of the Singhora-Saraipali area, south-eastern Chattisgarh Basin - fieldi

Veiw on the
lithostratigraphy of the
Singhora-Saraipali area,
south-eastern
Chattisgarh Basin
June
12
2011
Pratap Ch
Dhang

PRATAP CHANDRA DHANG, Post Graduate in Geology from University of Calcutta,
2006. At present, doing research at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
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Contents
Introduction…………………………………………Pg. 3
Singhora-Saraipali
area…………………...……………………………..Pg. 5
Lithostratigraphic
description…………………….……………………Pg. 6
Correlation………………………………………...Pg. 10
References…….…………………………………...Pg. 13
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Introduction
The Chattisgarh Basin, a major Purana basin in the Bastar craton, extends from
20º30' N to 22º30' N and 80º45' E to 83º45' E and covers an area of about 36,000 sq
km (Ramakrishnan and Vaidyanadhan, 2008) (fig.1). The c. 2500 m thick succession
of the Chattisgarh Basin comprising conglomerate, sandstone, shale, and carbonates
with tuffs at different stratigraphic levels is designated as Chattisgarh Supergroup,
which is unconformably overlies the Archaean crystalline basement rocks. The
Chattisgarh Supergroup has been classified into Chandarpur and Raipur Groups
(Dutt, 1964; Schnitzer, 1969; 1971; Murti, 1987; Das et al, 1992; Datta, 1998;
Patranabis-Deb, 2004 and Patranabis-Deb & Chaudhuri, 2008). Two unconformity
bounded groups were subsequently introduced, the Singhora Group underneath the
Chandarpur Group (Das et al., 1992; 2003) and Kharsiya Group overlying the Raipur
Group (Patranabis-Deb & Chaudhuri, 2008).
Singhora and Chandarpur Groups consist of immature siliciclastics deposited
in fan delta-prodelta, tide-storm dominated prograding shelf and high-energy coastline
environments (Murti, 1987; Das, et al, 1992 & 2003; Datta, 1998; Patranabis-Deb and
Chaudhuri, 2002 and 2007). Immaturity of the deposits in this lower part of the
succession indicates the unstable tectonic condition. Siliciclastic-carbonate deposits of
the Raipur Group are deposited in muddy shelf and platformal environment, indicative
of more stable tectonic condition and the deposition is controlled by several cycles of
transgressions and regressions (Murti, 1987 and Patranabis-Deb & Chaudhuri, 2008).
From the sedimentary assemblage, facies analysis and stratigraphic architecture it has
been inferred that the Chattisgarh Basin evolved as an intracratonic rift basin
(Chaudhuri et al., 1999; 2002; Roy & Prasad, 2001; Patranabis-Deb & Chaudhuri,
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2002 and Patranabis-Deb & Chaudhuri, 2007). Age data available from the
radiometric dating indicate that the time span encompasses for the evolution of the
basin is more than 500 Ma (c. ~1500 to ~1000 Ma; Patranabis-Deb et al., 2007; Basu,
et al., 2008; Das et al., 2009 and Bickford et al., 2009).
Fig.1. Geological map of the Chattisgarh Basin (modified after Das, et al., 1992)
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Singhora-Saraipali area
The Singhora-Saraipali area (21º00' N to 21º30' N and 82º50' E to 83º20' E) is situated
in the southeastern part of the Chattisgarh Basin. The c. 1000 m thick sedimentary
succession of this area comprises conglomerate, sandstone, shale, and carbonates with
tuffs, unconformably overlying the Archaean crystalline basement. The sedimentary
strata dip gently at between 4º and 8º towards west. Das et al (1992; 2003) considered
this part of the basin as ‘Singhora Protobasin’ and classified the succession into
Singhora and Chandarpur Groups, separated by an unconformity (fig.1). The
Singhora Group is sub-divided into Rehatikhol, Saraipali, Bhalukona and Chhuipali
Formations. They suggested that the upper surface of the Chhuipali Formation is an
unconformity, and classified the overlying succession into three formations,
correlating them with the Lohardih, Chaporadih and Kansapathar Formations of the
Chandarpur Group. The unconformity line between the Singhora and Chandarpur
Groups passes through the Sishupal and Gomarda hills and is represented by thin
interval of arkose, feldspathic arenite and wacke arenite (Das et al., 2003).
