Thursday, April 21, 2011

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!!!!







20 comments:

  1. @Ayaz Bhai...we know for sure that there was a time, long before humans, when the land was not habitable. so we must have evolved from a sea-creature directly (mermaid being the closest i can think of), or evolved from some other species (apes definitely looks the closest), or came from another planet...or was created directly by 'someone' and been placed in earth....first one sounds fantasy...third one science-fiction, and fourth one unrealistic...i definitely bet on the second :-P

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  2. Anu Sharma....yes :-)...the details though have changed a lot....

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  3. @Mohammad Ayaz Alam...i think everything was there....there is no creation or destruction...but just the 'apparent' change of form...that change is evolution...that evolution includes 'apparent' creation of universe from big bag to creation of us from apes...
    I do not really see that big a different between living and non-living....i feel most of the difference that we perceive is just an illusion...

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  4. @Shazia... :-) thanks...plz do come back

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  5. @Shalini...oh, I am so glad that you liked it...thanks :-)

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  6. @kiransawhney...glad u found it interesting...thanks :-)

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  7. I am not trying to answer or explain......it is a personal opinion that is open to debate....whatever i write is not the absolute truth...it is what I BELIEVE might be true...
    As far as evolution is considered...i believe in evolution...how someone interprets a evolution of a specific species is debatable...but evolution itself is definitely not...we have seen the germs evolve...we have seen the domesticated crops evolve...just check the difference between the domesticated crops and their wild counterparts...
    regarding human evolution, there are lots of studies going on...one of them being the German project riftlink...they have made a lot of progress which links apes walking upright with the African rifting...there are numerous other works as well that gave evidence of human beings evolving from different type of primates...they might not be the absolute reality...but the studies looks pretty convincing... :-)

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  8. yea...thanks for that... :-)

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  9. Hmm interesting true n apt ... keep posting :)

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  10. interesting post :) And I notice that labels ( "khoj is about") ;)

    http://vj-menon.blogspot.com/

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  11. Interesting article and your blog. Will be visiting you again

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  12. Everything was there, but how? The question remains. Change (I mean first change), but from what? 'Big Bang' is certainly not the last world in the theory of origin of the universe. Evolution is fiercely debated and disputed and while I may agree upon on certain aspects of it, I cannot agree on it in its entirety. Life, the difference between living and non-living, is more than 21 grams. and greatest illusion. To seek and strive for the answer to such questions is fine, but answering or explaining with our limited knowledge and considering that as last word is in fact inconsequential, rather preposterous.

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  13. Informative and Interesting..

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  14. interesting post :) :D how i love reading them al :)

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  15. hmm.. interesting-- both the post and the debate in the comments section!! will keep checking for more!! :)

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  16. @subhrashis @anu As I mentioned in my earlier post, it is quite inconvenient for me to share such views (in fact beliefs) being a geologist, but one thing that I cannot do is to be dishonest. While the debate (views and counter views) on the origin of universe and life will go on forever, one question that will remain unanswered is how that something (whatever you call it, living or some chemical or XYZ matter) came into existence. To evolve one has to have something to evolve from, right? So, how that something came into existence?

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  17. nice one.. hmm we used to read this all in our 4th or 5th class social science books ..this post reflects that u r a geologist...

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  18. It may be quite inconvenient, but I do not believe and will never believe that we humans are evolved apes. In fact, there is hardly any evidence or rationale to even suggest (forget proof) that has not been challenged scientifically. The theory of evolution (the concept of lineage in particular) as science (or should I say scientific fiction) has many loop holes, perhaps worse than a loosely written science fiction. To sum it up, on this particular aspect of evolation (ape to Homo sapiens), I am a Christian/Jew/Muslim to the core of my heart and belief. :-) I said Christian/Jew/Muslim, because all these world religions consider so. :P Some may wonder why I did not include Hindu/Hinduism. I do not consider it as a religion senso stricto. It is in fact a way of life that perhaps evolved since the Indus Valley Civilization or even earlier and embraced so many cultural influences that it perhaps has only the relics of Sanatan Dharma. So, in this way every Indian can be identified as Hindu. Interestingly here in Chile, any Indian is referred as Indu (as H remains silent in Spanish). :-)

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