Shallow to deep-water deposition in a Cratonic basin: an example from the Proterozoic Penganga Group, Pranhita–Godavari Valley, India

Abstract

The unmetamorphosed Proterozoic succession dominated by deep-water lithographic limestone and shale in the western flank of the Pranhita–Godavari Valley is designated as the Penganga Group. The succession in different parts of the Valley includes the Pranhita Sandstone (25–400 m), the Chanda Limestone (300 m), and the Sat Nala Shale (>2000 m) in ascending order. The Pranhita Sandstone and the Chanda Limestone reveal considerable variations in the character of the stratal packages and depositional settings from Mancherial in the south to Adilabad in the north. The Sat Nala Shale in both southern and northern outcrop belts is completely devoid of sand. It is brown to purple in colour and resembles present-day deep-water mud deposits. In the Mancherial area, the Pranhita Sandstone consists of 25–400 m thick conglomerate, pebbly red arkose and quartzose sandstone succession of coastal alluvial fan to shallow shelf origin. The Chanda Limestone is micritic and locally includes interbedded lenses of cross-stratified quartzose sandstone in the lower part. The depositional milieu varies from shallow shelf to below wave base outer ramp carbonate platform. Around Adilabad, the Pranhita Sandstone (25 m) lacks the conglomerate–pebbly arkose association at the base and comprises only quartzose sandstone and shale of shoreface to muddy shelf settings. The Chanda Limestone is essentially micritic but, in contrast to the Mancherial area, includes several interbedded intervals of slope-related, autoclastic debris flow limestone conglomerates and calciturbidites, and represents deep, outer ramp to slope and basinal settings. A predominantly deep-water micritic limestone and deep-water shale succession suggests that the Penganga basin evolved to a vast, deep epicratonic sea connected to an open ocean. The absence of a coastal alluvial fan association at the lower part of the Pranhita Sandstone and presence of a slope to basinal association in the Chanda Limestone in the northern outcrop belts around Adilabad indicates a northward transition from coastal to deep shelf, slope and basinal conditions and a northerly paleoslope of the basin.