Research Projects

Current continental shelves bordering major oceans represent a post-rift passive margin stage with a mature stage of ocean basin opening. These mature shelf successions include arenite-shale and/or carbonate platform sedimentary sequences with several orders of stratigraphic sequence development in response to base level changes. Igneous activities locally constitute a very subordinate component of the succession of passive margin shelves. The Proterozoic Cuddapah Supergroup is an ensialic sedimentary basin that records over 7 km thick shelf sedimentation for over 800 million years between 1.8 Ga to ~1.0 Ga. In contrast, the lower part of the Cuddapah Supergroup in the Papaghni subbasin includes appreciable volcanics of both basic and acidic varieties. There are two cycles of fluvial to shallow marine sedimentation in the Papaghni subbasin, classified as Papaghni and Chitravati Groups separated by an unconformity. The basal Papaghni Group unconformably overlies the Dharwarian granite-greenstone belts and records more than 2 km thick fluvial to shelf sedimentation in the Gulcheru Quartzite and Vempalli Formation (carbonate dominated). The Chitravati Group unconformably overlying the Vempalli Formation includes more than 5 Km thick mixed silicilcastic-carbonate shelf sedimentation with emplacement of volcanics at a number of intervals. The initiation of volcanic activities in the Chitravati Group after the establishment of the Papaghni shelf is likely to influence the Cuddapah megasequence development. The proposed project would address the controls on the stratigraphic sequence development in the Chitravati Group from a collective study of sedimentary facies, petrogenesis, and tectonic control on the volcanics.