S U M M A R YDeep seismic sounding data were acquired in the West Bengal basin, India, along two profiles: (i) Bishnupur-Palashi-Kandi, along a line about 227 km long in the northsouth direction and (ii) Taki-Arambagh, along a line about 120 km long in the east-west direction. Seismic refraction and wide-angle reflection data were recorded by continuous profiling using two 60-channel digital seismic units (DFS-V) with an 80 m geophone group interval and 4 ms sampling rate. These data were interpreted in order to delineate the basement configuration. The 2-D models of the seismic data both indicate a five-layer velocity structure above the Archaean crystalline basement (5.9-6.2 km s-I). A low-velocity layer (4.0 km s-') is inferred immediately above the basement in the shelf region of the basin corresponding to the Gondwana sediments (Upper Carboniferous to Lower Triassic) below the Rajmahal Traps (Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous) of 4.6 to 4.8 km s-' velocity, which is also confirmed from the nearby well data. The results along the Taki-Arambagh profile and the drilling results at the Jaguli (J-1) well are used to investigate whether Gondwana sediments and the Rajmahal Traps exist in the deep part of the Bengal basin. An additional layer of velocity 5.2-5.3 km s-', delineated in the Palashi-Kandi profile overlying the basement, may correspond to the Singhbhum group of rocks of the Proterozoic.A structural contour map of the basement prepared from the present results indicates a south-easterly dip of the basement in general. The depth of the basement on the stable shelf of the basin gently increases to about 8 km and dips steeply, plunging to a maximum depth of 14 km in the deep basin. No structural high that can be related to the 'Calcutta gravity high' is found in the basement around the Hooghly River.

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