This document summarizes a study describing the first record of thrombolites from the Neoproterozoic Bhander Group in central India. Thrombolites were found in black-bedded cherts of the Bhander Limestone and consist of irregular, club-shaped mesoclots composed of microcrystalline calcite. The mesoclots represent voids within the limestone and are associated with algal laminites. This suggests the thrombolites were formed from microbial carbonates or organo-sedimentary deposits produced by a benthic microbial community. The discovery of thrombolites provides new evidence for interbasin correlation within the Upper Vindhyan Supergroup,

1. Springer Geology
STRATI 2013
Rogério Rocha
João Pais
José Carlos Kullberg
Stanley Finney Editors
First International Congress on Stratigraphy
AttheCuttingEdgeofStratigraphy

2. Springer Geology
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3. Rogério Rocha • João Pais
José Carlos Kullberg • Stanley Finney
Editors
STRATI 2013
First International Congress on Stratigraphy
At the Cutting Edge of Stratigraphy
123
Earth Sciences Department
Centre in Geological Science and Engineering
International Commission on Stratigraphy (IUGS)
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4. Editors
Rogério Rocha
João Pais
José Carlos Kullberg
CICEGe, Departamento de Ciências
da Terra
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Caparica
Portugal
Stanley Finney
Geological Sciences
California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach, CA
USA
ISBN 978-3-319-04363-0 ISBN 978-3-319-04364-7 (eBook)
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5. Thrombolites from the Neoproterozoic
Bhander Group, Vindhyan Supergroup,
Central India
S. K. Pandey
Abstract This study presents an account of the well-preserved clotted fabric of
thrombolites from the black-bedded cherts of the Bhander Limestone, Maihar area,
Satna District, Madhya Pradesh. This is the first record of thrombolites from any
carbonate horizon of the Upper Vindhyan Supergroup. Thrombolites are restricted
in the Proterozoic and is reported mostly from the upper Neoproterozoic and
Cambrian; however, it is long ranging. Form is closely associated with algal
laminites, which are trapped in silica gel.
Keywords Thrombolites Á Neoproterozoic Á Bhander limestone Á Vindhyan
Supergroup Á India
The Vindhyan Supergroup shows excellent development of diversified morphol-
ogies of stromatolites, which play an important role in interbasin correlation as
well as in assigning ages to the different carbonate horizons. The Bhander Group,
the youngest group of the Vindhyan Supergroup, displays a complete absence of
coniform stromatolites, whereas columnar stromatolites are profusely developed.
The Vindhyan Supergroup is subdivided into two parts, the Upper and Lower.
The Bhander Group is subdivided into the Ganurgarh Shale, the Bhander Limestone,
the Sirbu Shale, and the Maihar Sandstone (Fig. 1b). Thrombolites are documented
from the petrographic thin-sections of the Bhander Limestone chert, which was
collected from a location 27 km northeast of the Satna District, at Aber on the
Satna–Semaria highway (Fig. 1a). The Bhander Limestone is one of the units of the
Bhander Group, which is the youngest carbonate unit of the Vindhyan Supergroup,
and it is best exposed in Satna District, Madhya Pradesh, generally in the low-lying
areas where it attains a thickness of 80–100 m (Bhattacharyya 1993). This unit
consists of shaly limestone, algal limestone, and thinly laminated dolostone with
subordinate intraformational conglomerate and breccias. The stromatolites are
S. K. Pandey (&)
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India
e-mail: sangeology@yahoo.co.in
R. Rocha et al. (eds.), STRATI 2013, Springer Geology,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-04364-7_219, Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
1143
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6. abundant in the Bhander Limestone, represented by Baicalia baicalica, B. burra,
Tungussia sp., Cryptozoon sp., and Colonnella columnaris (Valdiya 1969; Kumar
1976a, b; Misra 2004; Misra and Kumar 2005; Kumar 2012; Pandey 2012). Car-
bonaceous megafossils, sponge-spicule-like forms, and microfossils from the upper
part of the Bhander Limestone have been described by Kumar and Srivastava (1997,
2003), Kumar (1999), Prasad (2007), and Pandey and Kumar (2013).
