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Chikiala Formation
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Chikiala Fm base reconstruction

Chikiala Fm

Period: 
Cretaceous

Age Interval: 
Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous


Province: 
Gondwana basins of Peninsular India

Type Locality and Naming

Pranhita-Godavari Basin: King (1881) used the name for the sandstone unconformably overlying the Kota Fm near the village Chikiala, Maharashtra as the Chikiala Sandstone. The type area is the scarp of the hillock near Chikiala. [Original Publication: King, W. 1881. The geology of the Pranhita-Godavari valley. Mem. Geol. Surv, Ind., 18(30), 150-311]

[Figure 1: Geological map of the northern Pranhita-Godavari valley between Pedda Vagu and Godavari River displaying the geographic extent of the Chikiala Formation (after Kutty et al., 1987)]


Lithology and Thickness

Sandstone. The formation comprises light brown, red, yellow and buff ferruginous sandstone and conglomerate. The rocks are highly ferruginous and local source for iron. A few clay bands are also present. The Chikiala Formation is about 275 m thick (Lakshminarayana, 1996).


Lithology Pattern: 
Coarse-grained sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Gangapur Fm unconformably overlying the Kota Fm in the western part of the Pranhita-Godavari Basin has been equated with the Chikiala Fm (Shah et al., 1970). But according to Raiverman (1986) Chikiala Formation overlies the Gangapur Fm, whereas Sastry et al. (1977) believe that the Chikiala Formation underlies the Gangapur Fm.

Upper contact

The sequence is covered by Deccan Traps Fm.

Regional extent

Pranhita-Godavari Basin: It forms the eastern margin of the Gondwana outcrops of the Pranhita-Godavari Valley.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Flora: Cladophlebis indica, Hausmannia cf. buchii, Hausmannia sp., Dictyozamites

sp., Nilssonia sp., Taeniopteris spathulata, Ha usmannia sp., Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, Otozamites sp. and Ptilophyllum acutifolium (Rao and Shah, 1959; Sastry et al., 1977).


Age 

Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous (Sastry et al. 1977). [For graphic purposes, put here below the partly coeval Gangapur Fm.]

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Tithonian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
149.24

    Ending stage: 
Valanginian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.5

    Ending date (Ma):  
135.15

Depositional setting

The Chikiala Formation is interpreted as the deposit of an alluvial fan complex that exhibits northwesterly paleo-drainage.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information

References

Lakshminarayana, G. 1996. Stratigraphy and structural framework of the Gondwana sediments in the Pranhita–Godavari Valley, Andhra Pradesh. Gondwana Nine (1), Geol. Surv. India: 311–330. Sastry et al. 1977; Shah et al., 1970; Raiverman (1986); Rao, C. N., Shah, S. C. 1959. Fossil insects from the Gondwanas of India. Ind. Min., 12(1). 3.


Compiler:  
:

Varun Parmar & G. V. R. Prasad