Distribution of Stromatolites and Stromatolitic Reefs in the Precambrian of India

Abstract

Contrary to extensive research in the Soviet Union, Australia, USA and Africa, the infonnation on the distribution of Precambrian stromatolites in India is still not satisfactory. It is only in the last twenty years that stromatolites have been reported from the Vindhyans, the Cuddapah Basin and lately from the Himalayas (Srinivasa Rao, 1947; Mohan, 1968; Prakash, 1966; Lotze, 1967; Sarma and Nageswara Rao, 1969; Valdiya, 1969). The author has had the opportunity, from 1961 to 1969, to investigate almost all Precambrian sedimentary regions beginning from the Cuddapah, Kumool, Bhima, Pakhal, Godavari, Bastar, Chhattisgarh, and extending up to the Vindhyans. It became evident that stromatolites are widely distributed in the Precambrian carbonate series (Fig. 1A). Accordingly, a biostratigraphical scale based on stromatolites and lithofacies, and checked by the few available radiometric ages can hopefully be in view for India too. Through the mapping of a large part of the Chhattisgarh Basin and detailed profIle surveys in the Basins of Bastar, Kumool, and Bhima, it was possible to establish a large cyclic division of the Late Precambrian (see Figs. lA, B, C) which could be followed over a distance of more than 1000 km.