Abstract The present review is aimed at correlating major geologic events of the Cauvery Basin with analogous global episodes. The Cauvery Basin came into existence due to Gondwana break up during late Jurassic-early Cretaceous by taphrogenic rift process. The first marine transgression close to Aptian/Albian boundary at the western margin of the basin terminates the syn-rift tectonic phase, which is also precise in adjoining Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin. Two regional tectonic episodes are well documented in the basin which has global significance viz. (1) a major basinal uplift during late Turonian caused by Marion hot mantle plume resulted in widespread subaqueous volcanism in the southern part of the Cauvery Basin. This uplift also led to relative sea level fall (RSL) of about 100 m in Cauvery and KG Basins and an unconformity of a magnitude of 2.3Ma. The RSL fall closely correlates with global sea level fall. This volcanic episode also resulted in Madagascar detachment from India. (2) The reunion hot mantle plume that led to Deccan volcanism in central India resulted in E-SE tilt of the Cauvery Basin during upper Maastrichtian (CF1-CF3 zones). This tilt caused a sea level fall of about 80 m and lateral withdrawal of sea by about 50 km developing a major erosional unconformity ranging in magnitude of ~1.8-30 My. The magnitude of RSL correlates well with global sea level fall. This sea level fall caused widespread development of canyon features in the Cauvery Basin resulting in differential subaqueous erosion. The globally significant ocean anoxic events viz. OAE-1b, OAE-1d, OAE-2 and OAE-3 are fairly discernible in the Cauvery Basin. The new isotopic palaeotemperature data suggests that southern India and Madagascar were located apparently in middle latitudes within the tropical-subtropical climatic zone during Albian and Early Maastrichtian. The magnitude of hiatus across K-Pg boundary varying from 0-30Ma is estimated based on planktic foraminifera for subsurface sections. The magnetostratigraphy of outcrop sediments with rich fossil evidences reveal that magnetic polarity reversals consist of 13 magnetozones in the Late Cretaceous sedimentary strata.
. Major geologic events of the Cauvery Basin, India and their correlation with global signatures — A review[J]. Journal of Palaeogeography, 2017, 6(1): 69-83.
. Major geologic events of the Cauvery Basin, India and their correlation with global signatures — A review[J]. Journal of Palaeogeography, 2017, 6(1): 69-83.
Alvarez, L.W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F., Michel, H.V., 1980. Extra-terrestrial cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction. Science, 208, 1095-1108.
[2]
Alvarez, W., Kauffman, E.G., Surlik, F., et al., 1984. Impact theory of mass extinctions and the invertebrate fossil record. Science, 223, 1135-1141.
[3]
Ayyasami, K., 2006. Role of oysters in biostratigraphy: A case study from the Cretaceous of the Ariyalur area, southern India. Geosciences Journal, 10(3), 237-247.
[4]
Banerjee, S., Bansal, U., Pande, K., Mena, S.S., 2016. Compositional variability of glauconites within the upper Cretaceous Karai Shale Formation, Cauvery Basin, India: implications for evaluation of stratigraphic condensation. Sedimentary Geology, 331, 12-29.
[5]
Bomou, B., Adatte, T., Tantawy, A., et al., 2013. The expression of the CenomanianeTuronian oceanic anoxic event in Tibet. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 369, 466-481.
[6]
Bowen, R., 1961. Oxygen isotope palaeotemperature measurements on Cretaceous Belemnoidea from Europe, India and Japan. Journal of Paleontology, 35, 1077-1084.
[7]
Chand, S., Radhakrishna, M., Subrahmanyam, C., 2001. India-east Antarctica conjugate margins rift-shear tectonic setting inferred from gravity and bathymetry data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 185, 225-236.
[8]
Courtillot, V., Feraud, G., Maluski, H., Vandamme, D., Moreau, M.G., Besse, J., 1988. Deccan flood basalts and the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Nature, 333, 843-846.
[9]
Cronin, T.M., Hayo, K., Thunell, R.C., Dwyer, G.S., Saenger, C., Willard, D.A., 2010. The medieval climate anomaly and little Ice Age in Chesapeake Bay and the North Atlantic Ocean. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 297(2), 299-310.
[10]
Doyle, P., 1985. ‘Indian’ belemnites from the albian (lower Cretaceous) of James Ross Island, Antarctica. British Antarctic Survey Bulletin, 69, 23-34.
[11]
Epstein, S., Buchsbaum, R., Lowenstam, H.A., Urey, H.C., 1953. Revised carbonate-water isotopic temperature scale. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 64, 1315-1326.
[12]
Frey, R.W., 1973. Concepts in the study of biogenic sedimentary structures. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 43, 6-19.
