Structural Constraints on Reworking in the Western Ghats Granulite Belt, India and the Antarctic Analogue

The Granulite Belt along the West Coast of India in Kerala-Tamil Nadu is particularly important for the study of Proterozoic events in the pre-drift East Gondwana super-continent. In Antarctica, structural, petrological and geochronological lines of evidence points to a Proterozoic reworking of Archaean granulites. In the Western Ghats Granulite Belt the Late Proterozoic (Pan African) event is overwhelmingly dominant, though some Late Archaean to Early Proterozoic granulites have been reported. Structural evidence presented here points to a Late Proterozoic reworking resulting in a break or discontinuity in the tectonic evolution of this granulite belt. Thus relicts or vestiges of probable Late Archaean to Early Proterozoic granulites are recognised in the largely Pan-African granulite belt of the Western Ghats.