Geostatistical analysis of arsenic concentration in the groundwater of Malda district of West Bengal, India

The problem of arsenic (As) poisoning in the upper deltaic plain of the Ganga-Bhagirathi river system in the Bengal Basin of West Bengal, India is an alarming issue. Four blocks (Kaliachak-1, 2, 3 and English Bazar) of Malda district, West Bengal were critically studied. Geomorphologically, the area exhibits three terraces: the present Youngest terrace (T₀-terrace), the Older Shaugaon Surface (T₁-terrace) and the Oldest Baikunthapur Surface (T₂-terrace). On the basis of numerous measurements, including As-content, pH, DO, specific conductivity and salinity, it was observed that maximum As-content beyond the permissible limit (0.05 mg/L, Indian standard) occurs within a depth range of 10–30 m with a non-linear distribution pattern. Variance test also found that a block effect was highly significant in an As-distribution pattern. Mean arsenic level of Kaliachak block-1 is 0.2253 mg/L, followed by Kaliachak-2 with arsenic level 0.1923, Kaliachak-3 with arsenic level 0.1755 and English Bazar with arsenic level 0.1324. The arsenious belt lies mainly within the Older terrace (T₁). The very recent flood plain deposits of silvery white, fine sands lying very close to the Ganga River margin do not contain significant amounts of As. Elevated As-concentration in the ground water was observed in alluvial sands, grayish white to brownish in color and occurring away from the Ganga margin. The Oldest terrace (T2) further away from the Ganga margin (e.g. English Bazar) and Barind surface contains less arsenic. Barind surface acts as a hard capping with ferruginous sands and lateritic concretions-chocolate, mottled and purple brown in color-occurring northeast of the studied area. Arsenic content of ground water in the same locality within a radius of ∼ 20 m varies within wide limits. Thus, it poses problem to delineate its distribution pattern. Such a patchy occurrence possibly could not be explained satisfactorily solely by geomorphology. Chemical analysis of aquifer clay samples of the cores shows a maximum Ascontent of up to 3 mg/kg, whereas the bulk samples (sandclay mixture) of the cores contain a maximum of 17 mg/kg As-value. Therefore, it is not always true that clay contains elevated As-value.     

Guided wave propagation in a moving magnetized plasma bounded by parallel perfectly conducting planes

The structure of the Saturnian rings is compared with the asteroidal belt and the relative importance of the resonance effects and the cosmogonic effects is evaluated. No visible correspondence to the Kirkwood gaps is expected theoretically, nor is there any observational evidence for such effects. The only possible resonance is the 1:1 resonance with Saturn's spin period.Cosmogonic shadow effects are responsible for the main features of the ring structure, including Cassini's division, the limit between the B and C ring, and possibly also Guérin's division.     

Investigation of dominant modes of monsoon ISO in the northwest and eastern Himalayan region

This study investigates the altitudinal variation of dominant modes of summer monsoon intra-seasonal oscillation (ISO) over the Northwest (NWH) and Eastern Himalayan (EH) region using (i) spatially scattered 133 number of station rainfall observations and (ii) latitudinal transect-wise (LT) rainfall variation, obtained from an observed interpolated gridded rainfall data for the period 1995–2004. The altitudinal variation of dominant modes of monsoon ISO were investigated by exploring the strong and weak phases of the principal components of 10–90 days bandpass rainfall data of June to September with respect to location specific station height. Investigation of frequency of days for light and moderate rainfall along with the occurrence of total seasonal rainy days has revealed existence of a rainfall maximum around 2100 m height for the NWH region. Similarly, the total seasonal rainy days of EH region was found to have maxima between 1100 and 1400 m height. Analyses of the spatially scattered station rainfall observation for the NWH region showed that the strong periods of ISO modes exist around 747.9 (±131.7) m and 2227.2 (±100.2) m heights. Over the EH region, the dominant modes of the monsoon ISO were found to be centred around 1200 m. Significant alterations of strong and weak phases of monsoon ISO as a response to altitudinal variation in the mountain surface were observed when latitudinal transect-wise variation of monsoon ISO modes were investigated.     

