Speed ticket for Indian Plate!

Nature 449, 894-897 (18 October 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature06214; Received 25 April 2007; Accepted 31 August 2007

The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate

Prakash Kumar¹, Xiaohui Yuan², M. Ravi Kumar¹, Rainer Kind^2,3, Xueqing Li² & R. K. Chadha¹

1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad 500 007, India
2. GeoForschungsZentrum, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
3. Freie Universität, Berlin 12249, Germany

Correspondence to: Rainer Kind^2,3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.K. (Email: kind@gfz-potsdam.de).

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The breakup of the supercontinent Gondwanaland into Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India about 140 million years ago, and consequently the opening of the Indian Ocean, is thought to have been caused by heating of the lithosphere from below by a large plume whose relicts are now the Marion, Kerguelen and Réunion plumes. Plate reconstructions based on palaeomagnetic data suggest that the Indian plate attained a very high speed (18–20 cm yr^-1 during the late Cretaceous period) subsequent to its breakup from Gondwanaland, and then slowed to 5 cm yr^-1 after the continental collision with Asia 50 Myr ago^{1, 2}. The Australian and African plates moved comparatively less distance and at much lower speeds of 2–4 cm yr^-1 (refs 3–5). Antarctica remained almost stationary. This mobility makes India unique among the fragments of Gondwanaland. Here we propose that when the fragments of Gondwanaland were separated by the plume, the penetration of their lithospheric roots into the asthenosphere were important in determining their speed. We estimated the thickness of the lithospheric plates of the different fragments of Gondwanaland around the Indian Ocean by using the shear-wave receiver function technique. We found that the fragment of Gondwanaland with clearly the thinnest lithosphere is India. The lithospheric roots in South Africa, Australia and Antarctica are between 180 and 300 km deep, whereas the Indian lithosphere extends only about 100 km deep. We infer that the plume that partitioned Gondwanaland may have also melted the lower half of the Indian lithosphere, thus permitting faster motion due to ridge push or slab pull.

Khetri Cu-deposit

The Khetri Copper Belt, Rajasthan: Iron Oxide Copper-Gold Terrane in the Proterozoic of NW India

by Joe Knight, Jon Lowe, BHP Billiton Exploration, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, Sojen Joy, John Cameron, James Merrillees, Sudipta Nag, Nalin Shah, Gaurav Dua & Khamalendra Jhala, BHP Billiton Minerals India, New Delhi, India.

in - Porter, T.M. (Ed), 2002 - Hydrothermal Iron Oxide Copper-Gold & Related Deposits: A Global Perspective, volume 2; PGC Publishing, Adelaide, pp 321-341.

ABSTRACT

The Khetri, Alwar and Lalsot-Khankhera Copper Belts contain widespread Cu±Au±Ag±Co±Fe±REE±U mineralization over a 150 km by 150 km area of Rajasthan and Haryana, NW India. Mineralization is hosted by the mid-Proterozoic Delhi Supergroup, which comprises shallow-water, locally evaporitic, sedimentary rocks, with lesser mafic and felsic volcanic rocks. These rocks have been metamorphosed to the low- to mid-amphibolite facies, deformed into NE-SW striking, doubly-plunging folds, and intruded by numerous 1.5-1.7 Ga syntectonic granitoids and 0.75-0.85 Ga post-tectonic granitoids. Post-tectonic granitoids range from tonalite to syenite, contain hornblende and biotite as the dominant mafic minerals and magnetite, titanite, allanite, apatite, fluorite as accessory phases, and are geochemically characterized by A/CNK ratios <1.1,>The largest deposits in the Khetri Copper Belt are at Khetri (140 Mt @ 1.1-1.7% Cu, 0.5 g/t Au), where mineralization extends over a >10 km strike-length, is hosted by garnet-chlorite schists, andalusite- and graphite-bearing biotite schists, and feldspathic quartzites, and is sited in sub-vertical NE- and NW-striking shear zones. Mineralization forms sub-vertical lens, comprising stockworks of massive to vein-hosted chalcopyrite - pyrite - pyrrhotite, which are broadly foliation-parallel but also cross-cut bedding and peak-metamorphic fabrics. Gold, Ag, Co, LREE, Mo, S, U and W are variably co-enriched with Cu. Alteration at Khetri comprises amphibole (hornblende, actinolite, cummingtonite, anthophyllite) - albite - quartz - biotite - scapolite - chlorite - carbonate, with magnetite and haematite as dominant oxide phases.

