The Hindu 25.08.2009
International team conducts field tests in Cauvery Sheer Zone
L. Renganathan
Finding proof: Members of the International Geological Expedition conducting a study in Kadavur area of Karur district.
KARUR: An international geological expedition, comprising research scholars and reputed geologists from India, Australia and Japan, conducted field tests and experiments in the Palakkad Cauvery Sheer Zone over the past week. The team is looking to find and piece together geological and structural evidences to support the Gondwana land mass theory that suggests that South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Antarctica and Australia formed part of a single monolith land mass called Gondwana _ hundreds of million years back.
The Gondwana theory propounds that these lands got separated under a phenomenon called seafloor spreading and the great continental drift could have happened at least 200 million years back.
The Indian arm of the team comprised T.R.K. Shetty and Ellappa, Scientists with the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, while the Japanese team comprised M. Santhosh of Ko Chi University, Japan, and Chief Editor of Gondwana Research, a reputed professional journal, Tsunogae, Associate Professor, Tsukuba University, his colleague Prof. Sato and two other research scholars from Japan. Allen Collins of Adelaide University and seven others from Australia made up the team. Research Scholar R. Mohandoss of the Department of Geology, National College, Tiruchi, assisted the team in its quest in the region.
Team visits districts
The 15-member international team visited several areas of Salem, Erode, Coimbatore and Tirupur districts before descending on Karur district. All those areas form part of the Palakkad Cauvery Sheer Zone. Rock testing and sampling were done at Kanjamalai (Salem district), Tiruchengode, Kangeyam, Paramathy (Namakkal district) in the past fortnight before they started to look for clues to solve the Gondwana theory in the geologically important areas of Taragampatty, Kadavur, Ayyarmalai, Chinnampatti (all in Karur district) and Gujiliamparai (Dindigul district) over the past week.
In the South Indian landmass there are several sheer zones such as Achankoil Sheer Zone, Moyar Bhavani Sheer Zone, Salem Attur Sheer Zone, and Kangeyam Karur Tract (where a lot of gem stones occur). The team has been visiting and conducting research in all countries and areas associated with the Gondwana theory. From Karur they have taken rock samples to Australia and Japan to conduct a slew of studies. At the same time they detected the age of specific rocks and formations at the field level to be classified and enhanced further using laboratory tests and calculations. The studies would also help them analyse the sheer zones, mineralisation and geological structures. The governments of India, Australia and Japan are funding the project.
Karur district assumes great geological importance since it is a suture zone linking Palakkad Cauvery Sheer Zone with two or more tracts that are smaller in dimension, according to the researchers. Significantly in Kadavur area of Karur district deposits of Anorthosite, a monomineralic rock that gives the Moon its radiance and glitter is found in noteworthy quantum. In Tamil Nadu Anorthosite is found only at Kadavur, Oddanchatram and Siddhampoondi near Tiruchengode.
