Petrography and Provenance of Early Triassic Pachmarhi Formation Sandstones, Satpura Gondwana Basin, Madhya Pradesh, Central India

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">The Pachmarhi, Denwa and Bagra Formations comprise of terrigenous sediments predominantly constitute the Mesozoic Gondwana sequence in Satpura basin of Madhya Pradesh, central India. The Pachmarhi Formation sandstones were studied with a view to understand the nature of the Satpura basin in relation to provenance and tectonic setting. Twenty representative samples of sandstone from Pachmarhi were examined for detrital mineralogy, petrofacies and tectonic implications. These sandstones are medium to coarse grained, moderately to moderately well sorted, subangular to subrounded and of moderate sphericity and composed of several varieties of quartz, feldspar, rock fragments, mica and a suite of heavy minerals. Petrographically, the Pachmarhi sandstones are quartzarenite and subarkose. The petrofacies studies reflect derivation of the sediments from continental block provenance and stable cratonic to fault-bounded basement uplift tectonic setting. The study suggests that the Precambrian granitoids occurring in the southern margin of the Satpura basin contributed sediments during Pachmarhi sedimentation.</span> </p

Floristic similarities of the Artinskian Siderópolis Member macroflora, Rio Bonito formation (Paraná Basin, Brazil) with Cisuralian paleofloras of India

“…The Gondwana strata of Peninsular India register the sedimentation beginning in the Permo-Carboniferous period after a long depositional hiatus since the Proterozoic. The Gondwana successions are preserved in numerous discrete, basins that record a depositional history up to the Cretaceous (Mukhopadhyay et al, 2010;Khan and Shahnawaz, 2013). See Figure 2.…”

“…In India, as in Brazil and other parts of Gondwana, the successions start with basal diamictites and glacial outwash deposits, going up to coal-bearing siliciclastics (sandstones, siltstones and shales) with Glossopteris flora covered by Triassic red beds, further to Lower Cretaceous, with intercalated basic volcanic Jurassic rocks constituting more than 5,000 m thick sediments, deposited over 200 million years (Mukhopadhyay et al, 2010;Khan and Shahnawaz, 2013).…”

Early Cretaceous flora of India- A review

“…The Sher River section near Sehora shows a maximum thickness of 30-35 m. These strata embody rich organic matter in fluvio-lacustrine sediments. This formation rests unconformably on the Precambrian rocks or at places by Bagra sediments (?Jurassic) and overlain by Lameta or Deccan traps (Infra-intertrappeans) (Crookshank, 1936;Khan & Shahnawaz, 2013;Singh et al, 2015). It consists of thick, soft, white to brown massive sandstone alternating with white clays, conglomerate, carbonaceous shale and beds of cherts (Singh et al, 2015).…”

Provenance and Tectonic Setting of Late Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Kazhdumi Formation Sandstones (SW Iran)

“…The goal of provenance studies is to deduce the characteristics of sediment source areas. The various types of source rocks produce different suite of detrital minerals which reveal the character of that rock from which the suites have originated [1]. However, the geochemical composition of clastic rocks is widely used to understand the composition [2]- [5], evaluate weathering processes [6]- [8], and to develop paleogeographic reconstructions of source regions [9]- [11].…”