Palaeo-tectonic environment of the Precambrian basaltic mafic dykes on the application of chemical discriminants

Dykes of Chitaldurg and Newer Dolerite I are OFB and represent early attempts to rift and to generate oceanic crust. Shimoga dykes are CAB and belong to orogenic phase. Guntur dykes and Ananthapur-Chittoor dykes are OIB and these are related to ‘hot spot’. Newer Dolerite II is CONB and belongs to healing and filling of fractured crust. The Cuddapah dykes are transitional to all magma types and these represent a compound event of rifting and filling of fractured continental crust.     

Inversion of gravity and magnetic anomalies over some bodies of simple geometric shape

The general expression for gravity and magnetic anomalies over thin sheets and sloping contacts may be expressed as a polynomial of the formFx ²+C₁Fx+C₂F+C₃x³+C₄x²+C₅x+C₆. The initial parameters of the source are obtained from the coefficientsC ₁, C₂,..., C₆ which may be solved by inverting a 6×6 matrix. The initial parameters are modified by successive iteration process using the difference formula until the root mean square error between the observed and calculated anomalies is a minimum. The regional background which may be in the form of a polynomial is estimated by the computer itself. This method is applied on a number of field anomalies and is found to yield reliable estimates of depth and other parameters of the source.     

Rank-size distribution and primate city characteristics in India — A temporal analysis

This paper is an analysis of the historical change in city size distribution in India from the perspectives provided by Zipf and Jefferson. Rank-size distribution at national level and primate city-size distribution at regional levels are examined. India's national urban system is gradually evolving towards Zipf's rank-size distribution. But primate cities have persisted in three of the four macro-regions in India. The paper also examines, in the Indian context, the relation between rank-size distribution and an integrated urban system, and the normative nature of the latter as a spatial organization of human society. Finally, we have made a modest attempt to locate the research on city-size distribution, especially Berry's system-theoretic interpretation of rank-size distribution, on the realm of the political economy of urbanization.     

The vorticity and angular momentum budgets of Asian summer monsoon

The study delineates the vorticity and angular momentum balances of Asian summer monsoon during the evolution and established phases. It also elucidates the differences between these balances in the National Centre for Environmental Prediction/National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (NCMRWF) analysis fields. The NCEP/NCAR reanalysis for a 40 year period (1958-97) and the NCMRWF analysis for a three year (1994-96) period are made use of for the purpose. The time mean summer monsoon circulation is bifurcated into stable mean and transient eddy components and the mean component is elucidated. The generation of vorticity due to stretching of isobars balances most of the vorticity transported out of the monsoon domain during the evolution period. However, during the established period, the transportation by the relative and planetary vorticity components exceeds the generation due to stretching. The effective balancing mechanism is provided by vorticity generation due to sub-grid scale processes. The flux convergence of omega and relative momenta over the monsoon domain is effectively balanced by pressure torque during the evolution and established phases. Nevertheless, the balance is stronger during the established period due to the increase in the strength of circulation. Both the NCMRWF and NCEP fields indicate the mean features related to vorticity and angular momentum budgets realistically. Apart from the oceanic bias (strong circulation over oceans rather than continents), the summer monsoon circulation indicated by the NCEP is feeble compared to NCMRWF. The significant terms in the large-scale budgets of vorticity and angular momentum enunciate this aspect     

Comparative evaluation of water quality zonation within Dwarka River Basin,India

This study evaluates the thematic representation of drinking water quality of 211 habitations along the Dwarka River Basin (DRB), West Bengal, India. The dominant water type is Ca–Mg–HCO₃. Statistical analysis of the spatial dataset indicates a clustering pattern (with a nearest-neighbour ratio of 0.368 and Z score of 29.774). Two different techniques, spatial interpolation of water quality index (WQI) and composite water quality index (WQI_C) of physico-chemical constituents, were implemented to compare their performance. The WQI_C indicates approximately 11.68% of the total study area is at non-permissible levels, whereas the normal WQI technique predicts about 1.64% of the area is in non-permissible zones. Spatial water quality zonation by means of the overlay technique was superior to the conventional WQI technique in precisely distinguishing the characteristics of the permissible area with respect to even a single WHO recommended water quality parameter.     