The succession around Sarangarh-Damdama, north of the present study area
(some part is overlapping) is classified as Chandarpur Group by Patranabis-Deb
(2004), Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri (2008). The Chandarpur Group is subdivided
into three formations, Lohardih, Gomarda and Kansapathar Formations, co-relatable
with the three formations of Murti (1987). However, the Gomarda Formation is much
thicker and heterogeneous than the Chaporadih Formation, but is a lithostratigraphic
equivalent of the latter. Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri (2008) considered the
Chandarpur Group as the basal unit of the Chattisgarh Supergroup, lying
unconformably over the Archaean basement, whereas Das et al (1992 and 2003)
considered the Singhora Group as the basal unit. The main purpose of this work is to
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evaluate the lithostratigraphy of the Singhora-Saraipali area in the southeastern part
of the Chattisgarh Basin.
Lithostratigraphic description
The detail geological map of the study on a scale of 1:50,000 have been prepared to
delineate the different litho units and to establish the lithostratigraphy of the area
(fig.2). Lithoassemblage is divided into five formations on the basis of distinct
lithologic features and mappability (NACSN, 1983).
Fig.2. Geological map of the Singhora-Saraipali area, Chattisgarh Basin
Formation A (~80 m): It unconformably overlies the granite-gneiss basement and
consists of a succession, dominated by arkose, subarkose and pebbly sandstone with
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subordinate conglomerate and shale-siltstone. It is best exposed near the Rehathikhol
village (21º18'33.7"N; 83º15'34.5"E). The lower part of the formation is characterised
by pebbly sandstone with matrix- and clast-supported conglomerate. They grades to
coarse to very coarse grained, poorly sorted arkose to subarkosic sandstones. Topmost
part of the formation consists of medium grained, moderate to well-sorted
quartzarenite, characterised by planar stratified beds, often mantled by symmetrical
ripples on top.
Formation B (~630 m): It gradationally overlies formation A and consists of mudstone
dominated succession (MDS), with a ~200 m thick sandstone unit (SS), dividing the
mudstone dominating succession into two parts, lower ~150 m thick MDS 1 and upper
~280 m thick MDS 2. The sandstone (SS) laterally pinches out towards north where
MDS 1 and MDS 2 amalgamate to produce a single mud dominant succession (Fig.2).
The MDS 1 and MDS 2 are characterised by broadly similar lithological characters,
comprising shale and sandstone-shale heterolith. The green shale dominates the
succession with subordinate red and black shale and is best exposed near Banjhapali
(21º20'12.5"N; 83º14'31.1"E), Sishupal hill (21º13'00"N; 83º09'00"E). Siltstone and
very fine-grained sandstone layers occur as interlayers within shale. Amount of
sandstones increase towards the upper part of these mudstone dominated successions
(MDS 1 and MDS 2), and lithology becomes sandstone-shale heterolithic.
A persistent tuff horizon (~5 m thick) occurs in the lowermost part of MDS 1,
which is laterally traceable for about 500 m and are well exposed near Dewanguri
(21º16'29.2"N; 83º12'08.1"E), Chiwrakuta (21º18'34.5"N; 83º13'05.2"E) and Balenda
(21º21'15"N; 83º14'52"E) sections.
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Stromatolite bioherms occur in the uppermost part of the MDS 2 near Putka
(21º10'25.2"N; 82º58'16.6"E) and Manpali (21º15'36.3"N; 83º07'51"E). The
bioherms are mostly dolomitic, NNE-SSW elongated and are no more than 20 m in
thickness. Stromatolite structures are mostly non-branching columnar (SH-type) with
subordinate branching columnar and non-columnar (LLH-type) and algal laminites.
Stromatolite heads are elongated in NE-SW direction.
The sandstone-shale heterolithic of MDS 1 grades to c.200 m thick sandstone
unit. It is exposed along the hills of Sahajpani Reserved Forest in the eastern part and
near Bhalukona village (21º11'34.5"N; 82º56'17.1"E). The sandstone is medium to
coarse grained matured quartzarenite and locally gritty. At places, this sandstone
becomes glauconitic.
