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Revisiting the boundary between the Lower and Upper Vindhyan, Son valley, India

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Abstract

The placement of the boundary between the Lower and the Upper Vindhyan in the Son valley, an unconformity, has long been at the centre of a raging debate. At the Bundelkhand sector, it is placed between the Rohtas Limestone and the Sasaram Sandstone (Lower Quartzite). On the other hand, in the Son valley sector, it is placed between the Bhagwar Shale and the Kaimur Formation. The recent study reveals the existence of ca. 12 m thick sandstone between the Bhagwar Shale and Rohtas Limestone, traced over 150 km in the Son valley sector. Based on in-depth facies constituents and facies tracts, this sandstone is an exact equivalent of the Sasaram Sandstone in the Bundelkhand sector. Its base is strongly erosional and limestone and chert clasts derived from the underlying Rohtas Limestone are abundantly present at the basal part of the sandstone and the unconformity between the Upper and Lower Vindhyan are likely to be present in between.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the infrastructure support provided by their host institutes. SM acknowledges the UGC; AC, the DST Inspire Faculty programme; IM, the CSIR for providing a research grant and SS, the CAS (Phase VI), Department of Geological Sciences, JU for funding the fieldwork.

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  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700 032, India

    Sabyasachi Mandal, Indrani Mondal & Subir Sarkar

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741 246, India

    Adrita Choudhuri

  3. Department of Geology, University of Delhi, New Delhi, 110 007, India

    Partha Pratim Chakraborty

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400 076, India

    Santanu Banerjee

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  1. Sabyasachi Mandal
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Mandal, S., Choudhuri, A., Mondal, I. et al. Revisiting the boundary between the Lower and Upper Vindhyan, Son valley, India. J Earth Syst Sci 128, 222 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1250-2

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