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The Deccan beyond the plume hypothesis

Hetu C. Sheth
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Powai,
Bombay (Mumbai) 400 076 India.

hcsheth@iitb.ac.in or hcsheth1@yahoo.co.in

Summary

The widely accepted mantle plume model (e.g., Morgan, 1981; Richards et al., 1989; Campbell &
Griffiths, 1990) postulates that (i) the currently active Réunion Island, in the Indian Ocean, is fed
by the narrow “tail” of a mantle plume that rises from the core-mantle boundary, (ii) the Deccan
continental flood basalt (CFB) province of India originated from the “head” of the same plume during
its early eruptive phase near the end of the Cretaceous, and (iii) the Lakshadweep-Chagos Ridge,
an important linear volcanic ridge in the Indian Ocean, is a product of this plume. It is not generally
appreciated, however, that this so-called “classic” case of a plume contradicts the plume model in
many ways. For example, there is little petrological evidence as yet that the Deccan source was
abnormally hot, and the short (~ 1.0 – 0.5 Myr) duration claimed by some for the eruption of the
Deccan is in conflict with recent Ar-Ar age data that suggest that the total duration was at least ~ 8
Myr (Sheth et al., 2001a,b). The Deccan CFB was associated with the breakup of the Seychelles
microcontinent from India (e.g., Mahoney, 1988). Geological and geophysical data from the Deccan
provide no support for the plume model and arguably undermine it altogether (Sheth, 2005a,b).
The interplay of several intersecting continental rift zones in India is apparently responsible for
the roughly circular outcrop of the Deccan. The Lakshadweep-Chagos Ridge, and the islands
of Mauritius and Réunion, are located along fracture zones, and the systematic southerly age
progression along the Ridge (though questioned) may be a result of southward crack propagation
through the oceanic lithosphere. This idea avoids the problem of a 10° palaeolatitude discrepancy
which the plume model can only solve with the ad hoc inclusion of mantle roll. Published Ar-Ar
age data for the Lakshadweep-Chagos Ridge basalts have been seriously questioned (Baksi,
1999, 2005), and geochemical data suggest that they likely represent post-shield volcanism
(Sheth et al., 2003) and so are unsuitable for hotspot-based plate reconstructions. “Enriched”
isotopic ratios such as higher-than-N-MORB values of 87Sr/86Sr, observed in basalts of the Ridge
and the Mascarene Islands may mark the involvement of delaminated enriched continental mantle
instead of a plume (Smith, 1993). High values of the 3He/4He ratio also do not represent a deep
mantle component or plume (Anderson, 1998a; 1998b). The three Mascarene Islands (Mauritius,
Réunion, and Rodrigues) are not related to the Deccan but reflect the recent (post-10 Ma) tectonic-
magmatic development of the African Plate.

I relate CFB volcanism to continental rifting, which often (but not always) evolves into full-fledged
sea-floor spreading (Sheth, 1999a, 2005a). I ascribe the rifting itself not to mantle plume heads
but to large-scale plate dynamics, possibly aided by long-term thermal insulation beneath a
supercontinent which may have surface effects similar to those predicted for “plume incubation”
models. Non-plume, plate tectonic models are capable of explaining the Deccan in all its greatness.

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Figure 1. The 1,200-m-thick exposed section through the Deccan basalt pile at Mahabaleshwar,
Sahyadri (Western Ghats) region. Grand! Photo by Hetu Sheth.

Since the rapid rise to dominance of the plume-head/plume-tail model for flood basalts (Richards
et al., 1989; Campbell & Griffiths, 1990), hundreds of papers have invoked, or supported, a plume
head origin for the Deccan Traps of India. These papers are in unanimous agreement on two
issues: (i) the Deccan originated from the ancestral Réunion hotspot which upwelled beneath
India in the late Cretaceous, and (ii) the hotspot, now located on the African plate, is fed by a deep
mantle plume. The overall appearance of the Deccan, with its roughly circular outcrop, and the
linear Laccadives-Chagos (more correctly, Lakshadweep-Chagos) Ridge to the south of India, looks
very much like what is expected for a spherical plume head and a narrow plume tail (Figures 2 & 3).
Nevertheless, the following observations and deductions suggest that the plume model is not valid
for the Deccan (Sheth, 1999a,b, 2005a).

