Regional Geology

Presented by
Ganeshapriya K
Gondwana sediments(Palar basin)
• In Peninsular India, patches of Gondwana rocks occur more or less
parallel to the east coast, from near Cuttack in the Mahanadi
valley,Odisha, to near Sivaganga in the Vaigai river valley in Tamil
Nadu.
• Gondwana sediments have been recorded in Tiruvannamalai and
Chengalpattu districts, besides a limited occurrence in Ariyalur and in
Sivaganga districts of Cauvery basin.
Palaeozoic Formation
• Talchir sediments in the southern part of the palar basin (Kumaragaru and
Rax. 1994) .
• The Palar basin, lying close to Chennai city extends over a distance of about
125 km, the maximum width being about 20 km. Northern extension of thus
basin into Andhra Pradesh has been traced.
• In the western margin of the basin. Basement rocks represented by granite
gneiss and migmatites are noticed.
• In the southern part of the basin, charnockites are exposed. Within this
basin, the Gondwana sediments occur as disconnected patches from north to
south in the areas, vie, Sriperambudur-Satyavedu, Kanchipuram
Kattavakkam and Uttiramerur- Madirantakaram areas.
Talchir Formation
• The presence of Talchir sediments of glacial origin was brought out in
the uttiramerur- Madorantakam area in recent times.
• The sediments represented by a boulder bed (tillite) and green
claystones are exposed near Tachur, located about 100 km SW of
Chennai.
• The boulder bed at the base uncomformably overlies the Precambrian
Crystalline rocks.
• The boulder bed in turn, is overlain by green shales with sandstone
partings and ovoid masses of limestone with a fine grained texture
(Murty and Ahmad, 1977).
• The rocks of Talchir Formation are also exposed as isolated outcrops
in Tholuppedu, Palamattur and Navalur areas near Chengleput.
• Two boreholes drilled by GSI-one drilled 3,7 km N10° E of
Kanchipuran (PBK-1) and the other at 400m ESE of Kandigai village in
Chingleput district (PBSD-1), have intersected Talchir sediments with
a thickness of 270m and +345m respectively.
• The sediments of Talchir Formation comprises a number of
boulder/pebbly conglomerate zones intercalated with fine to coarse
grained greenish sandstone and khaki green shales.
• Presence of palynofossils of Permian age (Virkkipollinates sp.
Plicatipollenites sp, Parasaccites Pitomeisporites sp. etc) is
documented in these Talchir sediments (Kumaraguru and Rao, 1994).
Sriperumbudur-Satyavedu Formation
• In the Sriperumbudur-Satyavedu area, sediments are dominantly yellowish
grey laminated siltstones, fine to coarse grained and pebbly sandstones with
occasional olive grey claystones.
• Ptillophylum is the main flora identified within these sediments.
• Marine incursion in the Sriperumbudur Formation is evidenced by the
presence of foraminifera and ammonite fossils, Near Nemmeli on the
northern bank of Kortalaiyur river and at Nelavai, about 2 km north of
Sriperumbudur, gypsum bed of one metre thickness was identified at a
depth of about 10-12 m from the ground level. The occurrence of gypsum, a
marine evaporate, and presence of marine fossils support the marine
incursion during fresh water sedimentation.
• Conglomerates and sandstones Satyavedu Formation are well exposed in
some hills in the northern part of the Palar Basin (Subramanian and Selvan,
2001).
Avadi Formation
• The field studies as well as the borehole data collected subsequently have
led to delineation of marine sediments with faunal assemblages such as
ammonites, belemnites, pelecypods and foraminifers of Neocomian to
Aptian age.
• Considering the areal spread of about 1400 sq. km and their thick
development. Kumaraguru and Raw (1994) assigned a new formational
status to these Lower Cretaceous marine sediments as "Avadi Formation".
• These marine sediments occur in juxtaposition with both the Satyaveda and
Sriperumbudur Formations.
• Although the contact relationship is not clearly brought out due to paucity
of outcrops, it is considered that the continental and marine sediments are
laterally intertonguing with each other, and hence the continental sediments
of Sathyavedu and Sriperumbudur Formations and the marine sediments of
Avadi Formation are treated as equivalent or co-eval (Kumagara and Rac,
1994).
Terani Formation
• This unit has been extensively referred to in the literature as Uttattur plant
beds or as upper Gondwanas. It is well exposed in the type section in a
Kaolinite quarry of the Dalmia Ceramic (Bharat) Ltd., 2 km NE of Terani
village.
• The upper part of the sequence is exposed in quarries located east of
Maruvattur and Karai villages.
• This formation having a thickness of about 60 metres, is represented by
basal coarse to very coarse poorly bedded sandstone, with local boulder
conglomerate followed by bleached kaolinitic claystone and micaceous
shale with interbeds of siltstone and sandstone upto 0.5 m thickness.
