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Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151

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Tectonophysics
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / t e c t o

Remote sensing revealed drainage anomalies and related tectonics of South India
SM. Ramasamy a,, C.J. Kumanan b,c, R. Selvakumar b,c, J. Saravanavel b
a b c

Gandhigram Rural University, Gandhigram, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, 624302, India Centre for Remote Sensing, School of Geosciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620 023, India School of Civil Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, 613401, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Drainages have characteristic pattern and life histories with youthful stage in hilly areas, mature stage in plains and old stage in the coastal zones. The deviations from their normal life histories, especially aberrations in their ow pattern in the form of various drainage anomalies have been inferred to be the indications of dominantly the Eustatic and Isostatic changes. This, especially after the advent of Earth Observing Satellites, has attracted the geoscientists from all over the world, for studying such drainage anomalies. In this connection, a study has been undertaken in parts of South India falling south of 14 south latitude to comprehensively map some drainage anomalies like deected drainages, eyed drainages and compressed meanders and to evolve the tectonic scenario therefrom. The mapping of such mega drainage anomalies and the related lineaments/faults from the satellite digital data and the integration of such lineaments/faults with the overall lineament map of South India showed that the study area is marked by active NS block faults and NESW sinistral and NWSE dextral strike slip faults. Such an architecture of active tectonic grains indicates that the northerly directed compressive force which has originally drifted the Indian plate towards northerly is still active and deforming the Indian plate. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 25 December 2008 Received in revised form 4 May 2010 Accepted 7 January 2011 Available online 20 January 2011 Keywords: Lineament Drainage anomalies Active faults Post collision tectonics South India

1. Introduction Rivers have characteristic pattern and life histories with (1) short and straight drainages performing only erosion in the hilly catchments, (2) meandering and sinuous paths doing both erosion and deposition in the plains and (3) Brownian pattern of movement doing only dumping of sediments and building up of deltas in the coastal zones. Such characteristic life history of the rivers with youthful stage in the hills, mature stage in the plains and the old stage in the coastal zones in general are controlled by the base level of erosion or Mean Sea Level (Thornbury, 1985). But, the rock types and the geological structures of the terrain related to palaeo, time transgressive and ongoing tectonisms too signicantly control the drainage pattern and the related river ow dynamics in all these three stages. Hence, geoscientists from all over the world have all along been showing greater interest in understanding the drainage architecture in general and their anomalies in particular. That too, after the advent of Earth Observing Satellite technology, mapping of drainage pattern and their anomalies like dentritic, semi dentritic, trellis, parallel, annular, radial, deected, pirated, avulted, eyed, compressed, preferentially migrated and other drainage anomalies have gained greater momentum, since, besides lithology, tectonics and

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 451 2452305 (ofce), +91 9442105116 (mobile); fax: +91 451 2454535. E-mail addresses: vco_gri@yahoo.com, smrsamy@gmail.com (S.M. Ramasamy), cjkcers@hotmail.com (C.J. Kumanan), selvasidhu@gmail.com (R. Selvakumar), drsaraj@gmail.com (J. Saravanavel). 0040-1951/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2011.01.011

sea level changes, these drainage anomalies have the credibility of providing information on the ood histories, seismic vulnerability, past climates and anthropogenic phenomenon too (Chitale, 1970; Chen and Stanley, 1995; Lillesand, 1989; Matmon et al., 1999; Miller, 1937; Reid, 1992; Saintot et al., 1999; Smith et al., 1997; Twidale, 2004; Thornbury, 1985 and many others). In different parts of the Indian sub continent too, studies have been carried out on the drainage anomalies using topographic sheets, black and white panchromatic aerial photographs and orbital multimode and multispectral satellite data, to elucidate the structural fabric, tectonic processes, climatological and other phenomenon of especially the Quaternary period (Amalkar, 1988; Babu, 1975; Bakliwal and Sharma, 1980; Barooah and Bhattacharya, 1989; Mitra et al., 2005; Murty and Mishra, 1981; Narasimhan, 1990; Oldham et al., 1901; Philip et al., 1989; Rajaguru and Kale, 1985; Ramasamy, 1991, 2006; Ramasamy and Kumanan, 2000; Ramasamy et al., 1987, 1991, 2006; Singh et al., 1996; Sood et al., 1982; Thirunaranan, 1938; Vaidyanadhan, 1971; Yashpal et al., 1980). But, despite these, no detailed and comprehensive information is available on the various drainage anomalies and the related tectonics, especially for the southern part of the Indian Peninsular, under the present context of recurring seismicities in the region. Hence, a remote sensing based study has been carried out in the southern part of the Indian Peninsular falling south of 14 south latitude in parts of four states, namely Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu for comprehensively mapping the selected major drainage anomalies and to evolve a holistic picture on tectonics there from (Fig. 1).

