Provenance of Glauconitic Sandstones of Kheinjua Formation of Semri Group, Son Valley, Central India: Evidence for Uplift of a Rifted Continental Margin Basin

The paper embodies results of petrofacies, detrital mineralogy, texture and diagenetic aspects of glauconitic sandstones of Kheinjua Formation of Vindhyan Basin, Son valley These glauconitic sandstones consisting of various types of quartz, feldspar, rock fragments, mica and a sulte of heavy minerals, are medium to very fine grained, and well to moderately well sorted These sediments including glauconite grams are generally subangular to subroundcd with a few grams bang well rounded These sandstones are well compacted and dominated by interpenetrative contacts and are maniy cemented by iron cement with small amount of glauconite and silica cement The existing optical poroslly has developed due to dissolution of Iron cement, feldspar and rock fragments These observations suggest progressive compaction, which initiated at the sediment-water interface and continued till deep bunal diagenesis in a rapidly subsiding basin

The plots of petrofacies in Qt-F-L, Qm-F-Lt, Qp-Lvm-Lsm and Qm-P-K ternary diagrams suggest mainly basement uplift source (craton interior) In a rifted continental margin basin setting, which has also received sediment Input from recycled orogen provenance The plot of various quartz types on diamond diagrarn after Basu et a1 (1975) reflects derivation of the sediments from the plutonic and middle to high-rank metamorphic terrains Besides, Lower part of the Semri Group, the most probable provenance of these sandstones IS Bijawar metasedimentary and Bundelkhand Gneissic complexes, which bordered the basin in the north and northeast.