Donna Grogan DC Geographic Alliance [email protected] If India had not moved KEYWORDS Plate tectonics, physical features GRADE LEVEL: 6-8 OVERVIEW Travel through India today and you will notice that many variations in geography and climate exist. However, what we see now could have been quite different if India had not moved. If we could travel back 90 million years we would find India positioned east of Madagascar and just beginning its tectonic journey northward toward Asia. If India had not moved would it still be a land of contrasts? If India had not moved would the physical environment be the same? This lesson will investigate the movement of India and its eventual collision with Asia over 50 million years ago and the impact that collision had on India’s physical environment. CONNECTIONS TO THE CURRICULUM Geography and science CONNECTIONS TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS Standard 1: “How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective” Standard 4: “The physical and human characteristics of places” Standard 7: “The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth’s surface” CONNECTIONS TO OTHER NATIONAL STANDARDS Science 6.5 Students acquire a framework for thinking about Earth’s physical systems: Earth/Sun relationship, climate and related ecosystems, and landforms. 6.8 Plate tectonics explain important features of the Earth’s surface and major geologic events TIME 3 hours MATERIALS REQUIRED Handout on plate tectonics Map of Asia with India missing Outline pattern of India 3 sheets of blank paper per participant College Atlas of the World(NGS) Pencils and color markers KEY VOCABULARY Plate tectonic Plateau Monsoon Climate Relative location Plain Absolute location Delta Latitude Rain shadow Longitude Desert Plateau GUIDING QUESTION How did movement impact the physical environment of India? OBJECTIVES distinguish between the relative and absolute location of India; describe how forces within Earth influence the physical characteristics of a place; explain how mountain ranges and other geographic features affect climate; use maps to understand patterns of movement in space and time; and identify the affects of monsoons on the people of India. GEOGRAPHIC SKILLS Asking Geographic Questions Analyze Geographic Information Answer Geographic Questions SUGGESTED PROCEDURE OPENING Ask students if they know where in the world India is located. Then give them a map of the world with India missing. Ask them to draw India where they think it belongs. At the completion of this activity allow students to look at a map of Southern Asia to see if they have placed India correctly. Then, students are asked to make statements about the location of India and to determine if their statements explain the relative or absolute location of India. After the discussion about the location of India students will be informed that one hundred million years ago none of what they have expressed would have been true because India was located off the coast of Madagascar. DEVELOPMENT Activity 1: Explain to the students that the Earth’s hard shell is made up of thick slabs of rock that are constantly moving. These thick slabs of rock are called plates. Plate tectonics is the interaction of these slabs. These plates caused India to venture from the east coast of Madagascar to its present location. Students are given an envelope containing 5 cards illustrating the break-up of Pangaea. Each card has a map that shows the movement of India. Students are asked to arrange the 5 map cards chronologically to show the movement of India to present day. Then students are asked what they think happened over 50 million years ago when India collided with Asia. Students look on pages 24 and 25 of the College Atlas of the World to see what happened as a result of India’s collision with Asia. Answer: Plate tectonics raised the Himalaya. Plates can build mountains. Ask the students to think what might not be if India had not moved. Activity 2: Students are given three sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 multipurpose papers and an outline of the country of India. Students will use the multipurpose paper to create a “layered look book”. Next, students will trace the outline of India onto their layered look book. Then, students will use the layered look book to organize both verbally and artistically the information learned about the physical features of India as we travel from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. Activity 3: Teacher leads the students into a discussion about the importance of mountains now that the Himalayas have been raised. Teacher uses an overhead projector to draw the Himalayas on a transparency of the outline of India. Students draw the Himalayas on their layered look book. The discussion continues from mountains to rivers noting that most of the world’s major rivers are fed from mountain sources. More than ½ of humanity depends on mountains for water. This is true of India. The steep drop from the newly created Himalaya to the plains of India caused rivers to flow toward the seas. Along the way the rivers deposited rich silt and debris that created the alluvial soil of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the river deltas along the eastern coastline. India’s two main river systems originate in the Himalayas and flow in opposite directions to the sea. Ask students to think about what might not be if India had not moved. Activity 4: Students will find the two main river systems on a map of India. After identifying the source and the mouth of the Indus River and the Ganges River students will add these rivers to their layered look book. The Indus River is located in northwest India and empties into the Arabian Sea. The Ganges and its many tributaries flow southeast and join together to empty into the Bay of Bengal. This has created the largest delta in the world. These rivers provide water year round for the regions through which they flow. Activity 5: Traveling just south of the Indo-Gangetic Plain we find the Deccan Plateau. Students are asked to define a plateau. A plateau is a large flat area that stands above the surrounding land. Plateaus range from 300 to 3000 feet high. The upward movement in the Earth’s crust helps to form plateaus. Students can research to find out more about India’s Deccan Plateau. Was it just another collision? What might not be if India had not moved? Students add the Deccan Plateau to their layered look book. Activity 6: Students continue to travel south and discover that the Deccan Plateau is right in the middle to two mountain ranges. The Eastern Ghats extend about 900 miles along the coast of the Bay of Bengal and the Western Ghats which have been labeled as a “biodiversity hotspot” extend about 1,000 miles along the coast of the Arabian Sea. Ask the students if they think the Western Ghats would exist if India had not moved. After careful research students will find out that the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats are believed to have been formed during the break- up of the super continent, known as Rodina some 600 million years ago. Students add the Ghats to their layered look book. Activity 7: Our trip has taken us to the Indian Ocean but we are not at the end of our journey. What about the climate? Does India’s location have anything to do with its climate? The Himalayas act as a barrier to the cold winds coming down from Central Asia which keeps India warmer than other places with the same latitude. Monsoons dominate India’s climate. Students share what they know about monsoons. Monsoon is an Arabic word meaning seasons. Monsoon winds blow from cold to warm regions because cold air takes up more space than warm air. These winds blow from the land to the sea during the winter and from the sea toward the land during the summer. India’s winters are hot and dry because of the Himalayas and the fact that most of India lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator. These monsoonal winds carry little or no moisture. It is during the summer months (June to September) that the monsoon winds carry the moist air from the Indian Ocean across India. These southwest winds are carrying the much needed rain. Students will read Chapter 1-“Land of the Monsoons” from the book World Regions; West Asia. Students will describe how the people have adapted to the monsoons and identify the advantages and disadvantages of the monsoons. Students add monsoons to their layered look book. Activity 8: Did you know that there is a desert in India? Geographical location and dominant weather patterns are ways to classify deserts. The Great Indian Desert, also known as the Thar Desert, is located in northwestern India. It is classified as both a monsoon and a rain shadowed desert. It is classified as a monsoon desert because by the time a monsoon reaches northwestern India most of its moisture has been lost. This desert is also considered to be a rain shadow desert because it is rain-shadowed by the Himalaya to the northeast and other mountain ranges to the southeast and west. Rain shadowed means that the mountains create a” leeward shadow of dryness.” As the air begins to descend little moisture is left. Therefore, this area receives an annual average rainfall if less than 10 inches. Add the Thar Desert to your layered look book. CLOSING We have traveled from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean.