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Paleogene Tectonic and Sedimentation History of the Andaman-Nicobar Accretionary Arc, Northeast Indian Ocean

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The Indian Paleogene

Part of the book series: Society of Earth Scientists Series ((SESS))

Abstract

The Andaman-Nicobar archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean is a nonvolcanic outer arc island chain developed by tectonic accretion of sediments and ocean crust along the eastern margin of the subducting Indian lithosphere. The Paleogene stratigraphy of the island chain comprises olistostromes, olistoliths and coarse-grained volcaniclastic turbidite facies, and reefal limestones of late Paleocene-Eocene Mithakhari Melange and finer-grained siliciclastic turbidites (Andaman Flysch) of Oligocene age. The lower Paleogene sedimentary rocks were deposited in shallow-water basins formed on the upper trench slope and growing accretionary wedge and contain material sourced from a local volcanic arc and eroded ophiolite. By contrast, the Oligocene continent-derived siliciclastic sediments were originally deposited outside of the accretionary wedge as part of a large submarine fan system. Subsequent deformation and thrusting juxtaposed these different formations as trench rollback progressed and the accretionary wedge expanded westwards.

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Acknowledgement

P. C. B. thankfully acknowledges the constant inspiration received from the convener of the national conference ‘Paleogene of the Indian subcontinent’ Dr. S. C. Tripathi, who kindly invited me to submit this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DST-Project, Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India

    P. C. Bandopadhyay

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Andrew Carter

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  1. P. C. Bandopadhyay
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  2. Andrew Carter
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Correspondence to P. C. Bandopadhyay .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sunil Bajpai

  2. Geological Survey of India, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Satish C. Tripathi

  3. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Vandana Prasad

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Bandopadhyay, P.C., Carter, A. (2018). Paleogene Tectonic and Sedimentation History of the Andaman-Nicobar Accretionary Arc, Northeast Indian Ocean. In: Bajpai, S., Tripathi, S., Prasad, V. (eds) The Indian Paleogene. Society of Earth Scientists Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77443-5_2

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