{"id":12134,"date":"2023-06-16T10:35:34","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T05:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=12134"},"modified":"2025-03-30T07:32:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T02:02:49","slug":"indias-biggest-natural-arch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indias-biggest-natural-arch\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Biggest Natural Arch"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Why in News:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The state unit of the Geological Survey of India (<strong>GSI<\/strong>) has <strong>proposed to declare the \u2018Natural Arch\u2019 in the Kanika range<\/strong> of Sundargarh forest division, <strong>a Geo Heritage Site.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>If it is done, <strong>it will be the biggest natural arch of the country to have the Geo Heritage tag.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Apart from the arch at Sundargarh, <strong>India has two others- one at Tirumala hills<\/strong> in Tirupati and <strong>another at Andaman and Nicobar<\/strong>. However, <strong>both of them are smaller<\/strong> compared to the one in Sundargarh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>About India\u2019s Biggest Natural Arch:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Sundargarh natural arch, <strong>present in the ferruginous sandstone<\/strong> of the Upper Kamthi formation, <strong>dates back to about 184 to 160 million years in the lower to middle Jurassic age<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is an <strong>oval-shaped arch<\/strong> and <strong>has a length of 30 metres<\/strong> <strong>at the base<\/strong> and <strong>is 12 metres high<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>alcove of the natural arch has a maximum height and width of 7 metres and 15 metres<\/strong>, respectively.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The natural arch and its <strong>surrounding area is a storehouse of different primary sedimentary structures<\/strong> like planner and cross-bedding along with occasional current ripples signifying high energy fluvial environment during sedimentation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Formation<\/strong>: Formation of the natural arch <strong>could be due to fault activities and the nature of lithotype, <\/strong>which have <strong>enhanced the process of sub-aerial weathering <\/strong>over a long period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What are Geo Heritage Sites (GHSs)?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Geoheritage sites are <strong>sites of rare and unique geological, geo-morphological, mineralogical, petrological, and paleontological significance,<\/strong> including caves and natural rock sculptures of national and international interest.<\/li>\n<li><strong>GSI declares geo-heritage sites<\/strong>\/ national geological monuments <strong>for protection and maintenance.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>GSI or the respective State governments take necessary measures<\/strong> to protect these sites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is the Geological Survey of India (GSI)?<\/h3>\n<p>GSI was set up in 1851 primarily to find coal deposits for the Railways. Over the years, it has grown into a repository of geo-science information required in various fields in the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianarrative.com\/science-news\/indias-biggest-natural-arch-formed-184-million-years-ago-discovered-in-odisha-by-gsi-145445.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India\u2019s biggest natural arch formed 184 million years ago discovered in Odisha by GSI<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sundargarh natural arch, dates back to about 184 to 160 million years in the lower to middle Jurassic age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}