KHOJ to know our root – Where it all began!

It all began more than 30million years ago, ~200kms below the surface, at a temperature of 1500°C, somewhere under the Mountain of Moon. That was where a dangerous force was unleashed that changed the world forever. The heat, 200kms below the earth (geologists calls it magma plume), was slowly tearing Africa apart (rifting). The force that was soon going to change the history was first changing the geography of East Africa. The landscape slowly evolved into The Great African Rift Valley. It created deep lakes like Lake Tanganyika that is 1470m deep, to high mountains like the 5109m tall Mt. Rwenzori within next 20 million years. The high mountains blocked the clouds creating a rain shadow in the eastern part of Africa making it more arid. A kilometer reduction of topography would have meant I would not have been here to write this post, the world would have been lot greener, and no one would have been there to worry about global warming.

What has it to do with us? Remember evolution? The single most important thing that separates from other primates is that we walk upright. The colossal change of climate initiated by the tectonic forces triggered evolution of apes. The climate in which our ancestors became so comfortable changed from rainforests to savannas. These changes meant that the apes themselves had to change to adapt to the new conditions. One of such change was the decision to walk upright. The reduction of trees meant that they were forced to come down from the comfort of the trees into the unsafe land and also had to cover huge areas for food. What actually influenced bipedalism  is debatable, but one thing is for sure, it gave us an immense advantage. Bipedalism is effective in terms of energy conservation making us more agile. It not only helped us catch preys but also helped us run away from the predators. But the most significant aspect of bipedalism was that it freed our hands. This meant that now we were ready to go on the offensive. Free hands were the most powerful weapon any animal ever had. use of hands made us more intelligent as we used it to create useful things. We were ready to take our future into our own hands; we were ready to rule the world. 


Check this POST to see what happened to us next!!!!