Palaeoenvironmental, palaeogeographic, and palaeoclimatic signals of a condensed horizon: The Upper Callovian-Oxfordian Dhosa Oolite of the Kachchh Basin, western India

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The highly condensed Oxfordian Dhosa Oolite of the Kachchh Basin of western India provides a unique opportunity for analysing a variety of condensation phenomena such as synsedimentary lithification, mineralisation, depositional gaps, erosional phases, and palimpsest sediments. Furthermore, it is possible to trace them from their distal to their proximal development within the basin, for a distance of >100 km. In addition, possible dropstones within a thick iron crust on top of the unit and dissolution features within the deposits possibly indicate short-lived rapid sea level changes and regional glaciation. An interdisciplinary analysis of the rock unit involving various sedimentological, palaeontological, and geochemical approaches aims at unravelling the complex features of the condensed unit, reconstructing the sea-level history, and reconstructing the palaeoclimate (humidity, average temperatures and annual fluctuations) in this part of south-eastern Gondwana. Particular emphasis will be placed on testing the hypothesis of regional glaciation during the Late Oxfordian.