Geology of Bangladesh Definition: The word Geology derived from the Greek word, Gaia means the earth

and logos, science knowledge. Geology is the study of the Earth, the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. It includes the study of organisms that have inhabited our planet. An important part of geology is the study of how Earths materials, structures, processes and organisms have changed over time. Branches of Geology: The main branches of geology are as follows: 1. Physical geology: Study of the process and agents which brings about the changes on the earth. 2. Mineralogy: Study of the minerals. 3. Petrology: Study of the composition, origin, occurrence and types of the rocks. 4. Geomorphology: Study of the origin of landforms and their modification by dynamic processes 5. Oceanography: Study of the ocean and their basin. 6. Geophysics: Study deals with the application of principle of physics to the study of earth. 7. Geochemistry: Study concerned with composition of earth materials and the chemical changes that occur within the earth and on its surface. 8. Paleontology: Study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times as represented by the fossils of plants, animals and other organisms. 9. Stratigraphy: Study of rock strata, especially the distribution, deposition, and age of sedimentary rocks 10. Structural geology: Study of the forces that deform the earth's rocks and the description and mapping of deformed rock bodies 11. Economic geology: It involves the commercial and industrial uses of the earth resources. 12. Hydrology: Study of the surface and subsurface water. 13. Petroleum geology: Study of the origin and occurrence of oil and gas. 14. Engineering geology: Application of geology in the solving the engineering problems. 15. Mining geology: Study of the structure of the exploration and extraction of metallic and non metallic ores. 16. Historical geology: Geology deals with the historical development of the earth from the study of its rocks.

Geological Soil Formation in Bangladesh: Bangladesh soils are mostly derived from sediments brought by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Tista and Meghna rivers. There are three major geological formations in Bangladesh, which are as follows:

1. Tertiary hills sediments in the northern and eastern hills: These sediments comprise mainly unconsolidated and little consolidated beds of sand stones, siltstones, shale's and conglomerates. They have been folded into a succession. These are aligned approximately north- north west to south- south west in Chittagong and the south of Sylhet district swinging round to almost west-west in the north of Sylhet and Mymensingh district. The higher ranges in the Chittagong and Sylhet hill areas are underlain by rocks of the Surma and Tipam formations regarded as late Oligocene or mid-miocene in age. According to Wadia (1957), some of the formations might be of Pleistocene. 2. Madhupur clay of the Madhupur and Barind tracts This formation is found in Madhupur and Barind tracts. It also occurs on the Akhaura terrace area and on the summit of the Lalmai hills in the east of Comilla. The formation is homogenous in appearance both vertically and laterally. It comprises a layer of unconsolidated clay; about 25 ft. thick near Dhaka and much thicken in the west of Rajshahi district. Extended areas of the Barind tract and parts of the Madhupur tract have almost level, terrace like topography but western part of the Barind tract and parts of the Madhupur tract have almost level, terrace like topography but western part of the Barind tract and considerable parts of the Madhupur part are dissected. The Madhupur Clay is regarded as beings of Pleistocene age. The geological report of Pakistan (1964) describes it as Mio-Pliocene in some places. The Madhupur clay has been converted into red mottled clay or gray heavy clay; usually with iron coated and manganese concretions. 3. Recent alluvium in the flood plains and estuarine areas Unconsolidated flood plain sediments occupy the greater part of the country. These sediments are heterogeneous in age, texture and mineralogy. They have been deposited under pediments mender flood plain estuarine and tidal conditions. Now alluvium is still being deposited near to active river channels. Most flood plain sediments have high silt content. This is particularly so in the case of Brahmaputra/ Jamuna and Meghna sediments. Sandy sediments occur extensively in the soils of Tista and Ganges floodplains. Clay deposits also occur on the surface soils of Ganges flood plains, peat has accumulated wet basins in Sylhet, Netrokona, Gopalganj and some other parts of the country. In general Ganga, Brahmaputra and Tista sediments contain large amounts of mica. Ganges alluvium is calcareous (which contains CaCO3 & MgCO3). These deposits usually contain 15-30% feldspars and 530% micas. Tista sediments differ from Brahmaputra and Ganges sediments in having a lower epidote and higher biotite content. Flood plain deposits of the Surma and other eastern rivers are generally similar to those of the Tertiary hill sediments. They are low in feldspars and micas. How ever deposits in the Sylhet basins are richer in amphiboles, epidotic and Zircon.

