Physico-chemical conditions of four calc-alkaline granitoid plutons of Chhotanagpur Gneissic Complex,eastern India: Tectonic implications

Petrography and mineralogy of four calc-alkaline granitoid plutons Agarpur, Sindurpur, Raghunathpur and Sarpahari located from west to east of northern Purulia of Chhotanagpur Gneissic Complex, eastern India, are investigated. The plutons, as a whole, are composed of varying proportions of Qtz–Pl–Kfs–Bt–Hbl±Px–Ttn–Mag–Ap–Zrn±Ep. The composition of biotite is consistent with those of calc-alkaline granitoids. Hornblende–plagioclase thermometry, aluminium-in-hornblende barometry and the assemblage sphene–magnetite–quartz were used to determine the P, T and \(f_{\mathrm{O}_2}\) during the crystallisation of the parent magmas in different plutons. The plutons are crystallised under varying pressures (6.2–2.4 kbar) and a wide range of temperatures (896–\(718{^{\circ }}\hbox {C}\)) from highly oxidised magmas (log \(f_{\mathrm{O}_2}\) \(-11.2\) to \(-15.4\) bar). The water content of the magma of different plutons varied from 5.0 to 6.5 wt%, consistent with the calc-alkaline nature of the magma. Calc-alkaline nature, high oxygen fugacity and high \(\hbox {H}_{2}\hbox {O}_{{\mathrm{melt}}}\) suggest that these plutons were emplaced in subduction zone environment. The depths of emplacement of these plutons seem to increase from west to east. Petrologic compositions of these granitoids continuously change from enderbite (opx-tonalite: Sarpahari) in the east to monzogranite (Raghunathpur) to syenogranite (Sindurpur) to alkali feldspar granite (Agarpur) in the west. The water contents of the parental magmas of different plutons also increase systematically from east to west. No substantial increase in the depth of emplacement is found in these plutons lying south and north of the major shear zone passing through the study area suggesting the strike-slip nature of the east–west shear zone.     

Ptychodus decurrens Agassiz (Elasmobranchii: Ptychodontidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of India

Although a very high invertebrate faunal diversity is known from the outcrops of the Ariyalur group in the Cauvery Basin, southern India, little is known about its vertebrate fauna. Recent fieldwork in the badland exposures of the Karai Formation (Upper Cenomanian-Lower Turonian) near Garudamangalam in the basin has yielded two teeth belonging to the Late Cretaceous shark Ptychodus decurrens (Ptychodontidae). The fossil record of Ptychodus decurrens from the southern continents is very poor, being known from a single Late/Middle Albian occurrence in Australia. This finding documents the first record of fossil P. decurrens in India and second from a Gondwanan landmass, and provides the first evidence of a cosmopolitan, Pangaean, distribution of the species during the Albian-Turonian and additional insights into the palaeoecology of the Cauvery Basin during the deposition of the Karai Formation.     

Appraisal of the prevalence of severe tropical storms over Indian Ocean by screening the features of tropical depressions

Natural Hazards - Tropical cyclones are one of the nature’s most violent manifestations and potentially the deadliest of all meteorological phenomena. It is a unique combination of violent...     