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42 S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151

Fig. 1. IRS satellite mosaic-study area map.

2. Methodology In the present study, 21 number of scenes of IRS IB LISS II satellite data of different paths and dates (February, 1993; April, 1994; March, 1995 and May, 1995), with spatial resolution of 36.25 m and spectral resolutions of band1 (0.450.52 m), band2 (0.520.59 m), band3 (0.620.68 m) and band4 (0.770.86 m) were loaded in the ENVI image processing software. These independent scenes were georeferenced, false color composites (FCC) were generated by exposing band2 under blue, band3 under green and band4 under red lters and the FCC images were generated independently for 21 scenes and then the mosaic was prepared for the study area (Fig. 1). Such digital mosaic of false color composite data was zoomed up to 1:25,000 scale in the computer and scanned in detail for selected, signicant and major drainage anomalies viz: deected drainages, eyed drainages and compressed meanders. Most of the previous workers from different parts of the world have attributed such drainage anomalies to neo-active tectonics. So wherever the major drainages were abruptly deected by some lineaments, those drainages were marked as deected drainages (DD). In case, if the original ow of the drainages were already controlled by some lineaments prior to such deections, then both the original controlling lineaments and the deecting lineaments were interpreted as neo-active tectonic corri-

dors related to such deected drainages. Similarly, some major drainages owed as a single channel in the upstream, split up into two or more drainages and either nally joined together or showed the tendency of rejoining in their downstreams. This assigned conspicuous eyed shapes with entrapped lensoidal/crescent shaped islands within them. Such eyed drainages (ED) were mapped as signicant drainage anomalies, provided these were found either at the crossing points of some major lineaments or conned within sub parallel systems of lineaments. Accordingly, these lineaments were also mapped as neo-active tectonic grains related to such eyed drainages. In the same way, the otherwise normally owing rivers and major streams showed anomalous compressed meandering pattern at some places in a restricted zone, either at their intersections with some lineaments or conned within sub parallel systems of lineaments. These anomalies were interpreted as compressed meanders (CM) and the associated lineaments as neo-active faults related to them. Such prominent and major drainage anomalies say, over 31 deected drainages (DD), 12 eyed drainages (ED) and 20 compressed meanders (CM) and the related neo-active tectonic faults interpreted from different parts of the study area were transferred on to three independent planimetrically controlled GIS overlays using ARCGIS software. These three GIS layers were further integrated with the lineament map of Ramasamy et al. (1999) and the regional probable

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S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151 43

neo-tectonic picture revealed by such drainage anomalies were brought out. From it, the pattern of regional recent stress eld was also brought out (Fig. 2). 3. Geology and drainage systems of South India Geologically, the southern part of the Indian Peninsular is a characteristic shield area exposing complex igneous and metamorphic rocks of ArchaeozoicProterozoic Era in its major parts and Mesozoic, Tertiary and Quaternary sediments along the eastern and the western coastal fringes (Fig. 1). The major rivers owing in the study area are Palar, Ponnaiyar, Northern Vellar, Cauvery, Southern Vellar, Vaigai and Tambraparani. Though the study area falls in parts of the four states of Southern Indian Peninsular, detailed satellite imagery interpretation was carried out mostly for Tamil Nadu part, as the rivers showed full evolutionary history with youthful, mature and old stage characteristics only in Tamil Nadu due to the low easterly slope of the terrain. 4. Drainage anomalies and the related neo-active tectonic lineaments 4.1. Deected drainages Twidale (2004) has observed deections in the Murry river of Australia and identied lineaments/faults and related them to active tectonics. Babu (1975) has observed anomalous drainage deections in river Godavari, Andhra Pradesh and attributed these to various lineaments related to tectonic upliftments. The interpretation of satellite IRS digital data has revealed prominent deected drainages in over 31 locations (DD1DD31, Fig. 3). Almost all these 31 deected drainages were not only deected abruptly by some lineaments but also controlled by lineaments of different orientations. So, all such controlling lineaments and the deecting ones were marked as zones of neo-active tectonics related to such deected drainages (Fig. 3). The geographical locations of such deected drainages, the names of the

