India -Australia-Africa-Madagaskar-Antarctica are estranged 'geological' siblings ...
Indo-Australian invasion of Eurasia continues relentlessly raising height of Himalaya by 5 mm every year ....
India’s geological age in approximately 50 million years. That means India was born just after last Ice age which is believed to have had taken place around 60-70 million years ago and have had put an ignomious end to Jurassik era creating ecological niche for mammals to take baton of evolution from Dinosaurs and open new door of evolution which eventually put humans at where they are today.
Birth of India is also closely linked to birth of Himalaya and its separation from Antarctica . Infact India could be rightfully dubbed as father of Himalaya- which happens to be highest mountain ranges in the world . Paradoxically it is also one of the youngest mountain ranges.
Where the worlds highest mountain peaks stand today – at same place existed a vast ocean called as Tethys . And India was 6,000-8,000 Km away from where it stands . We are talking about 50 million years ago.
Well there was no India that time – There was rather a supercontinent called as Gondwanaland or simply called as Gondwana. This was conglomerate of Africa,Madagascar ,India,Australia and Antarctica. ( Yes there is this deep Indian connection to East Antarctica ) .Giant tectonic forces – ( due to movement of earth’s crust underneath molten magma caused shearing and breaking of Gondwanaland into individual parts. Indian plate migrated under tectonic same forces by distance of almost 6-8,000 km in few million years ( 10 cm per year rate ) and finally thrusted in Eurasian plate .
Technically speaking we are outsiders in Asia . Collision of Indian plate into Eurasian plate closed the ocean – Tethys forever. India rammed deep into Eurasian plate and raised 8000 meters i.e 8 km high and approx. 2400 km ( from hindukush in Kashmir in North to right upto Arunachal Pradesh in North east ) long and 400 km wide - mountain range that we today call as Himalaya. This also lead to creation of Tibetan plateau – what we call as Roof of World ( you will understand if you have seen movie 2012 ).
The reason why you get aquatic oceanic fossils in Himalaya is because it is founded by locking and jamming up one of the greatest ocean mass on earth that is tethys
And the process haven’t stopped yet. India continue to thrust deep into Asia and continues to raise height of the Everest .
Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia related to this
“ The Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia. About 20 mm per year of the India-Asia convergence is absorbed by thrusting along the Himalaya southern front. This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year, making them geologically active. The movement of the Indian plate into the Asian plate also makes this region seismically active, leading to earthquakes from time to time”
And this is a geologically proven fact – only details remain hazy as we are talking about million years .
India’s special connection with Antarctica is the reason why India pressed for New Antarctic Research Base at Prydz bay despite stiff international opposition at SCAR. SCAR is scientific committee for Antarctic Research – defacto administrator of continent of Antarctica.India is permanent member of SCAR and our delegation had to fight diplomatically to get SCAR approval to build new station in Antarctica. Our main line of argument to seek to build new station is so called Specially Preserved Area ( SPA) as australians call it , was our Gondwana related research . Paradoxically it was Australia who opposed India’s Antarctic research base pla in this region, tooth and nail ( Paradoxical because australia happens to be our geological sibling . We are still connected by Indo-Australian plate ) Today India’s third permanent station called Bharati is functional within few km distance of research bases of other countries such as Davis ( australia) ,Progress ( Russia) , Zong shan ( china) in part of east antarctica called as Larsemann hills . The point where India was connected to Antractica 50 million years ago.
Here is the recent article from MIT related to this ....
" India Joined with Asia 10 Million Years later than Previously Thought, New Timeline Suggests "
The peaks of the Himalayas are a modern remnant of massive tectonic forces that fused India with Asia tens of millions of years ago. Previous estimates have suggested this collision occurred about 50 million years ago, as India, moving northward at a rapid pace, crushed up against Eurasia. The crumple zone between the two plates gave rise to the Himalayas, which today bear geologic traces of both India and Asia. Geologists have sought to characterize the rocks of the Himalayas in order to retrace one of the planet's most dramatic tectonic collisions.
Now researchers at MIT have found that the collision between India and Asia occurred only 40 million years ago -- 10 million years later than previously thought. The scientists analyzed the composition of rocks from two regions in the Himalayas, and discovered evidence of two separate collisional events: As India crept steadily northward, it first collided with a string of islands 50 million years ago, before plowing into the Eurasian continental plate 10 million years later.