Geological Time Scale: The geologic time scale divides up the history of the earth based on life-forms that have existed during specific times since the creation of the planet. These divisions are called geochronologic units ( geo: rock, chronology: time). Most of these life-forms are found as fossils, which are the remains or traces of an organism from the geologic past that has been preserved in sediment or rock. Without fossils, scientists may not have concluded that the earth has a history that long precedes mankind. The Geologic Time Scale is divided by the following divisions: Eons: Longest subdivision; based on the abundance of certain fossils Eras: Next to longest subdivision; marked by major changes in the fossil record Periods: Based on types of life existing at the time Epochs: Shortest subdivision; marked by differences in life forms and can vary from continent to continent. Due to the fact that early geologists had no way of knowing how the discoveries of the Earth were going to develop, geologist over time has put the time scale together piece by piece. Units were named as they were discovered. Sometimes unit names were borrowed from local geography, from a person, or from the type of rock that dominated the unit. Examples: Cambrian: From the Latin name for Wales. Named for exposures of strata found in a typesection in Wales by British geologist Adam Sedgwick. Devonian: Named after significant outcrops first discovered near Devonshire, England Jurassic: Named for representative strata first seen in the Jura Mountains by German geologist Humboldt in 1795) Cretaceous: From the Latin creta meaning chalk by a Belgian geologist

The earliest time of the Earth is called the Hadean and refers to a period of time for which we have no rock record, and the Archean followed, which corresponds to the ages of the oldest known rocks on earth. These, with the Proterozoic Eon are called the Precambrian Eon. The remainder of geologic time, including present day, belongs to the Phanerozoic Eon. While the units making up the time scale are called geochronologic units, the actual rocks formed during those specific time intervals are called chronostratigraphic units. The actual rock record of a period is called a system, so rocks from the Cambrian Period are of the Cambrian system.

Reference: Banglapedia 2006

Geomorphology of Bangladesh Definition: Geology deals with the formation and shape of the earths surface relief. It is closely related to geology, but in addition, it covers the relief and age factors of formation. An understanding of geomorphology is especially important in Bangladesh because differences between soils generally are related to their position on relief and to the age of different landscapes. Geomorphology is also important in relation to the planning of agricultural development with the aid of irrigation, drainage, flood protection and soil conservation structures, for all of which knowledge of relief and drainage, river behavior and/or surface runoff is important. Bangladesh comprises Hill, Terrace and Floodplain areas. The salient features of these are presented below. A. Floodplains The floodplain sediments were deposited under various conditions at different times. Four main types of landscape can be recognized: Piedmont plains, Meander floodplains, Tidal floodplains, and Estuarine floodplains. 1. Piedmont plains: Piedmont plains comprise gently slopping land at the foothills where colluvial and alluvial sediments derived from the hills have been deposited by rivers or streams. Rivers in such places shift their channels periodically, thereby forming alluvial outwash fans on which close intermixtures of sediments of different texture occur. Soil patterns often complex, therefore. Piedmont plains occur at the foot of the northern and eastern hills and at Dinajpur and Rangpur regions as an extension of the foot of the Himalayas (in India). The deposits are mainly sandy, and they contain thin bands of pebbles in some places. The piedmont deposits may possibly be as old as late Pleistocene or early Holocene, but they are younger than the Madhupur Clay.
2. Meander Floodplain: Meander floodplain include the greater part of the Testa, Karotoya -

Bangali, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Ganges, Surma - Kushiara and Middle Meghna floodplains. These floodplains have been formed by big rivers laying down deposits within and alongside their channels during floods. The main rivers and their distributaries follow meandering courses. They constantly erode the outer bank of bends and deposit new sediments on the inside of the bends. Occasionally, smaller rivers cut through the neck between adjoining meander loops. These processes produce a landscape of curved ridges and saucer shaped basins, together with abandoned portions of the river channels. The height, width and shape of floodplain ridges in relation to adjoining basin are determined by the size of the river which forms them, the nature of the sediment load it carries and whether the river water flows freely or is impeded by floodwater already covering adjoining floodplains. Big rivers normally carry a bigger sediment load than the smaller rivers, so they generally build up bigger ridges than the later. Also, because the diameter of the meander are increases with water flow, floodplain ridges left by the big rivers have a wider curve than those left by more tightly meandering small rivers.

Some floodplain areas appear to have been affected by the earth movements. Ganges floodplains have been uplifted in the west; Gopalganj - Khulna beels probably represent a down-warped area. The western and eastern sides of Mymensingh have been uplifted and central parts of the Sylhet have been down-warped. The normal pattern of alluvial deposition on a meander floodplain is for coarser materials to be dropped near river banks and most clayey deposits in the basin centre. Floodplain areas vary widely in age which they have been formed. A peat sample from a depth of 76 cm of Gopalganj-Khulna beels was dated at about 800 years before the present. A buried layer of organic matter within old Meghna Floodplain was dates at about 3000 years before the present.
3. Tidal Floodplains: Tidal floodplain land occurs mainly in the south-west. Smaller areas occur

in parts of the Chittagong Coastal Plain, especially in the Chakaria Sunderban at the mouth of Matamuhuri River. Tidal floodplains have a distinctive, almost level landscape crossed by innumerable, interconnecting rivers and creeks. Rivers crossing the area are often angular bends, giving zigzag patterns, rather than the curved loops which characterize meander floodplains. The sediments carried by tidal rivers are periodically fine, so only narrow levees of very fine sand and silt are formed, and fine silts are formed, and fine silts and clays are deposited in the extreme basins. Radio-carbon dating of a peat sample from 1 m depth near Pirojpur gave an age about 900 years before the present.
4. Estuarine Floodplains: Floodplain deposits were laid down under estuarine conditions over