deected rivers/streams and the related neo-active tectonic lineaments are shown in Table 1. For example, in DD1, the northeasterly owing river Cauvery has been sharply deected by a NWSE trending lineament near Mercara in its youthful stage whereas in the case of DD8, the Cauvery river was subjected to multiple deections in the HogenekkalStanley reservoir region. The river seems to have owed along EW lineaments both near Hogenekkal and Stanley reservoir and at both locations, the river was deected by two different NS lineaments (DD8, Fig. 2). So, all the four lineaments were interpreted as probable neo-active tectonic grains related to the deected drainage DD8. Similarly, at further downstream, the south southwesterly owing Cauvery river has taken a southeasterly ow along a major lineament near Bhavani (DD10, Fig. 2). In the Nagari region, the easterly owing Nagari river along an EW lineament has been sharply deected towards southeasterly by a NWSE trending lineament (DD13, Fig. 2). In the same way, various deected drainages were mapped and 31 such major deected drainages and the related Neo-Active Tectonics Lineaments (NATL) were brought under a GIS database in their true geographical positions. The overall pattern of the (NATL) related to such deected lineaments showed that the lineaments controlling original drainage ow were mostly aligned in general EW direction and the deecting lineaments were generally oriented in NNESSW direction (Rose diagram, Fig. 3). 4.2. Eyed drainages As stated earlier, the otherwise singularly owing drainages split up into two or more and rejoin again in their downstreams thus displaying eye shapes, especially at their intersections with lineaments or within sub parallel set of lineaments were mapped as eyed drainages. Smith et al. (1997) have observed similar anomalies in the Okavango river, Botswana, called it as drainage anastomosis and attributed the same to ongoing tectonic subsidence. Thornbury (1985) also inferred earlier that wherever land undergoes emergence, the drainages will get incised and cause vertical cutting and gullying and in contrast, when land subsides, the drainages will struggle to

Generation of digital FCC mosaic of IRS IB LISS II satellite data of South India

Interpretation of enlarged digital images for drainage anomalies and related lineaments

Deflected drainages (DD) where the drainages are deflected by lineaments

Eyed drainages (ED) where the drainages split up into 2 or 3 and rejoin providing eyed shape with lineaments at their axes or lineaments confining them

Compressed meanders (CM) wherever the drainages abruptly show compressed pattern at their intersection with lineaments

Filter out such lineaments / neo tectonic faults deduced from such drainage anomalies

Integrate such neo tectonic faults with regional lineament map of South India and build the comprehensive neo tectonic cartoon along with possible driving force
Fig. 2. Methodology ow chart.

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44 S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151

Fig. 3. Deected drainages and related lineaments.

ow and hence will conversely get split up. Ramasamy and Kumanan (2000) have similarly observed such split up drainages conspicuously along the crossing points of lineaments in a few places in Tamil Nadu, called them as eyed drainages and doubted possible ongoing tectonic subsidence along the lineaments. Hence in the present study, attempts were made to identify similar eyed drainages and the same revealed major eyed drainages in 12 locations (ED1ED12, Fig. 4, Table 2). These eyed drainages seem to have an eye length of 3 to as long as 25 km and were invariably either bisected by some lineaments or conned within sub parallel systems of lineaments. For example, the river Cauvery has developed two eyed drainages near Mysore with eye lengths of 3 and 5 km and both were bisected by NNESSW trending lineaments (ED1, Fig. 4). So, tectonic subsidence along these lineaments was inferred to be the stimuli for the origin of such eyed drainages. In addition, the river Cauvery has also showed a very wide ood plain within these two lineaments (FP,

ED1, Fig. 4). Such restricted ood plain within such lineaments too substantiates probable land subsidence. In general, these eyed drainages showed simple lensoidal shapes, but in certain cases, these eyes displayed some dragging effects. For example, in ED2, the river Cauvery showed two prominent eyed drainages in the Madavalli area near Mysore (2A2B, Fig. 4). These two eyed drainages were not only bisected by two major NS sub parallel lineaments but also displayed S shaped drags. So, in addition to probable tectonic subsidence, sinistral couple has also been visualized along these lineaments/faults. Similarly, in the Kanchipuram area (ED6, Fig. 3), the river Palar has branched off into two and run colinearly for over 16 km and rejoin in the downstream, thus displaying a mega eyed drainage. Signicantly, this mega eyed drainage was conned within two major NESW trending sub parallel lineaments. In addition, at the point of crossing of these lineaments with the drainage, S shaped drags were seen at both ends of the eye.

