Bundelkhand mafic dykes, Central Indian Shield: Implications for the role of sediment subduction in Proterozoic crustal evolution

Abstract The Archean to Paleo–Proterozoic Bundelkhand massif basement of the central Indian shield has been dissected by numerous mafic dykes of Proterozoic age. These dykes are low‐Ti tholeiites, ranging in composition from subalkaline basalt through basaltic‐andesite to dacite. They are enriched in light rare earth elements (LREE), large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and depleted in high field strength elements (HFSE: Nb, P and Ti). Negative Sr anomaly is conspicuous. Nb/La ratios of the dykes are much lower compared with the primitive mantle, not much different from the average crustal values, but quite similar to those of continental and subduction related basaltic rocks. Bulk contamination of the mantle derived magma by crustal material is inadequate to explain the observed geochemical characteristics; instead contamination of the mantle/lithospheric source(s) via subduction of sediment is a better proposition. Thus, in addition to generating juvenile crust along the former island arcs, subduction processes appear to have influence on the development of enriched mantle/lithospheric source(s). The Bundelkhand massif basement is inferred to represent subduction related juvenile crust, that experienced lithospheric extension and rifting possibly in response to mantle plume activities. The latter probably supplied the required heat, material (fluids) and extensional environment to trigger melting in the refractory lithospheric source(s) and emplacement of the mafic dykes. Proterozoic mafic magmatic rocks from Bundelkhand, Aravalli, Singhbhum and Bastar regions of the Indian shield and those from the Garhwal region of the Lesser Himalaya display remarkably similar enriched incompatible trace elements characteristics, although limited chemical variations are observed in all these rocks. This may indicate the existence of a large magmatic province, different parts of which might have experienced similar petrogenetic processes and were probably derived from mantle/lithospheric source(s) with similar trace element characteristics. The minor, less enriched to depleted components of the Jharol Group of the Aravalli terrane and those from the Singhbhum terrane may represent protracted phases of rifting, that probably caused thinning and mobilization of the lithosphere, facilitating the eruption/emplacement of the asthenospheric melts (with N‐ to T‐types mid‐oceanic ridge basalts signatures) and deposition of deep water facies sediments in the younger developing oceanic basins. In contrast, Bundelkhand region did not experience such protracted rifting, although dyke swarms were emplaced and shallow water Bijawar Group and Vindhyan Supergroup sediments were deposited in continental rift basins. All these discrete Proterozoic terranes appear to have experienced similar petrogenetic processes, tectonomagmatic and possibly temporal evolution involving subduction processes, influencing the lithospheric source characteristics, followed by probably mantle plume induced ensialic rifting through to the development of oceanic basins in the Indian shield regions and their extension in the Lesser Himalaya.