Wave-coupling at the magnetopause

The paper considers wave coupling for an arbitrary direction of propagation on the basis of single fluid hydromagnetic equations appropriate for a rarefied plasma. The analysis is used to study the transfer of solar wind momenta into the magnetosphere. It is found that wave refraction is significant only during disturbed conditions for waves travelling with the wind. Enhanced reflection of waves might be important even under quiet conditions in the flanks of the magnetosphere.     

Hydrocarbon source potential of the Proterozoic Sirban Limestone Formation,NW Himalaya,Jammu

The Proterozoic Sirban Limestone Formation (SLFm) crops out as detached allochthons in the northwest Himalaya (Jammu region, India) and has its coeval equivalents laterally disposed in the west in Salt Range, in the northwest in Abbotabad (Pakistan) and in southeast in Himachal Pradesh (India). The oil and gas occurrences have been reported from the Proterozoic successions globally and the hydrocarbon potential of the SLFm cannot be ruled out.The interbedded shales and algal laminated dolostones within the SLFm have yielded microflora comparable to those reported in the North African Neoproterozoic sandstones and the Late Proterozoic carbonates of the giant oil and gas fields of the Siberian Platform. The SLFm contains a rich and diverse biota comprising ~ 10% of the rock volume in thin section. The rich organic assemblage justified a hydrocarbon source potential analysis of the SLFm, tested in this study by Rock Eval (RE) pyrolysis.RE pyrolysis yielded a total organic carbon (TOC) content of 0.02 to 1 wt. % with very low Hydrogen Index (HI) values for the shales and TOC content averaging 0.02 wt. % for the dolostones. The organically lean shales and dolostones exhibit T_max values indicative of immature to post mature stage. But, since these values are for the samples with complex thermal and tectonic history the results may be unreliable. The highly altered organic matter and kerogen present in the SLFm had the potential to generate hydrocarbons and presently indicates no significant source potential. This study is important for understanding the hydrocarbon occurrences in the SLFm particularly in light of the recent oil and gas discoveries from the coeval Proterozoic successions.     

What drives nearshore sediment transport controls on the depletion of beach placers at Manavalakurichi,Southwest Coast of India?

An in-depth analysis has been made to simulate hydrodynamic scenarios for understanding the nearshore sediment transport controls of placer mineral depletion at Manavalakurichi, India. From the analyses of topographic configuration (extracted from Hydrographic Nautical Chart No. 2048 and data generated during year 2010), we inferred that the 5-m isobaths had broadened and exhibited shallowness. Distances between the coastline and the isobaths were found to have increased significantly over the past five decades. Along with this, the 10 and 20-m contours were found to have shifted about 35–100?m horizontally landward. These changes led to severe sediment deposition in these regions due to the changed wave energy levels and refraction patterns. Numerical simulations linking bathymetry, hydrodynamics, sediment load, and significant wave heights revealed that changes in bathymetry would amplify the wave heights and convergence of wave energy. Associated removal of sand from the high-energy zones will eventually lead to sediment starvation situations and depletion of placers in the adjacent beaches. As the observed trends of depletion generate great concern, detailed oceanographic investigations should be taken up immediately in the region. Fine-resolution hydrodynamic data-sets should prove useful for further evaluating the physical responses of the system to the altered geometry and for exploring remedial measures for restoring the heavy mineral content of the beach sand.     

Oscillations in the primeval ambiplasma in the Universe

This paper discusses the propagation of waves in the early Universe simulated by rarefied, homogeneous ambiplasma (a mixed matter-antimatter ionized gas) placed in a uniform magnetic field. A rich variety of oscillations appear due to enhanced degrees of freedom in the ambiplasma. These oscillations have been analyzed for the propagation vector along and across the direction of magnetic field both in a symmetric and asymmetric ambiplasma. It is found that the oscillations do not grow in different situations which have been discussed. Dispersion curves have been drawn and various cut-offs and resonances have been found out. The study is concluded by highlighting some characteristic features of the waves in the ambiplasma.     

New evidence for two sharp replacement fronts during albitization of granitoids from northern Aravalli orogen,northwest India

We present new evidence of infiltration metasomatism in granitoids that were albitized in a process that produced two sharp replacement fronts, both of which are clearly visible in the field. The two fronts advanced through the original granite simultaneously, but at different rates. Here we focus mainly on the Ajitgarh intrusive in the northern Aravalli orogen of northwest India. This intrusion shows geographically well-defined metasomatic zones on the outcrop scale as well as a large volume of original ferroan granite, both of which were poorly preserved in most of the previously studied Khetri granites. Stage I metasomatism transformed the grey original granite to pink microcline–albite granite, and stage II converted the microcline–albite granite to white albite granite. Both these reaction fronts are sharp and are easily recognized in the field by their different colours. The mineralogical and chemical changes during the first stage are expressed by transformation of original oligoclase to albite, biotite (annite-rich) and hastingsite (amphibole) to hastingsite with low X_Fe values, dehydration, gain in Na, and losses in Fe and Rb. The second stage of metasomatism caused almost complete conversion of microcline to albite and complete or nearly complete disappearance of amphibole. Chemically, these changes are manifested by substantial gain in Na and extreme losses in K, Rb, Ba, Ca, Sr, Fe, and Mg. Depending on the modal abundances of amphibole, stage II albitized rocks are depleted in light rare earth elements or heavy rare earth elements or both, signifying that rare earth elements are principally hosted by mafic phases. The disparity in whole-rock δ¹⁸O values during both stages of albitization is related to the variations in modal amounts of Si-bearing phases. The replacement microstructures are in accord with the fluid-mediated phase transformations by a coupled dissolution–precipitation mechanism. The albitizing event took place at low temperatures of 350–400 °C and the fluid was metamorphic in nature.     

Charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior solution in terms of pressure

Recently, Bijalwan (Astrophys. Space Sci., doi:, 2011a) discussed charged fluid spheres with pressure while Bijalwan and Gupta (Astrophys. Space Sci. 317, 251–260, 2008) suggested using a monotonically decreasing function f to generate all possible physically viable charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior solutions analytically. They discussed some previously known and new solutions for Schwarzschild parameter u( = \fracGMc²a ) ￡ 0.142u( =\frac{GM}{c^{2}a} ) \le 0.142, a being radius of star. In this paper we investigate wide range of u by generating a class of solutions that are well behaved and suitable for modeling Neutron star charge matter. We have exploited the range u≤0.142 by considering pressure p=p(ω) and f = ( f₀(1 - \fracR²(1 - w)a²) +f_a\fracR²(1 - w)a² )f = ( f_{0}(1 - \frac{R^{2}(1 - \omega )}{a^{2}}) +f_{a}\frac{R^{2}(1 - \omega )}{a^{2}} ), where w = 1 -\fracr²R²\omega = 1 -\frac{r^{2}}{R^{2}} to explore new class of solutions. Hence, class of charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior is found for barotropic equation of state relating the radial pressure to the energy density. The analytical models thus found are well behaved with surface red shift z _s ≤0.181, central red shift z _c ≤0.282, mass to radius ratio M/a≤0.149, total charge to total mass ratio e/M≤0.807 and satisfy Andreasson’s (Commun. Math. Phys. 288, 715–730, 2009) stability condition. Red-shift, velocity of sound and p/c ² ρ are monotonically decreasing towards the surface while adiabatic index is monotonically increasing. The maximum mass found to be 1.512 M _Θ with linear dimension 14.964 km. Class of charged analogues of Schwarzschild interior discussed in this paper doesn’t have neutral counter part. These solutions completely describe interior of a stable Neutron star charge matter since at centre the charge distribution is zero, e/M≤0.807 and a typical neutral Neutron star has mass between 1.35 and about 2.1 solar mass, with a corresponding radius of about 12 km (Kiziltan et al., [astro-ph.GA], 2010).     

Stability of the magnetopause

The Magnetosphere-Solar Wind boundary is treated as a tangential discontinuity between collisionless plasma described by C.G.L. equations. An estimate is made, analytically, of the minimum shear speed required to render the interface unstable for propagation in any arbitrary direction. It is found that even systems, which are, for all shear speeds, stable towards propagation parallel to the field, are rendered unstable by propagation away from the field, in some velocity domain. Numerical evaluations for parameters characteristic of the Solar wind-Magnetosphere boundary show that the interface could be unstable even under relatively quiet conditions.     

Analytical solutions of one-dimensional advection-diffusion equation with variable coefficients in a finite domain

Analytical solutions are obtained for one-dimensional advection-diffusion equation with variable coefficients in a longitudinal finite initially solute free domain, for two dispersion problems. In the first one, temporally dependent solute dispersion along uniform flow in homogeneous domain is studied. In the second problem the velocity is considered spatially dependent due to the inhomogeneity of the domain and the dispersion is considered proportional to the square of the velocity. The velocity is linearly interpolated to represent small increase in it along the finite domain. This analytical solution is compared with the numerical solution in case the dispersion is proportional to the same linearly interpolated velocity. The input condition is considered continuous of uniform and of increasing nature both. The analytical solutions are obtained by using Laplace transformation technique. In that process new independent space and time variables have been introduced. The effects of the dependency of dispersion with time and the inhomogeneity of the domain on the solute transport are studied separately with the help of graphs.     

Shear flow instabilities in the earth’s plasma sheet region

Shear flow instability arising from the velocity shear between the inner and the outer central plasma sheet regions is studied by treating the plasma as compressible. Based on the linearized MHD equations, dispersion relations for the surface wave modes occurring at the boundary of the inner central plasma sheet (ICPS) and the outer central plasma sheet (OCPS) are derived. The growth rates and the eigenmode frequencies are obtained numerically. Three data sets consisting of parameters relevant to the earth’s magnetotail are considered. The plasma sheet region is found to be stable for constant plasma flows unless M_A>9.6, where M_A is the Alfvén Mach number in the ICPS. However, for a continuously varying flow velocity profile in the ICPS, the instability is excited for M_A\geq1.4. The excited modes have oscillation periods of 2–10 min and 1.5–6 s, and typical transverse wavelengths of 30–100 R_E and 0.5–6 R_E for data sets 1 and 2 (i.e., case of no neutral sheet) respectively. For the data set 3, which corresponds to a neutral sheet at the center of the plasma sheet, the excited oscillations have periods of 2 s-1 min with transverse wavelengths of 0.02–1 R_E.     

Petrogenesis and Tectonic Significance of the Neoproterozoic Magmatism of the Tusham Ring Complex (NW Indian Shield): Insight into Tectonic Evolution of the Malani Igneous Suite and Rodinia Supercontinent

Geotectonics - The present study is carried out to probe geodynamic evolution and tectonic history of A-type granitoids from the Riwasa and Nigana areas in the Tusham Ring Complex (TRC), western...