Late cretaceous-tertiary sediments and associated faults in southern Meghalaya plateau of India vis-a-vis South Tibet: Their interrelationships and regional implications

Late Cretaceous-Tertiary sediments together with the underlying Sylhet Trap and Precambrian granites/ gneisses are exposed along the southern fringe o f Meghalaya plateau. This huge pile of sediments is dissected by E-W and NN E-SSW striking faults. Several workers postulated a direct correlation betw een tectonism and sedimentation, interpreting the E-W striking Dauki fault as a 'growth fault'. The present work suggests that the sedimentation of th is pile is controlled by basin transgression and regression and not by the Dauki or other faults. Dauki fault being post-Kopili (post-Eocene) in age, could not have acted as a growth fault during the deposition of these Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene sediments. In the plate tectonic version of Greater India in Gondwanaland, a broadly c oeval lithofacies and biofacies assemblages existed in Late Cretaceous-Pala eogene sequences of the southern Tibetan plateau and southern Meghalaya pla teau. While the sedimentation in Tibet during Palaeogene is dominated by ca rbonate rocks - except at: the KIT boundary (Jidula Formation), the sedimen tation in southern Meghalaya is represented by arenaceous and calcareous ro cks.