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Figure 2. Map showing the approximate boundaries of the Precambrian cratons making up the
Indian shield (e.g., Pandey & Agrawal, 1999; Naqvi & Rogers, 1987), the granulite terrain, the
Precambrian structural trends (heavy broken lines), rift zones crossing peninsular India (e.g.,
Biswas, 1987), and the present outcrop areas of the Deccan and Rajmahal flood basalts. Inset
shows the breakup of the Seychelles microcontinent, situated along the northern tip of the
Mascarene Plateau (black), from India, soon after the Deccan flood basalt episode (after Norton
and Sclater, 1979; Mahoney, 1988). The Koyna and Kuruduvadi “rifts” have been proposed based
on gravity surveys and may represent humps of the granitic basement rather than rifts.

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Figure 3. Prominent structural-tectonic features of southern Asia and the Indian Ocean basin
(based on Mahoney et al., 2002). Abbreviations for localities are: Q, Quetta; Z, Zhob; B, Barmer, M,
Mundwara; D, Dhandhuka; B, Bombay; R, Rajahmundry. WG is the Western Ghats region (ages
from Venkatesan et al., 1993 and others). ~ 64 Ma age for Rajahmundry basalts is from Baksi
(2001a). G, ~ 61 Ma Goa dykes (Widdowson et al., 2000). KK, ~ 90-69 Ma Karnataka-Kerala dykes
(e.g., Radhakrishna et al., 1994; Anil Kumar et al., 2001). SMI are the St. Mary’s Islands volcanics
(85.5 Ma, Pande et al., 2001), part of the Indo-Madagascar CFB which in India is otherwise
represented by the KK dykes. The associated flood basalt lavas are not represented or known
in India; there are many Precambrian dyke swarms throughout southern India as well. 72-73 Ma
ages for Quetta and Zhob rocks and 65 Ma age for Dhandhuka-Botad lavas are from Mahoney et
al. (2002), as also the modelled hotspot track showing expected ages in Ma. Note the rift zones
underlying the Deccan, and the absence of any triple junction. OFZ, Owen Fracture Zone; MFZ,
Mauritius Fracture Zone; VFZ, Vishnu Fracture Zone. Click here for enlargment.

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Abnormally hot mantle? There is no evidence for “abnormally hot” mantle sources for the common
and voluminous Deccan basalts (Figure 4). Some picritic liquids are encountered in boreholes in the
northwestern Deccan and in the Narmada region (Krishnamurthy et al., 2000). The borehole lavas
were conjectured by Campbell & Griffiths (1990) to be high-temperature, high-melt-fraction liquids
from the plume axis. Peng & Mahoney (1995), however, found that they are somewhat alkalic and
could be high-pressure, low-degree melts. The Deccan flood basalt sequence is best developed in
the Western Ghats region with ~3 km of stratigraphic thickness (Figures 1-3), and picritic basalts are
found there, but these are enriched in cumulus olivine and clinopyroxene and do not represent liquid
compositions. The parental melts of these picrites are estimated to have contained only ~ 9-10%
MgO (Beane & Hooper, 1988; Sheth, 2005b).

Figure 4. (a) A plot of 624 samples of Deccan basalts of the Western Ghats (data of Beane,
1988; courtesy J. J. Mahoney) on the well-known TAS diagram. Note the complete absence of
compositions other than basalt and basaltic andesite, and the nearly exclusive subalkalic (tholeiitic)
nature. Dividing lines between alkalic and subalkalic fields proposed by Macdonald & Katsura
(1964) and Irvine & Baragar (1971) are also shown. (b) Plot of the same samples on the familiar
AFM diagram, showing the Fe enrichment trend typical of tholeiitic basalts. Typical tholeiite trend
(Thingmuli, Iceland) and calc-alkaline trend (Cascades) are also shown, along with boundaries
between the two fields proposed by Kuno (1968) and Irvine & Baragar (1971). See Sheth (2005b)
for an extended petrological discussion.

