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Biostratigraphic and detrital zircon age constraints on the basement of the Himalayan Foreland Basin: Implications for a Proterozoic link to the Lesser Himalaya and cratonic India
Author(s) -
Xiao Shuhai,
Tang Qing,
Hughes Nigel C.,
McKenzie N. Ryan,
Myrow Paul M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
terra nova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.353
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-3121
pISSN - 0954-4879
DOI - 10.1111/ter.12235
Subject(s) - proterozoic , geology , foreland basin , supergroup , sedimentary depositional environment , basement , paleontology , craton , zircon , cretaceous , sedimentary rock , paleozoic , structural basin , geochemistry , tectonics , archaeology , geography
The Himalayan Foreland Basin in the Ganga Valley is key to assessing the pre‐collision relationship between cratonic India and the Himalaya – the world's largest mountain chain. The subsurface Ganga Supergroup, representing the sedimentary basement of the Ganga Valley, has been interpreted as a northern extension of the Proterozoic Vindhyan Supergroup in cratonic India. This interpretation is contentious because the depositional age of the Ganga Supergroup is not resolved: whereas the lower Ganga Supergroup is widely regarded as Proterozoic, the upper Ganga Supergroup has been variously inferred to include Neoproterozoic, lower Palaeozoic, or Cretaceous strata. Here, we integrate biostratigraphic and detrital zircon data from drill cores to show that the entire Ganga Supergroup is likely Proterozoic and can be correlated with Proterozoic successions on the northern Indian craton and in the Lesser Himalaya. This helps redefine the first‐order stratigraphic architecture and indicates broad depositional continuity along the northern Indian margin during the Proterozoic.