Geochemistry of granulitic rocks from the western Madurai Block, Southern Granulite Terrain, India and its Madagascar linkage

Abstract

The Southern Granulite Terrain of peninsular India consists of a wide range of metamorphic rocks with formation ages that span the late Archean Era to the Cambrian Period. It consists of numerous tectonic blocks dissected by deep crustal-scale shear zones. The Madurai Block is the largest crustal block, comprising Neoarchean to Ediacaran-Cambrian gneisses that include charnockite, hornblende-biotite gneiss, mafic granulite and metapelite, amongst other lesser rock types. This study focuses on the geochemistry of granulite-facies rocks from the western part of the Madurai Block, how these rocks correlate with similar types in other tectonic blocks of the Southern Granulite Terrain, and the implication of such correlations for East Gondwana tectonics. The geochemistry of the various granulite-facies rocks from the western Madurai Block reveals metaluminous to slightly peraluminous, calcic to alkalic, and ferroan to magnesian signatures. Geochemical tectonic discrimination diagrams indicate both A-type granitoid and Cordilleran affinities, consistent with petrogenesis in active continental margin and extensional tectonic settings, with chemical variation also generated through magmatic differentiation. Similar lithological, geochronological and geochemical features have been reported from granulites of the Antananarivo Block of Madagascar, based on which a correlation can be made with the western Madurai Block that predates Gondwana assembly.