CVs of Expedition Scientists

Gondwanaland Expedition
March 24 - June 28, 2006

The GONDWANALAND expedition is a friendship and scientific mission. A team of Indian scholars and scientists will drive from the Himalayas, where India met Asia, to Cape Agulhas, the tip of Africa, across 17 countries, over 100 days, covering a distance of about 35,000 km

Throughout most of geologic time there were only two primordial continents: Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south, separated by the Sea of Tethys. Gondwanaland consisted of Africa, peninsular India, Australia, South America, Antarctica and Eurasian regions south of the Alpine-Himalayan chain. About 265 million years ago, this continental togetherness began to split. For 200 million years, India, Arabia, and Apulia (consisting of parts of Italy, the Balkan states, Greece, and Turkey) drifted across the ocean, and finally collided with the rest of Eurasia 65 million years ago. The collision uplifted the Alpine-Himalayan mountain ranges extending from Spain (the Pyrenees) and northwest Africa (the Atlas) along the northern margin of the Mediterranean Sea (the Alps, Carpathians) into southern Asia (the Himalayas) to reach Indonesia.

Objectives

The objectives of the Gondwanaland expedition will be:
To conduct exploratory geological research that will contribute to our knowledge of the continental        structure and bring to light evidence of past history.
Study the seismic activity in the Indo-African region as a result of plate tectonics that cause catastrophic disasters like the recent Gujarat and Iran earthquakes and the tsunami. The study can further the knowledge of predicting earthquakes on land and seabed.

To promote people-to-people contact between India and the countries of West Asia and Africa

To promote UNAIDS message of "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise"

Areas of Study

The geological evolution of India and Africa before these two geo-brothers were separated in the Mesozoic age will be of particular interest to the expedition scientists in making a comparative study on the aspects of Pan-African progeny and Achaean to Proterozoic continental growth in India and Africa.

Between Gondwanaland and Angaraland (i.e. Eurasia) lay a vast ocean (several thousand kms wide) called the Tethys. Rock formations laid down on the north facing continental margin of Gondwanaland of India and Africa are today exposed in the Himalayas, Iran and Turkey, along the route of the proposed expedition. The Tethys Ocean was closed as a result of the northward movement (convergence) of India and Africa against the northern continental blocks of Eurasia. The sites of the closed Tethys Ocean are characterised by the occurrences and remains of oceanic crust and deep marine sediments of the Tethys Ocean. The areas of closed sites are called the suture zones. The expedition will pass across the east-west trending belts of suture zones at several places in northern and southern Iran and Turkey.

Continent - Continent collision of India and Africa against the continental blocks of Eurasia produced crustal shortening, uplift and gave rise to on-going seismicity. The study of past earthquakes and of on-going seismicity vis-a-vis the tectonic structures in Iran and Turkey, to be conducted by the expedition scientists, is of vital interest and of significant relevance in understanding the earthquake geology and seismicity of the Himalayas and peninsular India.

The East-African Rift system is one of the classical examples of geology of the earth. The geochemical evolution of the volcanic rocks of the East-African rift will be taken up for study in order to gain a better understanding of its evolutionary history.

The expedition will provide an opportunity for scientists to conduct exploratory research, review and synthesize existing knowledge, while getting acquainted with and observing the geological features.


 
The Team

The expedition team will comprise of geologists, seismologists, anthropologists, botanist, and zoologist nominated by the Government of India. A television crew will accompany the expedition. A medical doctor and a vehicle engineer will also be on board.

Akhil Bakshi, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, will be leading the expedition. He has earlier led the following three major international expeditions:

Central Asia Expedition (1994), which drove 12,000 km on the old Silk Road across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Chinese Turkestan and Tibet.

Azad Hind Expedition (1996), which drove 10,000 km from Singapore to Delhi via Malaysia and Myanmar to refresh the national memory with the sacrifices made by the soldiers of the Indian National Army during the freedom struggle.

Expedition Hands Across the Borders (1999), which drove 18,000 km through the interiors of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India to promote peace and development in the region.

As in the previous three expeditions, the team will carry a Goodwill Message from the Prime Minister of India to his counterparts in countries along the route. The team will meet with friendship associations; interact with public representatives, press, youth organisations, research institutes and academicians. Adequate media coverage will be ensured in all countries.

Message from the Prime Minister of India

Route
The expedition, to be undertaken in three Mahindra & Mahindra Scorpios will start from Shimla in the Himalayas, where India met Asia, and move through the central Indian region of Gondwana, from which Gondwanaland derives its name, in reference to the Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations of this region, which display some of the shared geologic features of the supercontinent. From the port city of Mumbai, the vehicles sail to Bandar Abbas in Iran and continue driving through the historic cities of Shiraz, Persepolis, Isfahan, Tehran and Tabriz into Turkey. Crossing the Anatolia Plateau and the Taurus Mountains into the Syrian Desert, it visits the ancient ruins at Crac des Chevaliers on the Mediterranean coast. Continuing south, through Jordan and the Dead Sea, it reaches the holy city of Jerusalem. Crossing the Suez Canal past Gaza strip, it enters Egypt.

Following the Nile Valley, south through the Eastern Desert, it drives on the fringe of the Sudanese Nubian desert into Khartoum, the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Crossing the Ethiopian Highlands, it moves east into the Danakil Desert and then south to the Great Rift Valley. It follows both arms of the Great Rift Valley, visiting lakes and volcanoes that lie along the fault lines: Lake Victoria in Kenya and Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania; Lake Nyasa in Malawi; into Zambia and Zimbabwe. Cutting across into Mozambique, it moves south via Swaziland to South Africa, following the Drakensberg Range, uplifted when Gondwanaland fragmented, ending the expedition at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa.