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

Abstract The Vindhyan Basin in north‐central India offers a remarkable sedimentary rock record suitable for reconstructing the Proterozoic tectonic evolution of the Northern Indian Block, and its paleogeography through the Columbia‐Rodinia supercontinent cycles. We present new sedimentological and geochronological data from Vindhyan successions to refine basin development and evolution process, and to assess regional and global tectonic implications. The detrital zircon geochronologic data constrain a 1,721–1,599 Ma depositional age for Lower Vindhyan rocks and 1,210–752 Ma for the Upper Vindhyan ones. A transition from a foreland basin (Lower Vindhyan) to a tectonically quiescent setting (Upper Vindhyan) was inferred, further supported by increasing detrital input from metamorphic basement as confirmed by detrital quartz geochemistry as well as Monte Carlo unmixing models. The Lower Vindhyan sedimentation, occurred in two independent sub‐basins, was terminated by the collision between the Northern and Southern Indian blocks. Continued subsidence and/or uplift of basin margins resulted in the development of a unified large basin during the Upper Vindhyan deposition. Tectonic reactivation driven by the collision of Australia‐Antarctic plates with India resulted in uplift and ultimate closure of the basin. Integrating previous findings with our data, we infer the Cathaysia Block was adjacent to NW India at the periphery of Columbia supercontinent, while the Yangtze Block was located within the continental interior. Outward drift of the Yangtze Block from the interior of the Columbia supercontinent and its subsequent amalgamation with the Cathaysia block constituted the South China Block, which later neighbored Northern India at the Rodinia supercontinental margin.