Formation C (~300 m): The formation C gradationally overlies the MDS 2 of
formation B. It is best exposed along Sishupal hill section near Kalidarah village
(21º11'35.4"N; 83º06'42.5"E). It comprises dominantly of quartzarenite, with
subordinate subarkosic sandstone and sandstone-shale heterolithic. Poorly sorted,
coarse to medium grained subarkosic sandstone occurs in the lowermost part of the
formation. Subarkosic sandstone grades upward to medium to coarse-grained matured
quartzarenite, which is at places glauconitic. Fine-grained sandstone-shale heterolith
sometimes separate the thicker beds of quartzarenite.
Formation D (~50 m): It consists of thick brown to grey limestones, which overlies the
formation C with sharp contact. It is exposed at Sohagpur (21º35'31.2"N;
82º52'54.2"E) and Charbhatti (21º35'00.0"N; 82º56'00.0"E). This limestone-
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dominated formation contains intraformational conglomerate beds, exposed at
Bamhanpuri (21º35'45.2"N; 83º56'42.3"E).
Formation E: It consist of brown shale, and subordinate sandstone and stromatolitic
limestone and is best exposed at Beladula (21º34'37.0"N; 82º50'26.7"E) and near
Gangori (21º37'00.0"N; 82º52'50.0"E). The brown shale overlies the limestone of
formation D through a narrow transition zone of shale-limestone intercalations.
Stromatolitic bioherms occur within this calcareous shale, which is best exposed at
Pikri (21º35'45.0"N; 82º57'30.0"E). The bioherms are characterised by branching
columnar stromatolites.
Correlation
Our mapping does not reveal any clear evidence for any unconformity, such as major
erosional surface, discordance of dip and basal conglomerates within the succession.
The sections at Kesratal (21º16'05.9"N; 83º05'33.6"E) and Bhagat Saraipali
(21º22'30.6"N; 83º11'23.9"E) along the Sishupal and Gomarda hills, respectively,
consists of impersistent granules and pebble (0.5 to 2 cm) layers (15-25 cm thick) at
different levels. Those may be indicator of sea level fall and/or episodic storm
events(Leithold and Bourgeois, 1984; Sloss, 1984). Such pebble beds within the
succession do not imply any major hiatus that can be considered as sequence bounding
unconformity. The sedimentary succession in the study area, from formation A to
formation E represents a continuous succession without any major hiatus (fig.3).
From the present mapping, it has been established that formation A can be
physically mapped along the strike into Lohardih Formation as defined in Damdama
and adjoining areas (Patranabis-Deb, 2004; Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri, 2008), a
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few kilometres to the north of the Singhora-Saraipali transect. The lithology and
lithological organisation of formation A is identical with that of the Lohardih
Formation. Formation A grades upward to the mud-dominated succession of
formation B, which is physically continuous with the Gomarda Formation of
Patranabis-Deb (2004) and Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri (2008). The Saraipali and
Chhuipali Formations of Das et al. (2003) represent the MDS 1 and MDS 2
respectively, whereas the Bhalukona Formation represents the thick sandstone (SS) in
this present study. The high degree of lithological similarity between MDS 1 and MDS
2, and their amalgamation into a single mud dominant succession where the sandstone
(SS) pinches out is a compelling argument to group them into a single formation,
which we designate as the Gomarda Formation. The Bhalukona Formation (SS) of
Das et al. (2003) has been ranked as a member, which occurs as a lens within
Gomarda Formation (NACSN, 1983), similar to the Daihan Sandstone Member
(Patranabis-Deb and Chaudhuri, 2008). The stratigraphical position, lithological
characteristics and the facies assemblages of the formation C are similar to that of the
Kansapathar Formation and designated as the Kansapathar Formation. The
formations D and E conformably overlie the Kansapathar Formation, and are
correlatable with the Charmuria Formation or Sarangarh Formation and Gunderdehi
Shale of the Raipur Group respectively.
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Fig.3. Stratigraphic column of the Singhora-Saraipali area
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Depositional
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Datta, B. (1998): Stratigraphic and sedimentologic evolution of the Proterozoic
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