Miniature 65-million-year-old solidified lava columns found in Adilabad’s Ginnedhari hill range

HYDERABAD: The forests of north Telanagna districts continue to yield new interesting findings related to nature and the earth. Explorers of the Public Research Institute of History, Archaeology, and Heritage (PRIHAH) found miniature-type columnar basalt rocks in the Ginnedhari forest range.

Thodishetty Pranay, a forest range officer and also a member of PRIHAH found these interesting rocks. “Though these rocks were found a few months ago, we were waiting for scientific confirmation,” said Pranay. Columnar rocks or joints as they were called scientifically were formed when thick basalt lava flowed and cooled down to form hexagonal-shaped cracks.

“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”, says Chakilam Venugopal Rao, Deputy Director General (Retd) of the Geological Survey of India.

“We have to closely study the field relations and the features associated with them. It is also desirable to plot the location of so far reported columnar basalt from Adilabad to find out the implication and mutual relations to reconstruct the emplacement history of volcanic flows in this area,” he said. The present findings from Ginnedhari might be similar to them and further studies might be needed for confirmation, he added.

These columnar basalts of the Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP) were 65 million years old. Columnar Basalt was also known from some locations in the Columbian River Basalts of the USA. They were also found in Iceland, Australia, and some other places. Even planet Mars had Basalt rocks which were much older than the ones on earth.

“Columnar basalt rocks have been found by explorers in seven sites in the districts of North Telangana in recent years. Finding miniature columnar basalt will add to the previous findings and enrich the understanding of Telangana's geology,” says Dr M A Srinivasan. These columnar basalt rocks, and the finding of snail fossils like physa tirpolensis and princepi made these Adilabad forests special, he added.

This Ginnedhari hill range is geologically important as T Pranay and PRIHAH members found a huge mound with snail fossils, scientifically identified as Physa tirpolensis, two years ago. Dr. S Jaikishan, President of PRIHAH appealed to GSI and the state and Central Governments to preserve these sites to continue research and further the knowledge of the geological diversity found in Telangana.