Land ho

Did you know that the Godavari once flowed northward into an ocean, and that the river is thus older than the subcontinent? That "stupendous" volcanic activity once blocked rivers in peninsular India, creating swamps in and around which all sorts of ancient species lived, died and were squashed into the soil? That the Deccan once stretched from Kachchh to Rajahmundry and even to land now 1.5 km below the Arabian Sea? That whales were once wolf-sized land-based carnivores? That all sorts of interesting things are going on under the industrial belt of Jharkhand? That and this was a real surprise a hill near Vadodara "comprises a unique succession beginning with ankaramite at the base, followed upwards successively by mugearite, hypersthene-basalt, olivine-basalt, andesite with rhyolite and tuffs at the top"?

All right, that last one was unfair. But I am currently enthralled by this book I can barely understand. It's called The Making of India: Geodynamic Evolution, and it's a newly published textbook of Indian geology for college students and teachers” though author K S Valdiya adds, incredibly, that he was also aiming for "non-specialist readers".

Full report here Sify