Negative Ce Anomaly in the Banded Iron Formation and Associated Clastic
Rocks of the Sirsi Shelf Region, Southern India: Inferences on the
Fluid-Rock Alteration Event during the Pan-African Orogeny
Abstract
Banded Iron Formations (BIFs) are archives of Precambrian seawater
composition. Presence or absence of negative Ce anomaly (Ce/Ce*) in BIFs
has been widely used to understand paleo-redox conditions on the Earth’s
surface in the Precambrian. However, whether the extremely negative Ce
anomaly associated with the BIFs reflects a primarily depositional
signature or not has been questioned and it has been suggested that such
signatures could also arise from secondary alterations.1 We report
elemental and Nd isotopic data for BIFs and associated clastic rocks
from the Sirsi region in southern India. Major and trace element
compositions of these BIFs were measured using an Inductively Coupled
Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS, X series II) while Nd isotope ratio
(143Nd/144Nd) measurements were performed using a Thermal Ionization
Mass Spectrometer (TIMS, Triton Plus), both at the Centre for Earth
Sciences (CEaS), Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India. The BIF
samples are sub-divided into two groups based on their REE+Y (REY)
compositions. The group-1 BIFs show seawater-like REY pattern with HREE
enrichment over LREEs and super-chondritic Y/Ho (41-52). These BIF
samples also lack significant negative Ce anomalies. In contrast,
group-2 BIFs show high LREE/HREE enrichment, negative Ce anomaly, and
sub-chondritic Y/Ho. Very high values of La/Yb in the group-2 BIFs
cannot be explained by simple two-component mixing of basement rock
(Dharwar TTG) and pristine Sirsi BIFs. Instead, fluid-rock alteration by
LREE enriched, and Ce depleted fluid could explain the observed REY
variations. We further utilized Sm-Nd isotope systematics to calculate
the timing of this alteration event. These BIFs show lowest RSD (%) in
their initial 143Nd/144Nd composition around 0.6 Ga, which we consider
as the time of alteration event which affected the Sm/Nd of these rocks.
The timing of alteration event coincides with the Pan-African orogeny
which had regionally affected the Greater Dharwar Craton. The associated
red shales are also characterized by high LREE/HREE ratios and negative
Ce anomalies. These shales also show very high Chemical Index of
Alteration (CIA) values (83-99) suggesting high degree of chemical
weathering. [1] Bonnand et al, (2020) Earth and Planetary Science
Letters