Coordinates: 18°51′N 73°43′E

Deccan Traps
The Deccan Traps are a large igneous province of west-central
India (17–24°N, 73–74°E). They are one of the largest volcanic
features on Earth. They consist of numerous layers of solidified
flood basalt that together are more than about 2,000 metres
(6,600 ft) thick, cover an area of about 500,000 square kilometres
(200,000 sq mi),[1] and have a volume of about 1,000,000 cubic
kilometres (200,000 cu mi).[2] Originally, the Deccan Traps may
have covered about 1,500,000 square kilometres
[3]
(600,000 sq mi), with a correspondingly larger original volume.
The Western Ghats at Matheran in
Maharashtra

Contents
Etymology
History
Effect on mass extinctions and climate
Petrology
Fossils
Theories of formation
Oblique satellite view of the Deccan
Suggested link to impact events Traps
Chicxulub crater
Shiva crater
See also
References
External links

Etymology
The term "trap" has been used in geology since 1785–1795 for such rock formations. It is derived from the
Swedish word for stairs ("trapp") and refers to the step-like hills forming the landscape of the region.[4]

History
The Deccan Traps began forming 66.25 million years ago,[3] at the end of the Cretaceous period. The bulk
of the volcanic eruption occurred at the Western Ghats some 66 million years ago. This series of eruptions
may have lasted for less than 30,000 years.[5]

The original area covered by the lava flows is estimated to have been as large as 1.5 million km2
(0.58 million sq mi), approximately half the size of modern India. The Deccan Traps region was reduced to
its current size by erosion and plate tectonics; the present area of directly observable lava flows is around
500,000 km2 (200,000 sq mi).

Effect on mass extinctions and climate

The release of volcanic gases, particularly sulfur dioxide, during
the formation of the traps may have contributed to climate change.
Data points to an average drop in temperature of about 2 °C
(3.6 °F) in this period.[6]

Because of its magnitude, scientists have speculated that the gases

released during the formation of the Deccan Traps played a major
role in the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also
known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary or K–T extinction).[7] It has
been theorized that sudden cooling due to sulfurous volcanic gases
released by the formation of the traps and toxic gas emissions may
have contributed significantly to the K–Pg, as well as other, mass
Deccan Traps at Ajanta Caves
extinctions.[8] However, the current consensus among the scientific
community is that the extinction was primarily triggered by the
Chicxulub impact event in North America, which would have produced a sunlight-blocking dust cloud that
killed much of the plant life and reduced global temperature (this cooling is called an impact winter).[9]

Work published in 2014 by geologist Gerta Keller and others on the timing of the Deccan volcanism
suggests the extinction may have been caused by both the volcanism and the impact event.[10][11] This was
followed by a similar study in 2015, both of which consider the hypothesis that the impact exacerbated or
induced the Deccan volcanism, since the events occur at antipodes.[12][13]

However, the impact theory is still the best supported and has been determined by various reviews to be the
consensus view.[14]

Petrology
Within the Deccan Traps at least 95% of the lavas are tholeiitic
basalts.[15] Other rock types present include: alkali basalt,
nephelinite, lamprophyre, and carbonatite.

Mantle xenoliths have been described from Kachchh

(northwestern India) and elsewhere in the western Deccan.[16]
The Deccan Traps shown as a dark
Fossils purple spot on the geologic map of
India
The Deccan Traps are famous for the beds of fossils that have been
found between layers of lava. Particularly well known species
include the frog Oxyglossus pusillus (Owen) of the Eocene of India and the toothed frog Indobatrachus, an
early lineage of modern frogs, which is now placed in the Australian family Myobatrachidae.[17][18] The
Infratrappean Beds (Lameta Formation) and Intertrappean Beds also contain fossil freshwater molluscs.[19]

