Petrographic and geochemical characteristics of Mesoproterozoic Kumbalgarh clastic rocks, NW Indian shield: implications for provenance, tectonic setting, and crustal evolution

The Kumbalgarh Group of the south Delhi fold belt are the main bedrock series exposed in the axial region of the Aravalli craton. Quartzites and greywackes, the chief clastic constituents of this group, are well exposed. Petrographic and bulk-rock analyses of these rocks permit determination of their provenance, tectonic setting of the basin, and the Archaean to Proterozoic crustal evolution. Greywackes comprise quartz, plagioclase, amphiboles, K-feldspar, and rock fragments. Based on mineralogy, we divided the quartzites into three categories: QTZ1 is chiefly composed of quartz with a silty matrix and a minor quantity of feldspars and QTZ2 contains significant mafic minerals as well as quartz and feldspars, whereas QTZ3 is more feldspathic than the other groups. All the lithounits have SiO2/Al2O3 ratios <∼10 suggesting textural immaturity consistent with their sedimentary petrography. Greywackes display the least fractionated rare earth elements (REEs) (La/Yb N : avg. 2.55) with positive Eu anomalies (av...