Geological Signatures of Tectonic Instability along the North Cambay Basin during the Late Holocene Period, North Gujarat, India

Abstract

In the present study, the tectono-geomorphic attributes of the northern part of the Cambay basin, Western India, which has recently witnessed a surge in seismic activity has been investigated. The anomalies in the drainage network (morphometry) along with the sedimentological character of the drainages with OSL chronology was used to unravel the abrupt aggradation and incision processes during the late Holocene period. The analysis reveals two major lineaments i.e. NE-SW, which are related to the transfer faults and NW-SE lineaments, related to the listric/normal faults prevalent in the northern Cambay region. The NW-SE trend exhibited the first order streams, which hints the ongoing tectonic activity along the buried structural elements/faults. The valley fill sediments were incised during the late Holocene period i.e. < 3 ka, which is ascribed to the tectonic activity along the buried structure/faults in the Tharad-Sanchor block of the north Cambay basin. The present study is the first attempt to characterize the tectonic activity along the Tharad-Sanchor block of the north Cambay basin using geomorphometry and optical dating.