View source for Vizianagaram-Salur region, Eastern Ghats: Granulite rocks

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[[Category:India |V ]]
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=Links with Antarctica’s Rayner Province=
==2026 findings==
[https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=17_05_2026_001_006_cap_TOI Umamaheswara.Rao, May 17, 2026: ''The Times of India'']

[[File: 2,000 manuscripts bought by UK pharma entrepreneur Sir Henry Wellcome are being returned to the Jain community. It’s believed to be the largest collection outside South Asia.jpg|2,000 manuscripts bought by UK pharma entrepreneur Sir Henry Wellcome are being returned to the Jain community. It’s believed to be the largest collection outside South Asia <br/> From: |frame|500px]]
[[File: ‘Smoking gun’ evidence was found in AP’s granulite rocks, which showed same age and chemistry as those in East Antarctica.jpg|‘Smoking gun’ evidence was found in AP’s granulite rocks, which showed same age and chemistry as those in East Antarctica <br/> From: [https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=17_05_2026_001_006_cap_TOI Umamaheswara.Rao, May 17, 2026: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]


Visakhapatnam : Before oceans split them and long before dinosaurs roamed, India and Antarctica shared a spine of fire-forged mountains. Today, more than 9,000km and ocean waters separate the two “siblings” lost in deep time.

 Granulite rocks in Andhra Pradesh have delivered what scientists call “smoking gun” evidence that India’s Eastern Ghats and East Antarctica were once fused in a vast mountain belt before Gondwana cracked and the Indian Ocean opened between them millions of years ago. Scientists studying ancient formations in Vizianagaram-Salur region said they have traced matching geological fingerprints across continents now worlds apart.

 Same age. Same mineral chemistry. Same scars of heat, pressure and tectonic upheaval etched deep inside Earth’s crust.


''' Findings tie Eastern Ghats to Antarctica’s Rayner Province '''

Findings tie Eastern Ghats to Antarctica’s Rayner Province, strengthening long-held theories that both belonged to a colossal mountain system called Rayner-Eastern Ghats orogen before Gondwana splintered apart.

 Scientists focused on granulites — metamorphic rocks forged under punishing temperatures and pressure far beneath Earth’s surface. Inside them lay zircon, garnet and monazite minerals that acted like geological time capsules.

 “Zircon survives conditions that destroy most other minerals. It preserves a remarkably precise timeline of ancient Earth processes,” said Prof Sankar Bose, dean of natural and mathematical sciences at Presidency University in Kolkata.  The team included scientists from Queensland University of Technology, Australia, National Centre for Earth Sci- ence Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, and Korea Polar Research Institute, South Korea.  

Using uranium-lead dating and advanced mineral analysis, researchers reconstructed three shared chapters in the rocks’ history — a stone archive stretching across nearly a billion years.  

First came inferno. Around 1,000 to 990 million years ago, rocks on both continents were cooked at temperatures touching 1,000 de-grees Celsius, roughly as hot as lava. Deep underground, colliding landmasses crumpled and welded together into a vast mountain chain.

 Second came reworking. Between 950 and 890 million years ago, rocks were buried and heated again, reshaping mineral structures like metal thrust back into a forge. Such repeated transformation is hallmark of giant continental collisions.  

Third came chemical alter-ation. Between 570 and 540 million years ago, mineral-rich fluids coursed through cracks and layers in rocks, leaving behind identical chemical signatures in India and Antarctica. Researchers linked this phase to tectonic stresses unleashed during the assembly of Gondwana, a super-continent that once stitched together India, Antarctica, Africa, Australia and South America. “Stress and fluid movement travelled far beyond collision zones and altered rocks in recognisable ways,” Bose said. “That same signature appears in both Indian and Antarctic samples.”  

Then continents drifted apart. Around 130 to 150 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs, Gondwana began breaking open. Rifts widened into what became Indian Ocean. India surged north towards Asia. Antarctica slid south towards polar isolation. One mountain belt fractured and sailed away on separate tectonic rafts.