Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences
Title : | Mineralogical, geochemical and δ13C and δ18O isotopic studies of Guryul section of the Kashmir Himalayas: Implications for Paleoenvironment, Paleoclimate and Tectonic evolution of the northern Gondwanaland margin at Permian-Triassic boundary |
Area of research : | Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Shamim Ahmad Dar, Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh |
Timeline Start Year : | 2022 |
Timeline End Year : | 2024 |
Contact info : | sjshamim@gmail.com |
Equipments : | Polarizing Microscope |
Details
Executive Summary : | The Permian-Triassic mass extinction is among the five major natural disasters that destroyed more than 90% of the life on Earth (Menning, 2001; Benton and Twitchett, 2003). These events have been recorded in the geological strata all over the world. The Guryul Ravine (GR) section of Kashmir Himalayas has recorded the lithological, faunal, and floral changes that occurred at the transition of Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) at the contact of Permian Zewan Formation and the overlying early Triassic Khunamuh Formation (Kumar et al., 2017; Brookfield et al., 2022). Kashmir was part of the Gondwanaland during late Palaeozoic along the Neotethys Ocean (Fig. 1). During Middle Permian rifting, basalt eruption, separation of Gondwanaland, development of a Neotethys and thermal subsidence of the northern Gondwanaland occurred (Shellnutt et al., 2015). Permian-Triassic boundary of Kashmir is the best and famous example of siliciclastic-dominated boundary successions of the world. It is quite surprising that the detailed and thorough investigation of these world-famous known sections has not been done, which indicates a major challenge and scope for in deep petro-mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic study. It is noteworthy, that Permian-Triassic sequences in Himalayas of Kashmir are separated by sedimentary units which are quite thicker, as a result, this lithologic character might be helpful in differentiating important Permian-Triassic events of the world (like marine anoxia, increase of atmospheric CO2 content, carbon isotopic excursion and many more) in a more advanced way. Therefore, generated data of major, trace and rare earth elements from this proposed work would be used to correlate Permian-Triassic sections of the world and remove the knowledge gap pertaining to paleo-reconstruction of Pangea and Gondwanaland masses. In addition, geochemistry of trace element proxies can provide evidences related to marine anoxia, increase of atmospheric CO2 during deposition of the Permian-Triassic sequences (sections). The platinum group of element geochemistry from the proposed project would be helpful to demarcate any role of extra-terrestrial body on Permian-Triassic sections and to notice economically profitable concentrations (if any) of these precious elements from the study region. Furthermore, the present study would be deeply concerned with the provenance/ source rock characteristics and the Permian-Triassic tectonics of the Kashmir Himalayas of North India; such studies are required to understand the evolution of crustal processes and northern Indian margin during Permian-Triassic period. |
Total Budget (INR): | 33,00,000 |
Organizations involved