ABSTRACT

A detailed sedimentary environmental study has been attempted in Upper Carboniferous (Talchir Series) sediments in a small basin in eastern India. The lowest sediments were laid down in front of a glacier during the extensive Upper Carboniferous glacial epoch and represent glaciofluvial outwash sediments varying laterally into glaciolacustrine sediments. Fourteen boulder conglomerate bands have been identified and interpreted as representing oscillations of the glacial front. Typical varved silts with a large number of rafted pebbles and boulders have been seen. These sediments are overlain by siltstones and silt-shales which probably represent valley train sediments, the glacier having receded. Current flow in these and lower beds was consistently from the west-southwest where the gl cier existed. Chloritic arkoses found further up the column are probably stream deposits.

The question of the origin of the Gondwana basins as well as of the absence of tillite in Burhai and four nearby basins is discussed.