Implications of Late Palaeozoic postglacial marine transgressive‐regressive (T‐R) cycles recorded in the Talchir Formation, Son Valley Basin, peninsular India: A sequence stratigraphic paradigm

Abstract

The signature of Late palaeozoic glaciation, a pan‐Gondwanaland palaeoclimatic event, is recorded in the Talchir Formation (Late Carboniferous to Early Permian), the basal‐most litho‐unit within the Gondwana Supergroup (Late Carboniferous–Early Cretaceous) in peninsular India. About 200 m thick sedimentary succession of the Talchir Formation, exposed in the Hasdeo River section in the Son Valley Basin, Central India, manifests signatures of deposition by melting of glaciers near to the ice‐grounding line. Evidence of glacial influences is prevalent in the lower‐middle part of the succession and represented by glacial tillites with faceted/striated gravels and bullet‐shaped clasts, dropstones and ice‐rafted debris (IRD), associated with various sediment gravity flow deposits. In the middle‐upper part of the succession, records of post‐glacial marine incursions are preserved as thick sandstone and sandstone‐mudstone heteroliths of a shallow marine shore‐shelf depositional regime. These are characterized by abundant tidal and wave signatures, with marine bivalve fossils and trace fossils of marine invertebrates. The upward decrease in size and abundance of the IRDs indicates a gradual decrease in glacial influences, with landward incursion of the marine depositional systems over the proglacial systems. Multiple stacked progradational and retrogradational stratal stacking patterns formed by alternating glacigenic and marginal marine dominated processes signify multiple transgressive‐regressive (T‐R) cycles, manifesting repeated advancements and retreats of the glacier, associated with sea level rise and marine incursions into the land. The top part of the succession, characterized by fine‐grained siltstone/mudstone without any IRD, suggests sedimentation at a relatively deeper part of the basin, indicating the strong influence of the eustatic rise caused by significant melting of the retreating ice sheet. Stacked T‐R cycles bounded by distinct facies architecture define multiple system tracts confined within three major deglaciation sequences within the studied Talchir Formation, suggesting multiple phases of advance‐retreats of the ice sheet and significant marine onlaps within the continental Gondwanaland under the Late Palaeozoic icehouse‐greenhouse climatic change.

Glacial sedimentation in Northern Gondwana: insights from the Talchir formation, Manendragarh, India

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Figure 7. Map showing distribution of different Gondwanan basins of Peninsular India. Red coloured asterisks show the reports of glaciogenic deposits from Talchir Formation in and around the present study area by Smith (1963a); Sen (1991); Bose et al (1992); Dasgupta (2006); Chakraborty and Ghosh (2008); Bhattacharya and Bhattacharya (2015); Varshney and Bhattacharya (2023).

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“…In India, Talchir sedimentary rocks (Late Carboniferous to Early Permian) deposited within fault-controlled half-graben-type basins along palaeosuture lineaments such as the Damodar Valley, Son-Mahanadi Basin and Satpura Basin (Banerjee et al 2020) bear diagnostic glaciogenic signatures (e.g. dropstones, glacial till deposits, glacial pavement, repeated glacial advance-retreat cycles with shifts in the palaeoshorelines during the Talchir sedimentation) related to Late Palaeozoic glaciation (Smith, 1963a, 1963b; Casshyap & Qidwai, 1974; Das & Sen, 1980; Casshyap & Tewari, 1982; Eyles & McCabe, 1989; Bose et al 1992; Mukhopadhyay & Bhattacharya, 1994; Veevers & Tewari, 1995; Bhattacharya et al 2004, 2005; Maejima et al 2004; Bhattacharya & Bhattacharya, 2006, 2010, 2012; Chakraborty & Ghosh, 2008 Varshney & Bhattacharya, 2023). A marine embayment within central India during the Early Permian was inferred based on the occurrence of marine invertebrates such as bivalves, brachiopods, gastropods, polyplacophora, crinoids, bryozoans, foraminifers, ostracods, among other invertebrates at Umaria and Manendragarh, and Dudhi Nala (Bhatia & Singh, 1959; Ghosh, 2003; Bharti & Chakraborty, 2014).…”

“…Till deposits relating to at least three phases of glacial advance and retreat during Talchir sedimentation are recorded in different sub-basins of the Damodar Valley (Smith, 1963a, 1963b; Sen, 1977, 1991). Trace fossil studies, cyclicity assessments and sequence stratigraphic architecture across different sub-basins of the Damodar Valley and the Satpura Basin revealed that storm-tide-influenced shallow marine deposition took place over these basal Talchir glaciogenic sediments due to alternating glacial advance-retreat phases (Bhattacharya, 2013; Bhattacharya & Bhattacharya, 2015) and are correlated with the climatic changes at the end of P1–P2 phases of Late Palaeozoic glaciation (Bhattacharya, 2013; Bhattacharya & Bhattacharya, 2015; Varshney & Bhattacharya, 2023). Based on the palaeontological evidence, the Manendragarh glacier was correlated to the late stage of the P1 phase of Late Palaeozoic glaciation by Shah and Shastry (1975) and Dickins and Shah (1979).…”

“…dropstones, glacial till deposits, glacial pavement) throughout the Talchir Formation. (Pascoe, 1968; Mukhopadhyay et al 2010; Varshney & Bhattacharya, 2023). Marine fossil assemblages have been recorded from several basins in Peninsular India where the Talchir Formation crops out, as well as along the Tethyan margin (Venkatachala & Tiwari, 1987; Ghosh, 2003; Mukhopadhyay et al 2010; Bharti & Chakraborty, 2014; Mondal et al 2021).…”

“…The above-mentioned fauna found in the studied region are of cold water origin (Shen et al 2013). Thus, the Manendragarh marine fossil-bearing beds of the Talchir deposits were correlated with the Late Carboniferous (Uralian) glaciation that continued up to the Early Permian (Artinskian) (Bhatia & Singh, 1959; Varshney & Bhattacharya, 2023). However, based on the marine fossils found in this studied area Shah and Shastry (1975) and Ram-Awatar et al (2013) designated the marine fossil beds of the Talchir deposits as Early Permian age (280–240 Ma).…”