Proterozoic evolution of Eastern Dharwar and Bastar cratons, India – An overview of the intracratonic basins, craton margins and mobile belts
Introduction
Built over the four large amalgamated Archean nuclei (Dharwar, Bastar (Bhandara), Singhbhum, Aravalli–Bundelkhand), the Indian shield is a vast repository of the Proterozoic geological record. The Proterozoic sedimentary basins and supracrustal sequences in India are comparable in scale, and perhaps also in development, to those of Africa, Australia, Brazil and North America (Hoffman, 1989, Eriksson et al., 1999, Teixeira and Cordani, 2008, pub. 2010; Saha and Mazumder, 2012). The Bastar and Dharwar cratons constitute two of the four major cratons in the Precambrian shield of India (e.g. Radhakrishna and Naqvi, 1986, Ramakrishna and Vaidyanadhan, 2008, Meert et al., 2010, Saha and Mazumder, 2012). Both the cratons are associated with major accretion of granitic material at around 2500 Ma as exemplified by the Closepet granite, Dongargarh granite and Malanjkhand granite, heralding the major cratonization event in southern cratonic province of India (Jayananda et al., 2013). The two cratons are also circumscribed by supposedly Middle Proterozoic mobile belts, namely the Eastern Ghats belt (EGB) and the Central Indian tectonic zone (CITZ), which hold key to the Proterozoic tectonic development of the Indian shield. The EGB lying to the east of these cratons show multiple deformation and granulite metamorphism recorded during the Proterozoic. In models of supercontinent reconstruction, the EGB is often shown to have links with East Antarctica (Yoshida et al., 2003; Rogers and Santosh, 2004; Dasgupta and Sengupta, 2003) and crustal accretion along the southeastern margin of India is thought to be associated with Columbia/Rodinia/Gondwana amalgamation. On the other hand, the CITZ along the northern border of the Bastar craton has been shown to contain possible sites of Proterozoic ocean closure (e.g. Roy et al., 2001, Acharya, 2003). More recently, CITZ is considered as a possible link in alternative models of end-Proterozoic supercontinent reconstruction involving India and Australia (e.g. Bhowmik et al., 2012, Mohanty, 2012).
South of the CITZ, the intracratonic basins in the Bastar (Bhandara) craton are Chattisgarh, Khariar, Indravati, Ampani and Sukma (Sabari) basins (e.g. Chaudhuri et al., 2002, Ramakrishna and Vaidyanadhan, 2008, Chakraborty et al., 2010). The Cuddapah basin is the largest intracratonic basin in the Eastern Dharwar craton while the smaller Bhima and Kaladgi basins occur at the northern margin of the Western Dharwar craton (Nagaraja Rao et al., 1987, Kale, 1991, Saha and Mazumder, 2012, Saha and Tripathy, 2012a, Patranabis-Deb et al., 2012). The NNW–SSE trending Pranhita–Godavari valley (PGV) basin follows the join between the Bastar (Bhandara) craton and the Eastern Dharwar craton (e.g. Chaudhuri and Chanda, 1991, Saha, 1992b, Saha and Chaudhuri, 2003). The flat lying, generally undeformed Proterozoic sedimenatry successions in all these basins share the common aspects of lying above a basal unconformity over Archean granite–gneiss (granitoid) basement, predominantly quartzite–shale–carbonate successions, absence of any body fossils but common occurrence of stromatolitic carbonates with algal or other micro-fossil remains comparable to those in the Russian Rephean sequences (Ramakrishna and Vaidyanadhan, 2008). These inverted basins, traditionally referred to as Purana basins with age similar to the Algonkian (Holland, 1909), are intra-continental in nature and host unconformity bound sequences, some of which are involved in craton margin deformation, thus posing the question of relation between the bordering exhumed orogens and basin development. Of these, the PGV basin records both extensional and contractional reactivation (Saha, 1992b, Ghosh and Saha, 2003, Ghosh and Saha, 2005).
The sedimentation in the Cuddapah basin in the Eastern Dharwar craton began prior to 1900 Ma (e.g. Bhaskar Rao et al., 1995) and possibly continued in the Neoproterozoic with two major hiatuses. A major fold belt, the Nallamalai fold belt (NFB), is tectonically juxtaposed against the eastern margin of the generally undeformed outcrops of the western Cuddapah subbasins. Sandwiched between the NFB and the EGB lies the Nellore schist belt (NSB). Although traditionally NSB is considered to be an extension of the Archean greenstone belt of Dharwar (e.g. Ramam and Murty, 1997), some workers consider the NSB as part of the Krishna province of EGB hinting at later accretion to the craton margin (Dobmeier and Raith, 2003). More recent works suggest that dismembered Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic ophiolites and/or ophiolitic melange occur in the NSB, which provide additional clues to the Proterozoic crustal accretion processes at the margin of the Eastern Dharwar craton (Saha, 2004, Saha, 2011, Vijaya Kumar et al., 2010, Dharma Rao et al., 2011).
