Alluvial Fan Qrigin of the Bagra Formation (Mesozoic Gondwana) and Tectono-Stratigraphic Implications

The Bagra Formation of the Mesozoic Gondwana sequence of Satpura basin has been considered as a facies equivalent of the underlying Denwa, and assigned a late Triassic age. The present study reviews the above contention, prompted by distinctive lithofacies assemblage, depositional setting and tectonic framework of the Bagra Formation, and its variable relationship with the underlying strata.

The Bagra Formation as a whole comprises conglomerate assemblage in the lower and middle parts and sandstones with intercalated lenses of shale in the upper part. The lower conglomerate facies occurring northward is clast - to matrix supported and poorly sorted; it is finergrained, better sorted, including thin lenses of cross-bedded sandstone southward in middle part of the formation. The overlying cross-bedded sandstone and shale facies is the most important assemblage in the distal south. The coarse grained nature of the sediments, the upward- fining distribution and lateral changes in gross lithofacies and stratification types, and paleocurrent data suggest that the Bagra conglomeratic sequence was deposited as an alluvial fan system that prograded southward from a highland source located immediately to the north. In sharp contrast, the fluvial system was directed dominantly northward and source area located southward for the underlying Permo-Triassic Gondwana sediments, including Denwa.

It is argued that a late Triassic age of the Bagra Formation is questionable, in as much as a substantial stratigraphic break in sedimentation is called for after the deposition of Middle Triassic Denwa. The Bagra may well be late Jurassic-early Cretaceous in age based on its relationship with the overlying JabaIpur Formation.