65 million-year-old columnar basalt rocks discovered in Telangana

Prehistoric columnar basalt rocks were discovered by explorers in seven sites in the districts of North Telangana in recent years

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Members of the Public Research Institute of History, Archaeology and Heritage (PRIHAH), an independent body, have claimed to have found prehistoric columnar basalt rocks in Ginnedhari forest range in Tiryani mandal on Monday.

Thodishetty Pranay, a Forest Range Officer and also a member of PRIHAH discovered the rocks. “Though these rocks were found a few months ago, we were waiting for an expert’s confirmation about their nature,” said Pranay. Columnar rocks or joints as they are called scientifically formed when thick basalt lava flows and cools down to form hexagonal or shaped cracks, he noted.

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Chakilam Venugopal Rao, Deputy Director General (Retd) of Geological Survey of India, said, “Though columnar basalt rocks are found in Telangana in recent times. This is for the first time this kind of miniature type columnar basalt rock is found.” He added that the field relations and the features associated with them needed to be studied.

Dr M A Srinivasan, another member of PRIRAH said that finding these columnar basalt rocks, finding of the snail fossils such as physa tirpolensis and princepi makes these Adilabad forests special. Members of this body found a huge mound with snail fossils, scientifically identified as Physa tirpolensis Ginnedhari hill, two years ago.

The columnar Basalts of Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP) are said to be 65 million years old. They were discovered by explorers in seven sites in the districts of North Telangana in recent years.