Research Projects

Meghalaya, located in northeast India, is a unique geological feature that extends the Precambrian shield of the Indian peninsula. Its origin is linked to the breakup of the Gondwanaland and the uplift of the plateau due to the collision of Indian and Tibetan plates during the Cenozoic period. The Meghalaya plateau comprises basement granite gneiss and the Shillong Group metasedimentary cover sequence, with magmatic events in the Indian subcontinent being widespread from Archean to recent times. One such event is the Rajmahal-Sylhet traps, which are predominantly found in the southern edge of the plateau and date back to around 116 Ma due to Kerguelen mantle plume activity during the cretaceous time. Intrusive mafic magmatism in the southern parts of the plateau suggests the end of volcanism in the region. Mafic dyke magmatism within cratons has received special attention as it can be used to unravel geodynamic and crustal evolutionary processes occurring in various tectonic settings. Studies of mafic dykes can provide information on the timing of continental break-up, emplacement mechanism, magma source heterogeneities, amount of crustal influence, and the paleolatitude of craton, extending from the earliest Paleoproterozoic to recent. This study aims to portray the magmatic evolutionary history, magma source, depth, nature of partial melting, co-genetic (if any), and paleomagnetic study to establish relative age relationships.