Kamthi - a new concept

Abstract

King has described ‘Kamthi beds’ as the group of rocks disconformably overlapping the Permian coal measures. In an otherwise extremely soil covered areas in the Wardha Godavari Graben. Some of the later workers while projecting on the surface the lithics encountered in the sub-surface drilling in the Godavari Valley Coalfield subdivided these beds into lower, middle and upper horizons, by considering them to have gradational contacts, to account for the biota revealed from these litho-units.

A reappraisal of the basic geoscientific database (geological and geophysical) and the interpretations from the surface and the sub-surface lithics have undisputedly shown that the pattern of Gondwana sedimentation in the Godavari Valley, during the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic periods, has been in an oscillating and continental fluvial regime governed by the basin configuration and palaeodrainage interrelated to their development in time and space.

The palynofossil content unequivocally proves the presence of the Upper Permian lithics lying buried under the Lower Triassic (Kamthi) sediments. The latter has a widespread expanse in the graben, from the northwest to the southeast which is believed to be due to the further deepening of the basin floor at the time of their sedimentation.

The possibility of Kamthi constituting the basal part of the enlarged Maleri sequence of the Triassic lithics is very much indicated thereby defining the base of the Triassic in the Godavari Graben. It is thus, considered undisputed that the Kamthi is nothing more than a concept in the geological history of this part of the Godavari Graben which is defined by its mode of occurrence as governed by the associated tectonism.