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S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151 Table 1 Deected drainages. Drain. no. DD1 DD2 DD3 DD4 DD5 DD6 DD7 DD8 DD9 DD10 DD11 DD12 DD13 DD14 DD15 DD16 DD17 DD18 DD19 DD20 DD21 DD22 DD23 DD24 DD25 DD26 DD27 DD28 DD29 DD30 DD31 Area Mercara Mysore Sivasamudram Heggadadevankote Nanjangud Badagara Kollegal and Pennagaram Stanely Nallur Bhavani Near Maddivallapalle Chittoor Nagari Kalahasti Walajapet Tiruvallur Arani Chengalpattu Harur Tirukkovilur Valavanur Pennadam Pugalur Aravakurichi Udumalaipettai Lalgudi Karambakkudi Devakottai Paramagudi Palayamkottai Tenkasi River Cauvery.r Cauvery.r Cauvery.r Kabani.r Kabani.r Chaliyar.r Cauvery.r Cauvery.r Palar Cauvery.r Mandavi.r Ponnanai.r Nagari.r Kalangi.r Ponnanai and palar Cooum.r Cheyyar.r Palar.r Pambar.r Ponnaiyar Warahanadi.r Vellar.r Cauvery.r Amaravati.r Amaravati.r Kollidam.r Agniar.r Manimuttar.r Vaigai.r Tambraparani Nellar Related neo-active tectonic lineaments NESW and NWSE EW and NWSE NS and ENEWSW ENEWSW and NS NWSE and NESW NS and EW NS and EW Multiple deections EW and NS NS and EW NS and NWSE NS and ENEWSW ENEWSW and NWSE ENEWSW and NWSE NESW and NWSE NS and EW NESW and EW WNWESE and NESW EW and NS NWSE, NNESSW and NESW NWSE and ENEWSW NWSE, NESW and NWSE NESW and WNWESE NNWSSE, EW and NESW NESW and EW NS and NESW EW and NNESSW NESW and NWSE NWSE and ENEWSW EW and NNWSSE NESW and NNWSSE NESW and EW 45

dominantly aligned in NS to NESW and all with sinistral strike slip movements (Rose diagram, Fig. 4). 4.3. Compressed meanders The otherwise normally owing drainages exhibit anomalous compressed meanders abruptly in a restricted domain, such drainage segments were interpreted as compressed meanders (CM). These types of compressed meanders have been demonstrated to be indicative of active tectonics. Bakliwal and Sharma (1980) have explained the intense, acute and restricted compressed meandering in river Yamuna in the Agra region of the Indo-Gangetic plains to active scissor fault tectonics along two sub parallel lineaments of the Great Boundary Fault System. Murthy and Sastri (1981), Barooah and Bhattacharya (1989) and many others have interpreted a large number of drainage anomalies in the form of compressed meandering in Brahmaputra river and explained them to be due to still ongoing collision of the Indian plate. Jain and Sinha (2005) have attributed the acute compressed meandering in river Baghmati, Himalayan foreland basin to active block faulting. Hence in the present study, the enlarged IRS IB digital FCC mosaic was studied critically and in that process, 20 such compressed meanders were interpreted from different parts of South India (Fig. 5). Such compressed patterns were mapped as drainage anomalies only when these were found either at the intersections of lineaments and the drainages or conned within sub parallel systems of lineaments. In addition, the pattern of drainage compressions were also interpreted as normal (N), wherever the drainages were symmetrically compressed and Z and S shaped, when the drainages were asymmetrically compressed with respective shapes. Further in the case of Z and S shaped compressed meanders, probable dextral and sinistral movements were respectively visualized along the related faults. The details on their geographical locations, the rivers in which the compressed meanders were interpreted, the pattern of compression (N, Z and S), width of such zones of compressed meanders and the probable NATL related to them are shown in Table 3. For example, the northern Vellar showed anomalous and abrupt compressed meanders (CM11, Fig. 5) in the Bhuvanagiri region with symmetrically compressed drainage segments within two NS trending sub parallel lineaments. So, it was marked as Normal (N) compressed meander and probable scissor type of tectonic movements along these lineaments were accordingly visualized. But in contrast, the southeasterly owing Vaigai river, in the area north of Ramanathapuram, showed an S shaped compressed meandering pattern within two NS sub parallel lineaments (CM19, Fig. 5), whereas away from these two lineaments, the river showed a southeasterly linear ow. In addition, along these two lineaments, the coast has also been shifted sinistrally in their southern extension. So, a probable sinistral couple was conceived along these two NS sub parallel lineaments/faults. Similarly, the general easterly owing Korttalaiyar river suddenly displayed a series of Z shaped compressed meanders in Tiruvallur area within two NWSE trending sub parallel lineaments (CM8, Fig. 5) denoting a possible dextral couple along these two bounding lineaments/faults. But in contrast, the east southeasterly owing Arani river, owing just north of Korttalaiyar river exhibited S shaped compressed meanders, but here within two NESW oriented lineaments, indicating the possible sinistral strike movements along these two sub parallel lineaments (CM7, Fig. 5). In the same way, a possible dextral couple was identied along the two NWSE trending sub parallel lineaments as within which Kabini river, a tributary of Cauvery, displayed conspicuous Z shaped compressed meander (CM3, Fig. 5). But, in certain cases, along the crossing points of single lineament too, even some major rivers displayed compressed courses. (For example river Cauvery near Sirkazhi CM12, Fig. 5). In such cases, probable active transverse tectonic movements were conceived along such lineaments. In the same way, such major compressed meanders were identied in over 20 places and the

