Research Projects

The Cretaceous globally witnessed the records of relative sea-level rise caused expansive epeiric seas that formed vast carbonate platforms, preserving signatures of marine transgression and regression. In the eastern Tethyan Region of central India, platform sediments are represented by the Turonian– Coniacian Bagh Group carbonates. Reconnaissance studies reveal Bagh Group is represented by a thin transgressive-regressive succession of tropical marine sediments, deposited on a Precambrian basement, and covered by massive Deccan Trap basalt flows. At the height of the transgression, a few meters thick succession of very thinly and rhythmically bedded, laterally continuous, muddy carbonates of the Turonian-Coniacian Bagh Group was deposited. The Planar to wavy beds consist of nodular to massive limestones intercalating with marls. Eroded, bored, and encrusted hardgrounds occur at regular intervals in the succession. Integrated sedimentological and geochemical investigation is proposed to i) understand palaeo-environmental and palaeo-oceanographic constraints on deposition of Bagh Group carbonate, ii) highlights shallow water carbonate sedimentation in the Bagh Group, iii) isotopic composition of Late cretaceous seawater, iv) glauconite formation in relation to the sequence stratigraphic context. Knowing moments of zero-sea level in a regular rhythmically bedded succession with accurate chronostratigraphy allows for better reconstruction of Indian intracratonic basin dynamics during the Upper Cretaceous and its correlation to global events. The Succession retains the crucial records of the paleogeographic evolution and sea level cycles before the onset of the globally significant Deccan volcanic eruptions.