Geochemical and Isotopic Composition of Gypsum Deposits from Sahastradhara Region of Lesser Himalaya, India

Major element chemistry of the gypsum mineralisation in the Himalayan region which represent the ancient seawater of the Tethys Sea. It provides the constraints on the change of global elemental and isotopic ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) variation over a geological time scale. Results indicate that these gypsum lenses, are formed by secondary process of leaching of host rocks and subsequent mineralization. These have close affinities with the seawaters and hence, may be a suitable proxy to represent the ancient seawater compositions. This information could be utilised to infer the paleooceanographic reconstruction of the Tethys Sea. As a part of this study, samples from Sahastradhara Lesser Himalaya were analysed for their geochemical and isotopic composition to infer about the chemical variation.