Lines of Action

The lines on paper fade with passing years

Not so in a geological map and satellite image

Where they are etched forever as lines of action

Straight, arcuate, zigzag lines of traction.

Straight as arrows, curving like drawn bows,
Or wandering in broken zigzag rows
They traverse hills, plains, deserts and snows

They are the pathways where energy flows.

The surface whispers rising from the depth,

Stretch for a few to hundreds of kilometres in length

The dykes, joints, faults, fractures and lithocontacts

Each one has a tectonic story to narrate in length.

Faults reveal tectonics and crustal deformation

Fractures guide groundwater and its migration

Lineaments trace the paths of mineralisation

Some mark as active faults with seismic implications.

Strike-slip San Andreas Fault in California

East African rift creating new ocean basins in Ethiopia

Himalayan Thrust making Indo-Eurasian collision in India

Great Sumatra fault aligned with volcanoes in Indonesia.

Seen from space, these cryptic traces stand bold

Landsat, Sentinel, ASTER, NISAR scan the field

Spectral contrast, edge detection bring them to sight

And unravel the hidden architecture to light.

Not just lines in a map, rather zones of action

Pathways for mineral fluids, loci for quakes

They mark where crustal blocks shift and slide

A chronicle of pressure, stress and thrust

The Lines of action drawn by a dynamic earth.

              …….Narayan Gadagkar