[13]
Ghosh, P., Bhattacharya, S.K., Jani, R.A., 1995. Palaeoclimate and palaeovegetation in central India during the Upper Cretaceous based on stable isotopic composition of the palaeosol carbonates. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 114, 285-296.
[14]
Govindan, A., 1993. Cretaceous anoxic events, sea level changes and microfauna in Cauvery Basin, India. In: Proceedings of Second Seminar on Petroliferous Basins of India, vol. 1. Indian Petroleum Publishers, pp. 161-176.
[15]
Govindan, A., Narayanan, V., 1980. Affinities of the Cretaceous foraminifera of the east coast Indian Basin and the drifting of Indian shield. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 13, 269-279.
[16]
Govindan, A., Ravindran, C.N., Rangaraju, M.K., 1996. Cretaceous stratigraphy and planktonic foraminiferal zonation of Cauvery Basin, South India. Journal of the Geological Society of India Memoir, 37, 155-187.
[17]
Govindan, A., Yadagiri, K., Ravindran, C.N., Kalyanasundar, R., 1998. A field guide on Cretaceous sequences of Tiruchirapalli Area, Cauvery Basin, India, pp. 1-53.
[18]
Gupta, K.D., Saraswati, P.K., Kramar, U., Ravindran, N., Stuben, D., Ravindran, C.N., 2007. Oxygen isotopic composition of Albian-Turonian foraminifera from Cauvery Basin, India: Evidence of warm sea-surface temperature. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 69, 390-396.
[19]
Haq, B.U., Hardenbol, J., Vail, P.R., 1987. Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic. Science, 235, 1156-1167.
[20]
Hardenbol, J., Thierry, J., Farley, M.B., Jacquin, T., De Graciansky, P.C., Vail, P.R., 1998. Cretaceous sequence chronostratigraphy. In: de Graciansky, P.C., Hardenbol, J., Jacquin, T., Vail, P.R. (Eds.), Mesozoic and Cenozoic Sequence Stratigraphic Framework of European Basins. SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Special Publication, Chart. Imlay, R.W., p. 60, 1940.
[21]
Hart, M.B., Bhasker, A., Watkinson, M.P., 2000. Larger foraminifera from the upper Cretaceous of the Cauvery Basin, S.E. India. Journal of the Geological Society of India Memoir, 46, 159-171.
[22]
Hart, M.B., Joshi, A., Watkinson, M.P., 2001. Mid-late Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Cauvery Basin and the development of the Eastern Indian Ocean. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 58, 217-229.
[23]
Herb, R., Scheibnerova, V., 1977. Synopsis of Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera from the Indian Ocean. In: Herirtzler, J.R., Bolli, H.M., et al. (Eds.), Indian Ocean Geology and Biostratigraphy. American Geophysical Union, pp. 399-415.
[24]
Jyotsna, Rai, Ramkumar, M., 2007. Calcareous nanofossils from Ottakovil formation (late maastrichtian), Cauvery Basin, South India (Abstract) Xl Indian Colloquium 011, Micropaleontology and Stratigraphy, pp. 144-145.
[25]
Keller, G., 2003. Biotic effects of impacts and volcanism. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 215, 249-264.
[26]
Keller, G., Adatte, T., Stinnesbeck, W., Rebolledo-Vieyra, M., Urrutia Fucugauchi, J., Kramar, U., Stuben, D., 2004. Chicxulub impact predates the K-T boundary mass extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 101, 3753-3758.
[27]
Keller, G., Bhowmick, P.K., Upadhyay, H., Dave, H., Reddy, A.N., Jaiprakash, B.C., Adatte, T., 2011. Deccan volcanism linked to the CretaceouseTertiary boundary mass extinction: New evidence from ONGC wells in the KrishnaeGodavari Basin. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 78, 399-428.
[28]
Keller, G., Adatte, T., Bhowmick, P.K., Upadhyay, H., Dave, A., Reddy, A.N., Jaiprakash, B.C., 2012. Nature and timing of extinctions in CretaceouseTertiary planktic foraminifera preserved in Deccan intertrappean sediments of the KrishnaeGodavari Basin, India. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 341-344, 211-221.
[29]
Keller, G., Jaiprakash, B.C., Reddy, A.N., 2016. Maastrichtian to Eocene subsurface stratigraphy of the Cauvery basin and correlation with Madagascar. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 87, 5-34.
[30]
Kossmat, F., 1897. The Cretaceous deposits of Pondicherry India's record. Geological Survey of India, 30, 51-110.
[31]
Lambiase, J.J., 1990. A model for tectonic control of lacustrine stratigraphic sequences in continental rift basins. In: Katz, B.J. (Ed.), Lacustrine Basin Explorationdcase Studies and Modern Analogs, vol. 50. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, pp. 265-276.
