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Monday, April 23, 2007

Ram Sethu: Scientific evidence of ancient human activity


By S. Kalyanaraman




The Geological and geophysical survey of the Sethu-samudram Project clearly reveal that Rama’s bridge appears to be a major




Geological feature. The surveys reveal that to the north of Ram
Sethu on the Palk Bay side, the formation have undergone down faulting
and the Ram Sethu came up as an up thrown block. This geomorphic
feature is seem to be continuous and verified both by bathymetry survey
and NASA land image.




One could clearly see that this is but a continuous feature
with minor depressions upto about 100m width. In consonance with these
things there are inter tidal marine sandy islands. These depressions
and the islands appear to be neotectonic feature resulting in changes
in bathymetry.




It is a well established scientific phenomenon that there has
been a major glaciation period (ice age) with glacial maxima at about
18,000 years BP. This feature has been observed and studied in several
parts of the world with the help of submerged Corals. During the
glacial Maxima, the sea level was about 130m lower than what is today.
This is evidenced both on the east




and west coast of India, where submerged Corals occur around 1
to 2m water depths and they are clear indicators of near coastal zone.




The Ram Sethu ridge is a major marine divide. It separates the
furious Bay of Bengal sea and sediments in the Palk bay and the very
calm placid waters of the Gulf of Mannar. This ridge like feature is
similar to the “Allaband” that was formed after a major earthquake in
Arabian Sea in the early 19th century. In the Allaband, a long stretch
of about 90km length and about 0.5 to 4km wide zone got uplifted
because of a major tectonic event that was responsible for the
earthquake. Since this event occurred in the recent past and such huge
track of land was raised, people called that it is happened due to the
will of Allah and named it Allaband.




The Ram Sethu is a similar feature but formed much earlier due
to tectonic causes that were prevalent in these areas. However, during
the last ice age (18,000 year BP) the entire area from India to Sri
Lanka and further south and southeast were contagious land due to the
highly lowered sea level. As and when there were major melting of
glaciers both from the mountains as well as from the Antarctic area,
the sea level was rising. These features were well recorded and studied
by several submerged Coral formations all over the world. About 7,300
years BP the sea level in the southern part of India was about 3.5 m
above the present level. This has been deciphered by Dr. P.K. Banerjee,
who studied Corals that found in the land part as of Pamban,
Rameswaram, and Tuticorin etc. Subsequently the sea level went down and
rose +2m above than what is today between 5000 to 4000 years B.P.




The Geological logging of the bore holes drilled by NIOT in
the inter tidal areas of Ram Sethu reveals very interesting details. In
all the bore holes the top portion is seen to be occupied by recent
marine sands. In almost of all the boreholes between 4.5 and 7.5m the
borehole intersected hard formations, which have been found to be
calcareous sand stones and corals. It is to be pointed out here that
Corals are comparatively less dense, compact and somewhat easy to
carry. The Corals normally grow atop compact to hard formations for the
purpose of stability, and as the sea level rises, the Coral colony
grows up vertically to maintain water depth of 1 to 2 m, which is
essential for their survival. It is always observed that these Corals
have continuous vertical growth like Lakshadweep, Andaman’s, and Gulf
of Mannar Natural Park. These have always been found to grow on hard
rock bottom. In the case of Ram Sethu area, we observe that the Coral
formations hardly occur 1 to 2.5m in length and resting on loose marine
sands. Most of these coral rock pieces are seem to be rounded pebbles
of corals. These things appear to point these coral rock pieces and
pebbles have been transported and placed in these areas.




Since the calcareous sand stones and Corals are less dense
than normal hard rock and quite compact, probably these were used by
the ancients to form a connecting link to Sri Lanka, on the higher
elevations of the Ram Sethu ridge and this is analogous to modern day
causeway.




In support of these observations there are many archaeological
and geoarchaeological evidences on the south east coast of India around
Rameswaram, Tuticorin and the western coast of Sri Lanka. There are
raised Teri formations that supported a rich assemblage of
mesolithic—microlithic tools indicating the presence of strong human
habitation and activity in these areas as early as 8000 to 9000 years
B.P and as recent as 4000 years B.P. On Sri Lanka side there are
indications of human habitation extending to late Pleistocene (about
13,000 B.P) based on bone and fossils of human and animal form.




All these point to a flourishing human activity on both side
of Adams Bridge and probably when the sea levels were just right the
link between India and Sri Lanka could have been established.




Source: Dept. of Earth Sciences, Government of India (March, 2007)

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