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Middle Eocene regressive phase evident in the uppermost part of the Harudi Formation, Kachchh Basin, western India

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Abstract

The present study focuses on the presence of gypsiferous foraminiferal packstone (GFP) facies which defines the top of the Lutetian aged Harudi Formation and separates it from the overlying Bartonian aged Fulra Limestone Formation. This facies has been reported from Harudi and Lakhpat areas of Kachchh District and may serve as a regressive stratigraphic boundary between the Harudi and Fulra Limestone Formations that had been previously considered as conformable succession. Here, the gypsum, halite and iron oxide minerals (hematite and/or goethite) are precipitated as secondary minerals in the desiccation cracks developed in the foraminiferal packstone facies. The precipitation of gypsum, halite and hematite/goethite along with desiccation cracks is suggestive of the oxidizing condition and would have been possible in supratidal environment under warm and dry semi-arid to arid climatic conditions. Thus, it is inferred that the cracks would have been formed during subaerial exposure of the foraminiferal packstone facies during relative sea-level fall.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) for providing working facilities. AA is thankful to the Head of the Department of Geology, PG College of Gopeshwar for allowing her to carry out her winter internship at WIHG. Director, IIT-BHU is thanked for allowing VKS to carry out the mineralogical, morphological and elemental studies on Rigaku X-ray diffractometer and ZIESS EVO 18 SEM–EDS machine respectively, housed at the Central Instrumentation Facility Centre of the campus. VKS is also grateful to the SERB—DST, New Delhi, for the financial assistance in the form of the NPDF Project (File no. PDF/2017/001527). The authors are grateful to the journal reviewers for suggesting modifications in the manuscript that improved the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Sedimentology Division, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, 248001, India

    V. K. Srivastava

  2. Department of Geology, Govt. PG College, Gopeshwar, Chamoli, 246401, India

    A. Aggarwal

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Srivastava, V.K., Aggarwal, A. Middle Eocene regressive phase evident in the uppermost part of the Harudi Formation, Kachchh Basin, western India. Carbonates Evaporites 35, 17 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-020-00549-w

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