Pandavula Gutta, a geological marvel older than the Himalayan hills, has been officially recognised as the sole Geo-heritage site in Telangana. Pandavula Guhalu is a prehistoric habitation site situated atop Pandavulakonda or Pandavula Gutta. The site was first discovered in the year 1990. Paleolithic cave paintings have been found here which offer a rare glimpse into the prehistoric man's rock art identified on walls and ceilings of caves, rock shelters, and isolated boulders. Experts say these cave paintings date back to at least the 7th Century.Read More

Scientists have long speculated about Cavum clouds, also called hole-punch clouds or fallstreak holes, but it’s now well understood that these odd cloud formations are caused by airplanes. Formation Cavum clouds form when planes fly through banks of altocumulus clouds, mid-level clouds that have supercooled (below the freezing point of water but still liquid) water droplets. As air moves around the plane, a process called adiabatic expansion can make the droplets freeze into ice crystals. The ice crystals eventually grow heavy and fall out of the sky, leaving a hole in the cloud layer. The falling ice crystals are visible....Read More

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have embarked on a project to continuously monitor and issue operational forecast alerts of rip currents. They intend to do this through a coastal video surveillance system, which will also provide information on complex coastal and nearshore processes. A preliminary research study for rip tides was done at RK beach in Visakhapatnam, which is known for the highest recorded number of drownings. ABOUT RIP TIDES A rip current, sometimes incorrectly called a rip tide, is a localized current that flows away from the shoreline toward the....Read More

Assam CM has said that his government would undertake a mission to reclaim the ‘chars’ — sandbars or river ‘islands’ — from encroachers to safeguard the “ecological integrity” of the Brahmaputra Valley. These are locally known as “Char/ Chapori” and cover about 3.60 lakhs hectares of land. They are subjected to erosion on their upstream and deposition on the downstream, due to which they migrate downstream. There are more than 3,500 chars on a network of rivers dominated by the Brahmaputra in Assam. Most of these chars, allegedly without proper regulation, are inhabited and cultivated by Bengali Muslims, often viewed....Read More

The state of California in USA has been battered by incessant rains caused by the atmospheric river storms.  ABOUT ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS Atmospheric Rivers indicate long narrow, elongated corridors of concentrated moisture transport associated with extratropical cyclones. These are largest transport mechanisms of freshwater on Earth. Strong landfall results in huge amounts of precipitation in short periods of time leading to flooding and mudslides. The term “Pineapple Express” is sometimes used to refer to atmospheric rivers that originate near Hawaii and travel eastwards towards the west coast of North America. Characteristics of Atmospheric Rivers Typically formed in the tropics or subtropics....Read More

An astronaut stationed at the International Space Station has shared some breathtaking images of the mesmerising 'alpenglow' phenomenon near the Hindu Kush mountain range in India. ABOUT ALPENGLOW Alpenglow refers to the indirect sunlight reflected or diffracted by the atmosphere before sunrise or after sunset, giving a horizontal reddish glow near the horizon opposite the Sun. Alpenglow occurs when direct sunlight around sunrise or sunset is reflected off airborne precipitation, ice crystals or particulates in the lower atmosphere, as the sunlight has no direct path to reach a mountain. After sunset, if there are no mountains the aerosols in the....Read More

India-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and National Environment Management Council (NEMC), Tanzania conducted a multination stakeholder consultation to decide on strategies to restore the Lake Victoria. It is world’s second-largest and the largest freshwater lake in Africa. Largest freshwater lake in the world is Lake Superior. Three countries share the lake’s borders and resources for fisheries, freshwater and transportation: Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Lake Victoria and its flora and fauna support the livelihoods of about 45 million people. Lake Victoria touches the Equator in its northern side. It covers a total area of 68,800 sq. km....Read More

National Centre for Seismology recently reported an earthquake of 3.9 magnitude , with its epicenter near Kishtwar in J&K. There were no reports of any loss of life or damage to property. ABOUT NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SEISMOLOGY National Center for Seismology (NCS) is the nodal agency of the Government of India for monitoring earthquake activity in the country. It is an attached office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MOES). NCS maintains the National Seismological Network of 155 stations each having state of art equipment and spreading all across the country. NCS monitors earthquake activity all across the country through....Read More

Scientists have discovered an ancient 20 million year old underwater mountain range hidden within the world's strongest ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The range consists of eight dormant volcanoes reaching heights of 1,500 meters above the seafloor. They were discovered halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica, and four of the volcanoes are new discoveries. This revelation came to light during a high-resolution mapping expedition conducted by an Australian and international research team. ABOUT ANTARCTIC CIRCUMPOLAR CURRENT The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the most important current in the Southern Ocean. It is the only current that flows completely around the....Read More

Chilla-i-Kalan is a Persian term that means ‘major cold’ and it refers to the 40-days of harsh winter in Kashmir. It starts from December 21 and ends on January 30. During the 40 day ‘Chilla-i-Kalan’, it is said earth goes dead, air and water are the coldest. It will be followed by a 20-day-long ‘Chila-i-Khurd’ or small cold (January 31 and February 19) and 10-day-long ‘Chilla-i-Bacha’ or baby cold (February 20 to March 2).Read More