Continuously improve knowledge about tectonic frame-work and geological evolution of the Indian continental margins and adjoining ocean basins..

Objectives:

• Determine deep crustal structure along selected trans-margin transects and infer the characteristics of the divergent margins of India in varied geological settings.
• Determine deep crustal structure of the major aseismic ridges off Indian coast.
• Investigate for locating pre-rift and / pre-Deccan Trap sedimentary packages in selected areas of the margin
• Improve plate tectonic evolutionary models of ocean basins surrounding the Indian peninsula.

General description: 

The geological evolution of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal regions including the continental margins are known so far only in a broad sense and understanding of the early opening stages of these ocean basins is very scanty. The present project aims to undertake some geophysical studies to improve this situation.

Scientific components and achievements:

• To investigate the presence of Mesozoic sediments below Deccan Trap volcanics, OBS refraction data were acquired at 19 stations in the Gulf of Kutch region.
• Sea surface magnetic data (international, French and Indian) in the Central Indian, Crozet and Madagascar basins were compiled into an integrated data base.
• Existence of anomalous depth to the oceanic basement was inferred in the Arabian basin. This phenomena is attributed to  interaction between a spreading ridge and hotspot.
• Based on analyses of gravity and bathymetry data a varied nature of the crust underlying the Comorin Ridge was inferred, where the northern part is emplaced on a continental crust and the southern part was on oceanic crust.