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Integrated geophysical appraisal of crustal structure and tectonic evolution of the Angria Bank, western continental margin of India

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Abstract

Angria Bank, a submerged plateau with coral reefs, is located off the central-west coast of India. Biologically, the bank attracts scientific community for its coral formations. But geologically, origin and tectonic setting of this feature are not established yet due to scarcity of geological and geophysical data. Newly acquired bathymetry and magnetic data along with existing geophysical data have allowed us to determine crustal structure and tectonic evolution of the Angria Bank. The entire geological setup of the bank consists of 34 km long water plateau (average water depth ~ 20 m), and two prominent spurs extending to its western side. The area of water plateau and entire geological setup are 365 km2 and 1460 km2, respectively. The bank is characterized by two prominent magnetic low with a relative high in the middle. Integrated gravity and magnetic models revealed that flood basalt has carpeted the entire geological structure which later acted as a foundation for coral growth. The crust below the bank is continental in nature and underplated by high-density magmatic material. Moho is almost flat and lies at a depth of ~ 27 km. The results of 3D Euler deconvolution suggest that the study area is characterized by two types of linear trend viz. NE–SW to NNE–SSW and NW–SE. These trends are interpreted mostly as basement faults but at few places, they might be associated with sills/dykes. The geological setup of the bank is fault-bounded and comprised of two horst structure (interpreted as spurs) trending NE–SW to NNE–SSW. Integrated interpretation of the geophysical data revealed that the Angria Bank is an isolated feature, evolved during rifting between India and Seychelles-Laxmi Ridge in the Late Cretaceous.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Sunil Kumar Singh, Director, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa for support, encouragement and permission to publish this work. Thanks are also due to all participants of cruises RV Sindhu Sankalp (Cruise SSK096) and RV Sindhu Sadhana (Cruise SSD032) for their timely support in geophysical data acquisition. Excellent cooperation by the ship’s Masters and crew are gratefully acknowledged. We extend our thanks to anonymous reviewers for critical review and constructive comments, which helped to improve the manuscript. PK and AM acknowledge the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi and KMD acknowledges University Grant Commission, New Delhi for financial assistance. This is CSIR-NIO’s contribution number 6360.

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  1. Regional Centre, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Lokhandwala Road, Andheri (West), Mumbai, 400053, India

    P. Kumar, A. Mishra, Vinay Kumar Pitchika, Shravan Kumar, K. M. Dubey, Dhruv Singh & A. K. Chaubey

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India

    P. Kumar, A. Mishra, Dhruv Singh & A. K. Chaubey

  3. Department of Marine Sciences, Goa University, Taleigao Plateau, Goa, 403206, India

    K. M. Dubey

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  1. P. Kumar
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Correspondence to A. K. Chaubey.

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Kumar, P., Mishra, A., Pitchika, V.K. et al. Integrated geophysical appraisal of crustal structure and tectonic evolution of the Angria Bank, western continental margin of India. Mar Geophys Res 40, 433–449 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-019-09383-9

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