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The Triassic of the Thakkhola (Nepal). I: stratigraphy and paleoenvironment of a north-east Gondwanan rifted margin

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Abstract

The Mesozoic sediments of Thakkhola (central Nepal) were deposited on a broad eastern north Gondwanan passive margin at mid-latitudes (28–41 °S) facing the Southern Tethys ocean to the north. The facies is strikingly similar over a distance of several thousand kilometres from Ladakh in the west to Tibet and to the paleogeographically adjacent north-west Australian margin (Exmouth Plateau, ODP Legs 122/123) and Timor in the east. Late Paleozoic rifting led to the opening of the Neo-Tethys ocean in Early Triassic times. An almost uninterrupted about 2 km thick sequence of syn-rift sediments was deposited on a slowly subsiding shelf and slope from Early Triassic to late Valanginian times when break-up between Gondwana (north-west Australia) and Greater India formed the proto-Indian Ocean.

The sedimentation is controlled by (1) global events (eustasy; climatic/oceanographic changes due to latitudinal drift; plate reorganization leading to rift-type block-faulting) and (2) local factors, such as varying fluvio-deltaic sediment input, especially during Permian and late Norian times. Sea level was extremely low in Permian, high in Carnian and low again during Rhaeto-Liassic times. Third-order sea-level cycles may have occurred in the Early Triassic and late Norian to Rhaeto-Liassic. During the Permian pure quartz sand and gravel were deposited as shallowing upward series of submarine channel or barrier island sands. The high compositional maturity is typical of a stable craton-type hinterland, uplifted during a major rifting episode. During the early Triassic a 20–30 m thick condensed sequence of nodular ‘ammonitico rosso’-type marlstone with a ‘pelagic’ fauna was deposited (Tamba Kurkur Formation). This indicates tectonic subsidence and sediment starvation during the transgression of the Neo-Tethys ocean. During Carnian times a 400 m thick sequence of fining upward, filament-rich wackestone/shale cycles was deposited in a bathyal environment (Mukut Formation). This is overlain by about 300 m of sandy shale and siltstone intercalated with quartz-rich bioclastic grain- to rudstone (Tarap Shale Formation, late Carnian-Norian).

The upper Norian to (?lower) Rhaetian Quartzite Formation consists of (sub)arkosic sandstones and pure quartz arenites, indicating different sediment sources. The fluvio-deltaic sandstones are intercalated with silty shale, coal and bioclastic limestone, as well as mixed siliciclastic-bioclastic rocks. The depositional environment was marginal marine to shallow subtidal. The fluvio-deltaic influence decreased towards the overlying carbonates of Rhaeto-Liassic (?) age (Jomosom Formation correlative with the Kioto Limestone), when the region entered tropical paleolatitudes resulting in platform carbonates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Pf 51 01 53, D-30621, Hannover 51, Germany

    U. von Rad

  2. Mineralogisches Institut der Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074, Würzburg, Germany

    S. Dürr

  3. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    J. G. Ogg

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  1. U. von Rad
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  2. S. Dürr
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While this paper was being printed we received the shocking news of the unexpected premature death of Jost Wiedmann on December, 1993. During the Lost Ocean Expedition II, Jost was an excellent observer in the field and a hard-working, extremely experienced biostratigrapher. We lost a great geologist and a wonderful friend.

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von Rad, U., Dürr, S. & Ogg, J.G. The Triassic of the Thakkhola (Nepal). I: stratigraphy and paleoenvironment of a north-east Gondwanan rifted margin. Geol Rundsch 83, 76–106 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00211895

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