Analyses of Aeromagnetic Data to Delineate Basement Structures and Reveal Buried Igneous Bodies in Kaladgi Basin, Karnataka

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aeromagnetic data overcome constrain of inadequate exposures and provide signatures of bodies beneath sediment cover. Present work on analysis of aeromagnetic data over western part of Kaladgi basin provided insight into the basement structures and their role in basin evolution. In the study area, the NW-SE and NE-SW are the major trends of magnetic lineament followed by E-W and N-S trends. Archean to Paleoproterozoic basement is manifested by two structural zones, NW-SE trends related to major lineaments within the basement and the NE-SW trends presumed intra-basinal fault systems which controlled the local depressions. The basin configuration deduced from depth to basement show that the Kaladgi basin is an open deep basin and divided into several sub-basins, separated by fault-controlled NE-SW and NW-SE oriented basement ridges. An intriguing find in the western part are the numerous scattered smaller-scale, circular or semicircular, distinct magnetic anomalies of moderate to strong magnetic signal with strong remenance. Analyses coupled with 3D inversions in combination with sub-surface probing reveal in-homogeneities within basement gneisses and supracrustal rocks of the Kaladgi basin, Dharwar craton. 3D inversions of these circular bodies, suggest that they are apophyses of the intrusions or alternatively as younger intrusive stocks. Sub-surface probing by boreholes over circular bodies revealed leucocratic granite with porphyritic texture emplaced as intrusive within the Chitradurga metasediments. This implies that these intrusives are post-Chitradurga schist and pre Badami sediments as they have not affected the latter. However, they can be presumed to be coeval to potassic granites, which intrude the eastern part of the western Dharwar craton in southern India, until geochronological data are available.