Basic Volcanism along K-T Boundary from Rajahmundry, East Coast of India

Abstract

Basalts near Kateru, north of Rajahmundry in the East Godavari district and near Pangidi in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh along the East Coast of India are of particular interest to investigators on account of their separation from the well known West Coast Deccan Basalts, localised around Bombay. The basalts around Rajahmundry are tholeiitic with equigranular, subophitic to ophitic textures. The principal constituents are plagioclase (An_55-56) and brownish nonpleochroic augite. The REE patterns of Rajahmundry basalts have a marked increased enrichment in LREE due to crustal contamination. The K-Ar age of Kateru basalts is 75.1±4.9Ma. The reported biochronostratigraphy of microfauna in the sediments closely associated in time and space with basalt flows in the Krishna-Godavari basin, east of Rajahmundry indicate that the age of basic volcanism is around 67 Ma. The lower limit of 70 Ma for the Kateru basalts supports that these basalts have evolved along with West Coast Deccan Basalts (69-65 Ma), where, the intensity of basic magmatism is more. The geological setting of Rajahmundry basalts with coastal sedimentary rocks indicate that the basic magmatism and sedimentation had taken place during the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.