Government of Karnataka
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Department of Mines and Geology
Government of Karnataka
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Geology of Karnataka
Karnataka forming a part of the Indian Shield is constituted of rock formations ranging in age from 3300 m.y. to 5 m.y. Barring a narrow coastal strip of about 5000 sq.km of Tertiary and Quaternary sediments and another 31,250 sq.km of Deccan basalts, the remaining area is dominated by Archaean-Proterozoic rocks. Mysore Plateau, geologically constituted of Dharwar Craton comprises of greenstone-granite belts, gneisses and granulites. Greenstone belts essentially consist of meta-volcanosedimentary sequences, surrounded and dissected by Peninsular Gneiss. At the southern end of the craton these give way to granulite suite of rocks. The craton preserves a billion year orogenic history from 3400 m.a. to 2400 m.a. Epicratonic or intracratonic sedimentary basins called Purana Basins occupy the northern segment of the craton whose northern part in turn is concealed by Deccan basalts. Thus younging of lithosequence from south to north is evident.
The state forms the west central part of Peninsular India between North Latitudes 11 35'30" and 18 25'30" and East Longitudes 74 06'00" and 78 35'30". It occupies an area of 1,91,792 sq.km of which 1,86,792 sq.km are covered by hard rocks consisting of crystallines and older sedimentaries and a narrow coastal strip of about 5,000 sq.km of Tertiary and Quaternary sediments.
The earliest accounts of the geology of parts now included within Karnataka were given by Christie and Capt. Newbold of the British East India Company. Robert Bruce Foote of the Geological Survey of India was the first to make a regional study. Geological mapping in most of the area of Mysore and Hyderabad states was carried out prior to 1950. Systematic geological surveys and studies in the erstwhile Princely State of Mysore, now forming the southern part of Karnataka were initiated as early as 1898, under the aegis of the Mysore Geological Department by V.S.Sambasiva Iyer, B.Jayaram, P.Sampath Iyengar, W.F.Smeeth, J.M.Maclaren, E.W.Wetherall and was continued by B.Rama Rao, C.S.Pitchamuthu, B.P.Radhakrishna and others.
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Last modified at 04/09/2020 12:55 by dmguser
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