Solid Earth, 15, 671–682, 2024

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-671-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Cretaceous–Paleocene extension at the southwestern continental

margin of India and opening of the Laccadive basin:
constraints from geophysical data
Mathews George Gilbert, Parakkal Unnikrishnan, and Munukutla Radhakrishna
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India

Correspondence: Mathews George Gilbert ([email protected])

Received: 30 July 2023 – Discussion started: 25 August 2023

Revised: 12 April 2024 – Accepted: 27 April 2024 – Published: 18 June 2024

Abstract. Previous geophysical investigations of the western 1 Introduction

continental margin of India (WCMI) confirm the two-phase
breakup history of the margin with the first breakup taking The breakup of Gondwanaland into eastern and western
place between India and Madagascar that created the Mas- Gondwana during the Early Jurassic period initiated the for-
carene Basin in the Late Cretaceous and the second breakup mation of the western Indian Ocean (Fig. 1a–b). The sub-
event in Early Paleocene with Seychelles separating from In- sequent breakup of Madagascar and the Seychelles from
dia. Despite numerous geoscientific studies along the WCMI, India, and the seafloor spreading along the Carlsberg and
the opening of the Laccadive basin, situated along the south- Central Indian ridges culminated in the development of the
ern part of the margin, remains poorly constrained. In this present-day northwest Indian Ocean. The Laccadive Ridge,
study, we evaluate the multi-channel seismic reflection and the Maldives Ridge, the Chagos Bank, the Saya de Malha
gravity anomalies at the margin to identify the early rift sig- Bank, the Nazareth Bank, Mauritius, and Réunion are the
natures in conjunction with the magnetic anomaly identifica- major topographic features present in the northwestern In-
tions in the Mascarene Basin. The analysis led to the iden- dian Ocean (Fig. 1a), and some of these are believed to be
tification of two trends of extensional structures, a NNW– micro-continents (Torsvik et al., 2013).
SSE-oriented structure over the Laccadive Ridge north of The western continental margin of India (WCMI) formed
Tellicherry Arch, interpreted to result from ENE–WSW ex- through the breakup and separation of India and Madagas-
tension, and a SSW–NNE-oriented structure in the Laccadive car in the Late Cretaceous (Storey et al., 1995; Pande et al.,
basin region towards the south, interpreted to result from 2001). This breakup event resulted in the formation of the
NW–SE extension. Previous plate reconstruction models of Mascarene Basin (Fig. 1a and c), the details of which are
the Mascarene Basin using marine magnetic lineations sug- recorded in the magnetic anomalies in the basin (Fig. 1c).
gest that the ENE–WSW extension observed over the Lac- The northern part of the margin then experienced another
cadive Ridge could be related to the India–Madagascar sep- breakup event when the Seychelles block separated from the
aration. We associate the pattern of sediment deposition and combined Laxmi Ridge and India in the Early Paleocene
the presence of a Paleocene trap volcanics, linked with the time. This second breakup event is well studied with the
NW–SE grabens observed in the Laccadive basin region, to pre-drift juxtaposition of the continental blocks fairly well
the extension between the Laccadive Ridge and the western established from the magnetic anomaly identifications and
coast of India after the separation of Madagascar from India. geochronology (Collier et al., 2008; Chaubey et al., 2002;
We further propose that the anticlockwise rotation of India Ganerød et al., 2011; Shellnutt et al., 2015, 2017). The south-
and the passage of the Réunion plume have facilitated the ern part of the margin is considered to be conjugate with the
opening of the Laccadive basin. eastern Madagascar margin (Katz and Premoli, 1979) based
on the continuity of the major shear zones and coastlines
matched at 1000 m isobath. However, recent close-fit recon-

Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

672 M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension

Figure 1. (a) Regional tectonic map of the northwestern Indian Ocean with satellite-derived seafloor topography (Smith and Sandwell,
1997). (b) Map showing the position of India relative to Madagascar and the Deccan Volcanic Province in its late Paleozoic fit (Lovecchio
et al., 2020, modified after). The area of interest is marked in black rectangle. (c) Tectonic map of Madagascar and the Mascarene Basin
showing mapped seafloor-spreading-type magnetic lineations in solid white lines (Bhattacharya and Yatheesh, 2015; Shuhail et al., 2018,
and references therein). Solid black lines represent the mapped fracture zones or pseudo-faults. (d) Regional tectonic map of the western
continental margin of India (Smith and Sandwell, 1997). Solid black lines in the offshore region represent shear zones and faults. The
location of the maps in panels (c) and (d) are shown in panel (a). SB stands for Seychelles Bank, SMB stands for Saya de Malha Bank, NB
stands for Nazareth Bank, MI is Mauritius, RI is Réunion, RTJ stands for Rodrigues Triple Junction, LR stands for Laccadive Ridge, MA
is the Maldives, CB stands for Chagos Bank, MR stands for Murray Ridge, Lx is Laxmi Ridge, RdP stands for Río de la Plata, Ka is the
Kalahari, Pp stands for Paraná Panema, SF stands for São Francisco, WA stands for western Australia, SA stands for southern Australia,
NMR stands for northern Madagascar Ridge, DC stands for Dharwar Craton, SGT stands for Southern Granulite Terrane, LB stands for
Laccadive basin, AP stands for Alleppey Platform, TT stands for Trivandrum Terrace, CKE stands for Chain-Kairali Escarpment, and COB
stands for continent–ocean boundary.

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M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension 673

struction models have incorporated the continental fragments the study area from west to east are the Laccadive Ridge,
like the Laccadive Ridge (Bhattacharya and Yatheesh, 2015) the Laccadive basin, the Alleppey Platform and Trivan-
or Mauritia (comprised of Mauritius, the southern Mascarene drum Terrace (together called the Alleppey–Trivandrum Ter-
Plateau, the Laccadive Ridge, and the Chagos Bank) (Torsvik race Complex), and the continental shelf (Fig. 1d). The
et al., 2013) between India and Madagascar in the India– Alleppey–Trivandrum Terrace Complex is characterised by
Madagascar pre-drift scenario and suggested a breakup tim- horst–graben structures and bounded in the west by the
ing of around 83 Ma. Chain-Kairali Escarpment (CKE) feature (Yatheesh et al.,
The Laccadive Ridge is the bathymetric high feature in 2006, 2013; Nathaniel, 2013) as revealed in seismic sections
the southwest offshore margin and lies parallel to the west- (See Fig. S1 in the Supplement). Numerous seamounts, guy-
ern coast of India (Fig. 1d). The Laccadive basin lies between ots, and knolls are present in the region between the Lac-
the Laccadive Ridge and the continental shelf south of Tel- cadive Ridge and the continental shelf within the Laccadive
licherry Arch (Fig. 1d). The southwestern margin of India basin (See Fig. S2) (Bijesh et al., 2018). In addition, the
was affected by Réunion plume volcanism towards the end entire region is characterised by several intrusive structures
of the Cretaceous (Singh and Lal, 1993) as revealed by the within the tertiary sediments (Unnikrishnan et al., 2023). The
presence of a widespread layer of trap volcanics below the southern part of the Cannanore Rift System (CRS) identified
Tertiary sediment cover at the margin (Singh et al., 2007; over the Laccadive Ridge (Fig. 2) from the Director General
Singh and Lal, 1993). of Hydrocarbon (DGH2024) lies within the study area.
Most of the drilled wells along this margin were termi-
nated in the Late Cretaceous to Early Paleocene trap layer