Stellar sources of the short-lived radionuclides in the early solar system

We discuss the possible stellar sources of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) known to have been present in the early solar system (²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl, ⁴¹Ca, ⁵³Mn, ⁶⁰Fe, ¹⁰⁷Pd, ¹²⁹I, ¹⁸²Hf, ²⁴⁴Pu). SLRs produced primarily by irradiation (⁷Be, ¹⁰Be) are not discussed in this paper. We evaluate the role of the galactic background in explaining the inventory of SLRs in the early solar system. We review the nucleosynthetic processes that produce the different SLRs and place the processes in the context of stellar evolution of stars from 1 to 120 M_⊙. The ejection of newly synthesized SLRs from these stars is also discussed. We then examine the extent to which each stellar source can, by itself, explain the relative abundances of the different SLRs in the early solar system, and the probability that each source would have been in the right place at the right time to provide the SLRs. We conclude that intermediate-mass AGB stars and massive stars in the range from ∼20 to ∼60 M_⊙ are the most plausible sources. Low-mass AGB stars fail to produce enough ⁶⁰Fe. Core-collapse Type II supernovae from stars with initial masses of <20 M_⊙ produce too much ⁶⁰Fe and ⁵³Mn. Sources such as novae, Type Ia supernovae, and core-collapse supernovae of O-Ne-Mg white dwarfs do not appear to provide the SLRs in the correct proportions. However, intermediate-mass AGB stars cannot provide ⁵³Mn or the r-process elements, so if an AGB star provided the ⁴¹Ca, ³⁶Cl, ²⁶Al, ⁶⁰Fe, and ¹⁰⁷Pd, and if a late stellar source is required for ⁵³Mn and the r-process elements, then two types of sources would be required. A separate discussion of the production of r-process elements highlights the difficulties in modeling their production. There appear to be two sources of r-process elements, one that produces the heavy r-process elements, including the actinides, and one that produces the elements from N to Ge and the elements ∼110 < A < ∼130. These can be assigned to SNII explosions of stars of ?11 M_⊙ and stars of 12-25 M_⊙, respectively. More-massive stars, which leave black holes as supernova remnants, apparently do not produce r-process elements.     

Analyses of fold profiles by changing weight parameters of NURB curves

Analyses of Non-Uniform Rational B-spline (NURB) curve by varying weights at its nodal points and projection ratio produce several kinetically plausible symmetric and asymmetric fold morphologies in 2D promptly and efficiently with varied overall geometries, curvature of limbs, sharpness/bluntness of hinges, extent of hinge zone, tightness/interlimb angles, etc. Some of these folds are new geometries what other approaches, such as those with Bézier curve, did not produce so far. Natural fold profiles can be matched with NURB curves from photographs.     

Halo orbit of regularized circular restricted three-body problem with radiation pressure and oblateness

In this paper, computation of the halo orbit for the KS-regularized photogravitational circular restricted three-body problem is carried out. This work extends the idea of Srivastava et al. (Astrophys. Space Sci. 362: 49, 2017) which only concentrated on the (i) regularization of the 3D-governing equations of motion, and (ii) validation of the modeling for small out-of-plane amplitude (\(A_z =110000\) km) assuming the third-order analytical approximation as an initial guess with and without differential correction. This motivated us to compute the halo orbits for the large out-of-plane amplitudes and to study their stability analysis for the regularized motion. The stability indices are described as a function of out-of-plane amplitude, mass reduction factor and oblateness coefficient. Three different Sun–planet systems: the Sun–Earth, Sun–Mars and the Sun–Jupiter are chosen in this study. Stable halo orbits do not exist around the \(L_{1}\) point, however, around the \(L_{2}\) point stable halo orbits are found for the considered systems.     

The synthesis of26Al during combined hydrogen and helium-burning reactions

We have studied the synthesis of²⁶Al during combined hydrogen and helium-burning processes in high temperature and density conditions. The possible sites for these processes are believed to be the neutron star surfaces where the density ranges from =10⁴–10⁷ g cm^–3 and temperature range from 10⁸–8×10⁸ K. The screening effect which leads to an enhancement of nuclear reaction rates is taken into account whenever necessary. A detailed calculation of the abundances of²⁶Al and²⁷Al isotopes is presented here. Finite amounts of²⁶Al is found to be produced atT=2×10⁸ K and =10⁸ g cm^–3 due to these combined reactions. This situation is likely to be realized during the -ray burst events on neutron star surface. The amount of material processed in the burst sources is very little compared to the amount of material processed in Novae or Supernovae. Thus it is suggested that rather than contributing to the overall amount of²⁶Al, -ray bursts are likely to contribute more significantly to the inhomogeneity of²⁶Al distribution in interstellar medium.