SEDIMENTLOGY OF QUATERNARY DEPOSITS OF NARMADA RIFT VALLEY IN INCREASING ANTIQUITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCETO HOMONID LOCALITY HATHNORA DISTRICT SEHORE MP INDIA.

In the area around Hatnora in the central sector of Narmada valley Quaternary deposits are confined in trough like basin, in this segment it embraces the quaternary landscape with stepped sequence of Narmada terraces (NT1 to NT3), where Boulder conglomerate is exposed at the base of these deposits. The Boulder conglomerate is persistent horizon and represent distinct fluvial-glacial phase of sedimentation. It is underlian by Boulder bed which is concealed under younger sediments in the valley.The Quaternary landscape embodies imprints of tectonisam which revealed that sedimentation had been controlled by mechanics of SONATA LINEAMENT ZONE. The Quaternary deposits of Narmada valley represent the thickest deposits in faulted and sinking platform under structural riparian rift trench which is undisclosed and remained unrevealed. The work so far carried out is restricted to quaternary deposits of exposed section of 18 m of river section only, no work has been done on concealed strata of quaternary deposits below th Boulder conglomerate, source of sediments, mode of transportation, deposition tectonic and environment of sedimentation to conceive the model of quaternary sediment. The inadequate data of concealed quaternary strata, environment of sedimentation, their diaposition and correlation in vertical chronology in time and space restricted the systemetic search of human remains with precise strata in synchronization of mechanics of tectonics and sedimentation in rift valley. The records of search of human skull and its remains revealed that the search was mostly random and confined around to hominid locality Hathnora from where skull of Homo erectus was reported by Sonakia (1984) except Sankhyan, A. R. (1997b) no further addition in tracing the human remains and its evolution is made. The present studies on various aspects of sedimentology of exposed section and bore hole logs across the vertical column of about 280 m in synchronisation of tectonisam and environment sedimentation in vertical chronology in faulted trough may provide clues in understanding the modal of quarternary deposits in rift valley and may assist in search of human skull and its remains. In the present study 202 sediment samples were collected from exposed section and bore hole logs across the vertical column of 280 m to trace environments of sedimentation in Pleistocene to Holocene time. The statistical parameters viz MZ, STD, SKI, and KG of sediment samples were computed of Quaternary blanket of Narmada. The syntesised study of these parameters revealed that the quaternary deposits consists of sediments of three domain viz glacial, fluvio-glacial and fluvial representing Boulder bed, Boulder conglomerate and Fluvial deposits of paleo-domain of Narmada (NT1 to NT3). The study of various parameters their binary relation, their concentration of plots cluster and trends and patterns revealed three breaks in sedimenttaion in vertical column at 120 m ,210 m and 280 m in increasing antiquity from base in Narmada valley. The binary clusters of plots of mean size and sorting, mean size and skewness, mean size and kurtosis are used in delineating and fencing boundary between the glacial and fluvio glacial and fluvial sediments. The concentration of these plots separates 87 % sediments fluvial domain from fluvio-glacial 94% of the fluvial-glacial from glacial. The glacial sediments are un-oriented and un-organized,fluvio-glacial moderately organized whereas, the sediments of fluvial domain are well organized are in synchronization to shape size sorting, and display a balance harmony and ecology in conformity of sedimentation Khan et.al (2015) which is also authnticated by heavy mineral assemblage of sediments of quaternary coloumn Khan et.al (2016).