# Panjal Traps

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The **Panjal Traps** or the **Tethyan Plume** is a [large igneous province](/source/Large_igneous_province) (LIP) that erupted during the Early–[Middle Permian](/source/Guadalupian) in what is now north-western [India](/source/India). The Panjal Traps are associated with the opening of the [Neo-Tethys Ocean](/source/Tethys_Ocean), which resulted in the dispersal of the [Cimmerian](/source/Cimmeria_(continent)) [continental blocks](/source/Continental_fragment) from the north-eastern margin of [Gondwana](/source/Gondwana) and possibly the break-up of this old and large continent.[1] In the [Zanskar](/source/Zanskar)-[Spliti-Lahaul](/source/Lahaul_and_Spiti_district) area (in the north-western Himalayas and south-east Ladakh) the 30–150 m (98–492 ft)-thick basalts of the Panjal Traps are mostly exposed as massive (terrestrial) lava flows, but also as (marine) [pillow lavas](/source/Pillow_lava) and [hyaloclastites](/source/Hyaloclastite).[2]

The Panjal Traps were first documented in 1824 and were eventually named by British geologist [Richard Lydekker](/source/Richard_Lydekker) in 1883,[3] but their origin, age, and relationship with surrounding and underlying rocks remained elusive for more than a century.[4] They remained one of the most understudied LIPs before being properly dated to 289 Ma in 2011.[5]

## Geological setting

Late Carboniferous to [Early Permian](/source/Cisuralian) deposits of Tethyan affinity in the Zanskar-Spiti area are mostly [terrigenous](/source/Terrigenous), [detrital](/source/Detritus) sedimentary rocks, although some magmatic activity documented in Pakistan and central Nepal has been associated with this period. These sedimentary layers are associated with the erosion that followed the [uplift](/source/Tectonic_uplift) of the margins of the newly rifted Indian continent. In the eastern and central Himalayas more voluminous volcanic eruptions have been documented from the same period. The [Abor](/source/Abor_Hills) volcanics produced 1,500 m (4,900 ft) of [basaltic](/source/Basalt) to [andesitic](/source/Andesite) flows and [tuffs](/source/Tuff). In the [Late Permian](/source/Lopingian) ([Sakmarian](/source/Sakmarian)-[Roadian](/source/Roadian)) the [theoliitic](/source/Tholeiitic_basalt) [Nar-Tsum](/source/Nar-Tsum)(?) produced 300 metres (980 ft) of [spilites](/source/Spilite) and [Bhote Kosi](/source/Bhote_Koshi) basalts in southern Tibet.[2]

The slightly younger ([Artinskian](/source/Artinskian)-[Kazanian](/source/Permian#anchor_2)) Panjal Traps produced the largest magmatic province in north-western India. Its lava flows now covers 105 km2, from the eastern Zanskar-Spliti-Lahaul area to north-eastern Pakistan and they filled a rifted valley called the Zanskar-Spiti [synclinorium](/source/Syncline).[2] The original extent of the Panjal Traps may have exceeded 0.2 million km2, a distribution similar to those of the [Emeishan LIP](/source/Emeishan_Traps) in south-western China and the [Columbia River basalts](/source/Columbia_River_Basalt_Group) in north-western United States.[6] In Ladakh and in the [Kashmir Basin](/source/Kashmir_Valley) the flows are 2,500 m (8,200 ft) thick with a smaller amount of [pyroclastics](/source/Pyroclastic_rock) overlain by [aphyric](/source/Phenocryst) basaltic flows. In north-eastern Pakistan the Panjal flows are exposed as [dykes](/source/Dike_(geology)) cross-cutting the [basement](/source/Basement_(geology)) and Early Paleozoic layers, and as inter-layered magmatic flows on Late Plaeozoic to Early Mesozoic layers with Tethyan affinity.[2]

The eruption of the Panjal Traps was followed (Kazanian-[Djulfian](/source/Wuchiapingian)) by the emplacement of a succession of sediments, the result of the progressive [thermo](/source/Thermal_subsidence)-[tectonic subsidence](/source/Tectonic_subsidence) of the Indian passive margin associated with the expanding Neo-Tethys.[2]

## Tectonic implications

The Panjal Traps have been associated with either the [Mid-Capitanian](/source/Olson's_Extinction) (260 Ma) or [End-Permian](/source/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event) (251 Ma) mass extinction events. Analyses of zircon crystals have, however, yielded an [206U/238Pb age](/source/U-Pb_dating) of 289±2 Ma — considerably older than these mass extinctions.[5] The Panjal Traps can, nevertheless, be linked to the African [large low-shear-velocity province](/source/Large_low-shear-velocity_provinces) (or superplume) and, as such, is most likely responsible for the widespread flood basalts in the Himalayas, but the [Siberian Traps](/source/Siberian_Traps) (251 Ma) are probably a better candidate for these younger mass extinctions.[7]

