SSC IMD SA 2017 – Question 83

The Indian Peninsula was a part of which landmass?

• Gondwana
• Eurasia
• Americas
• Siberia

Detailed Explanation:

The correct answer is a) गोंडवाना (Gondwana).

According to Alfred Wegener’s Continental Drift Theory and modern Plate Tectonics:

• Around 250 million years ago, all Earth’s landmasses were joined into a single supercontinent called Pangaea, surrounded by a super-ocean named Panthalassa.
• Pangaea eventually split into two massive landmasses separated by the shallow Tethys Sea:
  1. Laurasia (Angaraland) in the north: Comprising present-day North America, Greenland, Europe, and Asia (excluding the Indian subcontinent).
  2. Gondwanaland in the south: Comprising the Indian Peninsula, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Australia.
• Drift of the Indian Plate: During the Cretaceous period, the Indian tectonic plate broke away from Gondwanaland and drifted northward across the Tethys Sea. Around 40–50 million years ago, it collided with the Eurasian Plate, leading to the folding of marine sediments of the Tethys Sea and the uplift of the Himalayas.
• The Peninsular Plateau of India is one of the oldest and most stable geological landmasses on the surface of the Earth.