Read Current Affairs
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
- Geologists and forest department officials have recently discovered a rare and remarkably preserved petrified fossil in the Rajmahal Hills near Barmasia village, located in the Pakur district of Jharkhand.
- Understanding Petrification:
- Petrification (from the Greek word "petros," meaning stone) is a process where organic material is gradually replaced by minerals, transforming the fossil into a stone-like structure.
- This typically happens when minerals fill the pores and spaces within the tissue, gradually dissolving the organic matter and substituting it with minerals. The result is an exact replica of the original tissue in every detail, preserving even soft tissues in some cases.
- This phenomenon usually occurs when the organic material is buried under layers of sediment and exposed to mineral-rich water over long periods. Petrification plays a key role in many types of fossilization, producing some of the most beautifully preserved specimens, such as petrified wood.
​​​​​​
- Mount Fentale, a volcano in Ethiopia, is releasing unusually high levels of methane from its crater, as detected by satellite measurements of the potent greenhouse gas.
- About Mount Fentale:
- Mount Fentale is a stratovolcano located within Awash National Park in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. It rises about 600 meters above the Rift Valley floor, with its lava fields covering an oval area of roughly 100 square kilometers. The upper part of the volcano is characterized by an elliptical caldera that spans approximately 6 kilometers in diameter.
- Recent Earthquake Activity: On February 14, 2025, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck beneath Mount Fentale. This was the strongest earthquake to hit Ethiopia since 1989.
​​​​​​