This award will enable US PI Gautam Sen, Florida International University to collaborate with Arijit Ray and Dalim K. Paul of Presidency College in studying the earliest phase of Deccan Trap activity. One of the most spectacular episodes of volcanism ever to have occurred took place on the Indian subcontinent. The Deccan Trap activity, the eruption of about 3 million cubic kilometers of basalt lave, started in the northwestern Kutch area and progressed to southwestern India near Mumbai. The researchers will document the beginning of this activity using a combined field, petrologic, and geochemical study of the lavas, intrusives, and the deep-seated mantle rock fragments (xenoliths) from Kutch. The petrologic and geochemical portion of the study will involve electron microprobe analysis of the minerals and some Sr-isotope analysis of the plagioclase phenocrysts using a mass spectrometer. The Division of Earth Sciences, Petrology and Geochemistry Program is jointly funding this research.
