Question

Give an account of the Deccan trap.

Answer 1

• The Deccan Traps began forming 66.25 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period.
  
• The bulk of the volcanic eruption occurred at the Western Ghats (near Mumbai) some 66 million years ago.
  
• The Deccan Traps are one of the largest volcanic provinces in the world.
  
• It consists of more than 6,500 feet (>2,000 m) of flat-lying basalt lava flows and covers an area of nearly 200,000 square miles (500,000 square km) (roughly the size of the states of Washington and Oregon combined) in west-central India.
  
• The Deccan Traps in India – between 17°–24° North and 73°–74° East – are a place where you can find layer upon layer of solidified rock.
  
• Deccan Trap is a thick sequence (3200 metres) of late cretaceous basaltic lava flows that cover about 500000 sq. km. of peninsular India.