels the paleozoic narmada son rift system with slopes never exceeding 0 5 sampling in rajahmundry a remote southeastern outlier of the deccan with well constrained age allowed identification of the rn boundary in an area where only normal polarities had been reported it has also been possible to correlate the detailed geochemical stratigraphy in the western ghats with the nrn magnetic stratigraphy a compilation of 35 magnetic studies together with the above findings confirms the general applicability of the nrn model and reveals the large scale topography of the rn boundary which is an isochron over most of the deccan the rn isochron surface displays a boomerang shape with topography ranging from sea level to above 1600 m this observed topography is consistent with a simple model in which doming and renewed rifting and dyke intrusion resulted from impingement 70 65 ma ago of the reunion plume under the indian lithosphere the narmada son rift was rejuvenated and a continental rift system with minor extension with a triple junction in the cambay graben resulted and was subsequently covered by the deccan flows although in places tectonic faulting and volcanism continued to interfere the rajahmundry outcrops constrain the original extent and southeastward dip away from the triple junction of much of the traps a significant part of which has now been removed by erosion and rifting away of the seychelles

new palaeomagnetic data from the mahabaleshwar plateau deccan flood basalt province india implications for the volcanostratigraphic architecture of continental flood basalt provinces abstract new magnetostratigraphic data from seven western ghats sections in the deccan volcanic province are presented these are combined with an established geochemically defined stratigraphy and volcanological logs to provide a correlated chronological eruptive framework we identify two magnetic polarities in five of the sections and these are assigned to chrons 29r and 29n importantly the reversal boundary represents an identifiable isochronous surface within the volcanic pile this surface occurs at different elevations as does the altitude of the geochemically defined formation boundary i e ambenali mahabaleshwar fms which defines a second isochronous surface inspection reveals significant differences in the number and thickness of lava units preserved between these two surfaces this indicates that there was significant local topography c 80 m across deccan volcanic province lava fields during their development an interpretation consistent with topographies observed across modern and historical examples e g hawaii iceland these data also indicate that the geochemical stratigraphies of continental flood basalt provinces can mask local and sub regional detail in lava stacking patterns when applied at smaller spatial scales 2 10 4 m finally transitional r n directions preserved in some eruptive units place constraints upon the rates of eruption and indicate c 2 ka periods of volcanic repose

corrigendum to the deccan traps cretaceous paleogene boundary connection new 40 ar 39 ar ages and critical assessment of existing argon data pertinent to this hypothesis j asian earth sci 84 2014 9 23

modelling basalt weathering at elevated co2 concentrations implications for terminal to post magmatic rifting in the deccan traps kachchh india

critical evaluation of the age of the deccan traps india implications for flood basalt volcanism and faunal extinctions attempts to evaluate the possible link between flood basalt volcanism and the faunal extinctions observed at the k t boundary must rely on precise knowledge of the amount of such volcanism that took place 65 ma the current geochronological data do not permit close resolution of either the timing or the duration of deccan volcanism the age of the bulk of the material is placed in the range 70 60 ma further resolution of this hypothesis awaits acquisition of high quality 40 ar 39 ar plateau ages on key sections of the deccan traps

the deccan trap cretaceous paleogene boundary connection new 40ar 39ar ages and critical assessment of existing argon data pertinent to this hypothesis abstract the cretaceous paleogene boundary kpgb was dated by the 40ar 39ar method herein from the western interior of north america at 65 48 0 12 ma 1 in good agreement with other recent published estimates for the deccan traps india new argon ages as well as others available in the literature are assessed for reliability based on a statistical reliability of plateau isochron sections and b freshness of material dated utilizing the alteration index method from tholeiitic lavas from the composite western ghats section cwgs only six ages are found to be reliable estimates of the time of crystallization these ages along with the magnetic polarity of the lavas agree with the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts at 67 64 ma alkaline rocks from the anjar area of kutch provide three reliable ages that suggest a hiatus in lava extrusion around kpgb for the rajahmundry basalts the upper flow s age defines its formation during chron 29n a single age from the lower reversed polarity flow appears somewhat dichotomous when plotted against the gpts the reliable lava ages indicate the most voluminous reversed polarity sections of the cwgs were extruded at a time statistically indistinguishable from that of the kpgb the deccan trap kpgb faunal extinction hypothesis remains plausible but must compete with the latest report favoring a very close temporal connection 0 03 m y between the chixculub impact crater and the kpgb

40ar 39ar k ar and 230th 238u dating of the laschamp excursion a radioisotopic tie point for ice core and climate chronologies abstract a brief period of enhanced 10 be flux that straddles the interstadial warm period known as dansgaard oeschger event 10 in greenland and its counterpart in antarctica the antarctic isotope maximum 10 is but one consequence of the weakening of earth s magnetic field associated with the laschamp excursion this 10 be peak measured in the grip ice core is dated at 41 250 y b2k before year 2000 ad in the most recent gicc05 age model obtained from the northgrip core via multi parameter counting of annual layers uncertainty in the age of the 10 be peak is however no better than 1630 y at the 95 confidence level reflecting accumulated error in identifying annual layers the age of the laschamp excursion guillou h singer b s laj c kissel c scaillet s jicha b 2004 on the age of the laschamp geomagnetic excursion earth planet sci lett 227 331 343 is revised on the basis of new 40 ar 39 ar unspiked k ar and 238 u 230 th data from three lava flows in the massif central france together with the 40 ar 39 ar age of a transitionally magnetized lava flow at auckland new zealand combined these data yield an age of 40 700 950 y b2k where the uncertainty includes both analytical and systematic 40 k and 230 th decay constant errors taking the radioisotopic age as a calibration tie point suggests that the layer counting chronologies for the northgrip and gisp2 ice cores are more accurate and precise than previously thought at depths corresponding to the laschamp excursion

a post k t boundary early palaeocene age for deccan type feeder dykes goa india basaltic dykes exposed along the coast of goa represent the youngest phase of a number of different mafic suites intruding the complex precambrian terrain that forms the pre deccan basement of peninsular india these dykes crop out 50 80 km beyond the southern limits of the deccan continental flood basalt cfb province four of seven sampled dykes were dated using the whole rock 40ar 39ar step heating technique three 40ar 39ar determinations yield palaeocene plateau and isochron ages that clearly indicate an early post cretaceous i e danian age and as a weighted mean average of all four samples yields an age of 62 8 0 2 ma these intrusions are clearly significantly younger than the current estimates for the age range of deccan traps volcanism 65 69 ma the trace element signatures rare earth element patterns and 87sr 86sr ratios of these dykes are consistent with those of the nearby deccan basalts more specifically their geochemical signatures are similar to those of the basalt flows composing the volumetrically important ambenali mahabaleshwar formations which form the uppermost succession wai subgroup of the sw deccan these geochemical and age data demonstrate that deccan type magmatism continued to affect western india for at least 1 2 my after the k t boundary 65 0 0 1 ma and therefore their emplacement places important constraints upon the timing duration and evolution of this much debated cfb province the importance of these dykes is examined within the context of the deccan eruptions and the associated rifting of the western indian margin

re evaluating the geochronology of the permian tarim magmatic province implications for temporal evolution of magmatism the permian tarim magmatic province has 118 published ages ranging from 358 to 205 ma but the timing of mafic magmatism is not well constrained we report two new secondary ion mass spectrometry u pb zircon dates on the halahatang trachydacite and wajilitag olivine clinopyroxenite which are 287 2 2 0 ma and 283 2 2 0 ma respectively the trachydacite overlies the uppermost basalt and constrains the latest eruption age of basalt in northern tarim the latter is the first high resolution date for the wajilitag mafic layered intrusion by screening all published ages we identified 22 robust ages ranging from 290 9 4 1 to 261 7 1 8 ma the robust ages together with our new data reveal a protracted period of mafic magmatism at c 283 and c 267 ma silicic magmatism occurred from 291 to 272 ma although the current known volume of tarim basalt is too small to qualify as a large igneous province the eroded and intrusive components as well as pyroclastic deposits and silicic lavas may increase the estimated volume further work is required to refine the duration of magmatism and the volume estimate of the province supplementary material a list of all the published dates raw data of published 40 ar 39 ar dates raw data of published u pb dates published geochemistry data used for calculation and complete details of the data evaluation are available at http www geolsoc org uk sup18862

a radiometric age for the cretaceous tertiary boundary based upon k ar rb sr and u pb ages of bentonites from alberta saskatchewan and montana bentonites associated with coal seams at the north american cretaceous tertiary k t boundary in the red deer valley of alberta in the frenchman valley of saskatchewan and near hell creek montana were dated by the k ar rb sr and u pb methods based upon palynological stratigraphic correlation and the presence of a sharp iridium anomaly the three sampled bentonite horizons all occur less than 1 m above the established k t boundary there is evidence of possible systematic errors giving dating results outside nominal statistical error values despite possible constant errors the weighted mean of nine average dates is calculated as 64 3 1 2 ma 2 standard deviation an unweighted averaging produces a grand mean age of 64 4 1 2 ma

global distribution and interannual variations of mesospheric and lower thermospheric neutral wind diurnal tide 1 migrating tide 1 using the timed doppler interferometer tidi mesospheric and lower thermospheric neutral wind multiyear data set 2002 2007 and ncar time general circulation models gcm 1 2 annual run results 2002 2005 at the tidi sampling points we study the migrating diurnal tide s global distribution interannual and seasonal variations in connection with the mean zonal wind interannual variations a strong quasi biennial oscillation qbo effect on the diurnal tide was observed in the tidi data and reproduced to a lesser degree in the time gcm run the migrating diurnal tide amplitude is larger during the eastward phase of the stratospheric qbo and weaker during the westward phase westward mesospheric equatorial mean zonal winds appeared during the eastward phase of the stratospheric qbo in 2002 2004 and 2006 the strongest qbo effect on both the migrating diurnal tide and mean zonal winds was observed during the march equinox the stronger tides may be related to the weaker gravity wave filtering in the stratosphere during the eastward phase stratospheric qbo the tidi data also exhibit large interhemispheric asymmetry the westward mean zonal winds in the mesosphere appeared to be associated with the enhanced diurnal tide the time gcm 1 2 diurnal tide amplitudes are in general smaller than those observed by the tidi instrument limited vertical spatial resolution for the time cgm 1 2 is suggested as the cause future improvements are expected with a higher spatial resolution in the model