Dr Jiten Pattnaik

Postdoctoral fellow
Name: Jiten Pattnaik
Location: C1 Lab 446 Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
Department of Geology Postdoctoral Fellows  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: +27 (0)11 559 4701

Email: jitenp@uj.ac.za

About Dr Jiten Pattnaik

Dr Jiten Pattnaik has been working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow since March 2022 in the Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He did his doctoral study in Earth Sciences (Mantle Petrology) at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. His Ph.D. thesis is entitled “Petrology, geochemistry and water contents of Dharwar cratonic lithosphere: evidence from mantle-derived xenoliths and xenocrysts in Wajrakarur kimberlites” under the supervision of Dr. Sujoy Ghosh. He completed his master’s degree in Geology [M.Sc (Tech)] at Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University (India) located on the banks of Quaternary Alluvial plains of the Holy River Ganges.

Project:

My Research mostly focuses on getting insights into the nature of the diamondiferous mantle beneath the Kaapvaal Craton of Southern Africa

Supervisor:

Prof. Fanus Viljoen

Research Interests:

Petrological and geochemical evolution of lithospheric mantle, mantle xenoliths, geodynamics, craton evolution, hydrogen in nominally anhydrous minerals, oxygen fugacity in mantle minerals, mantle deformation, Large Igneous Provinces, mantle plumes, crust-mantle evolution.

Establishing the composition and thermal structure of the mantle underlying the oldest portions of the Earth (cratons) is one of the greatest challenges to earth sciences. Cratonic mantle down to depths of 200 km can only be studied directly as xenoliths sampled by rare and exotic kimberlite or carbonated silicate magmas. Experimental petrology and geophysics are two other branches that investigate the deep Earth. Information on the mantle at greater depths can only be derived from studies of diamonds and their inclusions. My broad area of research includes understanding the evolution of the lithospheric mantle and the different processes involved in it, magma generation and metasomatism in the crust-mantle system, craton evolution (the origin of cratonic peridotites, eclogites, and pyroxenites), and formation. I am interested in petrology and volcanology of kimberlites, in the characterization of diamonds and their mineral inclusions, as well as in the petrology of mantle xenoliths. Constraining the petrological architecture and thermal history of cratonic lithosphere through conventional and novel approaches to thermobarometry and thermal modelling have always fascinated me. Apart from that, I have developed a keen interest in quantifying the hydrogen contents in nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs) in the earth’s mantle and how much water they hold, and to understand where this water came from. Another subject of attention to me is the oxidation state of the mantle and the parameters that control it. The oxidation state is a fundamental parameter for a wide variety of mantle processes, such as the temperature of first melting, the composition of partial melts, the convection behavior (rheological properties) of the mantle, the stability and composition of fluid (C-H-O-S) phases in the mantle, and atmospheric evolution during the Archean when the early atmosphere was controlled by outgassing.

Articles Published:

• Samal, A.K., Dutta, S., Pattnaik, J., Kumar, D., Srivastava, R.K. (2022) Major and trace element geochemistry of olivine from an ENE-trending picrite dyke, genetically linked to the ca. 1.89–1.88 Ga Hampi swarm, western Dharwar craton: Implications for plume induced melting of a mixed peridotite-pyroxenite source. Geochemistry. (IF: 4.13) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemer.2021.125839

• Pattnaik, J., Demouchy, S., Ghosh, S. (2021). Low hydrogen concentrations in Dharwar cratonic lithosphere inferred from peridotites, Wajrakarur kimberlites field: Implications for mantle viscosity and carbonated silicate melt metasomatism. Precambrian Research. (IF: 4.26) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2020.105982

• Pattnaik, J., Ghosh, S., Dongre, A. (2020). Plume activity and carbonated silicate melt metasomatism in Dharwar cratonic lithosphere: Evidence from peridotite xenoliths in Wajrakarur kimberlites. Lithos. (IF: 4.02) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2020.105726

Conference Abstracts:

• Pattnaik, J., Ghosh, S., Dongre, A. (2021). Plume activity and carbonated silicate melt metasomatism in Dharwar cratonic lithosphere: Evidence from peridotite xenoliths in Wajrakarur kimberlites. American Geophysical Union Fall meeting

• Pattnaik, J., Ghosh, S., Babu, E.V.S.S.K. (2021). Subduction and cumulate processes for the origin of eclogite xenoliths from Wajrakarur kimberlite field, Eastern Dharwar craton. Goldschmidt

• Pattnaik, J., Ghosh, S., Babu EVSSK, Dongre, A. (2018). Oxygen fugacity of upper mantle beneath Dharwar craton, India. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.