Here, the first substantive record of thrombolites from the Bhander Limestone is
reported. Although Jeevankumar and Banerjee (2005) recorded thrombolites from
the Kajrahat Limestone (Semri Group), due to lack of detail it has been disre-
garded. The term ‘‘thrombolite’’ was first proposed by Aitken (1967), defined as
‘‘cryptalgal structures related to stromatolites, but lacking lamination and char-
acterized by clotted fabric’’. Pratt and James (1982) defined thrombolite as
‘‘cryptalgal structure of variable shape, from prostrate to columnar, that may
branch and anastomose, that lacks a distinctly laminated fabric, and that usually
occurs in groups, imparting a macroscopically clotted appearance to the rock’’.
Walter and Heys (1985) described thrombolites as stromatolites in which lamina
had been disturbed by burrowing. Kennard and James (1986), however, subse-
quently suggested that thrombolitic textures are primary, confirming the original
inference of Aitken (1967) as ‘‘mesoclots’’ typically consisting of dark-coloured
cryptocrystalline calcite, surrounded by light-coloured sparry carbonate. Subse-
quently, Burne and Moore (1987), Kennard (1989), Kennard (1994), Armella
(1994), Shapiro and Awramik (2006), and Riding (2008) have also discussed the
nature of thrombolites and have accepted their microbial nature.
In the present study, the thrombolites consist of club-shaped bodies seen within
the bedded limestone. Bodies are referred to as mesoclots, which are composed of
Fig. 1 a Geological map and location of Aber, Satna District, Madhya Pradesh. (modified after
Rao et al. 1981); b Stratigraphic section of the Bhander Group showing position of fossiliferous
horizons (modified after Kumar and Pandey 2008)
1144 S. K. Pandey
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7. very fine crystalline limestone. Mesoclots are pale grey to brown in colour, highly
irregular, and composed of microcrystalline calcite. Mesoclots in specimen are
highly irregular, with dimensions up to 5.0 mm in length and 3.5 mm in width.
Elongation is oblique to the lamination (Fig. 2a). Mesoclots represent irregular
shapes of voids. Voids are almost round in shape with sizes ranging between 0.15
and 0.8 mm. All fabrics have been altered by late stage dolomitization.
Thrombolites have developed over the microbial stratiform laminites where
thrombolites show very low relief.
Here, thrombolites have been recorded and described for the first time from the
Upper Vindhyan Supergroup. Thrombolites are useful for interbasin correlation
(Shapiro and Awramik 2006). It has since been recognized that thrombolites
appeared in the Neoproterozoic (Aitken and Narbonne 1989), and possibly at
1.9 Ga in the Palaeoproterozoic (Kah and Grotzinger 1992). The clotted appear-
ance, abundance of fenestrae, and the association with stromatolites and microbial
laminites suggest an affinity of thrombolites (Aitken 1967; Riding 2000) to mi-
crobialites. Mesoclots of thrombolites are either microbial carbonates or organo–
sedimentary deposits produced by the benthic microbial community. In the present
study, the entire succession of the Bhander sediments are well furnished with
microbial communities in different fabrics such as Arumberia, the Chuaria–
Tawuia assemblage, and Baicalia baicalica (Fig. 1b). The Bhander Group rocks
are generally supposed to be Neoproterozoic in age. However, throughout the
Fig. 2 Photomicrograph of mesoclot (thrombolite): a Mesoclot associated with algal laminites;
b Fabric showing club-shaped mesoclot; c Enlarged view of club-shaped mesoclot; d Mesoclot
showing irregular shapes of voids. Scale bar: a and b = 2 mm; c = 1 mm; d = 0.5 mm
Thrombolites from the Neoproterozoic Bhander Group 1145
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8. Neoproterozoic, thrombolites with calcified microbial fabrics are closely associ-
ated with stromatolites (Kennard and James 1986). Therefore, the microbial
community was responsible for the formation of the studied thrombolites.
Acknowledgments Dr K. K. Agarwal (Head, Department of Geology, University of Lucknow)
is thanked for providing laboratory facilities. Financial assistance to S.K.P from the DST, New
Delhi in the form of a research projects entitled no: SR/S4/ES-86/2004 and SR/S4/ES-348/2008
is gratefully acknowledged. S.K.P. also thanks CSIR, New Delhi for financial assistance in the
form of SRF.
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