and at present none have encountered the crystalline base- 3 Data and methods
ment. By contrast, the CH-1-1 well located within the shelf
(Fig. 1d) penetrated through the Paleocene trap, encountered In this study, we used the satellite-derived free-air gravity
Santonian formations, and terminated in the Late Cretaceous (Fig. 2a) (Sandwell et al., 2014) and bathymetry from the
felsic volcanics (Singh and Lal, 1993). One of the key ques- General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (Fig. 1d) (GEBCO,
tions that has not been resolved concerns the absence of Late 2020) for comparative analysis with multi-channel seismic
Cretaceous sediments in the Laccadive basin as a whole: reflection profiles (Figs. 2b–5). The large volume of industry
what caused this more than 20 Myr gap in the sedimentary seismic reflection data (see Fig. S3) at this margin provided
record between the India–Madagascar breakup at 83 Ma and information on the sediment thickness above the Paleocene
the oldest Paleogene sediments? This long time gap indicates trap layer and various horizons within the post-Paleocene
either the presence of older sediments below the Paleocene sediments (Unnikrishnan et al., 2023). We also gathered a
trap layer or the opening of the Laccadive basin subsequent few published seismic sections (Nathaniel, 2013; Yatheesh
to India–Madagascar separation. Further, the presence of the et al., 2013) within the study area (see Fig. S1).
continental fragments between India and Madagascar (Bhat- The gravity effects of the water layer and the sediments are
tacharya and Yatheesh, 2015; Torsvik et al., 2013) makes for removed from the satellite-derived free-air anomaly data to
a complex geodynamic setting, considering how this separa- obtain crustal Bouguer anomalies. High-resolution sediment
tion took place, and therefore it provides some insights into thickness derived from two-way travel time (TWT) maps is
the impact of pre-existing lithospheric inheritance. Hence, used to calculate the gravity effect of the sediments. The
examining the development of the Laccadive basin will pro- TWT maps are available for three different times: the Early
vide important constraints on the early breakup evolution of Paleocene, Early Eocene, Early Miocene (Unnikrishnan et
the WCMI. al., 2023). These maps were converted to depth with respec-
In this study, we made a correlative analysis of the multi- tive interval velocities (after Unnikrishnan et al., 2023) and
channel seismic data with the residual gravity anomalies, the total sediment layer is used to calculate the gravity effect
which provided evidence of a major extensional event that of sediments. A density of 2300 kg m−3 for sediments and
occurred at the southwestern part of the margin that is not re- 1030 kg m−3 for the water column is used. For the crustal
lated to the India–Madagascar breakup. The time stamping of rocks, an average density of 2800 kg m−3 was considered
this major extensional event provides important constraints as the study area lies within the extended continental crust
on the evolution of the WCMI and helps to build improved (Unnikrishnan et al., 2023). A 10–200 km wavelength band-
plate tectonic reconstruction models. pass filter was applied to the crustal Bouguer anomaly map
to highlight the crustal heterogeneities, and the first vertical
derivative (FVD) and the total horizontal derivative (THD)
2 Description of tectonic elements of the study area of the band-pass-filtered map were prepared to identify shal-
low structural features. The location of the identified features
The study area lies south of Tellicherry Arch and contains such as rifts and volcanic intrusives in the seismic sections
the southern part of the Laccadive Ridge and the Laccadive are then transferred on to these gravity anomaly maps in
basin (Fig. 1d). The major geomorphic features present in order to understand their continuity. Subsequently, the sed-

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674 M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension

Figure 2. (a) Satellite-derived free-air gravity anomaly map (Sandwell et al., 2014). (b) Crustal Bouguer anomaly map. The location and
orientation of identified extensional features, grabens, and intrusives are marked. Black solid lines represent the location of the profiles.
Interpreted seismic sections are shown in Fig. 5. The thick broken black line in the centre of the basin represents the identified volcanic ridge.
(refer to Figs. 5 and S1 for seismic sections). The location of the maps is shown in Fig. 1a. CRS represents the Cannanore Rift System as
identified by DGH2024. CKE stands for Chain-Kairali Escarpment, AP stands for Alleppey Platform, and TT stands for Trivandrum Terrace.

iment isochron maps were interpreted to understand the tim- remained high throughout the time intervals (Fig. 3a–c). The
ing of opening of the Laccadive basin with inputs from inter- total sediment deposition pattern shows that most of the sed-
preted seismic sections. Scientifically derived colour maps iments were accommodated parallel to the coast and towards
are used to prepare maps (Crameri et al., 2020). the south there is an axis of high sediment deposition into the
Laccadive basin (Fig. 3d).

4 Results 4.2 Gravity anomaly mapping

4.1 Sediment isochron map analysis The crustal Bouguer anomaly map reveal two structural
trends: NNW–SSE orientation in the area north of the Tel-
The isochron maps in the study area (Fig. 3) show that for licherry Arch and NNE–SSW orientation south of Tel-
the Early Paleocene to Early Eocene time interval, signifi- licherry Arch (see Fig. 2b). The band-pass-filtered map of
cant sediment deposition occurred parallel to the coast with the crustal Bouguer anomaly and its first vertical derivative
much less sedimentation in the Laccadive basin. During this and total horizontal derivative maps in the study area fur-
period, maximum deposition took place in the area between ther enhanced the structural features observed in the crustal
Tellicherry Arch and off Kochi (the marked sediment patch Bouguer anomaly map (Fig. 4).
in Fig. 3a) with a minor sediment channel extending into
the basin (the marked sediment channel in Fig. 5a). Dur- 4.3 Seismic interpretation
ing the Early Eocene to Early Miocene time interval, depo-
sition within the sediment patch was almost absent, whereas, We present 13 interpreted seismic sections (Fig. 5) that reveal
significant deposition is observed in the northern part of the several rift-related horst–graben structures (extensional fea-
Laccadive basin on either side of the identified volcanic in- tures) at the margin. We correlated these structures with the
trusives (discussed below) (Fig. 5b). From Early Miocene gravity anomaly trends and noticed that the grabens are ori-
to recent times, sedimentation has been uniform in the Lac- ented NNW–SSE in the area north of the Tellicherry Arch,
cadive basin (Fig. 3c). Sediment deposition along the coast whereas the grabens are oriented NNE–SSW south of Tel-

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M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension 675

Figure 3. Isochron maps from Unnikrishnan et al. (2023) for selected time intervals: (a) Early Paleocene to Early Eocene, (b) Early Eocene
to Early Miocene, (c) Early Miocene to Present day, and (d) total sedimentary layers. The brown line in panel B represents trend of the
identified volcanic ridge. (Refer to text for detailed explanation and interpretation). TA stands for Tellicherry Arch, while CKE stands for
Chain-Kairali Escarpment.

licherry Arch (see Figs. 2, 3, and 5). These identified exten- 5 Discussion
sional structures show low gravity anomalies, the continuity
of which can be traced as gravity lows surrounded by highs This study identifies two major structural trends along the
in the anomaly maps (Figs. 2a–b and 4a–d). This is partic- southwestern margin, the first being the NNW–SSE-oriented
ularly prominent within the study area (south of Tellicherry grabens over the Laccadive Ridge north of Tellicherry Arch,
Arch). The seismic sections also reveal a series of volcanic and the second being the NNE–SSW graben system in the
intrusives in the centre of the Laccadive basin that can also be Laccadive basin area south of Tellicherry Arch (Fig. 2).
seen in the gravity anomaly map as a broken chain of highs The NNW–SSE rifts observed over the Laccadive Ridge
(Figs. 2, 3 and 4). The NNW–SSE-oriented grabens over the conforms with the orientation of the Dharwar structural
Laccadive Ridge north of Tellicherry Arch are part of the trend, which is a dominant structural trend in the onshore
CRS mapped by the DGH. region north of Tellicherry Arch (Fig. 1d). In addition,
these are part of the CRS that is characterised by complex
block-like basement structures comprising of grabens, half-
grabens, and faults (DGH2024) along the eastern flank of
the Laccadive Ridge and extends between 17–9.5° N paral-
lel to the western coast of India (Fig. 2a–b). Previous stud-

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676 M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension

Figure 4. (a) The crustal Bouguer anomaly, (b) the band-pass-filtered crustal Bouguer anomaly, (c) the first vertical derivative (FVD) of the
band-pass-filtered crustal Bouguer anomaly, and (d) the total horizontal derivative (THD) of the band-pass-filtered crustal Bouguer anomaly.
The black lines show the structural highs, and the dotted black lines show the continuity of rift basins identified. The solid and ticked black
line represents the Chain-Kairali Escarpment (CKE). The thick solid black line along the centre of the basin represents the identified volcanic
ridge. The thin black lines close to the coast represent major faults identified on the continental shelf Singh and Lal (1993). TA stands for
Tellicherry Arch.

