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Lava Channel of Khedrai Dam, Northeast of Nasik in Western Deccan Volcanic Province: Detailed Morphology and Evidences of Channel Reactivation


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1 Geological Survey of India, Pune - 4110 06, India
2 Geological Survey of India, Bhopal-462016, India
3 Geological Survey of India, Mangalore - 575 001, India
     

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The 120 m-wide Khedrai Dam lava channel is one of the widest recorded in the Deccan Volcanic Province. Like many recent ones, this channel also has a pair of linear marginal levees made of breccia and confines the channelfill lava. It is resting over a pahoehoe flow (substrate) of basalt studded with plagioclase megacrysts, also known as the Giant Plagioclase Basalt (GPB). The channel-fill lava, which makes the lining at the edges and basal portion of the channel, is a comb-layered basalt (Cl-B) characterized by alternating layers rich in curved, branching augite crystals and laths of plagioclase - a texture indicative of high order of supercooling and rapid cooling rates. The dominant and centrally filling lava of this channel is a plagioclase-phyric basalt (Pp-B) that has a wide variation in phenocryst number from megacryst-poor to megacryst-rich. Occurrence of centimetre to decimetre size angular fragments of Cl-B within Pp-B fill indicates mechanical dislodgements of channel-lining by flowing lava. This also suggests that the channel was reactivated before it finally lost its hydraulic gradient and solidified.

Keywords

Deccan Volcanic Province, Lava Channel, Comb Layered Basalt, Channel Reactivation.
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  • Lava Channel of Khedrai Dam, Northeast of Nasik in Western Deccan Volcanic Province: Detailed Morphology and Evidences of Channel Reactivation

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Authors

Bibhas Sen
Geological Survey of India, Pune - 4110 06, India
A. B. Sabale
Geological Survey of India, Bhopal-462016, India
P. V. Sukumaran
Geological Survey of India, Mangalore - 575 001, India

Abstract


The 120 m-wide Khedrai Dam lava channel is one of the widest recorded in the Deccan Volcanic Province. Like many recent ones, this channel also has a pair of linear marginal levees made of breccia and confines the channelfill lava. It is resting over a pahoehoe flow (substrate) of basalt studded with plagioclase megacrysts, also known as the Giant Plagioclase Basalt (GPB). The channel-fill lava, which makes the lining at the edges and basal portion of the channel, is a comb-layered basalt (Cl-B) characterized by alternating layers rich in curved, branching augite crystals and laths of plagioclase - a texture indicative of high order of supercooling and rapid cooling rates. The dominant and centrally filling lava of this channel is a plagioclase-phyric basalt (Pp-B) that has a wide variation in phenocryst number from megacryst-poor to megacryst-rich. Occurrence of centimetre to decimetre size angular fragments of Cl-B within Pp-B fill indicates mechanical dislodgements of channel-lining by flowing lava. This also suggests that the channel was reactivated before it finally lost its hydraulic gradient and solidified.

Keywords


Deccan Volcanic Province, Lava Channel, Comb Layered Basalt, Channel Reactivation.

References