Heavy Minerals Assemblage Study and Its Significance in Hydrocarbons Exploration of Ramnad Subbasin, Cauvery Basin, India

Venkataraman Balasubramanian
Regional Laboratories, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Chennai, India

Heavy minerals assemblage study has been used to demarcate two types of provenance within Ramnad Subbasin, Cauvery Basin, India. The prominent Madurai-Mandapam lineament, trending northwest-southeast that coincides with Vaigai river is the bifurcating line for the two types of provenance within this sub-basin. Garnets play a vital role in identifying the two types of provenance by its characteristic morphology of with and without etching surfaces.

It has been observed that the sediments derived from the two types of provenance in the basin also indicate two probable migration directions of hydrocarbons along the Madurai-Mandapam lineament. So, the exploration of hydrocarbons in Palk Bay offshore and further south and southwest of discovered pools in the Ramnad Subbasin (onland) and also in offshore from Gulf of Mannar to Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari) Great Depression all along the east coast may be rewarding.

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