Geomorphic evidences of tectonic instability during the Late Quaternary Period along southern Saurashtra, western India
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Geomorphic evidences of tectonic instability during the Late Quaternary Period along southern Saurashtra, western India S. P. Prizomwala 1 Received: 17 February 2018 / Accepted: 19 July 2018 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2018
Abstract The coastal tract of southern Saurashtra has been studied for spectacular Miliolite Formation—its origin and depositional environment. The region had witnessed two moderate earthquakes of Mw 5.0 and 5.1 during 2007 and 2011. However, there have been limited studies which pronounce the geological and geomorphic evidences of neotectonics in southern Saurashtra. Also, there exists little to no information regarding the presence of faults from the region. The paper presents geological and geomorphic evidences of neotectonics from region between Somnath to Jafrabad, western India. A geospatial dataset was used to highlight the neotectonically active nature of the region, as well as support the claim with field evidences and drainage network anomalies. The morphometric parameters like longitudinal river profile, drainage basin asymmetry, and hypsometric integral suggest neotectonic activeness of the southern Saurashtra region. The southern Saurashtra coastal alluvial plains show presence of knick zone, ravines, coastal marine notches, and offset channels/ridges, which testifies the neotectonically active nature of the region. Presence of these features in Miliolites, Middle to Late Pleistocene age, suggests rejuvenation of the landscape post this period. Keywords Neotectonics . Drainage anomaly . Saurashtra . Miliolite . India
Introduction Interactions between the external factors of climate, tectonics, and base-level are of fundamental importance when addressing the question of the evolution of any landscape (Schumm et al. 2000). Saurashtra region in the western most part of India has been considered by many as relatively stable region during the Quaternary Period (Gupta and Amin 1974; Patel 1991). Nevertheless, post-2001 Bhuj earthquake, the Saurashtra region has witnessed moderate earthquakes of Mw ~ 5.0 and 5.1 near Talala in 2007 and 2011 (Yadav et al. 2011; Rastogi et al. 2012). Owing to which, few studies have attempted to delineate the subsurface configuration and the causative mechanism for this seismicity (Singh et al. 2013; Hainzl et al. 2015). Pant and Juyal (1993) studied the coastal marine notches and linked it with neotectonic activity along the coastal segment. Contrastingly, Bhatt and Bhonde (2006)
* S. P. Prizomwala [email protected] 1
Active Tectonics Group, Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar 382009, India
studied the marine notches 5–12 m above the present day mean sea level (msl) along coast of southern Saurashtra and linked these features with middle Holocene and MIS 5 high sea stand. As per the instrumental records, the region has experienced significant seismic activity since the last two decades (Rastogi et al. 2012). Recently, Gandhi et al. (2015) used morphometric indices to study spatial variability in tectonic activity in
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