Suvrat Kher
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rapiduplift.bsky.social
Suvrat Kher
@rapiduplift.bsky.social
390 followers 120 following 170 posts
Sedimentary geologist dreaming of a himalayan home. Subscribe to my geology newsletter - https://rapiduplift.substack.com/
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rapiduplift.bsky.social
Lateral moraines, older and more recent, of the Pindari Glacier.

The older moraines, further from the glacier (~3 km), have eroded into gentler rounded linear ridges. The recent moraines retain a sharp edged relief.

Kumaon Himalaya. November 2025.
Pic shows rounded linear ridges (red arrows) covered with dried grass hugging the base of a steep hillside. These are old lateral moraines of the Pindari Glacier in the Kumaon Himalaya, Uttarakhand. Lateral moraines (red arrows). Sharp ridges, made up of light colored rock dust and debris near the Pindari Glacier, Kumaon Himalaya.
November 19, 2025 at 10:50 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Ptygmatic folding, along with a slight pinch and swell structure, in a quartz vein intruding Greater Himalaya gneiss.

Pindari Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.

November 2025.

#FridayFold
Pic is a light colored boulder of a high grade metamorphic gneiss, intruded by a quartz vein. The vein shows pytgmatic folding and a hint of a pinch and swell boudinage structure. From a stream in the Pindari Valley, Kumaon Himalaya. November 2025.
November 14, 2025 at 11:04 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Such hyperbole reg enhanced rock weathering for CO2 removal.

Weathering of entire planet's surface rock removes < 1 Gt of CO2/yr

But < 1% of Deccan Basalt, which is a tiny fraction of Earth's surface, will remove all human generated CO2 (40 Gt yr! ) 🙄

Times of India, Oct 19.
October 20, 2025 at 10:25 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Absolutely! I use these big ones as door stoppers.

#Cretaceous #Ammonoidea
Pic show a large ammonoid with traces of chamber walls being used a door stopper. Cretaceous, South India.
October 8, 2025 at 3:44 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Have you read this?
September 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Possible coccoid microfossils from a 2.85 billion year old Banded Iron Formation, Central India.
September 19, 2025 at 3:24 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
I think they copied it from my thin section.

#Ordovician
September 16, 2025 at 3:07 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Medial moraines where glaciers merge.

Greater Himalaya, captured on a recent Delhi -Leh (Ladakh) flight.

Pic- Sudheer Palsane.
September 10, 2025 at 11:16 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Paper- Exceptionally preserved ovaries in an ancient (Ordovician) horseshoe crab.

pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...
September 8, 2025 at 3:50 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Spectacular strata and landscapes of the Tethyan Himalaya captured from a Delhi Leh flight last week.

Pics- Sudheer Palsane.
Steep mountain face exposing dark and light colored strata. Beds are tilted to the left. Clouds in the upper part to the pic. Captured from a aircraft window, enroute Delhi to Leh (Ladakh). A broad valley with a meandering river. Small settlements and agricultural fields. Ridges of sedimentary rocks in the upper part of the pic. Ladakh, India. Earthy colored barren mountain terrain with a light dusting of snow in the upper part of the pic. River, older river terraces, and alluvial fans also seen. Ladakh, India. A narrow valley with a river supporting settlements and agriculture running from top to bottom of the pic. Barren brown colored mountain ranges with a light dusting of snow and alluvial fans. Ladakh, India.
September 2, 2025 at 10:18 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
ISRO Cartosat 2S view of the devastation of Dharali and Harsil Himalayan villages in Uttarakhand, India.

Almost the entire settlement is buried under a debris flow.

More details here of the August 5 event- www.isro.gov.in/indian_satel...
A color satellite imagery of two Himalayan villages buried under a debris flow. The event took place on August 5th. For comparision, the village as it stood on August 4 is shown on the left. Almost the entire village is buried under what is being reported a three story high blanket of mud and boulders.
August 8, 2025 at 3:03 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
#ThinSectionThursday

A transverse section of a brachiopod with geopetal internal sediment. 3 generations of calcite cement. 1st - calcite dog tooth spar; 2nd calcite rhombs; 3rd blocky ferroan calcite.

Stained with K ferricyanide and Alizarin Red S.

Mid Ordovician- Alabama, U.S.A.
Photomicrograph of a limestone stained with K ferricyanide and Alizarin Red S. In centre is a transverse section of a thin shelled brachiopod with dark lime mud internal sediment. 3 generation of calcite cement present. 1st- lining upper part of shell are calcite dog tooth spar ; 2nd- calcite rhombs ; 3rd blocky ferroan calcite cement. Mid Orodovican from Alabama, U.S.A.
July 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Garnet in biotite schist. Greater Himalaya Sequence.

I could make out a crude dodecahedron and a cube.

Near Panchachuli Glacier, Darma Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.
July 8, 2025 at 10:43 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
A very noticeable feature of the Western Ghats, India.

Used as building material, occurring as spectacular ferricrete crusts capping the Deccan Basalt summits.

Pic- Panchgani, Maharashtra, India.
Pic shows a wall built using laterite, iron rich hardened red soil. In the background is a thick laterite crust capping the basalt lava. Location , Panchgani , Maharashtra, India. Pic show the famous Tableland of Panchgani, Maharashtra. It is a laterite crust capping the western ghat basalts. A gentle slopes ends in the hard laterite crust forming an escarpment.
June 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Shafts and needles of tourmaline in pegmatite.

