Mechanical strength and nature of lithospheric deformation beneath the rifted sedimentary basins of the east India passive margin

The study of gravity signatures corresponding to sediment load over the passive margins is helpful to constrain the mechanical properties of continental rift systems as well as the adjacent ocean basins. Seismic reflection, free-air gravity and well information from the East India Passive Margin (EIPM) are investigated through spectral approach and 2D process-oriented gravity modelling for quantifying effective elastic plate thickness (T_e) to understand the rift mechanisms and the sedimentary basins evolution. The characteristics of lithosphere within the major structural domains along the margin are quite variable. A narrow necking zone (40 km) in the southern segment, and approximately a 70 km hyper-thinned and exhumed domains are inferred in the central segment, while a narrow hyper-thinned domain (30–35 km) is observed in the northern segment of the margin. The southern segment of EIPM, adjacent to Southern Granulite Terrain has low T_e values ranging from 5 to 10 km. The segment in the central margin, offshore Dharwar Craton has moderate T_e values of 15–20 km. And the northern segment adjacent to onshore Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt has relatively high mechanical strength with T_e values ranging from 25 to 35 km. The pattern of T_e values and extent of major structural domains along the margin indicates that the southern, central and northern segments evolved as three different modes of rifting such as transform, hyperextended and hypoextended, respectively. In the oceanic domain, the lithospheric strength broadly increases with age following the thermal induced cooling plate model (600 °C isotherm). The thick sedimentary basin of the Bay of Bengal had attained the high value of elastic thickness (T_e > 45 km) in the last 23 Myrs. The significant rheological strengthening of the oceanic lithosphere may be attribute to the following reasons: 1) increase in shear-wave velocity anomaly at a depth of 150 km and upper mantle density, 2) change in plate curvature caused by excessive deposition of Bengal Fan sediments in the deep ocean basins and subduction of oceanic plate under the Eurasian plate near the Bengal Fan and 3) modification of stress state of the lithosphere as a convergent interaction of the Indian plate with SE Asia.