Geochemistry and Depositional Environment of Quartzites: Lower Cuddapah Supergroup, South India

The Proterozoic sedimentary basins in India, in general, extend beyond Archaean cratonic basements disseminated over five main cratons. One such intracratonic sedimentary basin is known as the Cuddapah Basin which occurs in the eastern Dharwar craton. These sedimentary basins initiation or basin inversion is controlled by tectonic processes at the craton margins. The oldest sedimentation began ~1900 Ma ago as noticed in the Cuddapah Basin in the Eastern Dharwar craton with two cycles of sedimentation in the Paleoproterozoic roughly coinciding with global propagation in passive margin sedimentation. The Cuddapah Basin commences through the alluvial fan of the Gulcheru Quartzite with a basal polymict matrix to clast-supported conglomerate lying directly above the Archaean rocks. In line with above, this book describes the geochemical characters of the siliciclastic sediments of the Lower Cuddapah Supergroup. In addition, the field, petrographic and geochemical studies along with major, trace and rare earth elements were also described to understand the provenance characteristics of the source rocks.