See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/315147880

Geological Formations of India

Technical Report · March 2017

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35307.75042

CITATIONS READS
0 14,478

1 author:

A. Balasubramanian
University of Mysore
348 PUBLICATIONS   315 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

PhD work - Work on Keralapura watersheds View project

Integrated Hydrogeological studies and Modeling of river basins in typical Hard rock terrains of South India View project

All content following this page was uploaded by A. Balasubramanian on 17 March 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF INDIA

by

Prof A. BALSUBRAMANIAN
CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES IN EARTH SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE
MYSORE-6

1
Introduction:

While studying the Geography of India, we need to understand the physical, human and resource related
aspects with reference to space and time.

India is a land of diversity in its physiographic conditions, geology & structure, natural resources like
water, oil, minerals, forests, animal and human population. The topography, landforms, drainage
systems, soil types, mineral and other resources all depend on the basic geology and structure of the
Indian sub-continent.

Geology is the scientific study of earth, its origin, age, landforms and the processes that are happening in
all the spheres. Geology also deals with the origin-occurrence and distribution of rocks, minerals, water,
oil, and their disposition over space and time.

Geologically, Indian subcontinent is called as a Craton. The term Craton is used here to denote a stable
portion of a continent, commonly of Precambrian age, and not deformed for a longer period of time.

Indian craton is one of the constituent units of the Super Continent-Pangaea and is existing, now, as a
separate plate in the earth’s crust. The Indian plate got separated from Madagascar, about 90 million
years ago, colliding with the Eurasian Plate. This tectonic movement has closed the Tethys Sea.

India is a country with oldest geological bodies and features. It has a very unique geological and
structural conditions of almost all ages of the geological time scale. All kinds of rock masses, mineral
deposits, mineral fuels including coal and oil resources occur in India.

The Geology of India is an essential aspect to be studied, in Earth Science and geography.

About 100 years of geological investigations and exploration of various earth’s materials have yield
tremendous amount of data to know about the geology of India.

The main objectives of studying this lesson are to understand the geology of India pertaining to:

a) Archaean Era (which includes the systems upto 2500 Million years)
b) Proterozoic Era (which includes the systems between 2500 and 570 Million years)
c) Palaeozoic Era (which includes the systems between 570 and 245 Million years)
d) Mesozoic Era and (which includes the systems between 245 and 66 Million years)
e) Cenozoic Era (which includes the systems between 66 and 0.01 Million years).

The oldest known rocks in India are found to be 4500 Million years age.

The Archaean and Proterozoic eras belong to the Pre-Cambrian Period and all other units belong to the
Phaneroizoic period.

The NATMO( National Atlas and Thematic mapping Organisation, Govt. of India has prepared the
general geological map of India. The Cartographic Symbology(Legend) used in the said map includes the
following:

2
The Geological systems of India are always analysed with reference to their geographical locations. The
following physiographic divisions of India are used for referencing the geological formations:
a) The Himalayan Ranges
b) The Indo-Gangetic Plains
c) The Extra Peninsular India
d) The Peninsular India and
e) The Coastal sedimentary sequences.

3
The Peninsular region contains the oldest geological bodies in India and is called as the Indian Shield.

4
5
6
7
1. The Archaean Era:

The earliest phase of tectonic evolution was marked by the cooling and solidification of the upper crust of
the earth surface in the Archaean era (prior to 2.5 billion years) which is represented by the exposure of
gneisses and granites especially on the Peninsula. These form the core of the Indian Craton.

The term Archaean was introduced by J.D. Dana in 1872 to designate the geological formations older
than the Cambrian period. The Geological succession of Archaean Era is as follows:

It represents an enormous span of time. It is divided into two divisions as:

1. Archaean
2. Proterozoic

The Archaean rocks were formed during the very early period when there was no life on the earth. They
are mostly igneous origin. They are also comprising metamorphosed granitic and basaltic rocks together
with some amount of sedimentary rocks.

8
They consist of granitic rocks, gneisses, schist, greenstones, amphibolites and quartzite’s. Because of the
fact that these rocks form the basements of all other formations, they are referred to as the Archaean
Basement Complex of India.