Directly to the east of Khetri, a 50 km wide by > 100 km zone of calc silicate and albite-haematite alteration overprints and cross-cuts metamorphic fabrics. Calc silicate alteration comprises coarse-grained clinopyroxene - hornblende - epidote - apatite - scapolite - titanite - magnetite, whereas albite - haematite alteration comprises assemblages of albite - amphibole - haematite - magnetite - calcite, with variable K-feldspar, biotite, epidote, scapolite, titanite, apatite and fluorite, and locally abundant pyrite and chalcopyrite. Albite-haematite alteration is spatially related to vein systems and breccias, which commonly contain Cu-Au mineralization, massive magnetite-haematite vein-deposits, fluorite mineralization and rare uraninite deposits. Calc silicate alteration occurs on the margins of the Khetri Copper Belt, whereas albite-haematite alteration forms a central core to the Belt and locally overprints calc-silicate assemblages. A SHRIMP U-Pb titanite age in the assemblage albite - haematite - amphibole - calcite - titanite constrains the timing of regional alteration to 847±8 Ma. This overlaps the fission-track ages of garnet from ore assemblages at Madhan-Kudhan Cu mine at Khetri (897±125 Ma).

There is a variation in the sulfide-oxide mineralogy of Cu deposits across the >100 km wide Khetri Copper Belt, with four dominant types recognized: (1) chalcopyrite-pyrite-pyrrhotite ores hosted by graphitic schists at Akwali, in the west, (2) chalcopyrite - pyrite - pyrrhotite - magnetite - haematite ores at Khetri and Kho Dariba, in the east, (3) magnetite - haematite - chalcopyrite - pyrite ores hosted by albite-haematite alteration, in the central part of the Khetri Copper Belt, and (4) haematite - chalcopyrite - baryte ores in the eastern part of the Belt. Types (1) and (2) are hosted by mainly reduced rock types and can be classified as iron sulfide Cu-Au deposits, whereas types (3) and (4) are iron oxide Cu-Au deposits hosted by oxidized rocks. Copper mineralization in the Khetri Copper Belt is epigenetic, broadly synchronous with late (0.75-0.85 Ga) A-type granitoid emplacement, and has a mineralization and structural style, and regional- and deposit-scale alteration assemblages comparable to known IOCG and iron-sulfide Cu-Au mineralized districts.

Italian Poem

An Italian Poem of the 13th Century

By Cecco Angiolieri a poet who lived in Siena, Italy in the XIII and XIV centuries:

S' i' fosse foco, arderei 'l mondo;
s' i' fosse vento, lo tempesterei;
s' i' fosse acqua, i' l'annegherei,
s' i' fosse Dio, mandereil' en profondo;
s' i' fosse papa, sare' allor giocondo,
ché tutt' i cristiani imbrigherei;
s' i' fosse 'mperator, sa' che farei?
a tutti mozzerei lo capo a tondo.
S' i' fosse morte, andarei da mio padre;
s' i' fosse vita, fuggirei da lui:
similmente farìa da mi' madre.
S' i' fosse Cecco, com' i' sono e fui,
torrei le donne giovani e leggiadre,
e vecchie e laide lasserei altrui.

Translation:

If I was fire I would burn up the world;
If I was wind, I would blow it apart;
If I was water, I would drown it,
If I was God I would throw it into the pit,
If I was the pope I would be doing fine
And cut off all the Christians’ nuts;
If I was Empereor, what would I do?
I would cut off everyone’s heads with one blow.
If I was death, I would embrace my father;
If I was life, I would run away from him:
Likewise with my mother.
If I was Cecco, as I am and always have been,
I would take all the young and good-looking women
And leave the ugly ones for everyone else.

Another translation

If I was fire, I’d burn the world,
if I was wind, I’d storm it,
if I was water, I’d flood it,
if I was God, I’d send it in the deep Hell.
If I was Pope, then I’d be happy, because all Christians I’d cheat,
if I was Emperor, do you know what I’d do, I would cut the heads to everybody.
If I was Death, I’d go to my father,
if I was Life, I’d get out of him, the same I’d do with my mother.
If I was Cecco, like I am and have been,
I’d keep the young and beautiful women with me
while the old and dirty I’d leave to the others.