32 important Geoheritage sites in India their location and uniqueness

India is the 7th largest country in the world by area. It has many geological and geomorphological features. India is a very diverse country where we found various rocks and formations of various ages.

There are 32 National Geological monuments(NGM) or Geoheritage sites in India. It includes evidence of rock fossils recorded from plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, stromatolites and many mysterious geological features. That is why, many national geological monuments and geoheritage sites are there, which help in geo-tourism in India.

Now the question arises what is a Geoheritage site and geo-tourism?

What is Geoheritage site and Geo-tourism?

Geoheritage sites are that geographical places that have landforms or landscapes of geological significance. These are important in advancing the knowledge of geology.

Geo-tourism is related to the tourism of geoheritage sites. Geo-tourism was first given in England by Thomas Alfred Hose in 1995.

The Protection and Promotion of geoheritage sites and geo-tourism is done by the Geological Survey of India(GSI). It is a part of the Government of India’s Ministry of Mines.

All 32 Geoheritage sites in India

There are 32 geoheritage sites. They are divided into Fossil parks, Rock Monuments, Geological marvels, Stratigraphic and Economic monuments by GSI. Let’s know about them in brief

i) Fossil Parks

1) The Marine Gondwana Fossil Park

Location:- Manendragarh, Sarguja District, Chhattisgarh

Uniqueness:- Exposure of fossiliferous marine Carbonaceous shale rocks of Talchir formation of Gondwana supergroup. Age of fossil is Permian (240- 280 Ma).

The area is also rich in marine fauna, which can easily attract tourism. Mainly fauna found in this area are Eurydesma and Aviculopecten which is a genus of Pelecypods. Also found fossils of Bryozoans, Crinoids and foraminifers.

2) Akal Wood Fossil Park

Location:- Akal Village, Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- It consists of the longest (talking about only this park, not of the world) specimen of petrified fossil wood log of 13.4×0.9m. Besides, almost 25 petrified tree trunks are there of various sizes. The age of the Wood fossil is Jurassic 180 Ma. Mainly found species are Petrophyllum, Ptyllophyllum and Dicotyledon wood.

Other than that Gestopods shells are also found. It also boasts the fossils and footprints of pterosaurs (flying reptiles) near the Thaiyat area.

3) National Wood Fossil Park, Tiruvakkarai

Location:- Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu

Uniqueness:- Contains nearly 200 petrified tree trunks ranging from 3 to 15m in length and up to 5 m in width. The age of tree trunks is Pliocene (20Ma)

4) National Wood Fossil Park, Sattanur

Location:- Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu

Uniqueness:- Petrified tree trunks but mainly Conifers (non-flowering plants) of Upper Cretaceous age 100Ma. Tree trunks length of up to 18 to 20m and widths 1m.

5) Shiwalik Fossil Park(Suketi Fossil Park)

Location:- Saketi, Sirmur District, Himachal Pradesh

Uniqueness:- Collection of vertebrate fossils from Siwalik which is 2.5 million years old. Also, the park displays the actual size fibreglass model of six Prehistoric animals which are the giant land tortoise, Alligator, Four-horned giraffe, large tusked elephant, sabre-toothed tiger, hippopolamid.

6) Stromatolite Park, Bhojunda

Location:- Chittorgarh District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- Stromatolite exposure within the Bhagwanpura Limestone of age Lower Vindhyan (approx. 541 Ma). Because of Stromatolite, it can be a good site for geo-tourism. Stromatolite is one of the earliest life forms on Earth.

7) Stromatolite Park, Jhamarkotra

Location:- Udaipur District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- Large and rich deposit of Phosphorite associated with stromatolite. Rock phosphate belongs to Precambrian Aravali Supergroup.

ii) Rock Monuments

8) Peninsular Gneiss National Monument, Lalbagh

Location:- Banglore

Uniqueness:- Composed of dark Biotite Gneiss od Granitic or Granodioritic composition containing streak of biotite along with enclaves in Gneiss. Peninsular Gneiss is dated 2500 to 3400 that is accreted in three major events.

9) Columnar Basaltic Lava, St Mary’s Island(coconut island)

Location:- Udupi District, Karnataka

Uniqueness:- Contain multi-face Columnar Basalt. The structure is known as Columnar Joints. These columns are developed in the event of the Deccan Traps when India has attached to Madagascar.

The age of Columnar Basalt is Cretaceous-Eocene time.

10) Pillow Lava, Maradihalli

Location:- Chitradurga District, Karnataka

Uniqueness:- One of the best Pillow Lava of its kind in the world. It is a part of the Chitradurga schist belt of the Daharwar Supergroup.

Pillow lava form when molten lava erupts within the water and consolidates. Pillow lava age is 2500 Ma years.

11) Pyroclastic rocks, Peddapalli

Location:- Kolar District, Karnataka

Uniqueness:- Rocks are a set of welds of agglomerates of large fragments of granite, basalt and granite gneiss all set in a matrix of Ignimbrite

12) Pillow Lava, Nomira

Location:- Keonjhar District, Orissa

Uniqueness:- Well-preserved pillow lava structure. Individual pillows are ellipsoidal and closely packed with a maximum thickness of 2mx0.6m.

