Permian Gondwana Sedimentation in Yellandu (Singareni) Coalfield, Andhra Pradesh, India with Notes on Regional Paleogeography and Tectonic History

The Yeliandu coalfield of Andhra Pradesh contains an 850 m Permian Gondwana rocks composed of Barakar, Barren Measures and Raniganj Formations. They are characterised by fining upward cycles. The sandstones are channel shaped, sheet-like and multistoried, and planar and trough cross bedded. The shales are massive to laminated and form thin lenses in the Barakar, but moderately thick sheets in the ovelying Barren Measures and Raniganj Formations. The coal seams are thin and lensoid. Paleocurrent studies suggest consistently northhwesterly dispersal direction areally and temporally. Evidence indicates that initially braided streams at the onset of Early Permian Barakar sedimentation became meandering through time into Barren Measures and Raniganj Formations of Middle and Late Permian, respectively. The close similarity in lithofacies depositional environment and dispersal direction of Permian rocks of Yellandu coalfields and those of neighbouring Pranhita-Godavari basin in the east. and their geological and tectonic setting suggest that the Yellandu coalfield was part of the Godavari basin until the Late Permian or Early Triassic.