CHAPTER- 5

Conclusion

Conclusion
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The main objective of this project-oriented geological field report was to understand the geology
of Mandi area through geological mapping with special emphasis on the petrography of the
mafic magmatic rocks exposed in Mandi and adjoining areas. Additionally, an attempt has also
been made to understand the regional geology of the region by conducting geological traverses.
Following conclusions have been drawn based on the regional geology of the study area.
In Mandi area based on field mapping, which was carried out on a scale of 1 km = 6 cm or 1:
16,666, six prominent rocks type were identified and mapped. These are: mafic metavolcanics,
quartzite, mylonitic gneiss, metapelites, granite and gabbro.
Two types of mafic magmatic rocks have been identified in Mandi: gabbro and volcanics. For
comparative account, other volcanic rocks occurring at Palampur and Darang were also studies.
Following conclusions have been drawn based on the petrography of these rocks:

The gabbroic rocks are variably altered from fresh gabbro in core to completely altered
gabbro along the margins with an intermediate moderately altered gabbro. This supported
by the occurrence of secondary minerals, such as amphibole, biotite and epidote after
pyroxene and olivine and decrease in anorthite content of plagioclase from An50-54 (in
fresh gabbro) to An44-48 (in altered gabbro). It is concluded that this type of secondary
alteration in gabbros is not due to regional metamorphism. Because, the regional
metamorphism will alter all the gabbros together to the same grade depending upon its
intensity and there will not be the occurrence of any unaltered or fresh gabbro. The
presence of fresh gabbro in the core portions and the altered gabbros towards margins of
the thick gabbro intrusion suggest that these rocks were probably altered by a fluid. The
fluids or volatiles originated during the final cooling stage of the gabbro and migrated
from core to margin leaving behind a fresh core, i.e. deuteric alteration or also known as

autometamorphism.
The petrographic features of volcanics revels that there are mainly two varieties of
metavolcanics exposed in Mandi viz. foliated and massive variety. Both the varieties are
metamorphosed upto greenschist facies. Similar volcanic rocks at Darang are relatively
less metamorphosed as indicated by the preservation of amygdules and vesicles in these
rocks, which were not observed at Mandi. The amygdules at Darang are made up of
secondary minerals, such as zeolites, chlorite, epidote and calcite. The Palampur
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volcanics appears to be mostly foliated in nature, and in addition to secondary chlorite,

epidote and sericite, prehnite has also been identified. The grade of metamorphism of
Palampur volcanics is similar to that of Mandi volcanics.

The field observations at the Mandi-Rohtang transect indicate that the coarse-grained
Jutogh metapelites of this region are high grade in nature (mostly coarse-grained schists)
as compared to the Chail metapelites (mostly phyllites or fine grained schists) of Mandi
region. The granitic rocks are also more foliated around Marhi-Rohtang region, while

those at Mandi are relatively less foliated.

The rock units observed during the Palampur-Neugal traverse are similar to the rocks
exposed in Mandi region. The only variations observed in this area are the attitude of
beds which varies from NW-SE with dip directions of NE. Here, the contacts between
different rock units are obscured because of lack of any road sections. In Mandi the rock
units show a regional strike of NE-SW with SE dip directions with excellent road
sections along the dip direction.

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