Palaeomagnetic inclination anomaly in the Deccan traps and its geodynamic implications over the Indian plate

Impact of Deccan Volcanism on Reorganization of the Indian plate kinematics

“…Following this, the data was then subjected to nite rotation and angular velocity calculations through "GPlates" an open-source software programme for plate tectonic modelling. The results thus obtained agree well with the drift rates calculated from inclination anomaly data of Bhagat et al (2022). A total angular displacement of 8.783 degree was obtained for Central tendency dataset, and 4.4161 degree for the Filtered mean dataset.…”

“…The progressive stair-step trend of the ridge segments towards NE is marked by anomalous de ection to NW for a brief distance of ~ 217 km between these latitudes represented by the anomalies C30n-C29n. The observed length of the ridge segments moving NW at 17°S match the calculated NW drift rates of Indian plate (Bhagat et al, 2022). We infer that the NW drift and its restoration towards NE triggered short Plume Induced Subduction Initiation along the Amirante trench.…”

“…The above discussion thus presents the fact that, the segment of Central Indian Ridge axis between latitudes 17 0 S and 21 0 S formed during the Deccan episode. The bounding latitudes are also similar to the paleolatitudes calculated from the paleomagnetic database of Sangode et al (2022). Thus, if we were to take the two observations and form a connection between them, hypothetically it could be assumed that the southern fault marks the onset of C29r (C29r.o) and the northern fault marks the end of C29n (C29.y), thereby spanning a time period of ~ 1.5 Ma.…”

“…Paleolatitude calculations revealed that the site of eruption of main phase of Deccan Traps falls almost exactly between the above latitudes. We estimate the length of ridge segments trending towards west equivalent to the length of the drift of Indian plate previously reported by Bhagat et al (2022). Amongst the possible forces that could have brought about this directional change, subduction forms the most plausible option.…”

“…In this section we calculate different angular velocities for the drift of India during the Deccan event based on model 'A' and 'B' of Bhagat et al (2022). Further considering the inclination data we constrain the paleolatitudes for India during the Deccan event.…”