Integrating AMS data with structural studies from granitoid rocks of the Eastern Dharwar Craton, south India: Implications on successive fabric development and regional tectonics

Five successive deformation phases have been identified from structural analysis of granitoid and gneissic rocks of the study area. The magnetic foliation data of the studied granitoids show two distinct NW and NE trending sets. The NW trending magnetic foliation is found to be essentially parallel to the mesoscale planar structures of regional D1-D2 deformations and is thus correlated with the D1-D2 phases. On the contrary, the NE trending magnetic foliation appears to be kinematically compatible with the NW-SE compression direction deciphered from conjugate ductile shear zone patterns of the D3 event. Combining AMS, field and microstructural data, the granitoid outcrop have been separated into older D1-D2 and younger D3 domains. The published geochronological data from the area when compared with the established D1-D2 and D3 domains, shows a good correlation pointing tentatively the timing of the D1-D2 deformation phase to be ∼2550 Ma while the D3 phase to be ∼2524 Ma. Hence the study highlights the importance of combining AMS data with field and microstructural studies to constraint the timing of regional successive deformation imprints. It also helps to identify the chronologically separated emplacement phases of the granitoid massif in question, which would not have been possible otherwise.