Delhi International Airport, Terminal 3, Food Court.

#UrbanGeology
Pic is of a coarse polished flooring tile of a pegmatite. Rock is made up of coarse quartz and feldspar cyrstals with large shafts of black tourmaline. Location is Delhi International Airport, Terminal 3 food court. Pic is of a coarse polished flooring tile of a pegmatite. Rock is made up of coarse quartz and feldspar cyrstals with needles of black tourmaline. Location is Delhi International Airport, Terminal 3 food court.
June 10, 2025 at 10:36 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Small scale folding in sand mud sequence from the Neoproterozoic Lesser Himalaya.

Near Pittoragargh, Kumaon, Uttarakhand.

#FridayFold
Image shows small scale folding (~1 feet wavelength) in thinly bedded dark grey shale alternating with light brown sand layers. Neoproterozoic Lesser Himalaya. Road cut near town of Pittoragarh, Kumaon , Uttarakhand.
June 6, 2025 at 3:57 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Garnet bearing migmatite gneiss from Greater Himalaya Sequence, Darma Valley, Kumaon.

Metamorphic petrologists, garnets seem localized within and at the margins of the leucosomes with the melanosomes.

What is a good explanation for this texture? Appreciate any insights.
June 4, 2025 at 11:31 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
A walk through Bhojpatra woodlands...

Darma Valley, Kumaon.

May 18, 2025.
June 4, 2025 at 3:24 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Miocene leucogranite intruding gneiss with apophyses and veins injected along and across the foliation. Rafts of gneiss entrained in the granite.

Greater Himalaya Sequence. Boulder near Panchachuli Glacier, Darma Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.

17 May 2025.
Pic is of a large boulder with two rock types. A light colored granite intruding darker colored biotite and amphibole gneiss. Veins of granite cutting across foliation observed. Pic shows large boulder. Leucogranite intruding darker gneiss. The highlight are finger like extensions of the intrusive granite (apophyses) injected along the foliation. Person standing on boulder. Large boulder showing contact between intrusive light granite and darker gneiss. Magma has been injected both along and across the metamorphic foliation. Coin for scale. Large boulder showing contact between light colored granite and darker gneiss. Highlight is the rafts of gneiss entrained in the granite and small finger like projections of granite into the gneiss. Coin for scale.
May 26, 2025 at 10:58 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Tight ductile folding in migmatite gneiss from the Greater Himalaya Sequence. These are Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic sediments metamorphosed during Cenozoic India Asia collision.

Naagling glacier stream. Darma Valley, Kumaon Himalaya.

pic. May 19, 2025.
Migmatite gneiss with dark biotite bands and lighter quartz feldspar bands and segregate pods and lenses. Pink garnets localized in the light colored bands and lenses. Tight small scale folding of dark and light layers. Tight chevron type folding in migmatite gneiss with dark biotite bands and lighter quartz feldspar bands and segregate pods and lenses. Rock has a distinct zebra stripe like appearance during to alternating dark and light domains. Migmatite gneiss with dark biotite bands and lighter quartz feldspar bands and segregate pods and lenses. Bands are folded. Coin for scale.
May 23, 2025 at 10:28 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Thanks. I read this recently. Very good!

@mridulasee.bsky.social , @rishpardikar.bsky.social
May 8, 2025 at 3:05 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Antarctica under the ice. A map of the continent's topography

www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/n...

Image source- British Antarctica Survey
Map shows a relief map of Antarctica continent. Rendering of relief is in standard color palette for relief maps. Topography after ice cover is removed.
March 18, 2025 at 3:48 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Reading this biography of anthropologist Irawati Karve who went from India to Germany in late 1920's & challenged her thesis advisor Eugene Fischer's theory that European "races" being more intelligent would have a more developed right side of the brain.

Amazing story of a rich scholarly life!
Pic show the cover of a book by Urmila Deshpane and Thiago Pinto Barbosa on the life of anthropologist Irawati Karve
March 13, 2025 at 10:28 AM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Here's one more with some classic feldspar fish.

Kumaon Himalaya, Khati village.
Picture is of an grey augen gneiss with prominent feldspar porphyroblasts set in a biotite rich matrix. From Khati village in Kumaon Himalaya, Uttarakhand , India.
March 7, 2025 at 3:18 PM
rapiduplift.bsky.social
Rootless folds in footwall dolomite of the Munsiyari thrust.

This thrust places Paleoproterozoic gneiss over Neoproterozoic metasedimentary Lesser Himalaya. Considered to be the floor thrust of the Main Central Thrust zone.

Loc: Road from Munisiyari baazar to petrol pump.

#TectonicTuesday
Tiny rootless fold in dolomite. Picture is of a hand sample. Rock is grey to earthy in color. It is an accentuated streaky appearance. Deformation in the footwall of Munisiyari Thrust which places Paleoproterozoic gneiss over Neoproterozoic Lesser Himalaya. Location. Munsiyari town baazaar road towards petrol pump, Uttarakhand, India. Outcrop view of pale yellow dolomite showing rootless folds. Rock is from the footwall of Munsiyari Thrust, which places Paleoproterozoic gneiss over Neoproterozoic Lesser Himalaya. Location. Munsiyari bazaar road to petrol pump. Uttarakhand, India.
February 18, 2025 at 10:18 AM