Nainital, 5th January 2022:  Geologists have discovered a 299 million year old rock, which dates back to the Gondwana period, in the Shyok and Nubra valleys north of the Indus river in Ladakh. The fossils of the seeds of the Gondwana land have also been found near this rock. This paper is published in the latest issue of the American research journal Geologic Society of America. This discovery is being considered very important.

According to the team leader of the research work, Senior Professor of Geology, Kumaon University, Rajiv Upadhyay, three hundred million years ago, there were two large plots in the north and south poles of the equator in the earth. South America, Africa, India, Australia, Antarctica were in the South Pole, these were called Gondwana Land, in the North Pole was Laurasia.

Till now, it was found in the discovery of geologists that the Indian and Asian plates collided in Ladakh. Its geological evidence has been found from the rocks there.

According to the new discovery, there is a small plot of land above the Indus river in the north of Ladakh, to the north of which lies the Karakoram mountain. In this plot, fossils of coal, trees, plants, stems, leaves and seeds used during the Gondwana period have been found.

According to Prof. Upadhyay, getting a new plot between Ladakh and Karakoram will give a new dimension to the emergence and development of the Himalayas. The doors of new research will open for the assessment of the geo-structural study of the Himalayas. The team included retired scientist Dr. Ramavatar and research scholar Saurabh Gautam from Birbal Sahni Institute, Lucknow. Starting in 2008, this research study was completed in about 14 years.

When the Karakoram landmass was expanding, creating new oceanic crusts and smaller oceans and larger plates. This plot of these continental fragments extends from southern Iran and Afghanistan to western Thailand, Malaysia.

The origin and development of the Ladakh Block and Karakoram of North West India, the Lhasa and Qiangtung plots of Western Tibet are now widely accepted. The Ladakh Block in Northwest India lies between the Indian Plate in the South and the Eurasian Plate in the North. The Ladakh region is bounded in the south by the Indus and Shyok zones.