Quaternary tectonic history of seismically active intraplate Kachchh Rift Basin, western India: A review

Since the recorded historical period, the Kachchh Rift Basin (KRB) has encountered numerous moderate to large magnitude earthquakes. According to the series of seismicity research so far, there are several important points of debate regarding the tectonic history and evolution of the KRB, especially during the Quaternary period. Therefore, the main objective of the present research is to inspect and perceive the association amongst the strain build-up, earthquake provenance, landform evolution and progression as archived by the Quaternary deposits of the KRB. The previous studies demonstrated the evolutions of various landforms, such as the uplifted fluvial terraces, formation of the gorges, uplifted alluvial fan sequences, which can be ideally used to reconstruct the neotectonic history along active faults of KRB. Considering this, the analysis of the accessible and supportive data, including geochronology provided by earlier studies along with some new dataset for a superior knowledge on the Quaternary tectonic forces prevailing in the KRB, have been carried out. Furthermore, we also emphasized the differences and directions for future potential research issues. The observations of variability in uplift rates across the various active faults in the KRB suggest a complex geological history during the Quaternary period. The results show that the vertical uplift rate along the significant active faults range from 0.8 to 2.8 mm/yr, demonstrating the variable tectonic stress regime prevailing in the KRB. The uplift rates constricted from geomorphic and chronological aspects suggest that the tectonic movements within the Kachchh intraplate region is regulated by the fault segments and the present tectonic stress field is in accordance with the encompassing tectonic stress field associated with the northward movement of the Indian plate corresponding to the Eurasian plate.