• Sporadic calcareous concretions upto one metre diameter are observed in
the upper part of the succession. Ptilophyllum is the hard common plant
fossil reported in the claystone of this formation.
Sivaganga Formation
• The southernmost Gondwana patch along the east coast lies in the
Sivaganga- Tirupattur area of the earlier composite Ramanathapuram
district (GSI,1995).
• In this area, the Archean rocks are unconformably overlain by sedimentary
rocks of upper Gondwana, and in turn overlain by Cuddalore Formation of
Mio-Pliocene age (Gopal, 1952, Sundaram, 1982).
• The upper Gondwana rocks grouped under "Sivaganga Formation are
subdivided in to lower Tiruvelangudi Formation essentially represented by
Boulder conglomerate, and the upper Nattarasankottai Formation
constituated by argillaceous and micaceous sandstone and shale. They are
unconformably overlain by coarse and gritty sandstone and claystone/shale
of Cuddalore Formation.
• Development of laterite and lateritic soil is commonly seen over these
sedimentary rocks and also over the crystallines in the contact zones
(Sundaram, 1982).
• The plant fossils identified include Ptillophyllum, Cladophilebis,
Taeniopteris, Ginkgoites Brachyphyllum, Elatocaldus, and Podozamites.
VRIDHACHALAM SUB-BASIN
• ln Vridhachalam sub-basin, upper Cretaceous rocks are poorly
exposed north of Vridhachalam town between the Manimutanadi and
Gadilam rivers.
• The continuity of the Cretaceous rocks of Ariyalur sub-basin in to this
sub-basin could not be clearly discernible possibly due to the younger
cover of Cuddalore Formation and Quaternary alluvium.
• Based on detailed mapping, Sundaram and Rao (1987) recognized four
Formations, viz. Parur Formation, Patti Formation, Mattur Formation
and Aladi Formation, and correlated them with the Ariyalur Group.
• The total thickness of the entire succession is reported to be about 400
metres.
Parur and Patti Formation
Parur Formation
• This represents the lower most unit of the Cretaceous sequence in this area
and comprises pebbly to cobbly conglomerate, medium to coarse sandstone
and shale.
• This unit lies unconformably over the crystalline basement at its western
contact, and underlies conformably the Patti Formation. Lahiri et al. (1988)
have tentatively assigned Campanion age for Parur Formation.
Patti Formation
• Patti Formation consists of pale, course grained, impure calcarenite with
interlayers of 20-30 cm thick marl in the lower part.
• It also contains sporadic thin shale and siltstone laminations and lenses of
limestone.
• On the basis of planktic foraminiferal assemblage, a Santonian-Campanian
age has been assigned for this unit (Rasheed and Govindan, 1966).
Mattur and Aladi Formation
Mattur Formation
• This formation is represented by medium to coarse grained, loosely packed
soft sandstone with interlayers and lenses of hard calcarenite with 10-30 cm
thick sporadic patches of coquina limestone (Sundaram et al., 2001).
• Presence Globatruncana tricarinata foram indicates Late Campanian -
Earliest Maestrichtin age (Govindan, 1972).
Aladi Formation
• The Aladi Formation is well exposed at Palakollai village near
Vridhachalam and comprises shale and siltstone with interbeds of cemented
sandstone, calcarenite and coquina limestone.
• Its lower contact with the Mattur Formation is conformable, while it shows
disconformable relationship with the overlying Cuddalore sandstone of
Mio-Pliocene age. The faunal assemblages of this unit indicate a
Maastrichtian age (Sundaram et al., 2001).
PONDICHERRY SUB-BASIN
• In Pondicherry sub-basin, marine upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene sediments and
Cuddalore Formation of Mio-pliocene age are exposed. The sedimentary rocks
rest over charnockite of Archaean age in the western part of the basin. The marine
sediments extend over a length of 34 km in a NE-SW direction with a width of
about 17 km, and they are overlapped by the Cuddalore Formation in the western,
eastern and northern parts of the sub-basin. The Upper Cretaceous and Palaeocene
sequence of this area is considered to be equivalent of Ariyalur Group (Sundaram,
1980)
The Upper Cretaceous sediments of this sub-basin was first studied by Blanford
(1862) who divided the rocks into two distinct groups, viz., the lower "Valudavur
Group' equivalent to Uttattur Group, and the upper part equated with Ariyalur
Group of Tiruchirapalli district. Warth (1895) divided the entire sequence into six
horizons as A, B, C, D, E and F in an ascending order with the lower three
horizons (A, B & C) cortesponding with the Blandford's Valudavur Group and the
upper three (D. E and F) representing the Ariyalur Group.
