Optical dating of liquefaction features to constrain prehistoric earthquakes in Upper Assam, NE India—some preliminary results

Optical dating of liquefied sand structures formed during major earthquakes in Upper Assam, northeast of India, has been carried out to constrain the timing of prehistoric earthquakes in this seismically active region. The bleaching of source material and of the same material during the creation of a liquefaction feature was tested using quartz extracted from 21 samples associated with two different liquefaction structures in Upper Assam. Due to the poor sensitivity of quartz from this region, a sensitisation procedure was used in our SAR protocol to reduce the scatter in optical ages. Various internal consistency tests of the measurement protocol and the excellent reproducibility of the OSL ages indicate that the dose estimates from the quartz are accurate and the optical ages reliable. The preliminary OSL ages indicate that the liquefaction features were formed between 1430 AD and 1630 AD. This study demonstrates that using OSL, ‘direct dating’ of prehistoric earthquakes may be possible, if sand blows from liquefied dykes are preserved.     

Seismic microzonation of Dehradun City using geophysical and geotechnical characteristics in the upper 30 m of soil column

The understanding of geotechnical characteristics of near-surface material is of fundamental interest in seismic microzonation. Shear wave velocity (Vs), one of the most important soil properties for soil response modeling, has been evaluated through seismic profiling using the multichannel analysis of surface waves in the city of Dehradun situated along the foothills of northwest Himalaya. Fifty sites in the city have been investigated with survey lines between 72 and 96 m in length. Multiple 1-D and interpolated 2-D profiles have been generated up to a depth of 30–40 m. The Vs were used in the SHAKE2000 software in combination with seismic input motion of the recent Chamoli earthquake to obtain site response and amplification spectra. The estimated Vs are higher in the northern part of the study area (i.e., 200–700 m/s from the surface to a depth of about 30 m) as compared to the south and southwestern parts of the city (i.e., 180–400 m/s for the same depth range). The response spectra suggest that spectral acceleration values for two-story structures are three to eight times higher than peak ground acceleration at bedrock. The analysis also suggests peak amplification at 3–4, 2–2.5, and 1–1.5 Hz in the northern, central, and south-southwestern parts of the city, respectively. The spatial distributions of Vs and spectral accelerations provide valuable information for the seismic microzonation in different parts of the urban area of Dehradun.     

Major ion chemistry of two cratonic rivers in the tropics: Weathering rates and their controlling factors

Continental weathering plays a dominant role in regulating the global carbon cycle, soil chemistry and nutrient supply to oceans. The CO₂-mediated silicate weathering acts as a major CO₂ sink, whereas sulphuric acid-mediated carbonate dissolution releases CO₂ to the atmosphere–ocean system. In this study, dissolved major ions and silica concentrations of two tropical (Damodar and Subarnarekha) river systems from India have been measured to constrain the type and rate of chemical weathering for these basins. The total dissolved solids (TDS) of these rivers, a measure of total solute supply from all possible sources, are about 2–3 times higher than that of the global average for rivers. Mass balance calculations involving inverse modelling estimate that 63 ± 11% of total cations are derived from rock weathering, of which 27 ± 7% of cations are supplied through silicate weathering. The sulphide-S concentrations are estimated by comparing the water chemistry of these two rivers with that of a nearby river (Brahmani) with similar lithology but no signatures of sulphide oxidation. The outflows of Damodar and Subarnarekha rivers receive 17% and 55% of SO₄ through sulphide oxidation, respectively. The sulphide oxidation fluxes from the ore mining areas, such as upper Damodar (0.52 × 10⁹ mol/yr) and lower Subarnarekha (0.66 × 10⁹ mol/yr) basins, are disproportionally (~9 times) higher compared to their fractional areal coverage to the global drainage area. The corresponding CO₂ release rate (2.84 × 10⁴ mol/km²/yr) for the Damodar basin is lower by five times than its CO₂ uptake rate (1.38 × 10⁵ mol/km²/yr). The outcomes of this study underscore the dominance of sulphide oxidation in controlling the dissolved chemical (cationic and sulphur) fluxes.     

Evaluation of Recharge and Groundwater Dynamics of a Shallow Alluvial Aquifer in Central Ganga Basin,Kanpur (India)

Evaluation of recharge and groundwater dynamics of an aquifer is an important step for finding a proper groundwater management scenario. This has been performed on the basis of statistical Kendall Tau test to find a relationship between groundwater levels and hydro-meteorological parameters (e.g., precipitation, temperature, evaporation). Recharge to the aquifer was estimated for identification of critical areas/locations based on the analytical Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Moreover, spatiotemporal variability of groundwater levels has been quantified using space–time variogram. The overall characterization method has been applied to the shallow alluvial aquifer of Kanpur city in India. The analysis was performed using groundwater level data from 56 monitoring piezometer locations in Kanpur from March 2006 to June 2011. Groundwater level shows relatively higher correlation with temperature. Performance of the geostatistical model was evaluated by comparing with the observed values of groundwater level from January 2011 to June 2011 for two scenarios: “with limited spatiotemporal data” and “without spatiotemporal data.” It is evident that spatiotemporal prediction of groundwater level can be performed even for the unmonitored/missing data. This analysis demonstrates the potential applicability of the method for a general aquifer system.     

Predicting Wheat Grain and Biomass Yield Using Canopy Reflectance of Booting Stage

Field experiment was conducted in a sandy loam soil of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during the year 2011–13 to see the effect of irrigation, mulch and nitrogen on canopy spectral reflectance indices and their use in predicting the grain and biomass yield of wheat. The canopy reflectances were measured using a hand held ASD FieldSpec Spectroradiometer at booting stage of wheat. Four spectral reflectance indices (SRIs) viz. RNDVI (Red Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), GNDVI (Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), SR (Simple Ratio) and WI (Water Index) were computed using the spectral reflectance data. Out of these four indices, RNDVI, GNDVI and SR were significantly and positively related with the grain and biomass yield of wheat whereas WI was significantly and negatively related with the grain and biomass yield of wheat. Calibration with the second year data showed that among the SRIs, WI could account for respectively, 85 % and 86 % variation in grain and biomass yield of wheat with least RMSE (395 kg ha^?1 (15 %) for grain yield and 1609 kg ha^?1 (20 %) for biomass yield) and highest d index (0.95 for grain yield and 0.91 for biomass yield). Therefore it can be concluded that WI measured at booting stage can be successfully used for prediction of grain and biomass yield of wheat.     

Radon as seismic precursor: new data with well water of Jalpaiguri,India

This paper reports the measurement of radon concentration in well water at the site of Jalpaiguri (26°32′N, 88°46′E) near the active fault zone of West Bengal, India. Radon concentration has been measured in well water with the help of solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD). The study indicates a positive correlation between radon anomaly and earthquake. The data of radon content in well water have been compared with that in soil gas at the same site.     

Impact of land-use changes on the genesis and evolution of extreme rainfall event: a case study over Uttarakhand,India

In recent years, hot summers (HS) have played an important role in affecting people’s health and causing natural disasters. However, it is not very clear what HS should be attributed to. In order to investigate that, the anomalous of anticyclone associated with HS in the Mediterranean and North China is examined and compared by using data during the time period 1949~2018. Statistical analysis shows that summer temperature in the Mediterranean and North China is revealing a good correlation when removing the global warming trend. The composite results indicate that the anomalous warming during HS over different regions is both dominantly controlled by an anomalous anticyclone, which enhances the subsidence adiabatic heating of the temperature. Furthermore, the subtropical high (STH) variations faithfully represent the fluctuations in summer temperature over the Mediterranean (cor = 0.78) and North China (cor = 0.80). The anticyclonic anomalies over both focus areas are associated with North Atlantic and Northwest Pacific sea surface temperature (sst), respectively. These results indicate that the total influence of the STH position anomaly should be taken into consideration in different places during HS. However, whether such atmosphere-ocean feedback can be improved by numerical experiments is worthy to be further studied.     

Modeling the transport of nutrients and sediment loads into Lake Tahoe under projected climatic changes

The outputs from two General Circulation Models (GCMs) with two emissions scenarios were downscaled and bias-corrected to develop regional climate change projections for the Tahoe Basin. For one model—the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory or GFDL model—the daily model results were used to drive a distributed hydrologic model. The watershed model used an energy balance approach for computing evapotranspiration and snowpack dynamics so that the processes remain a function of the climate change projections. For this study, all other aspects of the model (i.e. land use distribution, routing configuration, and parameterization) were held constant to isolate impacts of climate change projections. The results indicate that (1) precipitation falling as rain rather than snow will increase, starting at the current mean snowline, and moving towards higher elevations over time; (2) annual accumulated snowpack will be reduced; (3) snowpack accumulation will start later; and (4) snowmelt will start earlier in the year. Certain changes were masked (or counter-balanced) when summarized as basin-wide averages; however, spatial evaluation added notable resolution. While rainfall runoff increased at higher elevations, a drop in total precipitation volume decreased runoff and fine sediment load from the lower elevation meadow areas and also decreased baseflow and nitrogen loads basin-wide. This finding also highlights the important role that the meadow areas could play as high-flow buffers under climatic change. Because the watershed model accounts for elevation change and variable meteorological patterns, it provided a robust platform for evaluating the impacts of projected climate change on hydrology and water quality.     

On Bianchi Type-I Mesonic Cosmological Model in Bimetric Theory

Anisotropic spatially homogeneous Bianchi type-I cosmological model in bimetric theory of gravitation (Rosen, 1973) is considered. It is shown that the Bianchi type-I cosmological model does not exist in case of both meson field and mesonic perfect fluid (with or without mass parameter). Hence only vacuum models can be obtained (Reddy and Venkateswarlu, 1989). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.