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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2021

Susobhan Neogi Open the ORCID record for Susobhan Neogi [Opens in a new window] ,
Apoorve Bhardwaj  and
Amitava Kundu
Susobhan Neogi*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of India, 15A & B, Kyd Street, Kolkata700016, India
Apoorve Bhardwaj
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of India, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh226024, India
Amitava Kundu
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of India, Chennai, Tamil Nadu600032, India
*
Author for correspondence: Susobhan Neogi, Email: susobhanneogi@gmail.com
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Abstract

Fragmentation 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.

Keywords

Shillong BasinMeghalayaRodinia break-upstratigraphystructurePan-African Orogeny
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 159 , Issue 4 , April 2022 , pp. 628 - 644
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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