The exact duration of Archaean Era depends on the beginning of Proterozoic Era which is about 2500 M
in Canada and 2000 million years in Russia.

Life originated on this planet about 2500 million years. From unicellular organisms like bacteria into
multicellular one like Algae, fungi and archaeocyathinae, all got evolved during that time. Such organic
structures have been identified from the early Proterozoic rocks in the world.

The Archaean formations in the Indian Shield occupy most of the southern and eastern India and parts of
Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. These contain the following metamorphic rock
formations:

The oldest to youngest are

a) Unclassified crystalline rocks
b) Charnockites
c) Khondalites and
d) Dharwar System of rocks

The bands of Schistose rocks of the Dharwar system contain the oldest known rocks in India, existing in
Karnataka state. It is called as Dharwar system.

The Dharwar system is divided into three divisions as lower, middle and upper Dharwars. The Lower
Dharwar contains Rhyolites, felsites, quartz porphyry rocks, Schists and gneisses. The Middle Dharwar
contains the Granite Prophyries, Basic and ultrabasic intrusive igneous rocks, volcanic products and
banded ironstones. The Upper Dharwar contains cherts, Ferruginous silts, clay, conglomerates and
quartzites.

After this geological episode, there was a period of volcanic eruption and igneous intrusions containing
granitic masses, charnockites, dykes and other rocks. There are also some unclassified crystalline rocks
belong to this period.

These unclassified crystalline rocks are distributed over Tamil Nadu, parts of Kerala, Karnataka, parts of
Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The very distinct geological units belonging to this period are:

1) The Champion Gneiss- including the Kolar Schist belt
2) The Peninsular Gneiss of Mysore and Southern India
3) The Charnockites, which are called as black granites, occurring in parts of northern Tamil Nadu,
Nilgiri hills and Shevroy hills, southern Tamil Nadu extending upto Kannyakumari (cape
comorin), Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats,
4) The Closepet Granite of Mysore region containing gneisses and newer Granites
5) The Gray and Pink Gneisses of Karimnagar and Warangal regions of Andhra Pradesh and Bellary
region in Karnataka.
6) The Granitic Gneisses of Nellore and Guntur regions of Andhra Pradesh.
7) The Olivine rich magnesite bearing utrabasic rocks of Shevroy hills (or) chalk hills in Tamil nadu
8) The Anorthosites of Salem, Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu
9) The Alkali rocks of Sivamalai in Tamil Nadu and

9
 10) The Cordierite-sillimanite-rocks of Madurai & Thiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, and parts of
Thiruvananthapuram regions in Kerala.

The extension of all these rocks are also present in the neighbouring country the Sri Lanka.
The Eastern Ghats containing Archaean rocks called Khondalites exist in parts of
Andhra Pradesh,
Odisha,
Jeypore-Bastar,
Sambalpur,
Raipur-drug,
Bilaspur-Balaghat,
Nagpur-Bhandara-Chhindwara Jabalpur,
Vadodara,
Bundelkhand,
Singhbhum,
Keonjhor sone valley,
Midnapur area of Bengal,
Assam Plateau comprising Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills.

The Archaean rocks of Extra Peninsular region include -parts of

Northwest Himalayan regions
Spiti valley and Kumaon regions
Simla-Garhwal ranges
Nepal –Sikkim-Darjeeling belts, and
Bhutan and eastern Himalayan regions.

A good number of economic minerals including iron, copper, Diamond, Graphite, Chromite, etc., are
explored from these formations. The Archaen systems are the world famous regions existing in India for
all kinds of Precamrian research. It is followed by the Proterozoic era.

2. PROTEROZOIC ERA

The period of Proterozoic geological formations of India range from 2500 to 570 million years.
The Proterozoic formations, in India, are also called as Purana Group of formations.
These are separated from the older Archaean formations by a distinct unconformity called as Eparchaean
unconformity.

They are subdivided (from older to younger)as:

a) Old Granites
b) Cuddapah system
c) Delhi system
d) Vindhyan System
e) Younger Granites and the
f) Malani Volcanics.

The Aravalli Range is the remnant of an early Proterozoic orogen called the Aravali-Delhi orogen.
It extends approximately 500 kilometres from its northern end as isolated hills and rocky ridges into the
Haryana region and end near Delhi.

