Base at Antarctica will offer excellent scope for studies

 
The third Indian research base at Antarctica, green-signaled by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) last month, will offer excellent scope for studies on geological structures and tectonics with special reference to the once existent southern super-continent Gondwanaland, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research(NCAOR) director, Rasik Ravindra has said. NCAOR, Goa is the R&D wing of Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, which co-ordinates Indian activity in the Antarctic. The proposed station will come up on Laremann Hills in East Antarctica. It will carry out long-term research in various domains of polar, ocean and atmospheric sciences ", he said.

"The Mahanadi graben (depression of land flanked by faults) on the Eastern Ghat of India Exposes an entire sequence of rock types. A similar sequence is found to be present along the Lampert graben in East Antarctica. The correlation between the two distant locations with respect to lithology, structure, tectonics and other geographical constrains would held in fine-tuning the India-Gondwana fit", he said. The station is for a total lifespan of 25 years and the construction is to be started in summer 2008.

    (The New Indian Express, 6th  June  2007)