Hence, in addition to tectonic subsidence, sinistral movements were also visualized along these two sub parallel faults, indicating active tectonic movements along them. In the case of ED10 (Fig. 3) of the Tiruchirappalli region, river Cauvery has branched off into two as Coleroon in the north and Cauvery in the south at upper Anicut in the west and owed colinearly for over 26 km and showed the tendency of rejoining in the downstream near Grand Anicut in the east, thus forming a mega eyed drainage. Again, the eye was bounded by two major NESW trending sub parallel lineaments and strikingly, the western lineament intersects the river at its branch off point near upper Anicut in the west and the eastern lineament cuts across the river at the rejoining point at Grand Anicut in the east. Hence, these two lineaments were interpreted as active faults causing probable grabening in the entrapped land segment of Tiruchirappalli plains. It has also been inferred by the authors that the river Cauvery gets ooded periodically in the faults bounded eyed segment only. This further substantiates the phenomenon of ongoing land subsidence along the NESW sub parallel lineaments/faults, which in turn must be disturbing the base level of erosion leading to such ooding. A similar phenomenon of ooding has also been witnessed in another major eyed drainage of Cauvery in its downstream (ED11, Fig. 4), where a number of minor eyelets were observed with S shaped drags indicating ongoing sinistral couple along the intersecting faults. Thus, all the 12 eyed drainages along with related lineaments/faults and the directions of movements wherever possible were brought on to a common GIS database (Fig. 4, Table 2). Signicantly, the Neo-Active Tectonics Lineaments (NATL) deduced from such drainages were

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46 S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151

Fig. 4. Eyed drainages and related lineaments.

Table 2 Eyed drainages. NB: NATL: Neo-Active Tectonic Lineaments Drain. no. ED1A 1B ED2A 2B ED3A 3B 3C ED4 ED5 ED6 ED7 ED8 ED9 ED10 Area River Orientation Length Related NATL and their of eye of eye (in km) orientations EW NS (dragged) EW 3 5 3 6 2 2 3 3 10 16 5 3 6 26 Along NNESSW Along NNESSW Along NS Along NS Along NNESSW Along NNESSW Along NNESSW Along NS Along NNESSW Within NESW sub parallel Along NNESSW Along NESW Along NNESSW Within NESW Sub parallel Within NESW Sub parallel Along NS Along NS

comprehensive pictorial information on their distribution is shown in Fig. 5. Other details on the geographical locations, names of the rivers, pattern of compressions, the related NATL etc., are shown in Table 3. 5. Drainage anomalies and tectonics discussions Various neo-active tectonics/faults deduced from deected drainages, eyed drainages and the compressed meanders dominantly fell in NS/NNESSW, NESW, NWSE and EW directions (Rose diagrams, Figs. 35). These were individually transferred on to the lineament map of South India prepared by Ramasamy et al. (1999) along with the related drainage anomalies (Fig. 6A, B and C). After plotting so, wherever such NATL deduced from the drainage anomalies have coincided with major and regional lineaments of South India, those were extrapolated as regional active faults. Such an analysis has revealed over 32 regional probable active faults in South India viz: 8 in NS with oscillations to NNESSW (18, Fig. 5A), 8 in NESW (916, Fig. 5B), 7 in NWSE (1723, Fig. 5C) and remaining 9 in EW (2432, Fig. 5C) directions. 5.1. NS faults Among the NS faults, the fault no. 1 formed a NNESSW to NS system of over 78 sub parallel active faults in MysoreSivasamudram Biligiri Rangan hill ranges. These faults were basically deduced from a

Mysore Madavalli Nattam

Cauvery.r Cauvery.r Cauvery.r

Mettur Vellore Kanchipuram Madurantakam Tiruvettiputam Villupuram Trichy

Cauvery.r Palar.r Palar.r Palar.r Cheyyar.r Ponnaiyar.r Coleroon.r (Kollidam) and Cauvery.r Coleroon.r

