Basal part of the Gondwana Supergroup represented by Talchir and Karharbari Formations (Permo-Carboniferous) records an abrupt change-over from glacio-marine to terrestrial fluviolacustrine depositional environment. The contact between the two is an unconformity. Facies analysis of the glacio-marine Talchir Formation reveals that basal glaciogenic and reworked glaciogenic sediments are buried under storm influenced inner and outer shelf sediments. Facies associations of the Karharbari Formation suggest deposition as fluvio-lacustrine deposits in fault-controlled troughs. An attempt has been made in this paper to explain the sedimentation pattern in Talchir and Karharbari basins, and the abrupt change-over from glacio-marine to terrestrial fluviolacustrine depositional environment in terms of glacio-isostacy.

The Raniganj basin in the Damodar valley of eastern India is located within the riftogenic Gondwana Master-Basin. The fluvio-lacustrine deposits of the Lower Triassic Panchet Formation of the Damodar valley in the study area preserve various soft-sediment deformation structures such as slump folds, convolute laminae, flame structures, dish-and-pillar structures, sandstone dykes, pseudonodules and syn-sedimentary faults. Although such soft-sediment deformation structures maybe formed by various processes, in the present area the association of these structures, their relation to the adjacent sedimentary rocks and the tectonic and depositional setting of the formation suggest that these structures are seismogenic. Movements along the basin margin and the intra-basinal faults and resultant seismicity with moderate magnitude (2–5 on Richter scale) are thought to have been responsible for the soft-sediment deformations.

Trace fossils that record animal and plant activity are described for the first time from the Middle Siwalik, Neogene deposits of Darjeeling Himalaya. Sedimentary facies association attests to a channel–interchannel floodplain fluviatile setting. The intimate association of the burrows with phytoliths, rhizoliths, leaf compressions and coal lenses suggest that the tracemakers dominated a floodplain habitat. Point bar deposits host a low diversity Planolites-Naktodemasis-Macanopsis-Cylindricum equilibrium ichnocoenosis in the heterolithic fine sandstone-siltstone-shale facies that alternates with dense, monospecific colonization of Planolites as opportunistic pioneers relocating under stressed condition. Interlayered floodplain deposits in the fluvial successions preserve enigmatic large diameter, vertical tubes within thin to thick-bedded, dark silty shale facies. These tubes bear mixed characters assignable to both crayfish burrows and large-diameter rhizoliths. Further work on these tubes is necessary to make more accurate interpretations of those structures. Shallow to moderate burrow depths; intermittent, short-lived colonization events and preservation of rhizoliths and rhizohalos under fluctuating moisture content indicate short-term fluctuations of a relatively high water table (close to the paleosurface) in an imperfectly drained proximal floodplain setting. Ichnotaxa distribution and their inferred ethology provide significant faunal data that may put constraints on the reconstruction of Middle Siwalik depositional environment.