The geology of the Barmer Basin, Rajasthan, India, and the origins of its major oil reservoir, the Fatehgarh Formation

Compton, Paul M.

doi:10.1144/1354-079309-827

Cited by 59 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…1), active since the early Mesozoic, remains poorly understood despite many hydrocarbon discoveries (Biswas, 1982;Gombos et al, 1995;Compton, 2009;Dolson et al, 2015). Onshore rift basins within the West Indian Rift System include the Kachchh (Kutch), Cambay, and Narmada basins.…”

Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Barmer Basin is the most northerly rift within the West Indian Rift System (Fig. 1), and is a long, narrow and deep (200 km, <40 km, & ≤6 km respectively), late Cretaceous to mid-Eocene, low-strain (1.2 ≤ b ≤ 1.5), failed continental rift that is linked with the Cambay Basin to the south via the poorly defined Sanchor sub-Basin (Compton, 2009;Dolson et al, 2015). Together, the Barmer and Cambay basins form a northnorthwest-trending rift system that extends some 600 km into the Indian continent.…”

Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geology and regional significance of the Sarnoo Hills, eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, NW India

et al. 2015

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The Barmer Basin is a poorly understood rift basin in Rajasthan, northwest India. Exposures in the Sarnoo Hills, situated along the central eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, reveal a sedimentary succession that accumulated prior to the main Barmer Basin rift event, and a rift-oblique fault network that displays unusual geometries and characteristics. Here, we present a comprehensive study of Lower Cretaceous sedimentology on the basin margin, along with a detailed investigation of riftoblique faults that are exposed nowhere else in the region and provide critical insights into Barmer Basin evolution. Lower Cretaceous sediments were deposited within a rapidly subsiding alluvial plain fluvial system. Subsequent to deposition, the evolving Sarnoo Hills fault network was affected by structural inheritance during an early, previously unrecognised, rift-oblique extensional event attributed to transtension between India and Madagascar, and formed a juvenile fault network within the immediate rift-margin footwall. Ghaggar-Hakra Formation deposition may have been triggered by early rifting which tectonically destabilised the Marwar Craton prior to the main northeast-southwest Barmer Basin rift event. The identification of early rifting in the Barmer Basin demonstrates that regional extension and the associated rift systems were established throughout northwest India prior to the main phase of Deccan eruptions. Inheritance of early oblique fault systems within the evolving Barmer Basin provides a robust explanation for poorly understood structural complications interpreted in the subsurface throughout the rift. Critically, the presence of syn-rift sedimentary successions within older oblique rift systems obscured beneath the present-day Barmer Basin has significant implications for hydrocarbon exploration. INTRODUCTIONDespite being a significant structure within the West Indian Rift System (Fig. 1a), and an important hydrocarbon province (Dolson et al., 2015), the structural geology and evolution of the Barmer Basin rift remains relatively poorly understood. The current understanding of rift evolution is based predominantly upon subsurface data sets, where an abundance of complex structures and rift-oblique faults are variably imaged on seismic data throughout the rift (Bladon et al., 2015; Fig. 1b). However, the origin of these structures remains elusive, and limited exposure of the structure and stratigraphy of the rift at outcrop has restricted outcrop-based studies. This work characterises a rift-oblique fault network that is apparent nowhere else in the region, and is exposed on the eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, in the Sarnoo Hills. Detailed sedimentological and structural analyses are used to clarify the origin of similar rift-oblique faults imaged in the Barmer Basin subsurface, and subsequently to place the findings within the wider context of northwest India. Sediments were deposited in a maturing fluvial system within a rapidly subsiding continental alluvial plain environment. The expos...

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Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology and regional significance of the Sarnoo Hills, eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, NW India

et al. 2015

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“…The Barmer and Cambay basins are linked by the poorly defined Sanchor sub-basin (Fig. 1a), and together constitute a northnorthwest trending rift system that extends for some 600 km into the Indian continent (Compton, 2009). The tectonics, extent, and relationship of the Barmer Basin with the rifted margins remain undocumented.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Jaisalmer Basin immediately to the north is separated from the Barmer Basin by a basement structural high. The sedimentary succession in the basin is dominantly Paleocene to Eocene in age, and represents an infilling of accommodation space from fluvial, through lacustrine, to shallow marineinfluenced sediments (Sisodia and Singh, 2000;Compton, 2009;Dolson et al in press). The basin fill overlies rift-basement rocks of the Precambrian Malani Igneous Suite (c.f.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). To date, the Barmer Basin has been interpreted as a latest-Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to mid-Paleogene (Lutetian) rift (Compton, 2009) that opened in response to rifting of the Seychelles microcontinent from the Greater Indian continent near to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (e.g. Collier et al, 2008;Reeves, 2013;Eagles and Hoang, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Complex rift geometries resulting from inheritance of pre-existing structures: Insights and regional implications from the Barmer Basin rift