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Very short (1 – 0.5 Myr) eruptive duration? Very rapid emplacement of the Deccan Traps is one
of the key arguments for a plume origin, though also not incompatible with plate-related and stress-
caused mechanisms. The duration of volcanism has also been one of the most debated issues.
Recent 40Ar-39Ar data for trachyte and basalt flows from Bombay (Sheth et al., 2001a,b) suggest
the total duration to have been no less than ~ 8 – 9 Myr. There may have been a major, rapid, short-
duration eruptive phase in the Western Ghats, estimated by some to have lasted only 1.0 – 0.5 Myr
(e.g., Duncan & Pyle, 1988; Courtillot et al., 1988; Hofmann et al., 2000), and by others 4 – 5 Myr
(Venkatesan et al., 1993; Pande, 2002). Also, the data do not always justify the arguments advanced.
Allègre et al. (1999) report an Re-Os isochron age of 65.6 ± 0.3 Ma (2σ) for several lava flow samples,
arguing for a very short duration for the volcanism. That random, non-comagmatic samples collected
across an area 1000 km wide and and at various topographic-stratigraphic levels should define an
isochron is remarkable, but the goodness-of-fit (F) value for the claimed isochron, which was not
reported, is 22 (Baksi, 2001b); the line is clearly an “errorchron” (Faure, 1986).

Catastrophic eruption rates? Some authors have explained “the extremely high lava eruption
rates” in CFBs by hot plume heads, though there is no direct and simple relationship between melt
production and melt eruption (Th. Thordarson, pers. comm., 2005). A large proportion of the Deccan
basalts comprise pahoehoe compound lava flows (e.g., Walker, 1970; Bondre et al., 2004a,b). My
own fieldwork at scores of places in the Deccan, and on the Kilauea volcano, Hawaii (Sheth, 2003),
shows that the size and scale of individual flow units of many large Deccan compound flows are the
same as those of modern Kilauea lava flows (Figure 5).The large volumes of the individual Deccan
lava flows compared to the Hawaiian flows may reflect in part the great amount of decompression
during India-Seychelles continental breakup (Figure 2 inset), considerable lengths (40 – 50 km) of the
fissure systems (Figure 6; see also Self et al., 1997), excess source fertility (Sheth, 2005b), mantle
volatiles such as CO2 (Presnall & Gudfinnsson, 2005), and similar features.

Figure 5. (a) The newborn toe of a compound pahoehoe basalt flow that has emerged from under
the solidified lava crust, as a “breakout”. The front is about 1 m from the camera and 0.5 m wide.
Ropes are forming in the frontal part and satellite breakouts emerge at right and left (bright yellow
portions). Kilauea, Hawaii, May 2002. Photo by Hetu Sheth. This is how I believe the compound
pahoehoe flows of the Deccan were emplaced. (b) Broader view of the actively inflating pahoehoe
compound flow containing the lobe shown in (a). Note how numerous lobes are juxtaposed laterally
and vertically. I am seen opening with the hammer the solidified roof of a lobe which yellow-hot
magma (at ~ 1200°C) is filling. Kilauea, May 2002. Photo by Jyotiranjan Ray. This is how many
compound pahoehoe flows of the Deccan look. Compare with (c). (c) Section across part of
a compound pahoehoe lava flow of the Deccan, showing the distribution of vesicles and pipe
vesicles. Some 17 flow units are seen. Modified from Walker (1970). Compare with (a) and (b).

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Figure 6. Map of the Dediapada dyke swarm in the Narmada-Satpura region of the Deccan (after
Krishnamacharlu, 1970). This is one of the large, spectacular oriented dyke swarms of the Deccan
Traps. Geochemical studies of these dykes are currently underway. Elevations are in metres.