The pillow is filled with Quartz and lava.

13) Nephaline Synite, Kishangarh

Location:- Ajmer District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- Plutonic rocks along with the core of antiform of metmorphites in Aravali craton. The age of nepheline syenite is 1590Ma to 1910Ma dated by GSI.

14) Bar Conglomerate

Location:- Pali District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- Conglomerate composed of quartzite and rare granite pebbles which combine some form of grain pelitic matrix.

Conglomerate helps in subdividing the geologic past on the basis of various sedimentary breaks.

15) Welded Tuff

Location:- Jodhpur District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- Welded tuff is a product of emanation that erupt out of volcanoes for millions of year that settle down. When it cools gives rise to the terrace and columnar joint structure.

Columnar joints developed are rectangular to hexagonal, lengths of 30m or more at places.

16) Charnokite, St. Thomas Mount

Location:- Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Uniqueness:- Carnokite is any orthopyroxene-bearing quartz, feldspar rock formed at high temperature and pressure.

It is important because it helps in understanding the crustal evolution of the earth.

iii) Geological marvels

17) Lonar Lake

Location:- Buldana District, Maharastra

Uniqueness:- It is formed due to meteorite impact on basaltic rocks of the Cretaceous age. It is the third-largest meteorite Impact site in the world.

18) Eddy Current Markings

Location:- Panchmahal District, Gujarat

Uniqueness:- This site and marking on the rocks tell about the past of million years ago. When Aravalli orogeny takes place in which sedimentary rock is converted into metamorphic rocks. Because of this lots of stress is generated and cross-stratification, flute and grove marks on the rocks occur.

19) Natural Arch

Location:- Tirumala Hills, Chittoor District, Andra Pradesh

Uniqueness:- Naturally formed arch due to erosion of 8m width and 3m height of Cuddapah supergroup of middle-upper Proterozoic.

20) Sendra Granite

Location:- Pali District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- The unique thing about this site is that from many millions of years of natural phenomena of weathering and erosion taking place on granite. Due to this of this many marvellous structures in the place.

The age of the site is 900 million years.

iv)Other Monuments

21) Eparchaean Unconformity

Location:- Tirumala Hills, Andra Pradesh

Uniqueness:- Unconformity forms a specific boundary between the “Proterozoic Nagari Quartzites” and “Archean Granite”.

22) Jodhpur Group- Malani Igneous Suite Contact

Location:- Jodhpur District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- This site shows the contact between multicoloured igneous suites and light-coloured sandstone. Malani rocks represent the last phase in the Precambrian age in the Indian subcontinent.

23) Great Boundary Fault at Satur

Location:- Bundi District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- Characterised by a faulted boundary between pre-Aravallis and upper Vindhyans. Due to this many parallels and oblique faults result in a step-like feature.

24) Angadipuram Laterite Deposits

Location:- Malappuram District, Kerala

Uniqueness:- Angadipuram laterite is derived from the acid charnokite. Mineral deposits of aluminium ore, Iron ore, and Nickle ore are known to be associated with laterite so it has economic significance too.

25) Baded Barytes at Mangampeta

Location:- Cuddapah District, Andra Pradesh

Uniqueness:- One of the largest barytes deposits in the world. Almost 28% of barytes deposit in the world on this site. This site is economically crucial.

26) Gossan at Rajpura-Dariba

Location:- Rajsamand District, Rajasthan

Uniqueness:- This site contains Gossan which is formed due to intensive oxidization and chemical weathering of the sulphides that are present in that area.

The chief ore minerals are sphalerite galena and chalcopyrite. Zinc is the dominant base metal in the area.

27) Karai Formation with Cretaceous fossils along Karai

Location:- Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu

Uniqueness:- Cretaceous sedimentary rock succession with mid and late cretaceous invertebrate fossils. Ammonites, nautiloids, belemnites, pelecypods and gastropods are found in abundance on this site.

28) Ophiolite Rocks

Location:- Naga hills, Nagaland

Uniqueness:- On this site, ophiolite Rocks are found. An ophiolite is a part of the earth’s oceanic crust and mantle tectonically expose on land.

An ophiolite is rare. The age of ophiolite is cretaceous to Paleocene.

29) Stromatolite-bearing Dolomite or Limestone

Location:- Mamley, near Namchi, Sikkim

Uniqueness:- This site again has stromatolite-bearing dolomite and limestone. The age of the site is Cambrian to permo-carboniferous.

30) Varkala Cliff

Location:- Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Uniqueness:- The cliff is near to the Arabian sea. It is made up of beds of sand and beds of shale.

This is a tourist site because of its natural beauty and Janardana Swami Temple.

31) Plant fossil-bearing, Inter-trappean beds

Location:- Rajmahal formation, Jharkhand

Uniqueness:- Rajmahal Formation have a plant of the Jurassic age.

32) Erra matti dibbalu

Location:- Visakhapatnam, Andra Pradesh

Uniqueness:-On this site evidence of the natural weathering process can be seen. Over a long time, sand is constantly exposed to water and the sun due to this sand gets red colour.