Bladon

Clarke

Burley

2015

Journal of Structural Geology

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a b s t r a c t Structural studies of the Barmer Basin in Rajasthan, northwest India, demonstrate the important effect that pre-existing faults can have on the geometries of evolving fault systems at both the outcrop and basin-scale. Outcrop exposures on opposing rift margins reveal two distinct, non-coaxial extensional events. On the eastern rift margin northwest-southeast extension was accommodated on southwest and west-striking faults that form a complex, zig-zag fault network. On the western rift margin northeast-southwest extension was accommodated on northwest-striking faults that form classical extensional geometries.Combining these outcrop studies with subsurface interpretations demonstrates that northwest-southeast extension preceded northeast-southwest extension. Structures active during the early, previously unrecognised extensional event were variably incorporated into the evolving fault systems during the second. In the study area, an inherited rift-oblique fault transferred extension from the rift margin to a mid-rift fault, rather than linking rift margin fault systems directly. The resultant rift margin accommodation structure has important implications for early sediment routing and depocentre evolution, as well as wider reaching implications for the evolution of the rift basin and West Indian Rift System. The discovery of early rifting in the Barmer Basin supports that extension along the West Indian Rift System was long-lived, multi-event, and likely resulted from far-field plate reorganisations.

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Sedimentology and the facies architecture of the Ghaggar‐Hakra Formation, Barmer Basin, India: Implications for early Cretaceous deposition on the north‐western Indian Plate margin

Beaumont

Clarke

Burley

et al. 2018

The Depositional Record

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Fluvial strata of the Lower Cretaceous Ghaggar‐Hakra Formation are exposed in fault blocks on the central‐eastern margin of the Barmer Basin, Rajasthan. The sedimentology of these outcrops are described from 114 logs (thicknesses up to 100 m) and 53 two‐dimensional correlation panels. The formation comprises three distinct channel belt sandstone packages defined as the Darjaniyon‐ki Dhani, Sarnoo and Nosar sandstones separated by thick siltstone‐dominated floodplain successions. The sediments were deposited in a sub‐tropical, low sinuosity fluvial system that matures into a highly sinuous fluvial system. The Nosar Sandstone, the youngest of the three packages, exhibits a significant increase in energy and erosive power compared to those underlying it. This distinct change in fluvial style is interpreted as being rejuvenation due to an actively developing rift network forming accommodation space, rather than climatic controls acting on part of the depositional system. Consequently, the Ghaggar‐Hakra Formation at outcrop represents Lower Cretaceous syn‐rift deposition within the Barmer Basin with active localized fault movement from Nosar Sandstone times onward. These findings provide sedimentological evidence in support of pre‐Palaeogene northwest–southeast extension in the Barmer Basin. Moreover, they imply Cretaceous extension took place widely along the northern extremity of the West Indian Rift System consistent with plate tectonic models of the break‐up of Gondwana and evolution of the Indian Ocean. Outcrops of Lower Cretaceous strata are patchy across India and Pakistan. This study provides valuable material which, when combined with the available published data, facilitates a re‐evaluation of Lower Cretaceous palaeogeography for the north‐west Indian Plate. The reconstruction demonstrates a complex fluvial system, where the sediments are preserved sporadically as early syn‐rift strata. The findings imply a high preservation potential for early Cretaceous fluvial successions within rifted fault blocks near Saraswati and Aishwarya of the Barmer Basin beneath the Palaeogene fill that likely have significant potential for further hydrocarbon exploration.

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The geology of the Barmer Basin, Rajasthan, India, and the origins of its major oil reservoir, the Fatehgarh Formation

Cited by 59 publications

References 16 publications

Geology and regional significance of the Sarnoo Hills, eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, NW India

Geology and regional significance of the Sarnoo Hills, eastern rift margin of the Barmer Basin, NW India

Complex rift geometries resulting from inheritance of pre-existing structures: Insights and regional implications from the Barmer Basin rift

Sedimentology and the facies architecture of the Ghaggar‐Hakra Formation, Barmer Basin, India: Implications for early Cretaceous deposition on the north‐western Indian Plate margin

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