Provenance Variation and Tectonic Evolution of the Vindhyan Basin in North-Central India and Implications on Proterozoic Supercontinent Cycles

The Vindhyan Basin, located in north-central India, boasts an extraordinary sedimentary rock record that is ideal for reconstructing the Proterozoic tectonic evolution of the Northern Indian Block, as well as its paleogeographic transformations throughout the cycles of the Columbia-Rodinia supercontinents. We introduce fresh sedimentological and geochronological insights from the Vindhyan successions, aiming to refine our understanding of basin formation and evolution processes, and to evaluate their regional and global tectonic implications. Geochronological data from detrital zircon indicate that Lower Vindhyan rocks were deposited between 1721 and 1599 million years ago, while Upper Vindhyan rocks date from 1210 to 752 million years ago. We deduce a transition from a foreland basin environment in the Lower Vindhyan to a more tectonically stable setting in the Upper Vindhyan, a conclusion bolstered by an increased detrital input from metamorphic basement rocks, as evidenced by detrital quartz geochemistry and Monte Carlo unmixing models. Sedimentation in the Lower Vindhyan, which occurred in two distinct sub-basins, was brought to an end by the collision between the Northern and Southern Indian blocks. Subsequently, continued subsidence and/or uplift along basin margins fostered the formation of a unified, expansive basin during the deposition of the Upper Vindhyan. The basin's eventual uplift and closure were triggered by tectonic reactivation stemming from the collision of the Australia-Antarctic plates with India. By integrating our findings with existing research, we propose that the Cathaysia Block was positioned adjacent to northwest India at the periphery of the Columbia supercontinent, while the Yangtze Block occupied a continental interior location. The outward migration of the Yangtze Block from the Columbia supercontinent's interior and its subsequent fusion with the Cathaysia Block formed the South China Block, which later bordered Northern India at the margin of the Rodinia supercontinent.