Friday, March 20, 2020

Review Papers: Geodynamical Evolution Of India

Episodes, Journal of International Geoscience, has an open access special issue on the geology of the Indian subcontinent.

Excellent source for teachers, researchers, and curious science lovers.

I liked the paper on Deccan Volcanism a lot, especially the emphasis and attention given to the physical properties of the lava flows, and the problems of correlating (establishing their genetic and temporal relationships) lava sections from different parts of the Deccan Volcanic Province.

I don't know much about the Archean to Neoproterozoic age ( > 2500- 542 million years old)  southern granulite terrain, a region where very high temperature high pressure rocks known as granulites and charnockites are exposed. That is a topic I am looking forward to reading and learning about. The famous Anamudi Peak in the Western Ghats  are made up of these rocks. Geologists suspect that their high altitude is partly a result of differential erosion. Charnockites in particular are harder and have resisted being worn down, resulting in them standing out as high domes.

Another cool paper is on the role of microbial colonies on sedimentation patterns in the Proterozoic sedimentary basins of India (2500-542 million years ago). Microbial colonies grew as mats covering sediment surfaces influencing their accumulation and erosional patterns. Such environments became rare since Cambrian times (542 million years ago) when animals which eat and disrupt microbial colonies evolved.

Dive in.

No comments:

Post a Comment