• Later, based on the faunal assemblages, Kossmat (1897) classified
these sequences into three divisions, viz., Valudavur or Anisoceras
beds; Trigonarca beds and Nerinea beds corresponding respectively to
horizons B and C,D and E and For Warth (1895).
• A reapparaisal of the classification of the entire Upper Cretaceous and
Palaeogene sequences of Pondicherry sub-basin was made by
Sundaram et al. (2001) as Valudavur Fm,Mettuveli Fm, Karasur Fm
and Manaveli Fm, in the ascending order.They described that these
sequences occur as an inlier NW of Pondicherry, surrounded by
Cuddalore Formation and Quaternary alluvium. The inlier extending
from near the villages of Valudavur and Mettuveli towards the Kaliveli
tank is spread over an area of about 120 sq.km
Valudavar Formation
• This formation corresponds to the original Valudavur beds designated by Kossmat (1897),
comprising the horizons A. B and C of Warth (1895).
• The areas between Vanar and Ottai villages is considered as the type area for this unit.
• The lower part made up of pale yellow, fine-to very course sandstone with sporadic mica
and quartzose pebbles. The upper part comprises pale, soft sandstone containing thin
horizons of calcareous concretion and pebble conglomerate. Minor amount of
concretionary shale and coquinite are also present in the upper part.
• The overall thickness of this formation is about 180 metres (Sundaram et al, 2001). Based
on the fossil ammonites preserved in the upper part, an age of Late Maastrichtian age has
been assigned by Kenedy and Henderson (1992).
• Palaeontological studies carried out by Govindan (1972) led to identification of planktic
foraminifera of the Late Campanian Globotruncana tricarinata Zone in the lower part and
the Maastrichtian Globotruncana gansseri and Abathomphalus mayaroensis Subzones in
the upper part of this formation:
Mettuveli Formation
• This formation is best exposed around Nesal, although Rajagopalan (1963)
considered a canal adjacent to the Mettuveli village as the type locality.
• It is about 150 thick and represented by sandy shale, fine sandstone with
moulds and phosphatic casts of shell debris and phosphatic and calcareous
concretions with abundant molluscan fossils (Sundaram et al., 2001).
• It shows conformable relationship with the underlying Valudavur Formation
as well as the overlying Karasur Formation.
• A late Maastrichtian age has been assigned to this formation based on the
ammonites and planktic formaniferal zone of Abathomphalus mayaroensis
(Warth, 1995; Govindan, 1972).
Karasur Formation
• This formation equivalent to the Nerinea beds of Kossamat (1897) has been
named as Karasur Formation after the village Karasur which is considered as its
type area.
• It comprises course, impure calcarenite with scattered shell hash and scleractinian
corals, over a thickness of about 120 metres. Based on the planktic foraminifera a
Paleocene age is assigned for the Karasur Formation (Rajagopalan, 1965 and
Govindan(1972) .
• Limestone bands of possible cement grade occur within this formation below soil
cover of 1 to 2m. Two boreholes drilled by GSI in this area have intersected
limestone bands over a vertical depth of about 45 m.
• Among these, only the top band intersected in one of the borehole at a depth of
2.75-4.93 has analysed CaO values of + 43%, while the other hands are impure
with a CaO content of less than 35% (Sawarkar, 1970, Sundaram, 1986).
Manaveli Formation
• The Manaveli Formation represented by poorly lithified buff coloured
sandy shale, siltstone and fine grained sandstone with poorly preserved
molluscs, forms the upper most part of the Palaeocene sequence
exposed in the Pondicherry sub-basins.
• This formation having a thickness of about 100 metres is
disconformably in by Neogene Cuddalore Formation (Sundaram et al,
op.cit). Rajagopalan (1968) assigned a Palaeocene age to this
formation based on the planktic foraminifera.
Trichy cretaceous(Ariyalur Sub-Basin)
UTTATTUR GROUP

The Uttatur Group representing the basal part of the Cretaceous sequence, is restricted in
outcrop to the Ariyalur district and it overies the crystalline basement in the Westem part the
basin.
• The Uttattur Group (Lower Cretaceous) comprises Arogyapuram Formation,
Dalmiapuram Formation and Karai Formation.
• The Arogyapuram Fremation is developed above the nonconformity, and it is conformable
the succeding marine sequence of the Dalmaipuram Formation.
TRICHINOPOLY GROUP
This Group is divided into the lower Kulakkalnattam Formation and the Upper Anaipadi
Formation (Sundaram et al. 2001). This Group having a total thichness of about 490 metres,
is separated from the underlying Uttattur Group by a regional unconformity.
ARIYALUR GROUP
Karai Formation
• This formation is well exposed as badland near Karai village and it is of grey-
brown, gypsiferous mudstone and marl with sporadic thin intercalation of siltstone
and calcareous sandstone especially in the upper part.