NS EW EW EW EW EW EW

ED11

Trichy

EW NESW

5 4 3

ED12A Kumbakonnam Coleroon.r 12B Chidambaram Coleroon.r

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S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151 47

Fig. 5. Compressed meanders and related lineaments.

number of deected drainages (DD35, DD710, Fig. 3), eyed drainages (ED14, Fig. 4) and compressed meanders (CM4, Fig. 5), all belonging to river Cauvery and its tributaries. The frequent deections of Cauvery from its eastwest tectonically controlled ow by the system of NS/NNESSW trending faults indicated that the river Cauvery and its tributaries tried to ow towards easterly, but the NS active faults seem to have very frequently abberated and deected them towards southerly. But, while some eyed drainages (ED 14, Fig. 4) indicated tectonic subsidence along such NS faults, certain eyed drainages (ED2, Fig. 4) suggested sinistral movements whereas some compressed meanders (CM4, Fig. 5) revealed dextral movements. Thus, the NS and NNESSW oriented spectrum of lineaments/faults distilled from these drainage anomalies of Mysore Stanley Reservoir area showed active tectonics along these NATL with land subsidence and also dextral and sinistral movements all indicating that the BiligiriranganStanley reservoir area must be under the grip of block faulting with differential vertical and horizontal movements. Radhakrishna (1992) has inferred that the Cauvery river, which has earlier owed northeasterly, in the BiligiriranganStanley Reservoir area

has taken an acute southerly turn towards Tiruchirappalli plains only due to active NS systems of faulting and cymatogeny. Again, Radhakrishna (1992) and Ramasamy et al. (1992) inferred that the northeasterly owing river Cauvery in Hogenekkal area was drafted towards southerly towards the present path of Ponnaiyar river and again further down towards Tiruchirappalli plains due to the NS fault opening. Valdiya (1998) too has observed that most of the easterly owing rivers of Karnataka in Mysore plateau were obstructed by NS active faults and caused ponding along them due to block faulting. Whereas, the fault no. 2 (Fig. 6A) was characterized mostly by deected drainages (DD8, 10, 24, 25 etc.,). In fact, this is the easternmost one among the above sub parallel system of faults 1 along which only the southerly drafted river Cauvery is now owing in the Stanley Reservoir region. Further, this fault and its associated sub parallel fault have deected the Amaravati river too in their southern extension (DD2, 4 and DD25, Figs. 3 and 6A). The NS faults 3,4 and 5 interpreted in the coastal region in between Pondicherry and Vedaranniyam (Fig. 6A) were deduced from the prominent

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48 Table 3 Compressed meanders. Drain. Area no. River Meander Width of the pattern zone of compressed meander (in km) Z Z Z Z S S S 19 15 19 14 23 12 29 Related NATL and their orientations Within NWSE Within NNWSSE Within NNWSSE Within NS Within NESW Within NS NNESSW and ENEWSW Within NWSE Along NE SW Within NESW Within NS Along NWSE Within NESW Within NWSE Within NESW Within NWSE Within NESW Within NWSE Within NS Within NESW S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151

