Cretaceous palaeogeography of the Indian subcontinent; a review

Abstract

Break-up of the Greater Indian continent influenced the Cretaceous palaeogeography of the Indian subcontinent. A new set of linear fluvial to shallow marine basins was formed prior to, but mainly during the Aptian with the extrusion of basalts close to some basins, and extensively in east and northeast India. A similar basin opened along the present southern margin of the Himalayas. A mid-Cretaceous transgression in central India came from the west, whereas the Cauvery Basin in south India and the Shillong shelf in northeast India, were connected and opened eastward. The East Coast shelf and Shillong shelf were better developed during Campanian-Maastrichtian time. Extensive basaltic extrusion during the late Maastrichtian in western India was coeval with regional regression, but marine sedimentation was unbroken from the Campanian to the Palaeocene on the Shillong shelf. The Tethyan ocean-floor flanking the Himalayan shelf and the northeast margin of the Indian craton was destroyed beneath Eurasia. Its Indus-Tsangpo arm was consumed during Campanian-Maastrichtian time, whereas northern parts of the Indo-Burmese ocean contained seamounts during the Maastrichtian and Palaeocene.