• Molluscan fossils are abundantly preserved in this formation. It is further sub-
divided in to lower Odiyam member and the upper Kunnam member (Sundaram et
al. 2001).
• The overall thickness of the Karai Formation reaches a maximum of about 410m.
While the lower contact of this formation is conformable, its upper contact
represents a regional unconformity marked by a low angular with the overlying
Kulakkalnattam Formation of the Trichinopoly Group, Based on the rich faunal
assemblage of ammonite, the lower and middle parts of this formation is
considered to be late Albian and Cenomonian in age, while the upper part is
assigned an early Turonian age (Sastry et al. 1968, Ayyasami, 1990, Ayyasami and
Banerji, 1984).
Kulakkalnattam Formation
• Lithounits of Kulakkalnattam Formation are well exposed in the area
west of Kulakkalnattam village and they are represented by basal
coarse to pebbly sandstone and conglomerate followed by interlayered
mudstone, shale, variably cemented sandstone and coquinite. The
Kulakkalnattam Formation is unconfirmaly overlying the Karai
Formation, and conformably succeeded by the Anaipadi Formation.
Well preserved fossil wood measuring 18m long, oriented along NS
direction occurs near Sattanur village. The basalt part of the unit is
reported to contain ammonites which are referred as Romaniceras
(Yubariceras) ornatissimum Zone by Ayyasami and Banerjee (1984)
who have assigned Turonian age for the Formation.
Anaipadi Formation
• The type area for this 264 m thick Formation is Anaipadi village from
which the name is derived.The lithounits of this Formation are
represented by concretionary siltstone, mudstone and fine micaceous
sandstone in the lower part and well-sorted calcareous medium to
coarse sandstone with local pebbly beds in the upper part. The lower
part rich in molluscan fauna with common ammonites (Lewesiceras)
and nautiloids (Entrephoceras), while the upper part contains scattered
Bivalves. Based on the faunal assemblages, the lower part of the
Anaipadi Formation is considered to be Turonian, while the upper part
is dated as coniacian.
Sillakkudi Formation
• Sastry et al. (1972) designated the type section exposed in a railway
cutting east of Sillakkudi and Karappadi villages as Sillakkudi
Formation. This form having a maximum thickness of about 600 m. is
represented by well sorted, fine to medium grained argillaceous
sandstone with concretionary beds and local pebbly sandstone near the
base of the succession. The Sillakkudi sandstone is fossiliferous
consisting of giant sized Inoceramus fossils besides ammonites like
Hauericeras. Biostratigraphically this formation is recognized as
Karapadites Karupadense by Sastry et al. (1968) and assigned
Campanian age
Kallankurichi Formation
• Kallankurichi Formation is well exposed along a stream located 1.8
km west of Kallankurichi village. It consists of well-bedded coquinite,
sand grad bioclastic limestone, calcareous sandstone and a thin
quartzose basal conglemerate. While the lower contact is marked by a
thin conglomerate horizon indicating disconformable relationship, the
upper contact with the Kallamedu Formation is conformable
(Sundaram et al. 2001). The common faunal assemblages in the
Kallankurichi Formation are Gryphea, Inoceramus, Pycnodante and
Bryozoans. Planktic formaminifera recorded by Srivastava and Tewari
(1967) assign an early Maastrichtian age. Ammonites indicate a
Maastrichtian age (Ayyasami 1990)
Arogyapuram Formation
• This formation having a thickness of about 175 metres, is well
exposed in the type section in a costean adjacent to the quarry of
Dalmia cement (Bharat) Ltd., south of Arogyapuram village.It is
represented by boulder and cobble conglomerate,Medium to very
course sandstone,Calcareous in the upper most horizons and
commonly pebbly in nature.The upper contact with the overlying
Dalmiapuram Formation is conformable,While its base shows faulted
contact with the basement. It is considered to be of Albian age as it
contains the same faunal assemblage as that of the upper part of the
Dalinipuram Formation.
Kallamedu Formation
• Kallamedu Formation, named after the village Kallamedu, is exposed in the
stretch between Ottakkovil and Anandavadi villages. It consists of medium
to coarse planar and cross laminated micaceous sandstone with sporadic
beds, characterized by sub-rounded quartz pebbles and granules. The overall
thickness of this formation is about 300 metres and it has conformable
contact with the overlying Niniyur formation (Sundaram et al., 2001).
• Fossils such as Lamellibranchs, Rudistids. Echinoids and Bryozoans
commonly found in this formation around Ottakkovil village. Dinosaurian
remains are reported from the sandstone beds in the vicinity of Kallamedu
village. Presence of ammonites and rudistids fossils assign an Maastrichtian
age for this formation (Avvasam, 1990), while the planktic foraminifera
assign a late Maastrichtian age(Srivastava and Tewari, 1967).