New Insights into the Origin of Kabbaldurga Charnockites, Karnataka, South India

A detailed study of the structure and petrology of the rocks bordering the Kabbaldurga-type charnockites provides important constraints on the origin of these charnockites. The structural elements register three phases of deformation and show a uniform pattern in the larger area, a pattern consistent with the regional structure of the Precambrian of Southern Karnataka. In the Kabbaldurga area, however, some of the earlier structures are poorly preserved. Yet there are vestiges of early folds described by banded/layered charnockites as in the neighbouring Kodamballi area, and a consistent development of dilatant structures which can be related to the kinematics of deformation in the larger terrain. At Kabbaldurga the pegmatitic charnockites occur as veins of diverse orientation; but they rarely follow the shear - generated structures. tamorphic reactions invoked by previous workers to explain in situ transformation of gneiss to charnockite were based on chemical similarity of some close pairs. But the petrographic and chemical variations in the pegmatitic charnockites and the Peninsular gneisses at Kabbaldurga quarry are compelling features which cannot be explained by the hypothesis of in situ transformation. We have argued, on the basis of rock and mineral chemistry, that derivation of the pegmatitic charnockites by dehydration melting in metabasites offers a better explanation. Pressure-temperature values (at least 850° to 900° C, 7 kbar) obtained by us for the granulites of this area, viewed against the results of experimental dehydration melting in basic rocks with hornblende and/or biotite, provide strong support for this model. In the field leucosomes within the basic granulites of Kabbaldurga are not uncommon. The compositions of the pegmatitic charnockites (tonalitic and granitic) match those of the melts produced in experiments. Further, the pattern of variation in the composition of hornblende and plagioclase in the basic granulites of the Kabbaldurga area is compatible with extraction of melts. This alternative model for the origin of the Kabbaldurga charnockites is petrologically feasible and does not require either in situ transformation or structurally controlled growth, which, incidentally, are not ubiquitous at Kabbaldurga