‘Nature’s Library’ in Kashmir gets National Geo-Heritage Tag

SRINAGAR: The Guryul Ravine in Kashmir—home to one of the world's most complete fossil records of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction—has been declared a national geo-heritage site by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), recognising its global scientific value and extraordinary preservation of 252-million-year-old geological history.

- Observer News Service

The fossil-bearing section at Guryul Ravine records the “Great Dying”, the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history, when nearly all life forms vanished. Located at Vihi in Khanmoh on Srinagar’s outskirts, the site also preserves traces of what scientists believe could be the world’s earliest documented tsunami within its one-metre-thick boundary section.

What makes Guryul Ravine exceptional, experts said, is its 3-metre-thick boundary section, far larger than the globally known Meishan section in China, which measures just 27 cm. This extensive thickness provides a clearer, uninterrupted geological timeline of the extinction and recovery phases.

Speaking to KNO, Mohsin Noor, Senior Geologist and Nodal Officer for Guryul Ravine, said the section remains unparalleled in the region and holds critical clues about ancient climate, biodiversity collapse, and geological transitions.