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Flute casts in BIF of Chitradurga Schist Belt, Karnataka

Article · May 2005

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634 SHORT COMMUNICATION

FLUTE CASTS IN BIF OF CHITRADURGA SCHIST BELT, KARNATAKA

S. M. HLJSSAIN
and P. V. SUNDER
RAJU
National Geophysical Research Institute. Hydcrabad - 500 007
Email: pvsraju@ngri.rcs.~n

Flute casts in the banded iron formation of the d +- ., - -xri

4+- - .t

.-
Chitradurga schist belt in the vicinity of Palvanahalli r
l
a' 3 >. r & .
1'

village, north of C.S. Halli are reported in this note,

Signatures of near-shore and shallow basin conditicrns

of deposition which are noticed in the BIF of the Chitrndurgrt
Schist Belt north of C.S.Hallr in the form of tlute casts are
reported. Tectonic structures like, folding, faulting,
disaggregation and rotation, brecciation and shearing are
also prominent in the BIF (Hussain et ill. 2002). The schist
belt is made up of different volcano-sedimentary lithounits
with distinct litho-tectonic characters reflecting near shore,
shallow to deep water sedimentation and sub-aqueous
volcanic activity ir~cludingBlFs of oxide, carbonate, silicate1
shaly and sulphide facies (Radhakrishna and Vtridyanadh;ln,
1994). Many bands of BIF 10-30 rn wide each and up to
35 km long, occur in the central and eastern part of the
belt. These are underlain by pillo~vedand variolitic
metavolcanic rocks and are highly deformed, sheared and
metamorphosed from upper greenschist to lower arnphibolite
facies (Naqvi, 1985). The BIF shows well developed
banding with a general NNW strike and dip of 50 to 70°E.
Gold occurs in the sheared portions of the sulphide facies
BLF bands at many places which ranges from 0.2 to 3.5 glt .*
"
.w i<.
-*
(Sawkar et al. 1995). During the investigation takcn
up to find new bands of sulphidic BIF for probable gold -- *- r %g.

occurrence, flute casts and turbidites were noticed. In the l:ig.2. Outcrop \ l a w of I'lirtc c341\ 111 I>,ITICIL'CI I I I ~ II ~O IIII,~III~II

BIF flute casts were noticed at 1 krn north of Palvanahalti

village (latitude: 14'10' N and longitude: 76'30' E) on an
outcrop spreading over an area of 50x100 m. Flute casts
were studied in detail from this area only. .I

fl " *
Flute casts, which are indicators of paIeocutrent direction .
,
*
.
a

and 'way up', are well preserved in the H I E The schist belt * +

rC
is an established basin with shallow water structurzs like
current bedded quartzites, ripple marks and occurrence of
stromatolites (Gnaneswar and Naqvi 1995; Srinivtrsan et a!.
1990) The surface of the RIF outcrop in which they occur
is brownish red with uneven surface, fine to medium grained - - 1

and consists mostly of quartz and haernatite. Layering and

compositional banding of fine grained magnetite, haernatite r
" X- . .
a
. a+"

with chert (Fig.1) and red Jasper at some places is Common Fig.3. Surjacc vlcw 01. llutc casts in handed imn i.orrn;,tlon I'cn
and well preserved. Individual flutes are of variable size aligned parallcl to current t l ~ r c c t ~ o n .

JO1JK.GEOL.SOC INI)IA. V O L 0 5 , MAY 2005

 SHORT COMMUNICATION 635

and are characterized by rounded and sometimes tightly belt are indicative of widespread oxidizing environment
curved 'nose' at one end. The flutes are similar to those during that period (Srinivasan et al. 1990). Some of the
described by 'Collinson and Thompson (1989). The width bands of adjacent BIF show Ce anomalies indicative of
of the flutes ranges from 6 to 10 cm and the depth from 2 to oxidising environment at the time of deposition.
2.5 cm. These flutes might have formed during or shortly The chemical composition of the flute cast bearing BIF
after sedimentation in nearshore conditions due to high is given below (oxides in wt.%; REE in ppm):
velocity currents. The alignment direction of the noses SiO, MgO CaO %O
Ti02 A$03 Fe,03 Na,O MnO PZ05
indicates easterly current (Figs.2 and 3). This seems to be 49.57 0.17 5.05 39.05 1.94 2.24 0.45 1.36 0.10 0.26
a local phenomenon. The BIFs which occur adjacent and in
continuation to these are associated with iron phyllites/shales
and all these are traversed by many syn- and post-tectonic
quartz veins and veinlets (Hussain et al. 2002; Sunder Raju, Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Director, NGRI
2004). Strornatslites have been reported to occur in this for permission to publish this short note.

References

COLLINSON, J.D. and THOMPSON, D.B.(1 989) Sedimentary
structures. Unwin Hyman Ltd., London, The University
Printing House, Oxford, 207p.
GNANESWAR RAOand NAQVI,S.M. (1995) Geochemistry
,depositional environments and tectonic setting of the B F s of
the late Archaean Clutradurga Schist Belt. ChemicaI Geol.,
v. 121, pp.2 17-243.
HUSSAIN,S.M.,NAQVI,S.M., RAMACHANDRA, K.T.and SAWKAR, SUNDER
R.H. (2002) Geochemistry of Ajjanahalli Gold Deposit - a
guide for exploration strategy in Banded Iron Formations. Jour.
Apptd. Geochem., v.4(2), pp.294-3 18.
RADHAKRISHNA, B.P. and VAIDYANADHAN, R. (1994) Geology of
Karnataka Geol. Soc.hdia, Bangalore, 298p.
SAWKAR, R.H., ~ ~ U S S S.M.
A ~ Nand
, NAQVI,S.M. (1995) Gold
minsralizatinn in the sulphidic BIFs of Cllitradurga schist belt,
Karnataka - possibility of new workable gold deposits. Jour.
Geol. Soc. India, v.46, pp.91-93.
SRINIVASAN, R., NAQVI, S.M. and VASANTH KUMAR, B. (1990)
Archaean shelf facies and stromatolites proliferation in
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RAWPV. (2004) Geology, Geochemistry and Genesis of
auriferous shear zones in BIFs of Chikkasiddavanahalli
and Ajjanahalli areas, Chitradurga Schist Belt .Unpubl. Ph.D.
thesis to Osmania University, 400p.
NAQVI,S.M. (1985) Chitradurga schist belt - an
Archaean suture(?). Jour. Geol. Soc. India, v.26, pp.511-
525.

(Received: 8 April 2004; Revised form accepted: 5 January 2005)

JOUR.GEOL.SBC.INDIA,
VOL.65, MAY 2005

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