Lecture 25

Geology of India

Dr. K. Vijaya Kumar School of Earth Sciences SRTM University, Nanded 431 606 Maharashtra, INDIA (E-mail: vijay_kumar92@hotmail.com)

Geological Time Scale

General Geology of India

Himalayas (54 Ma recent) Deccan traps (64 Ma) Dharwar Craton (3.4 2.6 Ga) Indo-Gangetic Plains (Quaternary Recent) Gondwana basin (220 70 Ma) Eastern Ghats Belt (2.0 0.6 Ga)

Pericratonic sedimentary Basins (0.1 Ga Recent)

Proterozoic basin (1.9 0.6 Ga) Andaman Island Arc Back-arc sea (Cretaceous present)

Cratons of India

Cratons of India
Indian Shield consists of five composite, consolidated, rigid and stable blocks evolved during Archaean era. These stable regions are known as Cratons. Indian shield has five cratons, namely Dharwar Craton in southern India, Bastar Craton in central India, Singhbhum Craton in eastern India and Bundelkhand Craton in north India and Aravalli craton in western India. The Cratons have Palaeoarchaean nuclei, 3310 to 3560 Ma in age, comprising granite gneisses and mafic-Ultramafic rock complexes. Craton are surrounded by younger linear belts consisting of sedimentary and basaltic-andesitic volcanic rocks and granitic batholiths. The cratons are supposed to have formed by accretion of island arcs, contiental arcs and oceanic plateaus. The linear belts of sedimentary and volcanic assemblages are called as Greenstone Belts.

Dharwar Craton Migration of magmatic Arc (Rapid Growth 2.75 -2.60 Ga)
3.4 Ga

Altaid growth model

Sengor and Natlin., 1996 Jayananda et al., 2007

Proterozoic Mobile Belts

Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt (GIPFOB)

Mobile belts are composed of high-grade metamorphic and deep-seated plutonic igneous rocks
Leelanandam et al., 2006 & Refs therein

Proterozoic Mobile Belts of India The cratons are separated from one another by mobile belts of Proterozoic. Shear zones demarcate their boundaries. The Eastern Ghat mobile belt borders Dharwar and Bastar cratons, Satpura-Aravalli belt embrace the Bundelkhand craton and Singbhum mobile belt forms the northern fringe of Singbhum craton. The mobile belts are made up of high grade metamorphic sedimentary, volcanic and plutonic igneous rocks and anorthosites and alkaline rocks. Emplacement of granites in mobile belts marked the end of Proterozoic era in the Indian shield. The Proterozoic mobile belts are considered to have formed by accretion of arc belts and culminated by

Eastern Ghats Belt

Younging of Magmatism and Sedimentation

Ramakrishnan et al., 1998; Vijaya Kumar et al., 2006

SUTURES

Craton

Schist Belt

Arc Crust

Fold Belt

Craton

Indian Sedimentary Basins

Indian Proterozoic Basins

Indian Proterozoic Basins

Many Proterozoic sedimentary basins border the Mobile belts in the Peninsular India. Cuddapah, Vindhyayn, Bhima- Kaladgi, and Chattisgarh are prominent intracratonic sedimentary basins. These sedimentary basins contain un-metamorphosed but slightly deformed sediments deposited at three distinct time intervals of 1800100 Ma, 1000100 Ma and 600100 Ma. The lower part of the basins consists of marine sediemts intercalated with volcanic rocks. Upper parts of the basins are characterized by sediments laid down by rivers and streams. Some of the sedimentary basins contain kimberlites

Gondwana Basins

Gondwana Basins

The valleys of Damodar river in Jharkhand and Bengal, Mahanadi in Orissa and Chattisgarh, the Son in UP, Narmada in MP and Pranahita-Godavari in AP occupy elongate sedimentary basins that evolved as a consequence of formation and eventual filling-up with sediments in the grabens and half-grabens. Trending in E-W and NNW-SSE, these grabens were formed as a result of rifting of the Gondwana in the beginning of the Permian. The Gondwana basins consists of glacial sediments, marine sediments, terrestrial coal-bearing fluvial sediments and fluvial-aeolian sediments. The

Pericratonic Basins of India

Pericratonic Basins of India

Sedimentary successions ranging in age from Jurassic to Quaternary occur in large discontinuous patches along the periphery of Peninsular India, from Kachchh in the west, through the Malabar and Cormandal coasts in south to Orissa in east. The sedimentary successions represent the Pericratonic basins that evolved following subsidence due to faulting of the coastal belts in the Mahanadi, Godavari-Krishna, Palar-Kaveri, Khambhat-Sabarmati, and Kachchh sectors of the continental margin. In all the Pericratonic basins the lower succession is made up of Mesozoic marine sediments intercalated with sediments of deltas of the rivers. The pericratonic

Deccan Traps

Deccan Traps

Forming flat-topped stepped plateaus-the Deccan traps- the stupendous volumes of Basaltic lavas with tuffs cover Maharashtra, bordering areas of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh and Kachchh-Saurashtra regions of Gujarat. The volcanic eruption commenced around 69 Ma and lasted around 61 Ma, the bulk being emplaced at 65.5 Ma. The flowing lavas dammed rivers and streams, forming lakes and swamps, which became sanctuaries for animals (including dinosaurs) and plants. The Deccan traps are formed during the passing of indian subcontinent over Reunion Plume.

The Himalayas

The Himalayas

The arcuate Himalaya province, forming the wide northern fringe of the Indian continent is product of collision of India with Eurasia around 65-55 Ma ago. In the north, the frontier is defined by the zone of AsiaIndia collision characterized by squeezed up, strongly deformed, broken fragments of sea-floor with sediments of an oceanic trench. The southern boundary is demarcated by a series of reverse faults against the Indo-Gangetic Plains. From southern margin to the margin there is a general decrease in the ages of the rocks from Proterozoic to tertiary. The Himalayan belt is composed of highly deformed sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks,

Andaman Magmatic Arc and Back Arc Basin

Andaman Magmatic Arc and Back Arc Basin

Constituting the central part of the Indonesia-Myanmar Mobile Belt, the 850 km long chain of islands between Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea make the Andaman Island Arc. The Island Arc is represented by more than 300 islands made up of successions of Crateceous to Tertiary sedimentary rocks along with broken-up ocean-floor rocks. The eastern arc embodies seamounts and volcanoes (dormant and active). The volcanoes are related to the actively spreading floor of the Andaman sea, a back arc basin. Southern part of the back arc is essentially composed of volcanic rocks and the northern part

Indo-Gangetic Plains

Indo-Gangetic Plains

South of the Himalayan Mobile Belt stretching from Sindhu delta in Pakistan to the Sundarban region in Bengal, are the vast plains of Quaternary sediments known as the Indo-Ganjetic Plains. The plains are the outcome of rapid filling up of the foreland basin that was formed in front of the rising Himalayas. The thickness of the sediments varies from 10 m in the southern margin to 1500-2500m in the northern part. The southern extension of Sindhu plins in Rajasthan was converted into a desert by the Pleistocene winds

In summary..

Indo-Gangetic Plains

Andaman Magmatic Arc and Back Arc Basin The Himalayas

Deccan Traps Pericratonic Basins of India Gondwana Basins Indian Proterozoic Basins Proterozoic Mobile Belts of India Cratons of India