Late Carboniferous-Permian LIPs (such as [Jutland](/source/Skagerrak-Centered_Large_Igneous_Province), Panjal, [Tarim](/source/Tarim_Large_Igenous_Province), [Emeishan](/source/Emeishan_Traps) and Siberia) were emplaced before the break-up of Pangaea whereas the post-Permian LIPs were involved in the break-up of the supercontinent. Mantle plume-derived LIPs share features such as large-volume flood basalts, short duration, uplift and doming of the crust before eruption, and high temperature-melts such as [komatiites](/source/Komatiite) and [picrites](/source/Picrite).[4] The chemical and isotopic composition of samples of basalt taken from the eastern Kashmir Valley are similar to within-plate basalts, and probably derived from a [spinel](/source/Spinel) [peridotite](/source/Peridotite) source. Samples taken from the western side of the valley are more primitive, derived from a more depleted source. This suggests that Panjal made a transition from a newly formed continental setting, where the basalt composition was 'enriched [OIB](/source/Ocean_island_basalt)-like', to an old ocean basin, where the composition was 'depleted [MORB](/source/Mid-ocean_ridge)-like'. Chemically, the Panjal basalts are similar to those from post-Permian/post-Pangaean LIPs.[8]

[Paleomagnetic](/source/Paleomagnetism) data from the Kashmir Valley indicate the Panjal eruption occurred at a paleolatitude of c. 33° (±5°)S.[9]

## References

### Notes

1. Chauvet et al. 2008, pp. Introduction, p. 384

1. Chauvet et al. 2008, pp. Geological setting, pp. 384–386

1. Lydekker 1883

1. Shellnutt et al. 2014, pp. Introduction, pp. 159–161

1. Shellnutt et al. 2011, Abstract

1. Stojanovic et al. 2016, pp. Introduction, p. 116

1. Torsvik & Cocks 2013, pp. 1023–1024; Fig. 21, p. 1026

1. Shellnutt et al. 2015, Abstract

1. Stojanovic et al. 2016, Abstract

### Sources

- Chauvet, F.; Lapierre, H.; Bosch, D.; Guillot, S.; Mascle, G.; Vannay, J.-C.; Cotten, J.; Brunet, P.; Keller, F. (2008). ["Geochemistry of the Panjal Traps basalts (NW Himalaya): records of the Pangea Permian break-up"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254183912). *Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France*. **179** (4): 383–395. [doi:10.2113/gssgfbull.179.4.383](https://doi.org/10.2113/gssgfbull.179.4.383). Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- Lydekker, R. (1883). "The geology of the Káshmír and Chamba territories, and the British district of Khágán". *Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India*. **22**. [OCLC 898867409](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/898867409)
- Shellnutt, J. G.; Bhat, G. M.; Brookfield, M. E.; Jahn, B. M. (2011). ["No link between the Panjal Traps (Kashmir) and the Late Permian mass extinctions"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251437233). *Geophysical Research Letters*. **38** (L19308): n/a. [Bibcode:2011GeoRL..3819308S](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011GeoRL..3819308S). [doi:10.1029/2011GL049032](https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL049032). Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- Shellnutt, J. G.; Bhat, G. M.; Wang, K. L.; Brookfield, M. E.; Jahn, B. M.; Dostal, J. (2014). ["Petrogenesis of the flood basalts from the Early Permian Panjal Traps, Kashmir, India: Geochemical evidence for shallow melting of the mantle"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260032205). *Lithos*. **204**: 159–171. [Bibcode:2014Litho.204..159S](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014Litho.204..159S). [doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2014.01.008](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2014.01.008). Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- Shellnutt, J. G.; Bhat, G. M.; Wang, K. L.; Yeh, M. W.; Brookfield, M. E.; Jahn, B. M. (2015). ["Multiple mantle sources of the Early Permian Panjal Traps, Kashmir, India"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280534350). *American Journal of Science*. **315** (7): 589–619. [Bibcode:2015AmJS..315..589S](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AmJS..315..589S). [doi:10.2475/07.2015.01](https://doi.org/10.2475/07.2015.01). [S2CID 131091884](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:131091884). Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- Stojanovic, D.; Aitchison, J. C.; Ali, J. R.; Ahmad, T.; Dar, R. A. (2016). "Paleomagnetic investigation of the Early Permian Panjal Traps of NW India; regional tectonic implications". *Journal of Asian Earth Sciences*. **115**: 114–123. [Bibcode:2016JAESc.115..114S](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JAESc.115..114S). [doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2015.09.028](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2015.09.028)
- Torsvik, T. H. & Cocks, L. R. M. (2013). ["Gondwana from top to base in space and time"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271008464). *Gondwana Research*. **24** (3): 999–1030. [Bibcode:2013GondR..24..999T](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013GondR..24..999T). [doi:10.1016/j.gr.2013.06.012](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2013.06.012). Retrieved 23 July 2016.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Panjal Traps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjal_Traps) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjal_Traps?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.