Top hat stiffeners: A study on keel failures

The need to assess the structural capability of curved marine composite structures that support the keel of high performance yachts has increased due to the rise in the number of accidents and human casualties. The top hat stiffener is the basic structural member of the yacht to sustain the tensile and bending load of the keel. This paper characterises the mechanical strength of E-glass/vinylester composite top hat stiffeners subjected to transverse loading. The out-of-plane load transfer was studied and failure modes were identified for the three different composite layups which were tested to failure. Experimental results obtained from mechanical testing were compared with FEA predictions, based on the quadratic interlaminar stress criterion. Secondary reserve strength from the unidirectional fibres was identified and the potential to use this secondary strength was further investigated.     

Geology and geochemistry of giant quartz veins from the Bundelkhand Craton,central India and their implications

Giant quartz veins (GQVs; earlier referred to as ‘quartz reefs’) occurring in the Archean Bundelkhand Craton (29,000 km²) represent a gigantic Precambrian (∼2.15 Ga) silica-rich fluid activity in the central Indian shield. These veins form a striking curvilinear feature with positive relief having a preferred orientation NE-SW to NNE-SSW in the Bundelkhand Craton. Their outcrop widths vary from ≤1 to 70m and pervasively extend over tens of kilometers along the strike over the entire craton. Numerous younger thin quartz veins with somewhat similar orientation cut across the giant quartz veins. They show imprints of strong brittle to ductile-brittle deformation, and in places are associated with base metal and gold incidences, and pyrophyllite-diaspore mineralization. The geochemistry of giant quartz veins were studied. Apart from presenting new data on the geology and geochemistry of these veins, an attempt has been made to resolve the long standing debate on their origin, in favour of an emplacement due to tectonically controlled polyphase hydrothermal fluid activity.     

Marine Boundary-Layer Variability Over The Indian Ocean During Indoex (1998)

The variability in boundary-layerstructure over the Indian Ocean during a north-eastmonsoon and the factors influencing it areinvestigated. This study was made possible as acomponent of the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX),conducted from February 19 to March 30, 1998. The dataused are, surface-layer mean and turbulencemeasurements of temperature, humidity and wind, andvertical soundings of temperature and humidity.Significant spatio-temporal variability was observedin the boundary-layer structure throughout the cruise.The ITCZ was characterized as the region withstrongest winds and maximum surface turbulent fluxesof momentum and heat. One of the important findingsfrom this study was a strong influence of continentalair masses on the boundary-layer structure in theNorthern Hemisphere, even at a distance of 600 km offthe Indian coast. This was generally evident in theform of an elevated plume of dry continental airbetween altitudes of 1500 m and 2700 m. Advection ofcontinental aerosols in this layer presents potentialfor significant entrainment into shallow clouds inthis region, which eventually feed deeper clouds atthe ITCZ. This finding provides an explanation foranomalous higher aerosol concentrations found duringprevious studies. The structure of the marineboundary layer was influenced by various factors suchas proximity to land, an anomalous warm pool in theocean and the ITCZ. In the southern hemisphere, theboundary-layer height was primarily governed bysurface-layer sensible heat flux and was found to behighest in the vicinity of the ITCZ. North of theequator it was strongly influenced by land-air-seainteractions. In addition to this synoptic modulation,there was also a significant diurnal variability inthe boundary-layer height.     

V oxidation state in Fe–Ti oxides by high-energy resolution fluorescence-detected X-ray absorption spectroscopy

The oxidation state of vanadium in natural and synthetic Fe–Ti oxides is determined using high-energy resolution fluorescence-detected X-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD-XAS). Eleven natural magnetite-bearing samples from a borehole of the Main Magnetite Layer of the Bushveld Complex (South Africa), five synthetic Fe oxide samples, and three natural hematite-bearing samples from Dharwar supergroup (India) are investigated. V K edge spectra were recorded on the ID26 beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France), and the pre-edge features were used to determine the local environment and oxidation state of vanadium. In the case of the magnetite samples (natural and synthetic), we show that vanadium is incorporated in the octahedral site of the spinel structure under two oxidation states: +III and +IV. The variations of the pre-edge area are interpreted as various proportions in V³⁺ and V⁴⁺ (between 9.5 and 16.3% of V⁴⁺), V³⁺ being the main oxidation state. In particular, the variations of the V⁴⁺/V³⁺ ratio along the profile of the Main Magnetite Layer seem to follow the crystallization sequence of the layer. In the case of the hematite samples from India, the pre-edge features indicate that vanadium is substituted to Fe and mainly incorporated as V⁴⁺ (between 40 and 72% of V⁴⁺). We also demonstrate the potentiality of HERFD-XAS for mineralogical studies, since it can filter out the unwanted fluorescence and give better resolved spectra than conventional XAS.