Evidences for Incipient Hydrothermal Event(s) in the Central Indian Basin: A Review

Abstract

The Central Indian Basin (CIB, 10°–19°S) encompasses morphotectonic features such as seamounts, abyssal hills, faults, fracture zones and lineations and basic to silicic volcanics that were derived from different sources. Instances of incipient hydrothermal event (s) occurred as evident from: (1) spilites that probably formed due to low‐temperature hydrothermal action on the precursory basalts, (2) slabs and fragments of zeolitites which are the consequent products of palagonitization of the basaltic glasses, (3) chemical variations in the ferromanganese crusts, and (4) abundance of volcanogenic‐hydrothermal material (vhm) that includes ochrous sediments and magnetite spherules. The vhm suggests its origin by interaction of Fe‐rich hydrothermal solutions with surrounding sediments. The CIB spherules occur in sediments of ∼10 ka and ∼425 to 650 ka age and are orders of magnitude younger than the 50 to 60 Ma age of the basin. Incidentally, to the north of the basin at ODP Site 717–719 (1°S/81°E) hydrothermal precipitates of inorganic calcite and deposition of sulphide minerals (∼7.5 to 9 Ma and 0.5 Ma) occur as a result of the on‐going intraplate deformation. This paper reviews the above evidences that possibly indicate episodes of localized hydrothermal events in the CIB.

A Comprehensive View of Manganese Nodules and Volcanics of the Central Indian Ocean Basin

“…Therefore, the co-occurrence of a variety of volcanics in the basin suggests the observation that the basin is still active-tectonically, volcanically and possibly hydrothermally (Iyer, 2005).…”

“…Mukhopadhyay et al (2002) proposed that the seamounts emplaced on the crust of the CIOB could have had episodic volcanic activities and suffered tectonic instability, and these resulted in: (i) production of volcanics (fresh and altered) that served as nuclei for the ferromanganese deposits, and (ii) locally supplied trace metals to the sea water and to the surrounding sediments, as evident from hydrothermal signatures in the CIOB (Iyer, 2005). Iyer and Sudhakar (1995) provided evidence for the existence of a volcanic province in the CIOB.…”

Implications of Microbial Thiosulfate Utilization in Red Clay Sediments of the Central Indian Basin: The Martian Analogy

“…The desiccated and uplifted remnants of paleooceans, for example, Samail Ophiolites (Rempfert et al, ), Nidar (Das et al, ), and their sulfur/sulfate deposits (e.g., Shukla et al, ), closely represent mosaics of late Hesperian and Amazonian Mars. This oligotrophic pelagic red clay of CIB belonging to Tertiary‐Quaternary boundary (Mascarenhas‐Pereira et al, , and reference therein) might be validated as a potential Martian analogue, due to the presence of oxidized iron, volcanic signatures, hydrothermally altered features, oligotrophic conditions, and high chemosynthetic activity (Das et al, , , ; Iyer, ; Kalangutkar et al, 2015; Nath et al, ). Coexistence of Fe‐Mn oxides and sulfides with 64–72% sulfide‐like material in the non‐HCl soluble fraction of bulk red clay from a sea mount flank was documented (Mascarenhas‐Pereira & Nath, ).…”