India's largest natural arch found in Odisha

Category : Science and Tech Published on: June 20 2023

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A team of the Geological Survey of India recently discovered India’s biggest natural arch during their survey of coal in Kenduadihi block in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
The state unit of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has proposed to declare the ‘Natural Arch’ in the Kanika range of Sundargarh forest division, a Geo Heritage Site.
If it is done, it will be the biggest natural arch of the country to have the Geo Heritage tag.
Apart from the arch at Sundargarh, India has two others- one at Tirumala hills in Tirupati and another at Andaman and Nicobar.
However, both of them are smaller compared to the one in Sundargarh.
The Sundargarh natural arch, present in the ferruginous sandstone of the Upper Kamthi formation, dates back to about 184 to 160 million years in the lower to middle Jurassic age.
Geoheritage sites are sites of rare and unique geological, geo-morphological, mineralogical, petrological, and paleontological significance, including caves and natural rock sculptures of national and international interest.