Erra Matti Dibbalu
What are Erra Matti Dibbalu?
- These are basically coastal red sand dunes.
- They are minimum 18,500 to 20,000 years old and they can be related to the last glacial period.
- With the height of up to 30m, they exhibit badland topography with different geomorphic landforms and features such as wave cut terrace, knick point and gullies etc.
Erra Matti Dibbalu, Visakhapatnam
Where are they located?
- The famous site of Erra Matti Dibbalu is located in Visakhapatnam, AndhraPradesh.
- Other such sand deposits are rare and only reported from 3 places in the tropical regions in South Asia.
- They are Teri Sands in Tamil Nadu, Erra Matti Dibbalu in Vishakhapatnam and one more site in Sri Lanka.
- They do not find their place in equatorial and temperate regions.
Significane of Erra Matti Dibbalu :
- The site which is spread across 20 sq km, was declared as a geo heritage site by the Geological Survey of India in 2014.
- The state of Andhra Pradesh has listed it under the category of protected sites in 2016.
- This site has so much geological, archaeological significance which needs to be studied properly.
- It needs to be protected to study the impact of climate change as the sand dunes have seen both the glacial and warm periods.
- The uniqueness of this site is that the red sediments are symbol of continuation of evolution of the earth and represent the late quaternary geologic age.
- It has also significant archeological significance, as the studies of artefacts in the site indicate an Upper Paleolithic horizon and Late Pleistocene epoch which is 20,000 BC.
Syllabus : prelims- Geography; places in news
SOURCE: DOWN TO EARTH
