Ashoka Buddhist tour edict found

The Archaeological Survey of India has discovered an Ashokan rock edict in Bhabhua, Bihar, that depicts the nature of the Maurya emperor’s Dhamma Nomenclatured Minor Rock Edict 1, it was promulgated while Emperor Ashoka was on tour to (Dharma). spread Buddhism.

“The rock edict is inscribed on the vertical surface of a rock in a rock shelter where it seems people must have congregated during the Mauryan period. It is at such a height that it was out of reach of men and as such could not be harmed by the people. It is also protected from the rain and sun by the projection of a natural rock above it,” deputy director-general B.R. Mani said. He visited the site last week.

Written in Pali in the Brahmi script, Ashoka had the rock inscribed after completing 256 days of a tour to popularise Buddhism.

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Mercury was alive with volcanoes

While it seems like a geologically dead planet today, early in its history tiny Mercury may have been a caldron of volcanic activity, Nasa scientists said on Wednesday.

Data from the US space agency’s car-sized Messenger probe’s latest close encounter with the planet nearest the sun on Oct. 6 is helping to settle a debate dating back to the 1970s over the role volcanoes played in Mercury’s history. Messenger sent back images showing extensive and deep lava flows on the surface, including hardened lava more than 2 km deep filling a crater 100 km in diameter.

The unmanned spacecraft also detected a so-called “wrinkle ridge,” a long geological feature on Mercury’s surface about 600 metres high apparently caused by contraction of the planet as it cooled, the scientists said.

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