A research article co-authored by Professor Shanti Pappu, Visiting Professor in Archaeology and History, SIAS, Krea University has been published in ESPL ( Earth Surface Processes and Landforms) Wiley.
The Thar Desert, India has desert pavements comprising angular-subangular to well-rounded gravels at marginally higher elevations than the surrounding terrain. Sedimentological and geomorphic analyses suggest that the pavements are lags of weathered Mesozoic and older bedrock. The presence of Palaeolithic artefacts on the pavement surfaces and occasionally within their matrix was used to infer their antiquity and landscape stability. Titled, Cosmogenic 10Be- and 21Ne-based model exposure ages of desert pavements in the Thar Desert, India, the study presents the first surface exposure ages based on cosmic-ray-produced 10Be and 21Ne for pavements at four sites in the Thar Desert, viz Bhojka, Hamira, Solanki and Jayal.