Evolution of Neoproterozoic Shillong Basin, Meghalaya, NE India: implications of supercontinent break-up and amalgamation

Abstract

AbstractFragmentation and amalgamation of supercontinents play an important role in shaping our planet. The break-up of such a widely studied supercontinent, Rodinia, has been well documented from several parts of India, especially the northwestern and eastern sector. Interestingly, being located very close to the Proterozoic tectonic margin, northeastern India is expected to have had a significant role in Neoproterozoic geodynamics, but this aspect has still not been thoroughly studied. We therefore investigate a poorly studied NE–SW-trending Shillong Basin of Meghalaya from NE India, which preserves the stratigraphic record and structural evolution spanning the Neoproterozoic Era. The low-grade metasedimentary rocks of Shillong Basin unconformably overlie the high-grade Archean–Proterozoic basement and comprise a c. 4000-m-thick platform sedimentary rock succession. In this study, we divide this succession into three formations: lower Tarso, middle Ingsaw and upper Umlapher. A NW–SE-aligned compression event later caused the thrusting of these sedimentary rocks over the basement with a tectonic contact in the western margin, resulting in NE–SW-trending fold belts. The rift-controlled Shillong Basin shows a comparable Neoproterozoic evolution with the equivalent basins of peninsular India and eastern Gondwana. The recorded Neoproterozoic rift tectonics are likely associated with Rodinia’s break-up and continent dispersion, which finally ended with the oblique collision of India with Australia and the intrusion of Cambrian granitoids during the Pan-African Orogeny, contributing to the assembly of Gondwana. This contribution is the first to present a complete litho-structural evolution of the Shillong Basin in relation to regional and global geodynamic settings.