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Talchir Formation
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Talchir Fm base reconstruction

Talchir Fm


Period: 
Permian

Age Interval: 
Late Asselian to Sakmarian (Early Permian)


Province: 
Gondwana basins of Peninsular India

Type Locality and Naming

Ray-Bachra, North Karanpura Coalfield area, Jharkhand (Ghosh and Mitra, 1975). Named after Talchir, a feudatory State in Orissa by Blanford et al. (1856); was designated as Talchir Formation by Sastry et al. (1977). [Original Publication: Blanford, W.T., Blanford, H.F., Theobald, W., 1856. On the geological structure and relations of the Talcheer coalfield in the district of Cuttack (Fig.1). Mem. Geol. Surv. India 1, 1 –98; Sastry, M.V.A., Acharyya, S.K., Shah, S.C., Satsangi, P.P., Ghosh, S.C., Raha, P.K., Singh, G., Ghosh, R.N. (Eds.), 1977 Stratigraphic Lexicon of Gondwana Formations of India, Misc. Publ,. Geol. Surv. India, vol. 36, pp. 170.]

[Figure 1: Geological map of Talcher Basin of Odisha after Manjrekar et al. (2006), Pal et al. (1991), Raja Rao (1983)]

Synonyms: Talchir Series (Jowett, 1925; Fox, 1930 a, b, c, d; Gee, 1932) (Source: Peters, 2009).


Lithology and Thickness

Glacial and glacial-marine. Ghosh and Mitra (1975) suggests deposition in type area in two cycles, each beginning with very coarse sediments, either tillites or conglomerates which are overlain by sandstone with thick band of varve clay followed by fine-grained sandstone at top with the section thickness varying between 23.5 m to 79 m. The Talchir Formation attains maximum thickness of about 240 m in the Jharia Basin.


Lithology Pattern: 
Glacial till


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Talchir Formation forming the base of the Gondwana sequence, rests over the Precambrian basement with a non-conformity.

Upper contact

Talchir Formation is unconformably overlain by the Karharbari Fm or Barakar Fm.

Regional extent

Talchir Formation has been recorded from almost all Gondwana basins in peninsular area including east coast, west Rajasthan, where it is known as the Bap Fm /Bhadura Fm and at Mingrimari in the western most Garo Hills, Meghalaya (Das Gupta and Biswas, 2000; Peters, 2009). It has also been encountered in Wells A-F (north of Ganga River) of Oil and Natural Gas commission, in parts of West Bengal (Thakur, 1993) and at Barapathar, Dhansiri Valley in Assam (Roy and Asthana, 1989).


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Fossils from the Talchir Formation have been recorded from two levels, the lower Manendragarh Member / bed and the upper Umaria Member / bed, from several localities.

Manendragarh Member / bed has yielded Bryozoa - Protoretipora cf. ampla; Brachiopod- Spirifer hesdoensis; Pelecypod- Eurydesma hesdoensis, E. manendragarhensis, E. hobartense, E. playfordi, Aviculopecten squamulifermus, A. mitchelli; Gastropods - Euomphalus hesdoensis, E. cf. oculus, Pleurotomaria umariensis (Sahni and Dutta, 1962); Foraminifera -Hypermina gracilis, H. aff. bulbosa, H. sp cf. clevatula, Glomospira articulosa, Lituotuba? sp., Tolypommina polyvesta, Trochammina hesdoensis (Bhatia and Singh, 1959); Estheriid - Leaiidae (Ghosh et al. 1988); Ichnofossils- Skolithos, Cylindrichnus, Rosseelia, Teichhichnus, Rhyzocorallium, Scolicia and Cruziana. Ghosh et al. (1987); impressions of bodies and wings of arthropod and carbonized plant fragments (Source: Peters, 2009).

Umaria Member / bed contains Bryozoa - Rhombopora sp.; Brachiopods - Stepanoviella umariensis, S. umariensis var. spiriferous, S. rewahensis var. coroides, Ambikella barakarensis, Trigonatreta narsarhensis; Gastropods - Peruvispira umariensis, Janeia biarmica, Euomphalus sp.; Pelecypods- Eurydesma cf. mitiloides; Ostracods - Palaeocryoris sp., Cytherella sp., Jonesina sp., Jimbacrinus sp., Healdia umariensis (Reed, 1928; Sastry and Shah, 1964); Foraminifera -Hypermina gracilis and H. aff. elongata (Bhatia and Saxena, 1957; Bhatia, 1959). Plants fossils Gangamopteris and Neoggerathiopsis dominate. Other constituents are Cornucarpus furcata, Samaropsis goraiensis Walkomeilla indica and Paraanocladus ? indica (King, 1880; Feistmantel, 1886; Singh and Suresh,1951; Baksi, 1968; Chandra and Singh, 1994; Singh et al. 1998).

Plant fossils comprising Glossopteris longicaulis, equisetaceous stems, four species of Gangamopteris, Noeggerathiopsis hislopi, Arberia surangei, Ottokaria bengalensis, Vertebraria indica, four species of Gangamopteris, Noeggerathiopsis hislopi, Arberia surangei, Ottokaria bengalensis, Cardaicarpus seeds and Vertebraria indica have been reported from the Talchir Formation (Saxsena et al., 2014). Among playnofossils Late Asselian forms recorded are Potonieisporites, Parasaccites, Plicatipollenites, Gondwanapollis and Jayantisporites, whereas Early Sakmarian forms are Microbacultispora tentulata, M. foveolata, Tuberisaccites, Crucisaccites, Stellapollenites (Tiwari, 1996).


Age 

Lower Permian (Late Asselian to Sakmarian). The fossils suggest that the lower level of the Talchir Formation (Manendragarh Member / bed) to be Late Asselian in age and the upper level (Umaria Member / bed) Sakmarian in age.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Asselian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.7

    Beginning date (Ma): 
295.13

    Ending stage: 
Sakmarian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.8

    Ending date (Ma):  
291.11

Depositional setting

Facies analysis carried on Talchir section exposed along Dudhi nala, West Bokaro coalfield by Mukhopadhyay and Bhattacharya (1996) suggest a glacio-marine depositional environment for the Talchir Formation. The basin however was not under uniform cover of glacial ice or marine water as based on facies study of Talchir succession of Jharia Basin (Dasgupta 2006). The oldest sediments of Talchir Formation bear signature of glacial origin. They underwent brecciation possibly during deglaciation (Dasgupta 2006). The younger sediments were deposited during the terminal phase of the deglaciation event, which led to rise in the sea level and consequent marine flooding of the Indian continent.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information

References

Baksi, 1968; Bhatia, 1959; Bhatia and Saxena, 1957; Bhatia and Singh, 1959; Blanford et al. 1856; Chandra and Singh, 1994; Das Gupta and Biswas, 2000; Dasgupta 2006; Feistmantel, 1886; Fox, 1930 a, b, c, d ; Gee, 1932; Ghosh and Mitra, 1975; Ghosh et al. 1987, 1988; Peters, 2009; Jowett, 1925; King, 1880; Majrekar et al., 2006; Mukhopadhyay and Bhattacharya (1996; Pal et al., 1991; Raja Rao, 1983; Reed, 1928; Roy and Asthana, 1989; Sahni and Dutta, 1962; Sastry and Shah, 1964; Sastry et al. 1977; Saxsena et al., 2014; Singh and Suresh,1951; Singh et al. 1998; Tiwari, 1996; Thakur, 1993;


Compiler:  
:

Varun Parmar & G. V. R. Prasad