Geochemistry of shales of middle Permian Barren Measures Formation, West Bokaro Basin, India: Implications on provenance, paleodepositional and paleoclimatic conditions

Geochemical analyses of fine-grained clastic sedimentary rocks, such as shales, are significant since they portray the nature of the control factors from source to sink in a sedimentary basin, and help characterizing the heterogeneity in potential source and/or reservoir rocks. Bulk rock geochemistry (including major element oxides, trace elements and rare earth elements) of 20 shale samples from the Permian Barren Measures Formation, West Bokaro Basin, Peninsular India, is presented to decipher the provenance, paleoweathering, paleotectonic, paleodepositional and paleoredox conditions of the basin within the Lower Gondwana paleogeographic framework. X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveal an abundance of quartz, muscovite and clay minerals, viz., illite, kaolinite, etc., with less abundant feldspar and glauconite. The concentrations of major element oxides, trace elements and rare earth elements (REEs) of the shale samples are compared with predefined standards such as PAAS and UCC. The CIA (chemical index of alteration) and the A–CN–K values, based on the ratios of the major element oxides, signify intense chemical weathering. The ratios of Sr/Cu versus Rb/Sr and K₂O/Al₂O₃ versus Ga/Rb, and high ΣREE values indicate a temperate paleoclimate. Ratios of the major element oxides (e.g., K₂O/Na₂O versus SiO₂) suggest a passive tectonic setting. The Eu/Eu∗ and (Gd/Yb)_n values depict predominantly post-Archean granitic and gneissic source rocks. The ratios of trace elements, viz., Th/Sc, Th/Co, Th/Cr, La/Sc and Eu/Eu∗, and the distribution pattern of the REEs (higher LREE in comparison to HREE) attest to a felsic-intermediate source from a nearby provenance. The redox-sensitive trace elements, such as V and Ni, indicate a dysoxic condition that prevailed during deposition. The ratios of Fe₂O₃ versus MgO and Log (MgO/Al₂O₃) versus Log (K₂O/Al₂O₃), and the ternary plots of Fe₂O₃–MgO–SiO₂/Al₂O₃ suggest a non-marine to deltaic transitional environment. Such evidence of marine influences during the sedimentation of the Permian Barren Measures Formation confirms the fluvio-marine transgressive paleogeography inferred from sedimentological and paleontological inputs from the Gondwana basins in Peninsular India, and opens up a scope for regional correlations of paleogeographic changes during the middle Permian (Guadalupian) across the Gondwanaland.