Oliver Jagoutz, assistant professor of geology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, says the results, which will be published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, change the timeline for a well-known tectonic story.
"India came running full speed at Asia and boom, they collided," says Jagoutz, an author of the paper. "But we actually don't think it was one collision … this changes dramatically the way we think the India/Asia collision works."
'How great was Greater India?'
In particular, Jagoutz says, the group's findings may change scientists' ideas about the size of India before it collided with Asia. At the time of collision, part of the ancient Indian plate -- known as "Greater India" -- slid underneath the Eurasian plate.
What we see of India's surface today is much smaller than it was 50 million years ago. It's not clear how much of India lies beneath Asia, but scientists believe the answer may come partly from knowing how fast the Indian plate migrates, and exactly when the continent collided with Asia.
"The real question is, 'How great was Greater India?'" Jagoutz says. "If you know when India hit, you know the size of Greater India."
By dating the Indian-Eurasian collision to 10 million years later than previous estimates, Jagoutz and his colleagues conclude that Greater India must have been much smaller than scientists have thought.”India moved more than 10 centimeters a year," Jagoutz says. "Ten million years [later] is 1,000 kilometers less in convergence. That is a real difference."
Leafing through the literature
To pinpoint exactly when the Indian-Eurasian collision occurred, the team first looked to a similar but more recent tectonic example. Over the last 2 million years, the Australian continental plate slowly collided with a string of islands known as the Sunda Arc. Geologists have studied the region as an example of an early-stage continental collision.
Jagoutz and his colleagues reviewed the geologic literature on Oceania's rock composition. In particular, the team looked for telltale isotopes -- chemical elements that morph depending on factors like time and tectonic deformation. The researchers identified two main isotopic systems in the region's rocks: one in which the element lutetium decays to hafnium, and another in which samarium decays to neodymium. From their analysis of the literature, the researchers found that rocks high in neodymium and hafnium isotopes likely formed before Australia collided with the islands. Rocks low in neodymium and hafnium probably formed after the collision.
Heading to the Himalayas
Once the team identified the isotopic signatures for collision, it looked for similar signatures in rocks gathered from the Himalayas.
Since 2000, Jagoutz has trekked to the northwest corner of the Himalayas, a region of Pakistan and India called the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc. This block of mountains is thought to have been a string of islands that was sandwiched between the two continents as they collided. Jagoutz traversed the mountainous terrain with pack mules and sledgehammers, carving out rock samples from the region's northern and southern borders. His team has brought back three tons of rocks, which he and his colleagues analyzed for signature isotopes.
The researchers split the rocks, and separated out more than 3,000 zircons -- 100 to 200 micron-long crystals containing isotopic ratios. Jagoutz and his colleagues first determined the age of each zircon using another isotopic system, in which uranium turns slowly to lead with time. The team then measured the ratios of strontium to neodymium, and lutetium to hafnium, to determine the presence of a collision, keeping track of where each zircon was originally found (along the region's northern or southern border).
The team found a very clear signature: Rocks older than 50 million years contained exactly the same ratio of isotopes in both the northern and southern samples. However, Jagoutz found that rocks younger than 50 million years, along the southern boundary of the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc, suddenly exhibited a range of isotopic ratios, indicating a dramatic tectonic event. Along the arc's northern boundary, the same sudden change in isotopes occurs, but only in rocks younger than 40 million years.
Taken together, the evidence supports a new timeline of collisional events: Fifty million years ago, India collided with a string of islands, pushing the island arc northward. Ten million years later, India collided with the Eurasian plate, sandwiching the string of islands, now known as the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc, between the massive continents.
Peter Clift, a professor of petroleum geology at Louisiana State University, says it may take a while for his colleagues to embrace this new timeline of collisional events.
"This paper does a great deal to stir up the debate on the topic of the timing of collision," says Clift, who was not involved in the research. "I think that a lot of that evidence is already in existence, and that the paper will be seen as something quite fundamental a few years in the future."
"If you actually go back in the literature to the 1970s and '80s, people thought this was the right way," Jagoutz says. "Then somehow the literature went in another direction, and people largely forgot this possibility. Now this opens up a lot of new ideas."
Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Jennifer Chu.
Gondwana break up movie link.
Indo-Australian invasion of Eurasia continues relentlessly raising height of Himalaya by 5 mm every year ....
India’s geological age in approximately 50 million years. That means India was born just after last Ice age which is believed to have had taken place around 60-70 million years ago and have had put an ignomious end to Jurassik era creating ecological niche for mammals to take baton of evolution from Dinosaurs and open new door of evolution which eventually put humans at where they are today.
Birth of India is also closely linked to birth of Himalaya and its separation from Antarctica . Infact India could be rightfully dubbed as father of Himalaya- which happens to be highest mountain ranges in the world . Paradoxically it is also one of the youngest mountain ranges.
Where the worlds highest mountain peaks stand today – at same place existed a vast ocean called as Tethys . And India was 6,000-8,000 Km away from where it stands . We are talking about 50 million years ago.
Well there was no India that time – There was rather a supercontinent called as Gondwanaland or simply called as Gondwana. This was conglomerate of Africa,Madagascar ,India,Australia and Antarctica. ( Yes there is this deep Indian connection to East Antarctica ) .Giant tectonic forces – ( due to movement of earth’s crust underneath molten magma caused shearing and breaking of Gondwanaland into individual parts. Indian plate migrated under tectonic same forces by distance of almost 6-8,000 km in few million years ( 10 cm per year rate ) and finally thrusted in Eurasian plate .
Technically speaking we are outsiders in Asia . Collision of Indian plate into Eurasian plate closed the ocean – Tethys forever. India rammed deep into Eurasian plate and raised 8000 meters i.e 8 km high and approx. 2400 km ( from hindukush in Kashmir in North to right upto Arunachal Pradesh in North east ) long and 400 km wide - mountain range that we today call as Himalaya. This also lead to creation of Tibetan plateau – what we call as Roof of World ( you will understand if you have seen movie 2012 ).
The reason why you get aquatic oceanic fossils in Himalaya is because it is founded by locking and jamming up one of the greatest ocean mass on earth that is tethys
And the process haven’t stopped yet. India continue to thrust deep into Asia and continues to raise height of the Everest .
Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia related to this
“ The Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia. About 20 mm per year of the India-Asia convergence is absorbed by thrusting along the Himalaya southern front. This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year, making them geologically active. The movement of the Indian plate into the Asian plate also makes this region seismically active, leading to earthquakes from time to time”
And this is a geologically proven fact – only details remain hazy as we are talking about million years .
India’s special connection with Antarctica is the reason why India pressed for New Antarctic Research Base at Prydz bay despite stiff international opposition at SCAR. SCAR is scientific committee for Antarctic Research – defacto administrator of continent of Antarctica.India is permanent member of SCAR and our delegation had to fight diplomatically to get SCAR approval to build new station in Antarctica. Our main line of argument to seek to build new station is so called Specially Preserved Area ( SPA) as australians call it , was our Gondwana related research . Paradoxically it was Australia who opposed India’s Antarctic research base pla in this region, tooth and nail ( Paradoxical because australia happens to be our geological sibling . We are still connected by Indo-Australian plate ) Today India’s third permanent station called Bharati is functional within few km distance of research bases of other countries such as Davis ( australia) ,Progress ( Russia) , Zong shan ( china) in part of east antarctica called as Larsemann hills . The point where India was connected to Antractica 50 million years ago.
Here is the recent article from MIT related to this ....
" India Joined with Asia 10 Million Years later than Previously Thought, New Timeline Suggests "
The peaks of the Himalayas are a modern remnant of massive tectonic forces that fused India with Asia tens of millions of years ago. Previous estimates have suggested this collision occurred about 50 million years ago, as India, moving northward at a rapid pace, crushed up against Eurasia. The crumple zone between the two plates gave rise to the Himalayas, which today bear geologic traces of both India and Asia. Geologists have sought to characterize the rocks of the Himalayas in order to retrace one of the planet's most dramatic tectonic collisions.
Now researchers at MIT have found that the collision between India and Asia occurred only 40 million years ago -- 10 million years later than previously thought. The scientists analyzed the composition of rocks from two regions in the Himalayas, and discovered evidence of two separate collisional events: As India crept steadily northward, it first collided with a string of islands 50 million years ago, before plowing into the Eurasian continental plate 10 million years later.
