ADILABAD: A team of historians and archaeologists of Telangana state on a recent expedition has come across volcano columns that are called Columnar Basalt in the reserve forests of Bajarhathnoor mandal in this district.
The historians said these were formed of lava in the eruption of a volcano some 6.5 crore years ago. Such columns were found for the first time on the Deccan plateau in Telangana.
The thick piles of volcanic flows, widely spread in the West Coast and Deccan plateau, are known as Deccan Traps. These thin sheets of basic lava erupted from the fissures had formed into flat-topped mountains in states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Telangana.
These volcanic columns appear sometimes as human creations because of the imposing columnar patterns. The southwestern margin of Deccan Traps extended to Telangana along the Maharashtra border. Presence of Columnar Basalt was however not known in this area.
Chakilam Venugopal, former deputy director-general of Geological Survey of India, said the recorded ‘Columnar Basalts’ in Adilabad appears to be a new find.
The ‘Kotha Telangana Charithtra Brudam’ convener SriRamoju Haragopal said Columnar Basalts were found for the first time in Telangana and appealed to the state government to protect these.
One can get to know of human evaluation from the Columnar Basalts in Adilabad, he said, and added that Dinosaurs that lived in the area disappeared with the eruption of lava some 23 crore years ago.
Haragopal said fossils of dinosaurs had in the past been found in the Chennur area.
A team that taken up an expedition found these 'Columnar Basalts' in the reserve forest of Bajarhathnoor mandal in Adilabad district recently.