The Air-Coastal Sea Chemical Exchange: A Case Study on the New Jersey Coast

The coastal marine atmosphere adjacent to large urban and industrial centers is in general strongly impacted by pollution emissions, resulting in high loading of pollutants in the ambient air. Among the airborne substances are certain trace elements from a variety of emission sources that can serve as micronutrients to marine organisms in coastal waters. High concentrations of such elements in coastal air can result in enhanced air-to-sea deposition fluxes to coastal waters. They could also be transported over the open ocean, affecting the composition of the remote marine atmosphere and then ocean ecosystems. To provide better understanding of the extent of air-to-sea deposition processes on the New Jersey coast, a heavily polluted coastal region on the US East Coast, a synthesis of observation data was carried out for selected trace elements, including Fe, Cd, Cr and Cu, derived from measurements of both size-segregated and bulk aerosol particles, as well as precipitation around the New Jersey coast. The atmospheric input of Hg was also estimated based on measurement data. Results indicated that the total deposition fluxes of most trace elements were higher in Northern coastal NJ compared to Southern coastal NJ, reflecting the differences in the source strengths of these element emissions between the two coastal regions. Dry deposition processes were more significant for common dust-derived elements, particularly Fe and Al, compared with their wet deposition fluxes. However, the processes of precipitation scavenging appeared to be more important for the elements that were often enriched in fine particles including Zn, Cu, Pb and Ni. The removal of Hg from the ambient air was overwhelmingly dominated by atmospheric wet deposition. In the future, atmospheric measurements at more sites on the NJ coast should be performed simultaneously to reduce the spatial and temporal uncertainties associated with atmospheric deposition fluxes estimated in this study.     

Effects of linear and exponential heterogeneity on the dynamic response of a moving load in an irregular isotropic half-space: a comparative study

Heterogeneity, being a trivial feature inside the earth or in a geostructure, makes a strong basis for its consideration in the study of geomechanics. Inclusion of the concept of heterogeneity along with irregularity in the medium brings a novelty to the existing literature related to the study of the moving load. The present study investigates the effects of linear and exponential heterogeneity on the dynamic response due to a normal load moving with constant velocity on a rough irregular heterogeneous isotropic half-space in a comparative approach. Expressions for both normal and shear stresses for either case of heterogeneity have been established in closed form. Substantial effects of the affecting parameters such as depth, irregularity factor, maximum depth of irregularity, frictional coefficient, linear heterogeneity parameter and exponential heterogeneity parameter on normal and shear stresses for both the cases of heterogeneity have been observed. Numerical computation has been carried out and the effects of said parameters have been meticulously examined by means of graphs. Moreover, different cases of heterogeneity and homogeneity along with various types of irregularity namely rectangular, parabolic and no irregularity are compared which serve as a focal theme of the study.     

Deformation behavior of migmatites: insights from microstructural analysis of a garnet–sillimanite–mullite–quartz–feldspar-bearing anatectic migmatite at Rampura–Agucha,Aravalli–Delhi Fold Belt,NW India

International Journal of Earth Sciences - In the present study we investigate the microstructural development in mullite, quartz and garnet in an anatectic migmatite hosted within a Grenvillian-age...     

An Improvized Core-Drilling Technique and a New Device for Osteohistology of Fossil Bones: Implementation on a Jurassic Sauropod Dinosaur from India

An improvized version of the conventional core drilling technique, based on a new device is introduced in the current work for extracting cores from fossil bones to understand their microanatomy. A powerful, low-speed electric drill with an autolubrication facility is used as the new device, and the bone specimen is placed on a permanently fixed platform beneath the drill bit. It avoids the vibration-induced wobbling of the conventional handheld drill machine and helps in precision sampling. Long drill bits of the new device result in extraction of long cores, reduce premature breakages of cores, and recovery of the entire bone microstructure for high resolution deduction of palaeobiological information. As this version of drilling technique is less destructive, it has better sampling coverage, where fossil bones can be restored to their original shapes and preserved with almost no loss in gross morphology. This is first time such a device for extraction of fossil drill cores has been installed. After test run on dummy samples, the new device has been successfully implemented for extraction of eleven cores from various long bones of the early Jurassic sauropod dinosaur Barapasaurus tagorei. The fossil bones are restored to their pre-coring shapes, the detail protocols of which are discussed here for the first time.