Internal age progression? None exists within the Deccan (Figure 3). Courtillot & Renne (2003)
suggested that the 60–61 Ma volcanic activity well within the Deccan (e.g., at Bombay, Sheth et al.,
2001a,b), was “minor”, and that the duration of Deccan volcanism was indeed very short. However,
(a) this activity is not minor; large volumes of lava are emplaced in the subsurface along the west
coast, and there is a scarcity of geochronological data. In comparison, the Western Ghats section
has been heavily sampled and dated. (b) Whatever its magnitude, the late-persisting volcanism must
be still explained without ad hoc auxiliary hypotheses. It is not. For example, according to prevalent
views the plume head was all consumed in a quick phase around 66 – 65 Ma, and the predicted
60 Ma volcanic basement to the south of India, on top of the Maldives Ridge, should have formed
from the narrow (100 – 200 km wide) plume tail. It is not clear how this plume tail could produce
basalt in Bombay, 1,000 km to the north, at 60.5 Ma (Sheth et al., 2001b). Suggestions such as
northward dragging of the plume tail by the plate are ad hoc, and such drag and tilting would make
impossible any systematic age progression in the first place. Furthermore, if the ~ 69 Ma mafic dykes
reported from Kerala, southernmost India (Radhakrishna et al., 1994) do represent early Deccan-
related magmatism, as Sheth (1999b) considered likely, an entirely different, non-plume, passive,
continental-breakup-related model for Deccan volcanism is even more attractive.

Enriched mantle: plume or continent? Smith (1993) proposed that ocean-island volcanism
is derived from enriched continental mantle delaminated from a continent rifted along an ancient
suture (see also Lithospheric delamination page). “Enriched” isotopic ratios such as higher-than-

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N-MORB values of 87Sr/86Sr, for example, are usually taken as plume signatures. However such
compositions may instead mark involvement of shallow-level, enriched continental mantle. High
values of 3He/4He may also be explained by shallow models (e.g., Anderson, 1998a, 1998b; see
also Helium fundamentals page). The ~ 68.5 Ma alkalic complexes (Mundwara, Barmer) in the
northern part of the Deccan province, related by Basu et al. (1993) to the Réunion plume based on
Sr and He isotopic ratios, could thus be derived from the continental mantle.

The “enriched” plume model was never required to explain continental intraplate volcanism, given the
abundance of “enriched” mantle domains within the continental lithosphere itself. The plume model
was extrapolated to continental magmatism from the ocean basins based on the world view that the
oceanic mantle was entirely ”depleted“, MORB-like, convecting and homogeneous. The reasoning
was that anything “enriched” or anomalous had thus to come from plumes (Anderson, 1996; Smith
& Lewis, 1999). However, if continental mantle is introduced into the oceanic mantle, e.g., by
delamination during continental breakup (e.g., Smith, 1993), enriched plumes are not required to
explain either continental or oceanic intraplate volcanism, and the whole argument can be turned
around. Rather than the Deccan having formed from a deep mantle plume now located under Réunion
island, Réunion volcanism may be in part sourced from delaminated Indian continental mantle.

Mahoney et al. (2002) recently reported Réunion-like elemental and isotopic compositions for mafic
ophiolitic rocks, dated by them at 72 – 73 Ma, and outcropping in Pakistan. They opined that some
of these may represent pre-Deccan oceanic seamounts. The associated intrusions were emplaced
in continental shelf-and-slope-type marine sediments along the northern margin of India. Mahoney et
al. (2002) considered the continental mantle delamination model, but argued that it does not explain
Réunion-type volcanism occurring on the updrift side of India at 72 – 73 Ma, and concluded that the
plume model is the most viable option. Notably, they supported the plume-head-impact model rather
than the plume-head-incubation model, despite the ~ 8 Myr age gap between the Pakistani rocks and
the 66 – 65 Ma voluminous basalt volcanism of the Deccan.