Minor igneous intrusions, deformation (folding and faulting) and subsequent metamorphism of the
Aravalli Mountains represent the main phase of orogenesis.

10
The erosion of the mountains, and further deformation of the sediments of the Dharwar group (Bijawars)
marks the second phase. The volcanic activities and intrusions, associated with this second phase are
recorded in composition of these sediments.

These are igneous and sedimentary formations, containing a lot of building -stones, Kaolin, iron,
limestone and Uranium bearing rocks.

The Proterozoic rocks are exposed in the Cuddapah region of Andhra Pradesh.

Older Granites are seen in parts of Karnataka, northern parts of Andhra Pradesh, Southern parts of
Odisha, and northern parts of Madhya Pradesh.

After a long interval of time, the Cuddapah system of rocks consisting of slates, quartzite and limestones
were laid down on the old denuded surface of the Deccan peninsula.

These are found in the upper Mahanadi valley (Chhattisgarh basin), in the Aravallis (Delhi system) and
in the Son valley.

The Cuddapah System consist of Quartzites, Limestones, Sandstones and slates without any fossils.
The thickness of the Cuddapah formation is about 6100 m.
It is also seen in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, southern parts of Chhattisgarh, Singhbhum
district of Jharkhand, Kalahandi and Keonjhar district of Orissa and in Aravalli ranges extending from
Delhi to Idar in Gujarat.

The economic mineral resources of the Cuddapah system include iron, manganese, copper, cobalt, nickel,
barites, asbestos, steatite and other minerals.

The Vindhyan System of India, derives its name from the great Vindhyan mountains.
It consists of the most ancient sedimentary rocks. It is spread over an area of 100, 000 Sq.km.

The Vindhyan system consists of Sandstones, shales and limestones, seen often over 4000 m in
thickness.
It is divided into two divisions as
a) Lower Vindhyan (which belong to the period between 1300 and 1100 million years) and
b) Upper Vindhyan (which belong to the period between 1000 and 600 million years).

The upper Vindhyan beds enclose two diamond bearing horizons-at Panna and Golconda, areas.
The Vindhyan rocks are devoid of metalliferous mineral deposits. But they are very good building stones,
and ornamental stones. They contain very valuable glass making sands and gemstones.

Gwaliar System and Bijawar series are the two equivalents of Cuddapah system distributed in north India.
The Delhi system extends from Aravalli mountains to Ajmer and Mewar, to Idar and Palanpur in the
south.

Exposures could be seen from Mewar and Jodhpur regions. It is of 6000 m in thickness, consisting of
Calc gneisses, calc-Schists, Phyllites, Quartzites and Arkose-grits.
Well known rocks are the Erinpura Granites and Malani Igneous suites of rocks.

In the Extra Peninsular region, the equivalents of Cuddapahs and Delhi systems are seen in parts of the
Himalayan region.

11
The Dogra Slates of Kashmir,
Attock Slates of Punjab,
Chails and Simla slates of Simla hills, and
Haimanta System of rocks in the Central Himalayas of Kumaon are all belonging to this system.

These are followed by the Palaeozoic Era of formations.

3. THE PALAEOZOIC ERA

The Palaeozoic formations of India belong to the period from 570 to 245 million years.
These are called as Dravidian systems, in India.

Most of them are distributed over the Extra-Peninsular region, and are very little in the Peninsular shield.

Th Palaeozoic era of geological formations include the systems of the following geological ages:
The Cambrian System
The Silurian System
The Devonian System
The Lower Carboniferous System
The Lower Gondwana system
The Upper Carboniferous &
The Permian systems.

The Cambrian System of India consists of the following formations:

a) The Salt Range containing the Salt Marl and Saline Series
b) The Spiti area containing the Haimanta System
c) The formations of Kashmir Valley.

The Cambrian period is the period in which plenty of fossil evidences have been obtained in India. These
are seen in all geological formations from this period.

Corals, Foraminifers, sponges, echinoderms, worms, gastropods, pelecypods, trilobites and brachiopods
are the notable fossil assemblages found in these beds. They also indicated marine conditions in these
Palaeozoic rocks in India. Salt marl, purple sandstone, shales, slates, dolomites and quartzites, are the
notable rocks of this system.

