Naga Hills, Kiphire by Joli Rumi · CC BY-SA 4.0
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The hills of Nagaland are one of the few places on Earth where you can walk on rocks that were once part of an ancient ocean floor.
These rocks, known as the Naga Hills Ophiolite, are fragments of the Tethys Ocean's crust and upper mantle. Around 100 million years ago, as the Indian Plate converged with the Burmese Plate, most of the oceanic crust sank into the mantle through subduction. However, a small slice was thrust upward instead of sinking, eventually becoming part of the Naga Hills.
Today, these rocks provide geologists with a rare opportunity to study ancient oceanic lithosphere without ever diving beneath the sea. Ophiolite image credit: Verencar et al. (2021), Tectono-magmatic evolution of Tethyan oceanic lithosphere…, DOI: 10.1016/j.gsf.2020.10.003, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. #science #didyouknow #geology #nagaland #earthscience
Notes & corrections
As always if you find mistakes in my understand or explanation please correct me 🙏🏻 if I got any local pronunciations wrong also please correct me so I get it right next time. Thank you!
*I have explained a highly simplified version of subduction and obduction to fit within the length of an Instagram reel. In reality, these processes are far more complex. Many researchers interpret the Naga Hills Ophiolite as having formed in a supra-subduction zone (SSZ) during the initiation of subduction. If you're interested in learning more, search for "Naga Hills Ophiolite origin" or "Naga Hills Ophiolite supra-subduction zone."
*The Naga Hills extend beyond Nagaland into Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. However, I focused on Nagaland because its ophiolite exposures are among the most accessible and well-studied, and they are part of India's nomination to the UNESCO Tentative World Heritage List.
The entire Northeast is an incredible geological treasure, with countless opportunities to study Earth's history and experience spectacular natural landscapes.
References
- Verencar et al. (2021), Tectono-magmatic evolution of Tethyan oceanic lithosphere…, DOI: 10.1016/j.gsf.2020.10.003, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (ophiolite image credit)
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