Nevertheless, the analyzed intrusions are located within the boundary of the Indian continental
mantle, and the true oceanic seamounts may not have been far from the northern margin of India.
Continental mantle delaminated during the early stages of India-Seychelles breakup could have
migrated northward ahead of India and fed the seamounts built on oceanic lithosphere. The continent
followed behind, and when it converged upon Asia it simply overrode these seamounts. This is a
better explanation for the observations than the plume model. If the lateral flow of continental mantle
proposed here seems ad hoc, note that the mechanism of long-distance lateral flow is required
even by the plume model, as for the Rodrigues Ridge (Morgan, 1981; Figure 3) which is not located
along the conjectured Deccan-Réunion hotspot track and trends roughly E-W. The rocks analyzed by
Mahoney et al. (2002) and Basu et al. (1993) are undersaturated and alkalic, and have ocean-island-
basalt-type characteristics (e.g., Sr isotopic ratios), but rather than being melts from a hot plume, they
may be melts of carbonated lherzolite (see Keshav & Gudfinnsson, 2004).

The “hotspot track”: plume under plate, or crack propagation? The claimed southerly younging
age progression along the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge and up to Réunion Island (though duly
questioned by Baksi, 1999, 2005) does not require a lithospheric plate moving over a fixed plume.
It may be explained by southward crack propagation through the oceanic lithosphere (see below).
The narrow “hotspot track” may represent localized melting and magma focusing from a wider area
(the “transform-fault effect”, Langmuir & Bender, 1984). In support of this, I note that the Chagos-
Laccadive Ridge lies along the Vishnu Fracture Zone. The Ridge may mark the location of a major
Gondwanic transform (Reeves & de Wit, 2000; Reeves et al., 2004).

It is possible that the current volcanism at Réunion Island may be unrelated to the Deccan
geodynamically, though it taps delaminated Indian continental mantle brought beneath the African
plate by the ridge jump at ~ 30 Ma (Sheth, 2005a; see also Burke, 1996). Burke (1996), a plume
proponent, argued that the Deccan plume died out at 30 Ma and the Réunion plume is a different
plume.

The Cambay triple junction and other fiction. Originally included by Burke & Dewey (1973) in their
world-wide list of plume-generated triple junctions, the Cambay triple junction has been popularized
by several subsequent papers supporting the Réunion plume model for the Deccan. However, the
triple junction is not real (Sheth, 1999b, 2005a; Figures 2 & 3). Another unfortunate development
is proliferation of model-dependent interpretations by which every geological and geophysical
observation from the Deccan is interpreted an effect of the Réunion plume. For example, low-seismic

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velocity mantle underlying the Cambay rift of the Deccan is interpreted as a remnant of the plume
(Kennett & Widiyantoro, 1999) instead of warm, low-density upper mantle welling up due to rift-
related convection. This geophysical feature may even be a recent (post-Deccan) development
(Sheth, 2005a).

Pre-volcanic lithospheric uplift, or lack thereof? Pre-volcanic lithospheric uplift of up to a few

kilometres is an essential prerequisite for all thermal models such as the plume model. This is yet
another issue on which specialists of different flood basalt provinces have come to diametrically
opposed conclusions (e.g., Czamanske et al., 1998; He et al., 2003; Tejada et al., 2004; Saunders et
al., 2005; see also Dhanjori page). Campbell & Griffiths (1990) cite the Deccan as a good example
of a flood basalt with pre-volcanic uplift, but the Pachmarhi area mentioned by them as evidence
for this appears instead to show the very opposite (recent uplift). Pachmarhi is on the Satpura horst
between the Tapi and Narmada rifts. The very youthful landscape (e.g., kilometre-high escarpments
in the basement Gondwana sandstones) and several planation surfaces (as high as 1,300 m above
MSL) indicate very recent uplift (Ollier & Pain, 2001).