Prominent in the Bastar craton is the Chattisgarh basin where earliest sedimentation started around 1500 Ma (Bickford et al., 2011a, Bickford et al., 2011b, Das et al., 2009). South of the main Chattisgarh outcrop a number of smaller basins, namely Khariar, Abhujhmar, Ampani, Indravati and Sukma (Fig. 1) occur which are lithologically similar to the Chattisgarh rocks. They are often considered as the isolated parts of greater Chattisgarh basin which was fragmented and separated by post lithification faulting or doming up of the basement and erosion of structural highs (Ahmad, 1958, Ramakrishnan, 1987). We review the stratigraphy in the Chattisgarh and its sisterbasins, PGV and Cuddapah basins and attempt a stratigraphic correlation across the Godavari join taking into account the more recently published geochronological data.
We also provide a critical summary of the geological development of the fold belts adjoining the above major basins, their relationship with the so called exhumed orogens, vestiges of which possibly occur in the CITZ and EGB, and the reported ophiolite belts along the eastern margin of the Eastern Dharwar craton. A few pertinent issues in this overview and analysis are: Did the EGB orogen result in any flexural loading on the craton? If so, where is the foreland/foredeep sedimentation, as we see in the case of modern collisional orogens: say the coupling of the Himalaya and the Ganga basin? How far did the convergence along plate margin affect the craton interior sedimentation and inversion of the basins? Supercontinent break-up and/or assembly exert influence on the global relative sea-level. How is it reflected in the development of Proterozoic epi-continental sea and associated intracratonic basins in India?
Section snippets
Bastar (Bhandara) craton
The Bastar craton (also known as the Bastar–Bhandara craton) is flanked by two Upper Paleozoic–Mesozoic rifts, namely the Mahanadi graben in the northeast and the Pranhita–Godavari rift in the southwest (Fig. 1). The Satpura mobile (orogenic) belt partly overlapping with the CITZ marks the northern part of the Bastar craton. The Eastern Ghats belt was finally accreted to the southeastern margin of the craton in the late Neoproterozoic–early Paleozoic (e.g. Biswal et al., 2007, Vijaya Kumar and
Regional stratigraphic correlation
The sequence stratigraphic context of the Chattisgarh, PGV and Cuddapah basins (Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri, 2002, Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri, 2007, Saha and Tripathy, 2012a, Patranabis-Deb et al., 2012, Chaudhuri et al., 2012) allow the basic tenets of preliminary correlation. Geochronologic data from these basins published in recent years further constrain the tentative correlation. The major Purana basins straddling across the Pranhita–Godavari valley (PGV) and occurring in the Eastern
Multiple Tectonic events along the SE margin of India and their influence
The Eastern Ghats belt (EGB) running along the present day southeastern margin of India between the Mahanadi graben in the north and Ongole in the south represents a deeply eroded section of a composite terrain. Granulite facies rocks derived from mafic or felsic igneous and sedimentary rocks along with a host of plutonic bodies varying in composition from gabbro–anorthosite, through granite to felsic alkaline rocks, constitute the bulk of the EGB. The high grade belt has alternatively been
The case of EGB
The Eastern Ghats belt (EGB) dominated by Mesoproterozoic to Late Neoproterozoic granulite facies rocks occurs along the eastern margin of the Eastern Dharwar and Bastar cratons along a tectonic contact which has been variously referred to as an intracontinental thrust front or terrane boundary shear zone (e.g. Biswal et al., 2007, Saha et al., 2010, Bhadra et al., 2004). The Nallamalai fold belt along the eastern part of the intracratonic Cuddapah basin has been compared with the external part
Conclusion
Based on a critical overview of the Proterozoic sedimentary basins in Bastar and Eastern Dharwar cratons and along the Godavari join we postulate the following, while acknowledging that pending availability of more accurate geochronologic constraints on the age limits of some of the intracratonic successions, like the Kurnool Group, the correlations across the cratons are only tentative.
The oldest (⩾1.9 Ga) intracratonic sedimentation in India is preserved in the Cuddapah basin in the Eastern
Acknowledgements
Indian Statistical Institute has been generously funding successive projects on Proterozoic basins of India pursued by us for more than two decades. We have benefitted from many a lively discussions with Asru Kumar Chaudhuri (deceased), who introduced us to the Purana basins. However, we only bear the responsibility for the views expressed here. Gautam Deb is thankfully acknowledged for his ungrudging, long standing support. He is also instrumental in drafting of one or other version of some of
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