Provenance, Tectonic Setting, Source Weathering and Palaeoenvironmental Implications of Middle-Upper Jurassic Rocks of Ler Dome
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Chemie der Erde 78 (2018) 356–371 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemie der Erde journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemer Provenance, tectonic setting, source weathering and palaeoenvironmental implications of Middle-Upper Jurassic rocks of Ler dome, Kachchh, western T India: Inferences from petrography and geochemistry ⁎ Asma A. Ghaznavia, , Imran Khanb, M.A. Quasima, A.H.M. Ahmada a Department of Geology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India b Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Handling Editor: Astrid Holzheid The Middle-Upper Jurassic sandstones and shales of Ler dome (Chari and Katrol Formations), Kachchh, western Keywords: India, have been analyzed for modal, bulk mineralogy and geochemistry to deduce their provenance, tectonic Petrography setting, source area weathering and palaeoenvironmental conditions. The detrital modes of Ler dome sandstones Geochemistry indicate that they were emanated from recycled orogen (uplifted shoulders of rift) and stable cratonic source in Provenance passive margin setting. Rapid deposition of sediments from a granitic source area can be predicted from feldspar Source-area weathering abundance. A highly mature heavy mineral assemblage characterized in the form of high Zircon-Tourmaline- Palaeoenvironment Rutile (ZTR) index also endorses these findings. The X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) and scanning electron Kachchh basin microscope (SEM) data show the presence of clay minerals depicting moderate to extensive chemical weathering in an oxidizing environment with periodic cycles of transgression and regression. The chemical index of weathering, chemical index of alteration and plagioclase index of alteration suggest moderate to high and low to moderate weathering conditions for sandstone and shales, respectively, that took place in low to moderate relief. We postulate that Ler dome sediments are derivative of the eroded and weathered parts of the Aravalli craton located on east and northeast of the basin and the Nagarparkar Massif placed to the north and northwest. 1. Introduction geochemical indices provide detailed information contained in clastic sedimentary rocks. For example, major element discrimination dia- The mineralogical and geochemical evidence of clastic sediments grams have been used to systematically categorize the tectonic settings constitutes an archive to understand their provenance, tectonics and of the sedimentary basins (Kundu et al., 2016; Pandey and Parcha, weathering state in their source region (e.g., Bhatia, 1983; Zou et al., 2017). Occasionally, it may not be relevant to interpret the contribu- 2016; Ramasamy et al., 2017a). The framework grains or modal sig- tions from different sources due to weathering and sorting effect which natures of sandstone commonly indicate the lithological characters of in turn lead to erroneous quantitative estimations (Garzanti et al., the source rocks and depositional settings (Dickinson, 1985; Garzanti 2009). et al., 2009; Fatima and Khan, 2012). Traditional petrographic analysis Further, trace elements and their ratios (e.g., Ni/Co, Th/Sc, Cr/Th, can reveal the provenance and tectonic setting (Quasim et al., 2017). Sc/Nb, Rb/V) considered to be independent of weathering and hy- The geochemical composition of clastic sedimentary rocks is the draulic sorting effects are extensively used for discrimination of pro- counterpart of the petrographic inferences that provides essential geo- venance and mixing between different sources as well as tectonic en- chemical proxies for studying the provenance, tectonic setting as well as vironments (Sawant et al., 2017 and references therein). Trace elements weathering conditions in their source region (McLennan et al., 1993). such as Sc, Y, Zr, Nb, Hf, Th and the rare earth elements (REE) are Noteworthy contributions have been made by several recent studies considered to be immobile during weathering, diagenesis and low to which mostly focused to understand the composition of the terrigenous moderate levels of metamorphism, and the geochemical signatures are clastic rocks (Quasim et al., 2017), to evaluate weathering processes commonly preserved in the sedimentary rocks (Bhatia and Crook, 1986; (Absar et al., 2009) and to develop palaeogeographic reconstruction of McLennan et al., 1993). Trace elements also become more significant in source regions (Shi et al., 2016). As long as the bulk chemical compo- evaluating tectonic environments and source rock composition in sition is not totally modified the geochemical composition and/or comparison to the major elements (Bhatia and Crook, 1986; Condie, ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (A.A. Ghaznavi). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemer.2018.06.002 Received 23 January 2018; Received in revised form 6 June 2018; Accepted 9 June 2018 0009-2819/ © 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. A.A. Ghaznavi et al. Chemie der Erde 78 (2018) 356–371 Fig. 1. (a) Geological map of Kachchh basin (after Fürsich et al., 2001), Ler dome, western India (after Ghaznavi et al., 2015). (b) Lithostratigraphic section measured at the river. 1993). Therefore, during weathering and transportation trace elements tectonic setting, and source weathering of Middle-Upper Jurassic rocks are quantitatively transferred into clastic sediments which reflect the of Ler dome, Kachchh, western India, and (b) to interpret the pa- signatures of the parent material and palaeoenvironment conditions. laeoenvironmental conditions that prevailed in the source regions by Furthermore, the clay mineralogy has been efficaciously used to quantitative evaluation of clay minerals and geochemical data. This interpret the palaeoclimate of the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks (e.g., study will help to improve and expand models for the evolution of the Khormali and Amini, 2015). Clay minerals are primarily a product of Ler dome sediments of the Kachchh basin. weathering except few that are produced during diagenesis as well as hydrothermal alterations (Velde, 1992). Since weathering is involved in 2. Study area - geological context the formation of these phyllosilicates, it is inevitable that these clay minerals depend on the rock type, climate, slope, and drainage char- The Kachchh basin lies on the western most periphery of the Indian acteristics of the area (Fürsich et al., 2005). Thus clay mineral assem- peninsula as a peri-continental, palaeo-rift basin (Biswas, 1987) be- blages seem to reflect the original composition derived from the source tween latitude 22°30’ and 24°30’N and longitude 68° and 72 °E area and may be used for reconstruction of palaeoenvironment and (Fig. 1a). The basin is bordered by the Nagar Parkar fault in the north, palaeoclimatic condition of the source area (Fürsich et al., 2005). Radhanpur-Barmer arch in the east and Kathiawar fault in the south The present work emphasise to provide a detailed account of source (Biswas, 1982). Waagen (1875) by describing the rich ammonite faunas rock and the effect of tectonics, climate and weathering conditions of collected by Ferdinand Stoliczka, subdivided the Jurassic rocks into the sediments in Ler dome of Kachchh basin. The Kachchh basin has Patcham, Chari, Katrol and Umia groups in ascending order. The clas- been studied for their biostratigraphy (Rai et al., 2015; Alberti et al., sification of Waagen (1875) was further modified by Biswas (1980) who 2017), lithostratigraphy (Biswas, 1980; Fürsich and Pandey, 2003), introduced the Jhurio Formation below the Patcham Formation. Se- microfossils (Gaur and Talib, 2009), basin analysis (Ahmad et al., quential rifting and repeated movements along Precambrian tectonic 2014), petrofacies (Ahmad and Bhat, 2006; Ghaznavi et al., 2015), trends that took place in relation to the Indian Plate lead to the evo- palaeoclimate (Fürsich et al., 2005; Alberti et al., 2017) and palaeo- lution of the basin (Ahmad et al., 2013). The Indian plate drifted geography (Talib and Gaur, 2008). However, with the exception by northward after breakup of Gondwanaland in the Late Triassic and Ghaznavi et al. (2015), very few attempts have been made to study the Early Jurassic (Biswas, 1987; Ahmad et al., 2013). Rifting along the source rocks and the influence of climate and weathering with the aid of Delhi trend was initiated in the Late Triassic as manifested by the geochemical parameters (major and trace elements) and clay miner- continental Rhaetic sediments in the northern part of the basin (Koshal, alogy of sandstones and shales in particular. For this approach, petro- 1984). The Kachchh basin was in fact formed by the subsidence of a graphy as well as bulk mineralogy and geochemistry of both sandstones block between Nagar Parkar Hills and the southwest extension of and shales have been used with the prime aim (a) to infer provenance, Aravalli Range during Jurassic times. In Bajocian, the basin was 357 A.A. Ghaznavi et al. Chemie der Erde 78 (2018) 356–371 Table 1 Percentages of detrital minerals of Dhosa Sandstones at Ler Dome, Kachchh, western India. Sample No. Monocrystalline Pollycrystalline Quartz Feldspar Mica Chert Rock Heavies Quartz fragments Common Quartz Recrystallized Stretched Microcline Plagioclase Orthoclase Muscovite Biotite Metamorphic Metamorphic Quartz Quartz D1(A) 87.78 4.49 1.31 4.77 1.17 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.14 0.35 0.00 D1(B) 85.35 7.82 0.57 3.41 1.00 0.00 0.00 0.43 0.43 1.00 0.00 D2(A) 91.74 0.91 2.67 3.04 0.85 0.00 0.12 0.00 0.00 0.24 0.43 D2(B) 86.19 2.99 4.58 2.66 1.00 0.00