ies (Kolla and Coumes, 1990; Singh and Lal, 1993) also in- Basin. Analysis of magnetic anomaly identifications (Bhat-
ferred the continuation of onshore Dharwar trend in the off- tacharya and Yatheesh, 2015; Shuhail et al., 2018) reveal
shore shelf region and beyond. As mentioned earlier, India– that the spreading was more active in the southern part of
Madagascar breakup took place at 83 Ma and resulted in the the basin and also characterised by longer transform faults
opening of the Mascarene Basin. Magnetic anomaly identi- between the spreading segments. If reconstructed backward
fications together with tectonic-plate reconstruction studies to this time (73 Ma reconstruction Shuhail et al., 2018), the
(Shuhail et al., 2018) reveal that during the initial period identified grabens south of Tellicherry Arch follow the orien-
(83–79 Ma), the spreading in the Mascarene Basin was E– tation of these transform faults. Tectonic-plate reconstruction
W (Fig. 1c), and this initial spreading regime matches well efforts by Shuhail et al. (2018) indicate that the spreading in
with the NNW–SSE-oriented rift system observed over the the Mascarene Basin was connected to the study area by long
Laccadive Ridge (Fig. 2). Hence, we infer that the NNW– transform faults such as the CKE. Hence, we interpret that
SSE-oriented grabens had formed during the early breakup the SSW–NNE fault system developed during this time when
evolution of the margin between India and Madagascar. the study area was in close proximity to the Mascarene Basin
Coming to the margin south of Tellicherry Arch, it is rel- spreading centre (Fig. 7, Stage II) due to movement along the
evant to understand the spreading regime in the Mascarene transform faults, whereas such large transforms with active

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M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension 677

Figure 5. Figure showing interpreted seismic sections. The faults are marked, and the intrusives are shown as dotted circles. The inset free-air
anomaly map in the bottom right corner shows the location of the seismic profiles. The time is given two-way travel times (TWTs). TWT is
the elapsed time for a seismic wave to travel from its source to a given reflector and return to a receiver at the Earth’s surface.

spreading were missing in the northern part of the Mascarene 5.1 Opening of the Laccadive basin
Basin, which is conjugate with the Laccadive Ridge region
north of Tellicherry Arch. Subsequently, spreading ceased in As explained in Sect. 4.1, the sediment deposition in the
the Mascarene Basin, and the basin was transferred to the basin is interpreted from the perspective of the creation
African plate by 57 Ma. Later, these faults opened and exten- of accommodation space and sediment supply. The high-
sion continued contemporaneous with India’s anticlockwise resolution time structure maps (Fig. 3a–d) provide insights
rotation, which facilitated the opening of Laccadive basin as into the timing of the opening of the Laccadive basin. These
indicated by the sediment isochron maps (Fig. 3a–c). maps clearly reveal significant sediment deposition along the
coast-parallel grabens within the shelf part of the margin in

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678 M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension

all time periods. Further, during the Paleocene–Eocene pe- ues in the centre of the Laccadive basin indicate maximum
riod, sediment deposition was very significant on the north- thinning and conform with our observations in this study.
ern fringe of the Laccadive basin (sediment patch in Fig. 3a),
with negligible sediments elsewhere in the basin. During the 5.3 Evolutionary model
Eocene to Miocene the sediment deposition shifted further
offshore into the Laccadive basin (Fig. 3b). The development Existing plate tectonic reconstruction models (Bhattacharya
of the volcanic ridge within the basin also occurred during and Yatheesh, 2015; Shuhail et al., 2018); the pre-existing
this time since it is observed that the sediments are deposited structural trends along WCMI, India, and Madagascar (Sub-
on either side of the location of the ridge. Further, the seismic rahmanyam et al., 1994; Kolla and Coumes, 1990; Bhat-
sections show sediments onlapping to the identified volcanic tacharya and Yatheesh, 2015); and the results from this study
ridge (Fig. 5 sections NN0 and PP0 ). The comparative analy- have been used to build a schematic evolutionary model for
sis of Fig. 3a and b indicates that the basin opened some time the opening of the Laccadive basin at the southwestern mar-
after the Early Eocene, and as a result accommodation space gin of India. Additionally, we also looked at analogue and
was created, with all of the incoming sediments migrating numerical modelling studies that explain extensional defor-
southward into the basin. A small channel of sediment depo- mation in rifts and rifted margin systems (Péron-Pinvidic and
sition into the Laccadive basin towards the southwest of the Manatschal, 2010; Zwaan et al., 2021; Bonini et al., 1997;
sediment patch (marked as sediment channel in Fig. 3a) may Henza et al., 2010). The locations of India and Madagascar
represent the initial stage of opening of the basin. During the in various stages (I–IV) (Fig. 7) were adopted from the recon-
Miocene to recent period (Fig. 3c), the sediment deposition struction model of Shuhail et al. (2018). The salient aspects
is more or less uniform throughout the basin. The distal part of each stage are given below.
of the Laccadive basin towards the west has relatively low
5.3.1 Stage I
sediment deposition, which may be due to the area’s location
far from any sediment supply. Stage I (Fig. 7, Stage I) shows India and Madagascar along
Unnikrishnan et al. (2018) identified the Alleppey Plat- with all the continental fragments in between them and a
form as a continental fragment and inferred its development large number of shear zones onshore for both India and
during the Oligocene–Miocene period. The Alleppey Plat- Madagascar (Bhattacharya and Yatheesh, 2015, and refer-
form is located adjacent to the Laccadive basin, and hence ences therein) immediately after the spreading started at
the development of the basin and the platform could be re- 83 Ma. These shear zones were used earlier as piercing points
lated. The timing of the development of the Alleppey plat- to find the relative position of India and Madagascar in the
form given by Unnikrishnan et al. (2018) closely agrees with matching of coastlines (Katz and Premoli, 1979; Subrah-
the inferred timing of the opening of the Laccadive basin manyam and Chand, 2006). Aside from this, studies along
from this study. the WCMI have shown the extension of onshore structural
trends into the offshore region (Subrahmanyam et al., 1994;
5.2 Distribution of bathymetry highs and intrusives Kolla and Coumes, 1990) and show that structural inheri-
tance plays a role during rifting and breakup (Péron-Pinvidic
A striking feature along this margin is the presence of many and Manatschal, 2010; Zwaan et al., 2021; Bonini et al.,
intrusives and bathymetric highs (see Fig. S2) observed in 1997; Henza et al., 2010). Dating of volcanics in Madagas-
the seismic and bathymetry data, respectively (Unnikrishnan car yields an age of 88 Ma (Storey et al., 1995) and magnetic
et al., 2023; Bijesh et al., 2018). These features have very anomalies indicate spreading started around 83 Ma (Shuhail
clear expressions on the gravity image of the area (Figs. 2 et al., 2018). Hence, we infer that during this extensional
and 3a–d). The intrusives and bathymetric highs in the study span, CRS formed on the Laccadive Ridge following the Pre-
area south of Tellicherry Arch (Fig. S2) appear to be elon- cambrian Dharwarian trend that is dominant north of Tel-
gated roughly parallel to the trend of the Laccadive basin. In licherry Arch.
the centre of the Laccadive basin, we noticed a series of vol-
canic mounds with a trend almost parallel to the CKE (Fig. 2) 5.3.2 Stage II
that are clearly expressed in the seismic sections (Fig. 5).
The observed trend correlates well with the crustal Bouguer Stage II (Fig. 7, Stage II) shows the proximity of Laccadive
anomaly map (Fig. 4a) and the depth to basement map Ridge to the spreading centre in the Mascarene Basin. As dis-
prepared by adding the sediment thickness to bathymetry cussed in Stage I, the lithosphere between India and Mada-
(Fig. 6a). This trend divides the Laccadive basin into east- gascar had zones of weakness (as evidenced by the pres-
ern and western basins. The composite tectonic map of the ence of inherited structures), and as a result, when the area
study area is shown in Fig. 6c. was proximal to the spreading centre, a number of paral-
Further, the β-value (crustal stretching factor) map lel transtensional faults may have formed on the Laccadive
(Fig. 6b) calculated by Unnikrishnan et al. (2023) clearly re- Ridge south of Tellicherry Arch. Even though the spread-
veals the extensional trend in the study area. The high β val- ing was happening along the entire basin, the spreading was

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M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension 679