most of the present Comilla and Noakhali regions, adjoining parts of Barisal and Patuakhali regions, and smaller parts of Dhaka, Faridpur and Sylhet regions. Estuarine land is forming at present in the south Noakhali mainland and in the island of Meghna Estuary. The land apparently originates as char formations within the open estuary and builds up by slow tidal accretion until such time as a change in the course of the estuarine channels which erodes it or abandons it. In the latter case, it may be linked up with adjoining land by the silting up of the intervening channel. Estuarine deposits are mainly silty. The age of the older floodplain deposits is not known with certainty, but they may be several thousand years old. An organic clay layer within the deposit in the north of the Barisal region was dated at about 3000 years old. B. Terraces The major terrace areas include the Madhupur and Barind tracts. In both tracts, the Madhupur Clay has been broken into several fault blocks, some of which are slightly tilted. The western edge of Madhupur tract is tilted down south-eastward and passes under adjoining Old Brahmaputra and Meghna Floodplain sediments. The western part of Barind tract has been tilted up; parts of the western edge are more than 15 m higher than the rest of the tract and adjoining Mahananda Floodplain. The southern part of the main eastern block of the Barind tract is tilted down towards the south-west and passes under lower Atrai basin sediments in the south.

Large parts of the Barind Tract and some parts of the Madhupur tract have a level surface underlain by little altered Madhupur Clay. Other areas have been dissected by valleys but the interfluves between them are either level or rise to a uniform level. Some of the valleys have partly infilled with alluvium which includes organic layers, the greatest age of which, established by radio-carbon dating, is 6700 years before the present. C. Hills The hill areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Chittagong, Noakhali, Comilla, Sylhet, Mymensingh, and Jamalpur regions are underlain by Tertiary and Quaternary sediments which have been folded, faulted and uplifted, then deeply dissected by rivers and streams. The topography is mainly determined by geological structures and rock type. There is an overall pattern of long, linear ridges, running approximately NNW-SSE except in the North of Mymensingh and Sylhet regions where the alignment swings round clockwise to west-east along the foot of the Shillong plateau. The highest ridges reaching about 300 m to almost 1000 m above the mean sea level. The rivers have eaten into softer beds within the hill ranges, so that the main valleys follow their outcrop along the length of the anticlines and consequently run parallel with the main ranges. The flanks of the main ranges are deeply dissected by short valleys and gullies at right angles to the main ridges and valleys. Geo-physiographic Characteristics of Bangladesh The physiographic feature of a region is closely related to the geology. It covers the relief and age factors. An understanding of the physiographic condition of a region is, therefore, important for proper understanding of the interactions of the soil forming factors. This is also true for Bangladesh where the soil differences are particularly related to the topography of landscape and its age. It is also important in assessing the relief and drainage, river movement and the surface run-off.. Bangladesh consists of hills, terraces and floodplains. The major factors that contributed to form these landscapes are relief, parent material type and climate. Physiographic features: 1. Large basins occur in the northeast and central parts of Bangladesh. 2. These basins filled up due to heavy pre-monsoon rain both locally and on the hills that occur across the border. 3. Floodwater of the Brahmaputra and Meghna overflows the bank after filling up of the basins. 4. The Brahmaputra begins to rise early in March-April due to snowmelt on the Himalayas. 5. Flash floods in the piedmont plains are caused due to heavy rain on the adjacent hills. 6. Large area in the coastal region unless protected h polder is tidally flooded down to 0.5-1.0 meter depth. 7. The normal depth of flooding in most areas is 1-3 meters. 8. The deeper basins remain flooded until December-January. 9. The Barind tract in the northwest lies above the normal flood level.

Study Questions:

Mention briefly the geomorphological features of Bangladesh. Describe Madhupur clay and hill soils formed in Bangladesh. What are the different alluvial soils in the country? Distinguish between Meander floodplain and tidal floodplain. Illustrate the Pliocene and Pliestocene deposits in the map of Bangladesh. Name two large rivers of Bangladesh mentioning their origin and distributary streams. What is meant by river distributaries and river tributaries? Briefly mention the geo-physiographic features of Bangladesh. Write short note on:
1. Estuarine floodplain 2. Mio-Pliocene hills 3. Piedmont sediments 4. Geographical position of Bangladesh 5. Recent alluvium 6. Geological time scale 7. Hills 8. Terrace

Describe Cenozoic Era as a geological evolution.

References:
1. AEZ of Bangladesh, Vol I and II. SRDI-BARC 2. Bangladesh Mrittikar Parichiti o Babohar. Prof. Dr. Md. Sadrul Amin 3. Soils of Bangladesh. 4. The Geography of the Soils of Bangladesh. H. Brammer

5. Adhunik Mrittikabiggan. Prof. Dr. Md. Sadrul Amin