Abstract
Rapidly expanding geochronological, paleomagnetic and volcanological data of the Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP) has given new insights to the expansive knowledge on it that had been built up through the preceding decades. Precursory Late Cretaceous (80 – 68 Ma) magmatic activity across the Indian subcontinent preceded the main event of volcanism. The main Deccan event involved nearly continuous outpourings of ~1.5 million km3 of flood basalts in a span of less than 2 m.y. on either side of the Cretaceous-Paleocene Boundary (KPB), corresponding to 3 magnetic chrons. This was followed by basaltic and silicic flows and alkaline magmatism that continued up to ~61 Ma.
Several earlier postulated long-distance correlations of lava sequences based on chemical parameters are rendered invalid by the precision geochronology, leading to doubts regarding earlier models of volumetric eruptive rates. We suggest that pending better flow-field maps and correlations across the province, stacking rates based on thickness between chronological sampling points, combined with volcanological parameters provide a more robust and reproducible estimates of the eruptive rates. The stacking rates in different parts of the province were largely in the magnitude range of 103 m/m.y. and are comparable to those observed in other continental flood basalt provinces.