Development of Phanerozoic sedimentary basins of India

Abstract

Abstract Phanerozoic sedimentation within the Indian craton commenced essentially from late Carboniferous with the opening of continental rift systems in east Gondwana assembly, of which India was a constituent member along with Australia, Antarctica and Madagascar. Late Jurassic onward, the fragmentation of east Gondwana and the separation of India from its erstwhile neighbors triggered the formation of the eastern and western coastlines of the Indian landmass. With time, the craton-margin rifts turned into passive margins as the Indian plate took a long northward drift. The northward movement of India is accommodated by subduction of 4000–7000\u202fkm of the Neotethys ocean crust leading to diachronous collision of the landmass first with Kohistan- Ladakh arc and then with Tibet. The Tethyan basins in Kashmir, Lahul and Spiti offer an opportunity to study the nature of deposition at the Neotethys ocean margin. With the continuing convergence of subducting plate and emplacement of Himalaya-Tibet fold-thrust belt, the flexural buckling of the Indian lithosphere resulted in the formation of foreland basins with varying dimension and character in conjunction with the evolution of the Himalayan fold-thrust system. In post-Oligocene, three mighty rivers viz. Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra drained the foreland and formed large-scale submarine fan systems in the oceans surrounding the Indian sub-continent.