REWORKED CARBONIFEROUS PALYNOMORPHS IN THE PANNA FORMATION (PALEOCENE-EARLY EOCENE) OF THE MUMBAI OFFSHORE BASIN, INDIA: POSSIBLE ROLE OF MEGA-TSUNAMI TRANSPORT FROM THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

Mehrotra et al. [1] reported the presence of reworked Carboniferous terrestrial palynomorphs ( spores and pollen) in the Panna Formation (Paleocene-Early Eocene) of the Mumbai Offshore Basin. This was a puzzling discovery because Carboniferous sediments are not known to occur in peninsular India. Although Carboniferous sediments are present in the Himalayas, they are predominantly of marine origin. The Himalayan sediments have yielded extremely poor palynomorphs and have little in common with the reworked assemblage of Carboniferous palynomorphs from the Panna Formation. Mehrotra et al. [1] offered two possibilities for this occurrence. Firstly, they speculated on the existence of Carboniferous sediments under the widespread flood basalts of central India known as the Deccan Traps, and hypothesized their erosion and re-deposition in the Panna Formation. Secondly, they speculated that the reworked palynomorphs might have been derived from Carboniferous sediments of the Africa-Arabia reg