The same is true of the Deccan plateau region, where the Deccan-basement contact is in the
subsurface over vast areas. Major rivers draining the Deccan plateau are of the antecedent type, i.e.,
they were in existence before the Western Ghats (Sahyadri Range) rose in their way, and the popular
dome-flank drainage picture of the Indian drainage painted by Cox (1989) is highly speculative. The
uplift of the Western Ghats is post-volcanic and recent (possibly Miocene and younger), and not
pre-volcanic uplift produced by a plume (Sheth, 2005a). There are two possible interpretations: (1)
Pre-volcanic lithospheric uplift occurred and then completely decayed and was overprinted by post-
volcanic uplift. This is what plume proponents advocate. (2) Pre-volcanic uplift never did take place
and the plume explanation is invalid. Option (2) is more plausible, and there is in fact actual support
for it in the form of an uplifted, extensive planation surface below the Deccan lavas in central India
(Dixey, 1970; see Sheth, 2005a). Note that the Western Ghats rise much higher in southern India
(the region little or not affected by Deccan volcanism) than they do in the Deccan plateau region
(Figure 7).

Figure 7. The main elements of the physiography of the Indian peninsula. The Western Ghats
escarpment is shown by the heavy broken line. Note the pronounced easterly drainage. After Ollier
& Powar (1985) and Sheth (2005a).

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Palaeolatitudes: true polar wander or crack propagation? The Deccan lavas erupted at ~ 30°S
latitude. Réunion Island is at 21°S today (Figure 8a). To explain this significant discrepancy in the
framework of the plume model, some workers have proposed true polar wander (TPW) of the Earth’s
mantle (e.g., Vandamme & Courtillot, 1990). In this view, subsequent to the Deccan eruptions,
the Réunion plume remained fixed in the mantle, while the mantle itself rolled like a ball, inside
the lithospheric shell, in a northerly direction. Such speculation indicates well the extent of special
pleading permitted within the plume model. Burke (1996) has questioned this postulated TPW.

I propose a much simpler alternative to the TPW, illustrated by the schematic diagram shown in Figure
8b. This is that the systematically changing palaeolatitudes between the Deccan and ODP Site 706
(33 Ma) indicate southward crack propagation in a northward-moving plate with the condition that
the northward plate motion was faster than the southward crack propagation. The situation shown
in Figure 8b is for a plate in the southern hemisphere. At time T1, there is an active volcano 1 at the
crack tip at latitude 60°S. Between times T1 and T2, the crack tip has moved southward by 10°, but
because the plate itself has moved north by 20°, the new volcano 2 at the crack tip has the latitude of
50°S. A similar progression occurs between times T2 and T3. Thus, although the crack tip propagates
southward, the palaeolatitudes systematically become more northerly.

I conclude, based on diverse evidence, that the Réunion plume model for the Deccan is wrong.

Figure 8: (a) Palaeolatitude variation from the Deccan to Réunion Island through the ODP Leg 115
sites (Vandamme & Courtillot, 1990). (b) Schematic cartoon showing the development of volcanism
resulting from a crack propagating more slowly southward than the plate moves northward, in the
Southern Hemisphere.

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Additional thoughts

Deccan volcanism was associated with the separation of the Seychelles microcontinent from India
(Figure 2, inset), and this breakup itself is often ascribed to the Réunion plume head impact. I propose
instead that the breakup occurred because of prolonged continental extension and an eventual ridge
jump.

One interesting question is whether eclogite, a mantle rock more fusible than peridotite, could have
been a source in part for the Deccan lavas. The rifted western continental margin of India follows the
NNW-SSE Dharwar structural trend of the Precambrian southern Indian shield (e.g., Biswas, 1987).
Also, the Narmada zone that crosses India has been proposed as an ancient suture between the
southern (Dharwar) and northern (Aravalli) protocontinents (e.g., Naqvi et al., 1974; Naqvi & Rogers,
1987; Radhakrishna, 1989). Such an ancient suture may have contained trapped, eclogitized oceanic
crust. Foulger et al. (2005) recently proposed such a model for Icelandic volcanism, and Sheth
(2005b) explored it in considerable detail for the Deccan. If eclogite constituted a major source
for the Deccan, mantle fertility and not high mantle temperatures are implicated (see also Yaxley,
2000).

