Sedimentation model for the quaternary intramontane Bhimtal-Naukuchiatal Lake deposits, Nainital, India

The Bhimtal-Naukuchiatal Lake was created due to blocking of the valley by a huge debris flow along a narrow outlet at about 40 ka BP. The lake basin was filled intermittently due to fluvio-lacustrine and colluvial processes that deposited a thick sequence of interbedded mud and gravel. In the basin fill sequence five major lithofacies, most of them divisible into subfacies, have been identified and assigned to specific depositional environments. The coarsening upward (CU) mud-silt cycles represent sedimentation in a lake setting. The clasts-and mud-supported gravels consists of fining upward (FU) and CU sequences, respectively, indicating deposition by channel processes and debris flows. Having basin wide extent, the pedogenic mottled, clayey silt unit represents an important tectonic event when the lake was temporarily drained and sediments were sub-aerially exposed. Fluctuating arid-semiarid to humid climatic conditions and repeated tectonic activity may have governed the mode of sedimentation and ultimately the basin fill history.