Palynofloral and Palynofacies Evidences and its Implication on the Depositional Environment from Wardha Valley Coalfield, Maharashtra

Abstract

The palynological and palynofacies studies have been undertaken on the sub-surface sediments of borehole AK-19 from Asthona area of the Wardha coalfield, India. The present investigation has revealed the existence of two distinct palynological assemblages, which have been designated as palynoassemblage – I and II respectively. The former, has shown a predominance of monosaccates viz., Parasaccites, Plicatipollenites, Potonieisporites, and Crucisaccites, whereas, the latter is characterized by the dominance of striate bisaccates such as Faunipollenites and sub-dominance of non-striate bisaccate Scheuringipollenites along with other striate forms such as Striatopodocarpites, Crescentipollenites, and Rhizomaspora. The other genera recorded mainly includes Parasaccites, Indotriradites, and Callumispora, which suggests that primarily herbaceous and the arborescent plants where luxuriantly growing in the forest with the prevalence of hygrophilous and mesophilous environmental conditions. The recovered palynoassemblages are governed mainly by the gymnosperms such as glossopterids, conifers, and cordaites, etc., flourished in near shore areas in riverine, lacustrine conditions as well as in large swamps and marshy habitat with the prevalence of initially cold climatic conditions (Palynoassemblage-I) which later on became temperate (Palynoassemblage-II). The present palynoassemblages have a closer affiliation with the known early Permian palynofloras of other Gondwana basins of India such as Umrer and Kamthi coalfields and Godavari, Damodar, Son-Mahanadi and Satpura basins. It can also be tentatively correlated with the early Permian palynoassemblages ofo South America, Antarctica, Australia, Africa and Salt range of Pakistan. Hence, Artinskian and Kungurian age (early Permian) has been assigned to the studied palynoassemblages respectively. The study of organic matter has revealed three distinct palynofacies (I-III) which are characterized by the dominance of palynomorphs (Palynofacies-I), phytoclasts (Palynofacies-II) and biodegraded organic matter (Palynofacies-III) respectively. Palynofacies-I-III reflects the proximal fresh water settings; oxidizing fluvio-deltaic near shore conditions and distal dysoxic waterlogged settings respectively. Palynofacies-I and II represent the oxidizing conditions while Palynofacies-III represents the reducing conditions.

Depositional Facies and Palynofacies Provenance Reconstruction of the Upper Cretaceous by Means of Particulate Organic Matter and Clastic Deposits of the Nsukka Formation, Southeastern Nigeria

“…The large to relatively medium sized palynomaceral 4 forms denotes its terrestrial origin sourced from charcoal remains of forest re since they are virtually of high buoyancy because of their spindle sizes, sharp angles and very low speci c gravity of the opaque debris. P4 particles of opaque and equidimensional form in Wardha Valley coal eld Maharashtra suggests near shore oxidizing conditions (Murthy et al 2019). The occasional cellular structure of some opaque and semi opaque debris (Fig.…”

Upper Pennsylvanian Age of the Lower Talchir Formation in the Wardha Basin, Central India, Based on Guide Palynomorphs Present in Radiometricallydated Palynozonations in South America, Africa, and Australia

“…A literature survey of the palynological works from Talchir sediments of the Wardha Basin is relatively less and requires further studies. Many palynologic studies were carried out in the lower Permian Barakar and upper Permian Kamthi formations (Agashe & Chitnis, 1970, 1972a, 1972bAnand-Prakash & Khare, 1974;Bharadwaj & Anand-Prakash, 1974;Agashe et al, 1981;Sarate, 1985;Bhattacharrya, 1997;Kumar & Jha, 2000;Jha et al, 2007;Sabina et al, 2007;Shivanna et al, 2008Shivanna et al, , 2011Shivanna et al, , 2014Kalkar et al, 2010;Kavali et al, 2010Kavali et al, , 2016Jha et al, 2011;Sarate et al, 2016Sarate et al, , 2017Murthy et al, 2017Murthy et al, , 2019.…”

Upper Pennsylvanian Age of the Lower Talchir Formation in the Wardha Basin, Central India, Based on Guide Palynomorphs Present in Radiometrically-Dated Palynozonations in South America, Africa, and Australia

“…A survey of literature pertaining to the palynological works from Talchir sediments of the Wardha Basin are relatively less and require further studies. Many palynologic studies were carried out in the lower Permian Barakar and upper Permian Kamthi formations (Agashe & Chitnis, 1970, 1972a, 1972bAnand-Prakash & Khare, 1974;Bharadwaj & Anand-Prakash, 1974;Agashe et al,1984;Sarate, 1985;Bhattacharrya, 1997;Kumar & Jha, 2000;Jha et al, 2007;Kavali et al, 2007Kavali et al, , 2010Kavali et al, , 2016Kalkar et al, 2010;Shivanna et al, 2008Shivanna et al, , 2011Shivanna et al, , 2014Jha et al, 2011;Sarate et al, 2016Sarate et al, , 2017Murthy et al, 2017Murthy et al, , 2019.…”