I have already explained why, despite all problems and anomalies, the whole Deccan province
resembles so much what a plume-head/plume-plume tail is expected to create. The interplay of the
Deccan rift zones is responsible for this. Several older sedimentary rift basins underlie the Deccan
(Figures 2 & 3). These are the Cambay, Kachchh, Narmada-Tapi and Godavari rifts. They are not
arranged radially, are much older than the Deccan, being of at least Jurassic age, and certainly were
not produced by whatever produced the Deccan. The presence of several such major rifts means
that lithospheric control (Anderson, 1998c), and lithospheric extension (Sheth, 2000) were important
in Deccan volcanism. The nearly circular outcrop of the Deccan proper does not reflect a spherical
plume head beneath, but simply results from the confluence of numerous rift zones and the continental
margin in west-central India. This is a likely explanation because elsewhere, in the peripheral/outlier
parts of the Deccan along individual isolated rifts, the lava outcrop is linear or localized (e.g., the
Deccan outliers of the Kachchh and Rajahmundry areas, the latter being on the Godavari rift near
the east coast of India). The “hotspot track” on the oceanic crust, as argued above, may be related to
melting and magma focusing along a southward-propagating fracture. The available seismic data for
Réunion Island support the idea that its location is related to structural heterogeneity of the underlying
lithosphere (Charvis et al., 1999; de Voogd & Pontoise, 1999; Hirn, 2002).

In conclusion, a non-plume, plate-tectonic model involving continental breakup and related mantle
convection and decompression melting, is suitable for the Deccan. If radial, focused flow of the upper
mantle occurs (instead of vertical flow as in the plume model), a potentially unlimited volume of the
mantle is available for processing.

The plume model was proposed for the Deccan more than 30 years ago, when little was known about
the Deccan and about the plume mode of convection. Today we know a lot more about the Deccan,
and the plume model becomes less tenable as our knowledge grows. The originators and champions
of the plume model had little or no personal knowledge of the Deccan, and their broad generalizations
should have been put to critical tests by regional experts on the Deccan. The tendency has been
to assume a plume origin and infer the plume properties and characteristics based on whatever
is required by the observations, but if volatiles, mantle fertility, continental geology, and dynamic,
evolving plates are considered, one no longer needs mantle plumes (Sheth, 2005b). The new
voices asking for new explanations (e.g., http://www.mantleplumes.org/Deccan2.html) are a
good sign. The plume model for the Deccan has been around for over thirty years, and has failed. A
new, scientifically tenable non-plume model for the Deccan could be rapidly developed if only a few
of the many Deccan/flood basalt enthusiasts share the task. We live in interesting times.

References

• Anderson, D. L., 1996. Enriched asthenosphere and depleted plumes. Int. Geol. Rev., 38,
1-21.

• Anderson, D. L., 1998a. The helium paradoxes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 95, 4822-
4827.

• Anderson, D.L., 198b, A model to explain the various paradoxes associated with

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mantle noble gas geochemistry, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 95, 9087-9092.

• Anderson, D. L., 1998c. The EDGES of the mantle. In: The Core-Mantle Boundary Region.
AGU Geodyn. Ser. 28, 255-271.

• Allègre, C., Birck, J. L., Capmas, F., Courtillot, V., 1999. Age of the Deccan Traps using
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Re-187Os systematics. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 170, 199-204.

• Anil Kumar, Pande, K., Venkatesan, T. R., Bhaskar Rao, Y. J., 2001. The Karnataka Late
Cretaceous dykes as products of the Marion hotspot at the India-Madagascar breakup
event: evidence from 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and geochemistry. Geophys. Res. Lett., 28,
2715-2718.

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