[32]
Mancini, E.A., Puckett, T.M., 2005. Jurassic and Cretaceous transgressive regressive (T-R) cycles, Northern Gulf of Mexico, USA. Stratigraphy, 2(1), 31-48. Text-Figures 1-13.
[33]
Mancini, E.A., Puckett, T.M., Tew, B.H., 1996. Integrated biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic framework for Upper Cretaceous strata of the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, USA. Cretaceous Research, 17, 645-669.
[34]
Miller, K.G., Kominz, Michelle, A., Browning, James, V., Wright, James, D., Mountain, Gregory, S., Katz, Miriam, E., Sugarman, Peter, J., Cramer, Benjamin, S., Christie-Blick, Nicholas, Pekar, Stephen, F., 2005. The phanerozoic record of global sea-level change. Science, 310(5752), 1293-1298.
[35]
Major geologic events of the Cauvery Basin, India 81 Nagendra, R., Nagendran, G., Narasimha, K., Jaiprakash, B.C., Reddy, A.N., 2002a. Sequence stratigraphy of Dalmiapuram Formation, KallakudiQuarryeII, South India. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 59, 249-258.
[36]
Nagendra, R., Raja, R., Reddy, A.N., Jaiprakash, B.C., Bhavani, R., 2002b. Outcrop sequence stratigraphy of the Maastrichtian Kallankurchchi Formation, Ariyalur Group, Tamil Nadu. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 59, 243-248.
[37]
Nagendra, R., Kamalakkannan, B.V., Gargi, S., Harry, G., Bakkiaraj, D., Reddy, A.N., Jaiprakash, B.C., 2011. Sequence surfaces and paleobathymetric trends in albian to maastrichtian sediments of Ariyalur area, Cauvery Basin, India. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 28, 895-905.
[38]
Nagendra, R., Nagarajan, R., Bakkiaraj, D., John, S., Armstrong-Altrin, 2011. Depositional and post depositional setting of maastrichtian limestone, Ariyalur Group, Cauvery Basin, South India: a geochemical approach. Carbonates Evaporites, 26(2), 127-147.
[39]
Nivedita, C., 2013. Indigenous siliciclastic and extraneous polygenetic carbonate beds in the Albian-Turonian Karai Shale, Ariyalur, India. In: International conference (IGCP-608) Cretaceous Ecosystem and Their Response to Paleoenvironmental Changes in Asia and West Pacific, Abstract Volume.
[40]
Officer, C.B., Hallam, A., Drake, C.L., Devine, J.D., 1987. Late Cretaceous and paroxysmal Cretaceous-Teritary extinctions. Nature, 326, 143-149.
[41]
Pemberton, S.G., Frey, R.W., Ranger, M.J., Makeachern, J., 1992. The conceptual framework of ichnology. In: Pemberton, S.G. (Ed.), Application of Ichnology to Petroleum Exploration, pp. 1-32. SEPM Core Workshop. No.17, Calgary.
[42]
Raju, D.S.N., Reddy, A.N., 2016. Why there is a substantial dichroneity in biostratigraphic dating of Cretaceous sediments in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and Cauvery Basin -a review. ONGC Bulletin (in press).
[43]
Raju, D.S.N., Ravindran, C.N., Kalyansundar, R., 1993. Cretaceous cycles of sea level changes in the Cauvery Basin, India (first revision). Bulletin of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, 30, 101-113.
[44]
Raju, D.S.N., Jaiprakash, B.C., Ravindran, C.N., Kalyanasunder, R., Ramesh, P., 1994. The magnitude of hiatus and sea level changes across the K T boundary in Cauvery and Krishna Godavari Basin. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 44, 301-315.
[45]
Raju, D.S.N., Jaiprakash, B.C., Ravindran, C.N., Kalyanasunder, R., Ramesh, P., 2005. The magnitude of hiatus and sea level changes across K/T Boundary in Cauvery and Krishna-Godavari Basins. In: Indian Association of Petroleum Geologists, vol. 1. Special Publication, pp. 104-113.
[46]
Ramanathan, R.M., 1977. Depositional systems and thrust area for exploration in Cauvery Basin. ONGC Bulletin, 24(1), 53-69. Venkatarengan, R. (Ed.), 1989.
[47]
Rangaraju, M.K., Agarwal, A., Prabhakar, K.N., 1993. Tectonostratigraphy, structural style, evolutionary model and hydrocarbon prospects of the Cauvery and Palar basins of India, vol. 1. Indian Petroleum Publishers, Dehra Dun, pp. 371-398.