Oliver Jagoutz, assistant professor of geology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, says the results, which will be published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, change the timeline for a well-known tectonic story.
"India came running full speed at Asia and boom, they collided," says Jagoutz, an author of the paper. "But we actually don't think it was one collision … this changes dramatically the way we think the India/Asia collision works."
'How great was Greater India?'
In particular, Jagoutz says, the group's findings may change scientists' ideas about the size of India before it collided with Asia. At the time of collision, part of the ancient Indian plate -- known as "Greater India" -- slid underneath the Eurasian plate.
What we see of India's surface today is much smaller than it was 50 million years ago. It's not clear how much of India lies beneath Asia, but scientists believe the answer may come partly from knowing how fast the Indian plate migrates, and exactly when the continent collided with Asia.
"The real question is, 'How great was Greater India?'" Jagoutz says. "If you know when India hit, you know the size of Greater India."
By dating the Indian-Eurasian collision to 10 million years later than previous estimates, Jagoutz and his colleagues conclude that Greater India must have been much smaller than scientists have thought.”India moved more than 10 centimeters a year," Jagoutz says. "Ten million years [later] is 1,000 kilometers less in convergence. That is a real difference."
Leafing through the literature
To pinpoint exactly when the Indian-Eurasian collision occurred, the team first looked to a similar but more recent tectonic example. Over the last 2 million years, the Australian continental plate slowly collided with a string of islands known as the Sunda Arc. Geologists have studied the region as an example of an early-stage continental collision.
Jagoutz and his colleagues reviewed the geologic literature on Oceania's rock composition. In particular, the team looked for telltale isotopes -- chemical elements that morph depending on factors like time and tectonic deformation. The researchers identified two main isotopic systems in the region's rocks: one in which the element lutetium decays to hafnium, and another in which samarium decays to neodymium. From their analysis of the literature, the researchers found that rocks high in neodymium and hafnium isotopes likely formed before Australia collided with the islands. Rocks low in neodymium and hafnium probably formed after the collision.
Heading to the Himalayas
Once the team identified the isotopic signatures for collision, it looked for similar signatures in rocks gathered from the Himalayas.
Since 2000, Jagoutz has trekked to the northwest corner of the Himalayas, a region of Pakistan and India called the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc. This block of mountains is thought to have been a string of islands that was sandwiched between the two continents as they collided. Jagoutz traversed the mountainous terrain with pack mules and sledgehammers, carving out rock samples from the region's northern and southern borders. His team has brought back three tons of rocks, which he and his colleagues analyzed for signature isotopes.
The researchers split the rocks, and separated out more than 3,000 zircons -- 100 to 200 micron-long crystals containing isotopic ratios. Jagoutz and his colleagues first determined the age of each zircon using another isotopic system, in which uranium turns slowly to lead with time. The team then measured the ratios of strontium to neodymium, and lutetium to hafnium, to determine the presence of a collision, keeping track of where each zircon was originally found (along the region's northern or southern border).
The team found a very clear signature: Rocks older than 50 million years contained exactly the same ratio of isotopes in both the northern and southern samples. However, Jagoutz found that rocks younger than 50 million years, along the southern boundary of the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc, suddenly exhibited a range of isotopic ratios, indicating a dramatic tectonic event. Along the arc's northern boundary, the same sudden change in isotopes occurs, but only in rocks younger than 40 million years.
Taken together, the evidence supports a new timeline of collisional events: Fifty million years ago, India collided with a string of islands, pushing the island arc northward. Ten million years later, India collided with the Eurasian plate, sandwiching the string of islands, now known as the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc, between the massive continents.
Peter Clift, a professor of petroleum geology at Louisiana State University, says it may take a while for his colleagues to embrace this new timeline of collisional events.
"This paper does a great deal to stir up the debate on the topic of the timing of collision," says Clift, who was not involved in the research. "I think that a lot of that evidence is already in existence, and that the paper will be seen as something quite fundamental a few years in the future."
"If you actually go back in the literature to the 1970s and '80s, people thought this was the right way," Jagoutz says. "Then somehow the literature went in another direction, and people largely forgot this possibility. Now this opens up a lot of new ideas."
Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Jennifer Chu.
Gondwana break up movie link.
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