as evidenced from the S shaped drag in the meanders. Thus, the NS faults interpreted from various drainage anomalies in South India in general showed block faulting and upliftment along with dextral and sinistral strike slip movements at places. 5.2. NESW sinistral faults Whereas, the NESW spectrum of lineaments/faults deduced from various drainage anomalies have predominantly expressed evidences of sinistral strike slip movements. For example, the fault no. 9 exhibited eyed drainage (ED5, Fig. 6B) with S shaped dragging in Palar river and an S shaped compressed meander (CM5, Fig. 6B) to a breadth of 23 km in Ponnaiyar river, both signifying sinistral morphology of the fault. Similarly, the NESW fault no. 10 and the related sympathetic faults have a number of drainage anomalies viz: S shaped compressed meanders of Arani river near Arani (CM7, Figs. 5 and 6B), sinistrally dragged eyed drainage in Palar near Kanchipuram (ED6, Figs. 4 and 6B), S shaped dragged eyed drainage in Ponnaiyar near Villupuram (ED9, Figs. 4 and 6B), deected drainage (DD19, Figs. 3 and 6B) in Pambar in Harur area etc. Most of these drainage anomalies are very characteristic evidences for sinistral strike slip morphology of this fault no. 10. The integration of faults distilled from drainage anomalies and the lineament map of South India has brought out yet another NESW trending sub parallel lineaments (no. 12 and 13) extending from Chennai in the northeast to almost Cape Comorin in the southwest having varied drainage anomalies such as deected drainages (DD18, 21, 22, 28 and 30, Figs. 3 and 6B) and an eyed drainage (ED8, Fig. 6B) along another sub parallel fault all indicating active tectonism along these lineaments with probable tectonic subsidence as evidenced from the eyed drainage (ED8). Balaji (1995) too has doubted for a possible graben along NNESSW sub parallel lineaments of Tamil Nadu coast. Again, Vemban et al. (1977) inferred that the NNESSW faults of Tamil Nadu coast act as crystallinesedimentary contact and also seismic prone. Similarly, the NESW trending sub parallel lineaments 14 and 15 that emerged from the drainage anomalies have a series of drainage anomalies along them. Besides many, the eyed drainage (ED10, Figs. 4 and 6B) seen in the Tiruchirappalli area in river Cauvery with an eye length of over 25 km (Table 3) is a major anomaly signifying possible grabening. In addition at both ends of the eye, S shaped drags were found in Cauvery signifying sinistral movements or sinistral couple too along these faults. Ramasamy and Karthikeyan (1998) have inferred many geomorphological and hydrological anomalies in the Tiruchirappalli region and inferred a Holocene graben along Pondicherry in the northeast to Cumbum valley in the southwest passing through Tiruchirappalli. Ramasamy (2006) has observed a sinistral strike slip shift along a NESW fault in Neyveli Mio-Pliocene sandstone which also coincides with the present fault no. 14. Thus, almost all the NESW trending NATL inferred from such varied drainage anomalies and extrapolated from the regional lineament map of South India, have indicated the regional strike slip component. 5.3. NWSE faults On the contrary, the NWSE trending NATL inferred from various drainage anomalies emerged to be mostly dextral strike slip faults (Fig. 6C). For example, the fault no. 16 seen in between Cochin in the west coast and Tuticorin in the east coast has many compressed meanders with Z shaped dragging such as CM18 near Tiruvalla in Manimala river with a compressed segment of 26 km (Table 3). It is also signicant that this fault coincides with Achankoil shear which was worked extensively by many earlier workers (Chetty, 2006; Guru Rajesh and Chetty, 2006; Sacks et al., 1997) Similarly, the faults no. 17 and its sympathetic failure 17A, deduced from the drainage anomalies has a prominent Z shaped compressed meander in Aliyar river in the Palakad area with the width of compressed meander having 23 km

CM1 CM2 CM3 CM4 CM5 CM6 CM7

Mercara Kannanur Kabani reservoir Talakad Uttangarai Vaniyambadi Uttukkottai

Cauvery.r Cauvery.r Kabani.r Cauvery.r Ponnaiyar.r Palar.r Arani.r

CM8 CM9

Tiruvallur Cuddalore

Korttalaiyar.r Ponnaiyar.r Vellar.r Vellar.r Coleroon (kollidam) Marudaiyar.r Bhavani.r Amaravati.r Aliyar.r Vaiagai.r Manimala.r

Z S N N Z S Z N Z S Z S

24 11 15 13 5 21 24 24 23 21 26 7 12

CM10 Vriddhachalam CM11 Chidambaram CM12 Sirkazhi CM13 Ariyalur CM14 Coonoor CM15 Dharapuram CM16 Palakad CM17 Periyakulam CM18 Tiruvalla

CM19 Ramanathapuram Vaigai.r CM20 Kallidaikurichi

Tambraparani.r S

NB: SS Shape, ZZ Shape, NNormal Shape. NATL: Neo-Active Tectonic Lineaments.

normal and symmetrically compressed meanders in Vellar river near Bhuvanagiri (CM11, Fig. 5) Bakliwal and Sharma (1980) have observed similar acute normal and symmetrically compressed meanders in Yamuna river within ENEWSW set of sub parallel lineaments related to Great Boundary Fault and attributed the same to the scissor fault tectonics. Hence, such compressed meanders in Vellar in CM11 signicantly conned within faults 4 and 5 can be attributed to scissor fault tectonics along these NS faults. There seems to be another sub parallel fault (no. 3) to the west of faults 4 and 5 along which the Vellar river shows minor compressed meander too. This seems to continue further down south up to west of Vedaranniyam as fault 6 (Fig. 6A). Ramasamy et al. (2006) have also inferred that the NS faults are major tectonic grains in the Vedaranniyam area, along which the Mio-Pliocene sandstone has undergone upliftment causing rapid land progradation in the Vedaranniyam coast. While Agarwal and Mitra (1991) have inferred that the NS to NNESSW faults of the Cauvery basin must be the youngest and are hydrocarbon bearing, Prabaharan et al. (1995) have observed some curvilinear NS faults in the Cauvery basin and attributed them to the post drift kinematics. In contrast, the sub parallel faults 7 and 8 deduced from a well dened compressed meander (CM19, Fig. 5) in Vaigai river are sinistral faults

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S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151 49

Fig. 6. Lineament tectonics.

