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Damtha Gr
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Damtha Gr base reconstruction

Damtha Gr

Period: 
Paleoproterozoic

Age Interval: 
(ca 1620 Ma)


Province: 
N.India Lesser Himalaya

Type Locality and Naming

Kumaun Region, the Damtha Gr occurs at the stratigraphic base of the Lesser Himalayan sequence. [Original Publication: Valdiya, K.S. 1968. Origin of magnestie deposits of southern Pithoragarh, Kumaun Himalaya. Economic Geol. 63, 924-934.]


Lithology and Thickness

Sandstone. It is subdivided into the lower Chakarata Fm and upper Rautgara Fm (Nagthat) in the Garhwal Himalaya. It constitutes the sedimentary record of a siliciclastic shallow marine succession with contemporaneous mafic volcanics, which are pronounced in the Rautgara Fm (Rupke, 1974; Srikantia, 1977; Valdiya, 1980).


Lithology Pattern: 
Sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Base of Chakarata Fm (lower formation) is nowhere exposed.

Upper contact

Defined by almost abrupt transition of the slates into limestone and dolomites of the Deoban Gr.

Regional extent

This Gr is developed in Kumaun region.


GeoJSON

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Fossils


Age 

The intercalated mafic volcanics in the Rautgara (Nagthat) Formation and their presumed equivalents (Rampur metabasalts) have yielded an age of 1.8 Ga (Miller, C., Klötzli, U., Frank, W., Thoni, M., Grasemann, B. 2000. Proterozoic crustal evolution in the N.W. Himalaya (India) as recorded by circa 1.80 Ga mafic and 1.84 Ga granitic magmatism. Precambrian Research, 103, 191-206), which makes the Damtha Group the oldest sedimentary succession in the Himalaya. (Palaeoproterozoic Seismites in Damtha Group, Lesser Himalaya, India, after Ghosh et al., 2012). However, Miller (2017) disputes this age, and assigns the Raulgara Fm to 1600 Ma; and shows older (ca. 1900 Ma) suite of Herinag Fm, Rampur Fm, Wangfu Fm, Jeori Fm an Jutogh Fm (none are in present Lexicon). However, Miller (2017) indicates no significant age-gap between Deoban Gr (lowest Calymmian; 1600 Ma) and the top of Rautgara Fm (top of Damtha Gr), therefore age is assigned as ca. 1640-1605 Ma.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Statherian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.8

    Beginning date (Ma): 
1,640.00

    Ending stage: 
Statherian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.98

    Ending date (Ma):  
1,604.00

Depositional setting

It constitutes the sedimentary record of a siliciclastic shallow marine succession with contemporaneous mafic volcanics, which are pronounced in the Rautgara Formation (Rupke, 1974; Srikantia, 1977; Valdiya, 1980). The intercalated mafic volcanics in the Rautgara (Nagthat) Formation and their equivalents have yielded an age of 1.8 Ga (Miller et al., 2000), which makes the Damtha Group the oldest sedimentary succession in the Himalaya. (Palaeoproterozoic Seismites in Damtha Group, Lesser Himalaya, India, after Ghosh et al., 2012).


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

O.N. Bhargava & Birendra Singh.