Figure 6. (a) Depth to the basement map with all structures identified in the study, (b) β-value map redrawn from Unnikrishnan et al.
(2023), (c) proposed tectonic map of the study area. The bottom panel is a seismic section (Seis1) showing the general characteristics of
the Laccadive basin area. The seismic section is from Unnikrishnan (2018). The black lines show the structural highs and the dotted black
lines show the continuity of rift basins identified. The solid ticked black line represents the Chain-Kairali Escarpment (CKE). The thick solid
black line represents the identified volcanic ridge. The thin black lines close to the coast in (a) and (c) represent major faults identified on the
continental shelf (Singh and Lal, 1993). TA stands for Tellicherry Arch, AP stands for Alleppey Platform, TT stands for Trivandrum Terrace,
VR stands for volcanic ridge, LB stands for Laccadive basin.

very active in the southern part of the Mascarene Basin and tivation and further extension in the Laccadive basin. The
also characterised by long transform faults (Shuhail et al., sediment thickness data during the Paleocene–Eocene period
2018). As discussed in Sect. 5.2, distribution of bathymetric shows a sediment channel (Fig. 3a) extending into the Lac-
highs and intrusives south of Tellicherry Arch provide some cadive basin and an area of high sediment deposition (Sedi-
evidence for this. It is very likely that later, when the Réu- ment patch in Fig. 3a), which both indicate the initial stages
nion plume passed over the area, magma may have migrated of opening of the basin. Figure 3b shows sediments being de-
through the faults formed during this stage, giving rise to the posited on either side of the volcanic ridge in the Laccadive
preferred orientation of intrusive and bathymetric features in basin. By this time the basin opened and sediments were ac-
this area. It is worthwhile to note that Bijesh et al. (2018) commodated in the basin.
related the genesis of the bathymetric features to hotspot vol-
canism. 5.3.4 Stage IV

Stage IV (Fig. 7, Stage IV) shows the present-day configura-

5.3.3 Stage III tion of the Laccadive basin. The Alleppey–Trivandrum Ter-
race Complex remains attached to the Indian continent with
Stage III (Fig. 7, Stage III) shows the initial stages of open- the CKE forming its western boundary. The centre of the
ing of the Laccadive basin in the Paleocene. By this time, Laccadive basin experienced maximum crustal thinning, and
the entire region was flooded by Deccan volcanics during the a series of intrusives got emplaced in the crust. The change
passage of Réunion plume. Studies by Patriat and Achache in the orientation of horst–graben structures in the Alleppey–
(1984) and Dewey (1989) showed that the Indian plate ro- Trivandrum Terrace Complex from that in the southern part
tated anticlockwise about 40° since 84 Ma, out of which it of Laccadive Ridge can be noticed.
underwent about 25° after the soft collision at 50 Ma (Treloar
and Coward, 1991). The passage of the Réunion plume over
the area may have weakened the overlying lithosphere and,
together with India’s anticlockwise rotation and the presence
of inherited structural weakness, may have led to the reac-

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680 M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension

Figure 7. Map showing the evolution of the region in four stages. Stage I is the pre-rift juxtaposition of the continental fragments. Note that
the Laccadive Ridge is larger since it incorporates all the fragments that are littered between India and Madagascar. Stage II is the formation
of the fault systems or the rift systems due to the influence of spreading in the Mascarene Basin. Stage III is the opening of the basin with
the CKE, ATTC, and India moving away from the Laccadive Ridge. Note how the orientation of the extensional features changes with the
anticlockwise movement of India. Stage IV is the present-day configuration of the margin with all extensional features and the volcanic
ridge. LaX is the Laxmi Ridge, SEY is the Seychelles, MAD is Madagascar, SL is Sri Lanka, LR is the Laccadive Ridge, ATTC is the
Alleppey–Trivandrum Terrace Complex, and CKE is the Chain-Kairali Escarpment.

