An analysis of the apparent polar wander path of Peninsular India, its drift history, and the assembly of different crustal blocks: was India right-side up or upside down during the Orosirian – Ediacaran period?

Analyses of the lithostratigraphy, geochronology and palaeomagnetic information from the Peninsular Indian Block were carried out. The apparent polar wander paths (APWP) of different cratonic nuclei of India show a convergence of paths of the Dharwar Craton and the Bundelkhand Craton between 2250 Ma and 2200 Ma, indicating amalgamation of North Indian and South Indian blocks and development of the Satpura Orogen. Extensional failures, associated with the erosion removal of the young orogen, cooling, and subsidence, caused changes in the principal stress axes and movement directions of different blocks, reflected in loops in the APWP. A substantial population of detrital zircons of ~2200 Ma age in the lower part of the Rhyacian – Orosirian basins provides support for the inference regarding the development the orogenic event of ~2200 Ma. The closure of the Orosirian basins and deformation and low-grade metamorphism are inferred to be the effect of another orogenic event of ~1850 Ma at the western margin of India. The drift path of Peninsular India during the Proterozoic provides insight regarding block movements and rotations associated with different orogenic events in India. These interpreted results indicate that Peninsular India was in an inverted position during Orosirian – Ediacaran periods. This inversion has been interpreted to be a result of rotation related to the orogenic events along the eastern margin and western margin of India (the Eastern Ghats Orogeny and Delhi Orogeny) by maximum principal stresses in the same direction (NW – SE) but aligned along different positions. Preservation of undeformed rocks in the Upper Vindhyan Supergroup of ~1200–800 Ma does not support the idea of any continental amalgamation in central India at ~950 Ma. The nearly 90° rotation of Peninsular India during the Cryogenian period has been reported from the present analyses of the drift path of India.