Middle Miocene pedological record of monsoonal climate from NW Himalaya (Jammu & Kashmir State), India

The Lower Siwalik Subgroup represented by the Dodenal (Kamlial Formation) and Ramnagar Members (Chinji Formation) is well exposed at Ramnagar, District Udhampur, Jammu & Kashmir State. The Ramnagar Member consists of an alternating sequence of silt and mudstone formed under crevasse-splay and flood-plain environments of deposition. Argillisol and gleysol soils are developed on the Ramnagar Member deposits. Argillisols formed under well-drained conditions at high levels, whereas gleysols formed under poorly drained conditions at low levels of the palaeo-landscape. Geochemical and micromorphological studies of the Ramnagar Member palaeosols suggest formation under wet and humid climatic conditions. Early uplift of the Tibetan Plateau/Himalaya resulted in a contemporaneous change in precipitation and monsoonal climate conditions within the Indian region beginning in Middle Miocene.