Acquisition of natural remanence in the basaltic laterites of Deccan volcanic province (India): Implications to palaeomagnetic studies in laterites

•Deccan basalt laterite show complete ferri to antiferromagnetic transformation.•Amorphous and crystalline hematites produce strong NRM in these laterites.•Crystalline hematite is the carrier mineral representing stable NRM.•Palaeomagnetism enables dating of various time horizons within lateritic profile. Lateritization in the Deccan basalt province (India) represents a large spectrum of chemical weathering with up to 99% CIA values and complete ferri- to antiferromagnetic transformations. We combined rock magnetic, palaeomagnetic, XRD, and XRF analyses to investigate the mineralogical transformations and its relationship to the acquisition of natural remanent magnetization (NRM) by sampling a 25 m thick Deccan lateritic profile from the West Coast of India. Significant amount of amorphous hematite (ha), crystalline hematite (hc), goethite and their Al- substituted forms were detected along with gibbsite and kaolinite. The domain size association of ‘SP + SD and ‘SP + SD + MD’ in the ferri- as well as antiferromagnetic forms; and the combination of ha and hc yield strong NRMs amongst these laterites. Low field demagnetization (