Depositional character of a dry-climate alluvial fan system from Palaeoproterozoic rift setting using facies architecture and palaeohydraulics: Example from the Par Formation, Gwalior Group, central India

• Alluvial fan and braided fluvial system represent basal Par Formation.
• Palaeohydraulics reveal high-gradient slopes in Paleoproterozoic Par channels.
• Laterally co-existent braided river acted as a tributary for the Par fan system.

The ∼20 m thick coarse-grained clastic succession in the basal part of Palaeoproterozoic Par Formation, Gwalior Group has been investigated using process-based sedimentology and deductive palaeohydraulics. Bounded between granitic basement at its base and shallow marine succession at the top, the studied stratigraphic interval represents products of an alluvial fan and its strike-wise co-existent braided river system that possibly acted as a tributary for the fan. Detailed facies, facies association analysis allowed identification of two anatomical parts for the fan system viz. proximal and mid fan. While thin proximal fan is represented by products of rock avalanche and hyperconcentrated flows with widely varying rheology, the mid fan is represented by products of sheet floods and flows within streamlets. The interpretation found support from palaeoslope estimation carried out on the fluvial part of the mid fan that plot dominantly within the alluvial fan field demarcated by Blair and McPherson (1994). Dry climatic condition suggested from dominance of stream flow over mass flow deposition within the Par alluvial fan. Strike-wise, the fan is discontinuous and juxtaposed with a braid plain system. In contrast to the fluvial part of fan system, the palaeoslope data from the braid plain system dominantly plot within the ‘natural depositional gap’ defined by Blair and McPherson. A raised palaeoslope for the river systems, as suggested from Proterozoic braid plain deposits around the Globe, is found valid for the Par braid plain system as well. From preponderance of granular and sandy sediments within the alluvial fan and braid plain systems and a pervasive north-westward palaeocurrent pattern within the fluvial systems the present study infers a gently sloping bevelled source area in the south-southeast of the basin with occurrence of steep cliffs only locally.