Influence of geomorphological and tectonic control in the mineralization of the western shelf of India

Abstract

The west coast of India has two kinds of coastal rocks predominantly of Deccan basalts in the north and granitic and gneissic in the south, each similar in bulk composition. It is indeed peculiar to notice only two types of placers from these coastal rocks. One in the southern tip of the coast and the other in the middle of the coast, each occupying a characteristic coastal provenance. From the available data on the various aspects of these placers, one can easily notice the differences in their content and possible model of accumulation. Taking into account that the placers in the Maharashtra Coast, where the catchment is mainly of basalts, one can expect similar deposits throughout the entire basaltic coastal belt, that too in a zone north of Bombay, where thick flows are present. Instead, placers are found to be accumulated neither in the northern bounds of the basalts nor in the southern portions of the same. So, an attempt is being made in this paper to arrive at a possible solution for such localization by assuming tectonic and geomorphological controls from the available existing additional data on the west coast