The Paleoproterozoic Supracrustal Kolhan Basin: Provenance, Tectonic and Palaeoweathering Histories

The 2.2-2.1 Ga supracrustal Kolhan Group is a shale dominated fluvio-deltaic succession set in a continental rift setting. The succession is a sequence of subarkose-quartz arenite with lenses of conglomerate overlain by extensive thick shale-limestone package and show a non- cyclicity in the sedimentation history. A strong asymmetry in vertical basin architecture and the linearity in the outcrop pattern of the preserved sedimentary sequence are presumed to have developed in an elongated trough during the initial basinal rifting stage. A general north-west directed palaeoslope is inferred from the areal disposition of the lithofacies, vertical thickness distribution and variations of the sediment textures. The size-roundness relationship, the mineralogy, the bimodal distribution, textural inversion and palaeocurrent studies are suggestive of complex lithologies and multiprovenance - presumably a granitic to the east and northeast and an Iron Ore Group to the southwest and northwest of the basin.