Research Projects

The Paleogene Period (65.5 Ma to 23.03 Ma) is one of the most crucial periods to represent a remarkable climatic and environmental event. This has been subdivided into Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene Epoch. The transition from Late Paleocene to Early Eocene (~56-55 Ma) marked a pronounced hyperthermal event that is known as Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and followed by another hyperthermal event during Early Eocene (~53-51Ma) known as the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) (Zachos et al., 2001, 2010; Nicolo et al., 2007; Patra et al., 2021) with a remarkable negative carbon isotope excursion (CIFs) (Lourens et al., 2005; Zachos et al., 2010). The Middle Eocene has been documented as the Middle Eocene climatic optimum (MECO, ~40 Ma), which is a global warming event by a gradual increasing 4-6ºC temperature with the ice-free condition at the poles and an ~1 ‰ negative isotope excursion (Pearson et al., 2001; Galazzo et al., 2014). Geologically, the sedimentary rocks found in Meghalaya, Southern Cambay, Jaisalmer, and Barmer, Kutch, Jammu and Kashmir basins represent the most significant sections of the Paleogene successions, including Paleocene-Eocene Transitions (PET) and Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) in north-eastern India (Bhandari et al., 1987; Dogra et al., 2004; Gertsch et al., 2011; Samanta, et al., 2013; Singh et al., 2016; Mukhopadhyay et al., 2017; Prasad et al., 2018; Choudhury et al., 2022). Past and present climate and depositional environmental changes represent a significant threat to ecosystems and biodiversity and leading to mass extinctions throughout earth history. These short-and long term global events are primarily preserved in sequences of sedimentary rocks, which form an archive of geologic history used by the geological community for their research activities. However, only limited work on geochemistry and palynology from Meghalaya has been undertaken till date. The proposed project will be conducted in the sedimentary successions exposed around Jaintia and Khasi Hills using the palynological and sedimentological approaches. The depositional environments of the Paleogene sedimentary sequences will be inferred based on sedimentary architecture and palynology. The hyperthermal events will be identified based on stable isotopes and their effects will be recorded by the density and diversity of the biota. This study will be highly beneficial to the geological community, particularly from the academic point of view.