Proterozoic intracontinental basin: The Vindhyan example

Summary The features of the Vindhyan succession clearly indicate a vast intracratonic basin that remained within tens of meters of sea level throughout its lifetime. Apparently, shallow water condition was maintained over a large area for a long period of time suggesting that the sub-Vindhyan lithosphere suffered subsidence over a larger area producing a wide shallow ramp type basin. Hundreds of meters thick accumulation of peritidal strata in sequence 5 of the Vindhyan succession indicates that the subsidence rate was in perfect concert with the rate of sediment supply for a considerably long period of time during the end phase of Vindhyan basin evolution — the hallmark of cratonic basins Sloss (1988a, b). It is inferred that during the terminal period of the Vindhyan sedimentation a self-regulating system of uplift, erosion, sedimentation and subsidence controlled the accumulation of strata.