Lavale - FLAME

Location of FLAME Hill from the Mumbai-Pune Expressway

FLAME HILL: FIELD MAPPING OF BASALT FLOWS

Starting out the field traverse from Flame’s main entrance we take the road leading to the highway. Around the first bend on the left hand side of the road and approximately 100 m inside we encounter the first outcrop of our traverse. Flow 1 is extremely weathered, the basalt looks buff colored and the rock is very friable.  The thickness of the flow is 10 ft. and it extends for about 30-35 ft. laterally. 

Walking further uphill we see another outcrop. The contact between flow 1 and the new flow is not seen but inferred. We assume this is a new flow. The flow is 6-8 ft. thick and approximately 30 ft in length. We calling this Flow 2 which appears less weathered in comparison to the previous outcrop.

Quarry Opposite the Lower Entrance of Oxford Golf Course

Further on the road, we see flows 3, 4 and 5 at the quarry opposite the lower entrance of the golf course. We see the contact between flows 3 and 4 and flows 4 and 5. The contact is gradational. Flow 4 looks columnar and flow 5 appears more weathered. Near the contact between flows 4 and 5 the top of flow 4 looks much more compressed. The contact itself is sharp. Flow 3 is approximately 10 ft in thickness, flow 4 is approximately 15 ft. thick and flow 5 is 6-8 ft. thick.

At the next bend, on the right side of the road we observe the top of Flow 5 and the base of Flow 6. Flow 6 is pillow like.

At a distance of a few meters on both sides of the road we see flows 7 and 8 and a laterite soil horizon between them. Flows 7 appears to be more weathered 

As we continue walking on, approximately 30 feet away from the road we see flow 9 at a small outcrop. The flow is extremely weathered and no contact between flows 8 and 9 were visible.

Further up and at the bend in the road we see a new flow (Flow 10) which is very different from flow 9. The contact between flows 9 and 10 was not visible due to excessive vegetation growth. Flow 10 is blocky and massive and is extensive in its thickness (extends for two bends in the road).

At this stop, we see a very weathered flow 11 and a contact between 11 and 12. However we did not observe any contact between flows 10 and 11.

As we continue up ahead, we observe the base of flow 12, a second laterite soil horizon and flow 13. At this stop, the flows are no longer horizontal unlike the previous flows and some flow structures are also observed.

We continue on the FLAME Road and at the helipad, where we see three distinct flows (Flow 14, 15 and 16). The contact between flow 14 and 15 and between flow 15 and 16 is visible. Flow 15 looks very weathered and flow 16 looks columnar in shape. 

This is the highest point of elevation at the FLAME hill and we descend down towards the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. On the way down we observe several of the flows and contacts that we observed when climbing up from FLAME campus to the top of FLAME hill at the helipad

We walk past the helipad for approximately 100 m or so and come to a bend that exposes Flows 14 on both sides of the road. The flow is massive and blocky.

After walking a little ahead of the previous bend we see a contact between flow 14 and 13 exposed on the left side of the road. The two flows are separated by a laterite horizon which makes up the upper part of flow 13 observed while travelling from FLAME campus up to the helipad.

As we descend down the FLAME road we come across the contact between flow 10 and flow 9. Flow 10 is blocky and flow 9 is extremely weathered. As we continue our descent to the Pune-Mumbai expressway we find the elevation and structures of outcrops and textures of the flows match our observations of the other face of FLAME hill. Most outcrops and the flows on the side descending from the helipad to the expressway were much more weathered and obstructed due to greater construction. However we observed flows 8, 6, 3(at the pink water tank) and flow 1 (slip road next to the Pune-Mumbai Expressway).