6 Conclusions rifting and evolutionary history for the southern part of the
margin.
The seismic and gravity data analysis along the southern part
of the WCMI revealed two significantly different orienta-
tions of the extensional graben system, one being NNW– Data availability. The authors do not have permission to share
SSE-oriented rifts over the Laccadive Ridge north of Tel- data.
licherry Arch, and the other being NNE–SSW-oriented rifts
in the Laccadive basin region south of Tellicherry Arch. The
change in extensional direction in the Laccadive basin, along Supplement. The supplement related to this article is available on-
line at: https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-671-2024-supplement.
with the isochron maps for different times, suggests that the
basin opened during the post-Eocene period with maximum
extension along the centre of the basin where the volcanic in-
Author contributions. MGG: conceptualisation, methodology, val-
trusives are emplaced. The lithosphere that existed had zones idation, formal analysis, writing (original draft and editing), and
of weakness, and this along with proximity to the Réunion visualisation. MR: conceptualisation, validation, resources, writing
plume and anticlockwise rotation of India led to complex

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M. G. Gilbert et al.: Cretaceous–Paleocene extension 681

(review and editing), and supervision. PU: conceptualisation and tory experiments with application to the Ethiopian Rift, Tecton-
writing (review and editing). ics, 16, 347–362, 1997.
Chaubey, A., Dyment, J., Bhattacharya, G. C., Royer, J.-Y., Srinivas,
K., and Yatheesh, V.: Paleogene magnetic isochrons and palaeo-
Competing interests. The contact author has declared that none of propagators in the Arabian and Eastern Somali basins, NW In-
the authors has any competing interests. dian Ocean, Geological Society, London, Special Publications,
195, 71–85, 2002.
Collier, J., Sansom, V., Ishizuka, O., Taylor, R., Minshull, T., and
Disclaimer. Publisher’s note: Copernicus Publications remains Whitmarsh, R.: Age of Seychelles–India break-up, Earth Planet.
neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, pub- Sc. Lett., 272, 264–277, 2008.
lished maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical rep- Crameri, F., Shephard, G. E., and Heron, P. J.: The misuse of
resentation in this paper. While Copernicus Publications makes ev- colour in science communication, Nat. Commun., 11, 5444,
ery effort to include appropriate place names, the final responsibility https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19160-7, 2020.
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DGH2024: Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Noida,
India web page: Kerala Konkan Basin, https://www.dghindia.
Special issue statement. This article is part of the special issue
gov.in/index.php/page?pageId=67&name=IndianGeology, last
“(D)rifting into the future: the relevance of rifts and divergent mar-
access: 23 June 2023.
gins in the 21st century”. It is not associated with a conference.
Ganerød, M., Torsvik, T., Van Hinsbergen, D., Gaina, C., Corfu, F.,
Werner, S., Owen-Smith, T., Ashwal, L., Webb, S., and Hendriks,
B.: Palaeoposition of the Seychelles microcontinent in relation
Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the Frank Zwaan for to the Deccan Traps and the Plume Generation Zone in Late
the thorough and constructive review. We sincerely appreciate all Cretaceous-Early Palaeogene time, Geological Society, London,
valuable comments and suggestions by Yatheesh Vadakkeyakath Special Publications, 357, 229–252, 2011.
and the anonymous reviewer, which helped us improve the GEBCO: General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans,
manuscript. The work benefitted from many constructive discus- GEBCO Compilation Group (2020) GEBCO 2020
sions with Kondepudi V. S. S. Sai Pattabhiram. This study forms Grid, https://doi.org/10.5285/a29c5465-b138-234d-e053-
a part of PhD work of Mathews George Gilbert at IIT Bombay. 6c86abc040b9, , 2020.
Parakkal Unnikrishnan gratefully acknowledges the permission of Henza, A. A., Withjack, M. O., and Schlische, R. W.: Normal-fault
the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) provided for development during two phases of non-coaxial extension: An ex-
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entific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, under a Lovecchio, J. P., Rohais, S., Joseph, P., Bolatti, N. D., and
Junior Research Fellowship (grant no. 09/087(1005)/2019-EMR-I). Ramos, V. A.: Mesozoic rifting evolution of SW Gond-
wana: a poly-phased, subduction-related, extensional
history responsible for basin formation along the Ar-
Review statement. This paper was edited by Frank Zwaan and re- gentinean Atlantic margin, Earth-Sci. Rev., 203, 103138,
viewed by Yatheesh Vadakkeyakath and one anonymous referee. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103138, 2020.
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