The Ordovician system is exposed in the Northern Kumaon-Shimla regions containing mainly shales.
The Ordovician rocks of in Kashmir is exposed in the Lidar valley.

The Silurian rocks are seen in Spiti region. They containg Red Crinoidal limestone of Griesbach and
Zanskar Range. The Silurian rocks of Kashmir are exposed in the Lidar valley.

The Devonian system of rocks are represented by the

Muth Quartzites of Spiti, Kumaon and Kashmir.
Limestones with brachiopods and corals that are exposed in these rocks.

The Carboniferous system of rocks in India are distributed only in a few places in the Himalayan region
in Kashmir. They contain fossiliferous limstones and shales. They are called as Lipak and PO Series.

12
 The Lower Gondwana System of formations in India are mainly sedimentary sequences. They show much
evidences of fluviatile and lacustrine deposits. They indicated glacial conditions prevailed during that
period. This system contain a lot of coal seams, indicative of forest resources.

They are distributed in the following regions:

a) The Northern part of the east coast of Peninsular India i.e., from the Godavari Valley to the
Rajmahal hills
b) The Domodar, Sone and Narmada Valleys
c) In the Southern side, along Mahanadi Valley
d) Parts of the Himalayn foot hills spread over Nepal, Bhutan, Assam and in Kahsmir.

The Talchir series of rocks containing coal seams, shales and sandstones are the notable features of these
formations.

The notable coal deposits observed are:

a) Barakar Series
b) Jharia coal fields
c) Raniganj series
d) Panchet series
e) Mahadeva series
f) Rajmahal series and
g) Jabalpur series.

The upper carboniferous and Permian systems of India contain unique fauna and flora. They are exposed
in Spiti, Kumaon, Mount Everest Region, Assam Himalaya, Kashmir-Panjal Volcanic Series, Simla-
Garhwal-Krol series and in Eastern Himalayan regions like Sikkim.
These are followed by the geological formations of Mesozoic era.

4. THE MESOZOIC ERA

The Mesozoic geological formations belong to the period between 245 million years and 66 million
years.
It encompasses the formations of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous ages. The formations are:
a) The Triassic System
b) The Jurassic System
c) The Cretaceous System and
d) The Deccan Traps.

The Triassic System is the earliest of all these systems in the Mesozoic era.
This period has shown a very rich and varied fauna and flora.

Numerous invertebrate fossils, including ceratites, ammonoids, brachiopods, Crinoids, echinoids and
pelecypods have been observed in the rocks of this age. Amongst the vertebrates, fishes are quite
abundant.

In India, they are exposed as

a) The Lilang system in Spiti
b) Northern Kumaon
c) The Chocolate Series
d) The Kalapani limstone
e) The Kuti shales

13
 f) The Kioto limestone.

The Jurassic System is exposed as Spiti Shales, Laptal Series of Kumaon, Mount Everest Region, sub-
Himalaya of Garhwal, Kutch and Rajasthan areas.

The Jurassic and Cretaceous Systems are known for their marine transgression. Forminifera play an
important part in Cretaceous stratigraphy. The rocks contain limestones, sandstones and shales.

They are exposed in Himalayan ranges, Central Tibet, Kashmir, Ahmednagar, Kutch, Narmada Valley,
Tiruchinopoly, Ariyalur and Rajamahendri areas in north, west and south India.

The close of the Mesozoic era was marked by the outpouring of enormous lava flows. These lava flows
are spread over the vast areas of Western, Central and Southern India.

The Fissure eruptions which occurred during this time created the Plateau basalts and formed the Deccan
Traps in India. It is spread over an area of 300,000 Sq. Kms.

Near Mumbai, the thickness of basalts is found to be well over 2000 m. It also contains typical infra-
trappean and inter-trappean beds.

The Radiometric age determination of these volcanic sequences indicated an age range from 42 to 65
million years, from now.

Valuable resources of Quartz minerals, amethyst, agate, Onyx and many good gemstones occur in these
volcanic rocks.

Laterite and bauxite cappings are also present in many parts of these formations.
These are followed by the formations of Cenozoic Era in geological History in India.

