Abstract The Elan Bank microcontinent was separated from East India during the Early Cretaceous break-up. The crustal architecture and rifting geometry of East India and the Elan Bank margins document that the early break-up between India and Antarctica was initiated in the eastern portions of the Cauvery and Krishna–Godavari rift zones, and in the southern portion of Elan Bank. However, the westwards break-up propagation along the Krishna–Godavari Rift Zone continued even after the break-up in the overstepping portion of the Cauvery Rift Zone. Eventually, the western propagating end of the Krishna–Godavari Rift Zone became hard-linked with the failed western portion of the Cauvery Rift Zone by the dextral Coromandel transfer fault zone. Consequently, the break-up location between India and Antarctica shifted from its initial to its final location along the northern portion of the Elan Bank formed by the western Krishna–Godavari Rift Zone. The competition between the two rift zones to capture continental break-up and asymmetric ridge propagation resulted in a ridge jump and the Elan Bank microcontinent release.

Abstract Tertiary sediment loading on the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous passive-margin rift fills in the offshore Krishna-Godavari basin generated different episodes and patterns of mobile, shale-cored structures from the Paleocene to Pliocene. The Paleocene-Eocene shales in the deeper shelf and upper slope areas moved as a series of thrust slices, whereas the younger Miocene-Pliocene shales moved as individual bulges (diapirs). Lithological variability and shifting depocenters, prevailing tectonic conditions, and available space in the system for translation in space and time all influenced the spatiotemporal distribution of the shale-cored structures. A relation is also observed between the location of the toe thrusts and shale diapirs, and the basement highs and escarpments. Two-dimensional palinspastic restorations, incorporating all the above variables, confirm the linkages between the sediment depocenters, growth faults, and mobile shales in the Krishna-Godavari basin.