Theories of formation
It is postulated that the Deccan Traps eruption was associated with
a deep mantle plume. The area of long-term eruption (the hotspot),
known as the Réunion hotspot, is suspected of both causing the
Deccan Traps eruption and opening the rift that once separated the
Seychelles plateau from India. Seafloor spreading at the boundary
between the Indian and African Plates subsequently pushed India
north over the plume, which now lies under Réunion island in the
Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The mantle plume model has,
however, been challenged.[20]
Crystals of epistilbite and calcite in a
Data continues to emerge that support the plume model. The
vug in Deccan Traps basalt lava
motion of the Indian tectonic plate and the eruptive history of the
from Jalgaon District, Maharashtra
Deccan traps show strong correlations. Based on data from marine
magnetic profiles, a pulse of unusually rapid plate motion began at
the same time as the first pulse of Deccan flood basalts, which is
dated at 67 million years ago. The spreading rate rapidly increased and reached a maximum at the same
time as the peak basaltic eruptions. The spreading rate then dropped off, with the decrease occurring around
63 million years ago, by which time the main phase of Deccan volcanism ended. This correlation is seen as
driven by plume dynamics.[21]

The motions of the Indian and African plates have also been shown to be coupled, the common element
being the position of these plates relative to the location of the Réunion plume head. The onset of
accelerated motion of India coincides with a large slowing of the rate of counterclockwise rotation of
Africa. The close correlations between the plate motions suggest that they were both driven by the force of
the Réunion plume.[21]

Suggested link to impact events

Chicxulub crater

There is some evidence to link the Deccan Traps eruption to the contemporaneous asteroid impact that
created the nearly antipodal Chicxulub crater in the Mexican state of Yucatán. Although the Deccan Traps
began erupting well before the impact, argon–argon dating suggests that the impact may have caused an
increase in permeability that allowed magma to reach the surface and produced the most voluminous flows,
accounting for around 70% of the volume.[22] The combination of the asteroid impact and the resulting
increase in eruptive volume may have been responsible for the mass extinctions that occurred at the time
that separates the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, known as the K–Pg boundary.[23][24]

A more recent discovery appears to demonstrate the scope of the destruction from the impact alone,
however. In a March 2019 article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international
team of twelve scientists revealed the contents of the Tanis fossil site discovered near Bowman, North
Dakota, that appeared to show a devastating mass destruction of an ancient lake and its inhabitants at the
time of the Chicxulub impact. In the paper, the group reports that the geology of the site is strewn with
fossilized trees and remains of fish and other animals. The lead researcher, Robert A. DePalma of the
University of Kansas, was quoted in the New York Times as stating that "You would be blind to miss the
carcasses sticking out... It is impossible to miss when you see the outcrop". Evidence correlating this find to
the Chicxulub impact included tektites bearing "the unique chemical signature of other tektites associated
with the Chicxulub event" found in the gills of fish fossils and embedded in amber, an iridium-rich top
layer that is considered another signature of the event, and an atypical lack of evidence for scavenging
perhaps suggesting that there were few survivors. The exact mechanism of the site's destruction has been
debated as either an impact-caused tsunami or lake and river seiche activity triggered by post-impact
earthquakes, though there has yet been no firm conclusion upon which researchers have settled.[25][26]

Shiva crater

A geological structure that exists in the sea floor off the west coast of India has been suggested as a possible
impact crater, in this context called the Shiva crater. It has also been dated at approximately 66 million years
ago, potentially matching the Deccan traps. The researchers claiming that this feature is an impact crater
suggest that the impact may have been the triggering event for the Deccan Traps as well as contributing to
the acceleration of the Indian plate in the early Paleogene.[27] However, the current consensus in the Earth
science community is that this feature is unlikely to be an actual impact crater.[28][29]

See also
Columbia River Basalt Group
Emeishan Traps
Geology of India
Krishna Godavari Basin
Lameta Formation
List of flood basalt provinces
List of volcanoes in India
Siberian Traps
Verneshot
Viluy Traps

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External links
 "Animated simulation by the Geodynamics group at the Geological Survey of Norway
illustrating the Indian plate moving through the Indian Ocean" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0110723122146/http://www.geodynamics.no/indexOld.htm). Archived from the original (htt
p://www.geodynamics.no/indexOld.htm) on 23 July 2011.
Scientist argues that volcanoes, not meteorite, killed dinosaurs (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/
50119631/ns/technology_and_science-science/)
The Deccan Traps/Volcanism Theory (https://hoopermuseum.carleton.ca/saleem/volcanism.
htm)

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