Rapid Emplacement of the Lower Deccan Traps and its Implications for Late Cretaceous Climate Change

The Deccan Large Igneous Province (LIP) is associated with the Crestaceous-Paleogene Boundary(KPB) mass extinction event at 66Ma. However, this is not the only environmental crisis it is linked to Petersen et al. 2016 show a regional warming and extinction event in Antarctica and Hull et al 2020 constrain an implied major volcanic outgassing event. Both are 250,000 years before the KPB. Such events suggest a sustained period of large volume of volcanic activity. The Thakurvadi Formation in the Kalsubai Sub-group, Deccan, is a prime candidate for this.
This project will involve two field seasons. The first will involve logging,
photogrammetry and mapping of the Thakurvadi in the WGE to recreate the 3D
volcanic architecture and volcanostratigraphy of the welded lobes and establish
their size and spatial relationships. Cumulatively, this allows an estimate of the time
taken to emplace the entire Thakurvadi Fm. Samples will be collected and analysed
using the electron microprobe and SIMS analyses of hosted melt inclusions

10/01/2023, 13:05 Rapid emplacement of the lower Deccan Traps and its implication for late Cretaceous climate change - CENTA
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(pockets of magma trapped in minerals) will enable their sulfur, chlorine, fluorine,
carbon and water concentrations to be quantified.
The second field season will establish whether the style of the Thakurvadi continues
further east and will help confirm its association with the pre-KPB environmental
perturbation. Geochemical analyses (using a combination of electron microprobe,
XRF and ICP-MS techniques), particularly incompatible trace elements, will be used
to confirm the presence of Thakurvadi flows by comparing their chemistry with the
known chemostratigraphy. The identification and interpolation of formation
boundaries will help constrain the volume of the Thakurvadi Formation.
Basic modelling will be undertaken to link the new gas emissions data to the
perturbations seen 250,000 years before the KPB.