Bastar Craton

The Bastar Craton (also known as the Bhandara or

Central Indian Craton) is bordered by

PranhitaGodavari rift (to the south),

Mahanadi Rift (in the northeast),
Satpura Mobile Belt (in the north),
Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt (to the southern) and
Deccan Traps cover (to the west)

covers an area of 1,30,000 km2

Bastar Craton
It comprises widespread and preponderant quartzo-felspathic gneisses and granites of
batholithic dimension and covered by volcano sedimentary supracrustals form linear belts
and islands.
Later involved in strong Proterozoic tectonism, both the basement gneisses and the covering
volcano sedimentary rocks were highly deformed and metamorphosed to generally medium
grade metamorphism, but reaching granulite grade in the south-western part.
The boundary of the Archaean Craton against the Proterozoic Mobile Belt is delineated by a
shear zone of the nature of a detachment thrust. This tectonic zone has been described as the
Sileru Thrust in the southern sector and as the Terrane Boundary Shear Zone in the northern
part.
North of the craton a crustal-scale shear zone called the Central Indian Shear Zone and
oriented broadly ENEWSW, extends for more than 500 km and is also called Central
Indian Tectonic Zone. It represents the tectonized boundary of the Satpura Mobile Belt of
Proterozoic antiquity. The Central Indian Shear Zone is characterized by 2- to 5-km-wide
zone of mylonites and northerly dipping steep shears.
Deformation Pattern
Craton Nucleus: Markampara Gneiss
The southern part of the Bastar district, high-alumina gneiss of tonalitetrondhjemitegranodiorite
composition occurs as enclaves within the gneisses and granites that dominate the cratonic terrane.
Metamorphosed from middle amphibolite to lower granulite facies.
These gneisses have yielded UPb zircon age of 3509 14 Ma, indicating the time of primary
crystallization of the magma (Sarkar et al. 1993). The tonalite in the central part of the craton is 3560 Ma
old (Ghosh 2004).
In age and compositional characteristics, the Markampara Gneiss is very similar to the Gorur Gneiss
in the Dharwar Craton. But the Markampara Gneiss is not associated with any suite of basic or ultrabasic
rocks
Sukma Group
Nearly 2500-m-thick succession of metamorphic complex described as the Sukma Group with
sillimanitebearing quartzite, calc-silicate gneiss, amphibolite and cordieriteanthophyllite schist,
cordieritebiotitesillimanitegarnet schist, and metamorphosed banded ferruginous quartzite are
associated with biotite gneiss and migmatites of tonalite trondhjemitegranodiorite composition.
Sukma gneisses is 3081 60 Ma
Bengpal Group
The Bengpal Group comprises sericitequartzite interlayered with amygdaloidal basalts and tuffs, ferruginous
quartz schist, banded iron-quartzite and conglomerate. These are intimately associated with andalusite
chiastolite schist, andalusite quartzite and chloritoid schist of contact metamorphic origin.
The Bengpal rests unconformably on the Sukma and described as a younger supracrustal formation belonging to
the Neoarchaean time.

Bailadila Group
Unconformably overlying the Sukma and the Bengpal complexes, the 1300-to 2700-m-thick succession of mildly
metamorphosed dominantly ferruginous sedimentary rocks is known as the Bailadila Group.
The Bailadila also contains (but in subordinate proportion) grunerite schist, chlorite schist and carbonaceous
phyllite. The predominant component is the banded haematite-quartzite.
Before subjected to metamorphism, the original sedimentary succession of the supracrustal or covering Sukma
BengpalBailadala units must have comprised quartzarenites, carbonates and ferruginous shales
The combined assemblages represent a deposit of a continental-margin setting or a back-arc basin.
Like the Dharwar Supergroup succession, the supracrustal assemblages of the Bastar also represent a deposit of
an intracontinental basin in the regime of transpressional tectonism resulting from stretching of the Archaean
sialic crust.
Amgaon Gneiss
The granitic gneisses that wholly surround the 3500-million-year-old Markampara Gneiss and the 3100-
Ma-old Sukma gneiss represent widespread magmatism heralding the beginning of the Proterozoic era.
The Amgaon Gneiss is dated 2480 3 Ma by the UPb zircon geochronology.
It is obvious that the Amgaon Gneiss belongs to the time span 26002500 Ma and is therefore a
contemporary of the Closepet Granite of the Dharwar Craton.
Bhopalpatnam Granulite
The southernsouth-western part of the Bastar Craton forming the north-eastern ank of the Godavari
Graben embodies two granulite beltsthe Bhopalpatnam and the Kondagoan. The Bhopalpatnam
Granulites composed of garnet-bearing enderbitic charnockite and pelitic gneisses which were formed at,
respectively, 89.5 kbar and 720800 C and 4.76.5 kbar on 660720C.
The granulites are believed to have been exhumed from the lower crustal level. The granulites contain
zoned crystals of zircon that have 1900-Ma-old cores and 1700-Ma-old rims
Mafc Dykes
Two sets of subalkaline mafc dykes trend in the NWSE and WNWESE directions in the northern part of
the Bastar Craton. In the southern part, there is a third set of dykesoccurring in swarms in the granulitic
terrane
The UPb, TIMS and EMP UTh total lead chemical dating of gabbro and dolerite give an age of 1883 114
Ma