(CM16, Figs. 5 and 6C). The fault no. 18 and 18A have many prominent compressed meanders with Z shaped drags viz: CM4 in Talakad, CM3 in Kabani reservoir and CM14 in Coonoor area (Figs. 5 and 6C). In the same way, a major dextral strike slip fault has also been deciphered in the area east of Tiruchirappalli (19, Fig. 6C) which has caused acute Z shaped compression in Cauvery river (locally Coleroon) (CM12, Figs. 5 and 6 C). Similarly, the CM8 seen in Korttalaiyar river at Tiruvallur near Chennai with Z shaped drag (CM8, Figs. 5 and 6C) is again a very clear documentary evidence for the dextral strike slip movements along the NWSE system of faults (Fig. 6C). The integration of NATL extracted from various drainage anomalies with lineament map of South India, again have indicated large number of EW tectonic grains (2431, Fig. 6C). But, signicantly all of them bear only deected drainages, not even a single fault had eyed drainage or the compressed meanders. This indicates that these could be mostly vertical/block faults. Thus, the assembly of various drainage anomalies, the related NATL and their integration with lineament map of South India has

indicated that the NS, NESW, NWSE and EW trending system of lineaments are very prominent and important active tectonic grains rather neo-tectonic. Further, the NS faults are overall vertical block faults with subordinate transverse movements, NESW are sinistral and NWSE dextral strike slip faults. Such an architecture of the faults indicates that the NESW faults, could be the left lateral wrench faults, while the NWSE ones could be the right lateral wrench faults. And if so, a general northerly directed active compressive force could be visualized (Anderson, 1951). As the NS faults fall in the acute bisector of these above two wrench faults, the same could be extensional failure related to such NorthSouth aligned compressive force. The dextral and sinistral movements inferred along some of the NS faults indicate the still ongoing and progressive compression and the resultant deformation. The occurrence of EW lineaments prominently reected by the deected drainages, under such an architecture of tectonic grains may hence be the release fractures. The conspicuous absence of either eyed drainages or the compressed meanders further substantiates the same.

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50 S.M. Ramasamy et al. / Tectonophysics 501 (2011) 4151 Bakliwal, P.C., Sharma, S.B., 1980. On the migration of the river Yamuna. Journal of the Geological Society of India 21, 461463. Balaji, S. (1995). Structure and Tectonics of Northern Tamilnadu through Integrated Remote Sensing. Ph.D Thesis submitted to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Barooah, B.C., Bhattacharya, S.K., 1989. A review of basement tectonics of Brahmaputra valley, Assam. Geological Survey of India Miscellaneous Publication 46, 123128. Chen, Z., Stanley, D.J., 1995. Quaternary subsidence and river channel migration in the Yangtze delta plain, Eastern China. Journal of Coastal Research 11 (3), 927945. Chetty, T.R.K., 2006. Contrasting deformational systems and associated seismic patterns in Precambrian peninsular India. Current Science 90 (7). Chitale, S.V., 1970. River channel patterns. Journal of the Hydraulics Division, American Society of Civil Engineers 96 (HY1), 201222. 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Fig. 7. Seismicities and Neo-Active Tectonics Lineaments.

Thus, these tectonic features indicate that the Indian plate is still under the grip of northerly directed compressive force related to the original force drifted the Indian plate towards northerly and causing such post collision tectonic features. The integration of earthquake epicenters with these faults deduced from drainage anomalies too indicate that most of the moderate to low seismicities reported so far in this region fall along them (Fig. 7). 6. Conclusion The present study based on such mega drainage anomalies lead to the detection of a series of faults with well dened morphology with NS extensional, NESW sinistral, NWSE dextral and EW release failure. This has provided a denite information for the post collision tectonics which are currently active, and hence bear greater signicance in the context of fast relapsing seismicities in the area. So, further ner resolution work in picking up such drainage anomalies would provide a precise picture on seismic hazard zonation and further on micro seismic zonation too. Acknowledgement The rst two authors acknowledge the Seismology Division, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. Of India, New Delhi for sanctioning the project SEISTA through which the above study was carried out. The third and fourth authors acknowledge DST for providing fellowship in the above project. References
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