[48]
Rangaraju, M.K., Agarwal, A., Prabhakar, K.N., 1993. Tectono-stratigraphy, structural styles, evolutionary model and hydrocarbon habitat, Cauvery and Palar Basins. In: Biswas, S.K., et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second Seminar on Petroliferous Basins of India, vol. 1. KDMIPE, ONGC, Dehra Dun, pp. 371-388.
[49]
Rasheed, D.A., Ravindran, C.N., 1978a. Foraminiferal biostratigraphic studies of the Ariyalur Group of Tiruchirapalli, Cretaceous Rocks of Tamil Nadu State. In: Proceedings of the VIIIth Indian Colloquium of Micropaleontology and Stratigraphy, Madras, pp. 321-326.
[50]
Rasheed, D.A., Ravindran, C.N., 1978b. Proceedings of the VIIth Indian Colloquium Micropaleontology and Stratigraphy. In: Rasheed, D.A. (Ed.), Foraminiferal Biostratigraphic Studies of the Ariyalur Group of Tiruchirapalli Cretaceous Rocks of Tamil Nadu State, pp. 321-336.
[51]
Reddy, E.K., Rao, G.S., 2011. Mathematical methods. I.K. International Publishing House Pvt. Ltd, p. 688.
[52]
Reddy, A.N., Jaiprakash, B.C, Rao, M.V., Chidambaram, L., Bhaktavatsala, K.V., 2013. Sequence stratigraphy of late Cretaceous successions in the Ramnad sub-basin, Cauvery Basin, India. Journal of the Geological Society of India, 1, 78-97.
[53]
Subir, S., Nivedita, C., Anudeb, M., Santanu, B., Pradip, K.B., 2014. Siliciclastic-carbonate mixing modes in the river-mouth bar palaeogeograohy of the upper Cretaceous Garudamangalam Sandstone ( Ariyalur, India). Journal of Palaeogeography, 3(3), 233-256.
[54]
Schlanger, S.O., Jenkyns, H.C., 1976. Cretaceous oceanic anoxic events: Causes and consequences. Geologic en Mijnbouw, 55(3-4), 179-184.
Steinhoff, D., Bandel, K., 2000. Paleoenvironment significance of Early to Middle Cretaceous bioherm sequences from the Thiruchirapalli district, Tamil Nadu, southern India. Journal of the Geological Society of India Memoir, 46, 257-271.
[59]
Sundaram, R., Henderson, R.A., Ayyasami, K., Stilwell, J.D., 2001. A lithostratigraphic revision and palaeoenvironmental assessment of the Cretaceous system exposed in the onshore Cauvery Basin, Southern India. Cretaceous Research, 22, 743-762.
[60]
Turgeon, S.C., Creaser, R.A., 2008. Cretaceous oceanic anoxic event 2 triggered by a massive magmatic episode. Nature, 454(7202), 323-327.
[61]
Vail, P.R., Mitchum, R.M., Thompson, 1977. Seismic stratigraphy and global changes of sea level, part 3: relative changes of sea level from coastal on lap. In: Clayton, C.E. (Ed.), Seismic Stratigraphy Applications to Hydrocarbon Exploration, vol. 26. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp. 63-81.
[62]
Venkateshwarlu, M., Nagendra, R., 2016. Drift of the Indian Plate during Upper Cretaceous: An Appraisal from Magnetic and Biostratigraphic Perspectives of Sediment Outcrop Successions from Ariyalur-cauvery Basin, Southern India (Unpublished report).
[63]
Voigt, S., Michael, M., Surlik, F., Walaszczyk, I., Ulicny, D., Cech, S., Voigt, T., Wiese, F., Wilmsen, M., Niebuhr, B., Reich, M., Funk, H., Michalik, J., Jagt, J.W.H., Felder, P., Schulp, A.S., 2008. Cretaceous. In: McCann, Tom (Ed.), The Geology of Central Europe: Mesozoic and Cenozoic, vol. 2, pp. 923-992 (Chapter 15).
[64]
Watkinson, M.P., Hart, M.B., Archana, Joshi, 2007. Cretaceous tectonostratigraphy and the development of the Cauvery Basin, Southern India, vol. 13. Geological Society, London, Specical Publications, pp. 181-191.
[65]
Zakharov, Y.D., Shigeta, Y., Nagendra, R., Safronov, P.P., Smyshlyaeva, O.P., Popov, A.M., Velivetskaya, T.A., Afanasyeva, T.B., 2011. Cretaceous climate oscillations in the southern palaeolatitudes: New stable isotope evidence from India and Madagascar. Cretaceous Research, 32(5), 623-645.
2017, Vol. 6 