5. THE CENOZOIC ERA

The Cenozoic era of geological formations in India belong to the period from 66 million years to the
present day.

The formations belonging to this age are:

a) The Tertiary Systems
b) The Eocene System
c) The Oligocene System
d) The Lower and the Middle Miocene
e) The Pliocene System and
f) The Pleistocene System.

The Tertiaries, in India, are called as Marine Tertiaries.

In the Tertiary period, in India, the Himalayan orogenic movements began. It is also observed that the
volcanism associated with the Deccan Traps has continued. The rocks of this era have shown much
valuable resources of petroleum and coal.

They are found in the Salt Range, Potwar Plateau, outer Himalayan regions of Jammu and Punjab,
Assam, Sind and Baluchistan.

14
The Tertiary Succession are fully spread over the Bengal and Ganges delta, East coast and Andaman
Islands.

Small patches are also seen along the coastal Kerala and coastal Karnataka, coastal Gujarat, Kathiawar
and Kutch regions.

The Eocene System includes the rocks found in Sind and Baluchistan regions. It includes the following
unique geologic series of formations:
a) Ranikot Series,
b) Laki Series,
c) Kirthar Series,
d) Kashmir ranges,
e) Eocene Formations of Simla, Rajasthan, Kutch, Assam, Gujarat region,
f) The Eocene beds of Cauvery Basin and Bengal Basin.

Oligocene and lower Miocene systems are exposed in the Cauvery Basin, Kutch and Rajasthan, Sind and
Baluchistan, Potwar Plateau, Jammu, Simla Himalaya and Assam.

A lot of coal and petroleum resources of India are found in most of these formations.

The Miocene to Pleistocene formations are exposed as several unique systems and series.
The mammalian fauna are represented by many fossil evidences. The fossil man appeared in the
Pleistocene period only.

They geological formation of this period are :

a) The Siwalik System in north western India.
b) The Manchhar Series in Sindh
c) The Tipam and Dihing Series in Assam
d) The Dwarka Beds in Kathiawar
e) The Khar series in Kutch
f) The Varkala Beds in Coastal Kerala
g) The Cuddalore Sandstones in Tamil Nadu and
h) The Rajamahendri Sandstones in Andhra Pradesh.

Lignite, fire clays, ball clays, terra cotta clay, sandstones, shell-limestone, Kaolin and petroleum are the
major economic natural resources of these formations.

The alluvium which is found in the Indo-Gangetic plain are all belonging to this era.

The older alluvium is called Bhangar and is present in the ground above the flood level of the rivers.
Khaddar or newer alluvium is confined to the river channels and their flood plains. This region has some
of the most fertile soil found in the country as new silt is continually laid down by the rivers every year.

In addition to these, geological bodies of Quaternary period also exist in India.

These belong to the period from 1.6 million years till the recent past.
It includes all the recent alluvial deposits of Indo-Gangetic plains in the northern parts of India.

They are also occurring along the Brahmaputra river banks. The Deltaic regions of major rivers including
the Cauvery, Krishna, Mahanadi and the Ganges contain the alluvial deposits of this age.

15
 Human culture and global diversity in faunal and floral assemblages happened during the Pleistocene
period. Five major episodes of glaciation happened during the last 1 million years. The post glacial
environment has indicated the development of Mesolithic human culture, in India, approximately about
20,000 years Before Christ. The geology of India exhibits a very rich information about the continent
and its evolution as well.

Conclusion:

The geology of India is diverse. Different regions of India contain rocks belonging to different geologic
periods. The Indian Craton was once part of the supercontinent of Pangaea. Different regions in India
contain rocks of all types belonging to different geologic periods. The stratigraphy of India can be
divided into several divisions such as Archean System, Dharwar System, Cudappah system, Vindhyan
system, Paleozoic,Mesozoic, Gondwana, Deccan Trap, Tertiary and Alluvial. Both the oldest and the
latest rocks are found in the geological structure of India. The oldest rocks of the Archaean period are
found in the peninsular India. Sedimentary rocks are found in the land formed by deposition of sediments
from the Indo- Gangetic plains.

16

View publication stats