Heavy minerals and the characters of ilmenite in the beach placer sands of Chavakkad-Ponnani,Kerala Coast,India

Indian beach placer sand deposits are, in general, ilmenite-rich. However, some concentrations are dominated by pyriboles. The Chavakkad-Ponnani (CP) area along the northern Kerala coast is one such deposit. This paper deals with the general character of the heavy minerals of CP with special emphasis on the characters of ilmenite. Most Indian beach sand ilmenites are of good quality. However, our observations on the ilmenites of CP using Optical Microscope, SEM and EPMA reveals that these are mineralogically very complex. The CP ilmenite varies from pure ilmenite to highly impure variety having intergrowths and inclusions of other oxide and silicate minerals. Ilmenite occurs as mixcrystals and forms intergrowth structure with hematite and Ti-hematite/ulvöspinel; contains inclusions of hematite, quartz, and monazite. On the other hand ilmenite also occurs as inclusions within hematite and garnet. The pyriboles are dominantly amphiboles with hornblende-composition. Interestingly an inclusion of gold has been recorded within amphibole of hornblende composition. Garnets are mostly of almandine and pyrope type. Subordinate heavy minerals are sillimanite, zircon and rutile. Characteristic morphology, mineralogy and chemistry of amphibole, garnet and ilmenite together indicate that the placer sands of CP area are derived from the amphibolites, granite gneisses and basic igneous rocks lying in the hinterland towards the eastern border of Kerala. Though the overall quality of ilmenite is poor, highgrade ilmenite concentrate can be generated (of course with lower yield), by adopting precise mineral processing techniques. The CP deposit can be considered as a second-grade deposit but it has potential for future exploitation.     

Environmental effects on grinding

The effect of surface-active agents in improving the grinding efficiency for haematite, expressed as a measure of reduction ratio, has been studied. Drying of the feed before grinding has been found to improve the grinding efficiency. The effect of surfactant additions on hardness, microhardness, crushing strength and wet grinding of haematite has shown that dispersants are better than flocculants, and each dispersant has a critical concentration at which the grinding efficiency is maximum.     

Assessing the consistency between AVHRR and MODIS NDVI datasets for estimating terrestrial net primary productivity over India

This study examines the consistency between the AVHRR and MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets in estimating net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) over India during 2001–2006 in a terrestrial ecosystem model. Harmonic analysis is employed to estimate seasonal components of the time series. The stationary components (representing long-term mean) of the respective NDVI time series are highly coherent and exhibit inherent natural vegetation characteristics with high values over the forest, moderate over the cropland, and small over the grassland. Both data exhibit strong semi-annual oscillations over the cropland dominated Indo-Gangetic plains while annual oscillations are strong over most parts of the country. MODIS has larger annual amplitude than that of the AVHRR. The similar variability exists on the estimates of NPP and NEP across India. In an annual scale, MODIS-based NPP budget is 1.78 PgC, which is 27% higher than the AVHRR- based estimate. It revealed that the Indian terrestrial ecosystem remained the sink of atmospheric CO ₂ during the study period with 42 TgC y ^?1 NEP budget associated with MODIS-based estimate against 18 TgC y ^?1 for the AVHRR-based estimate.     

36<Superscript>th</Superscript> International Geological Congress - 2020 India: A broad perspective

Lichenometry is an extremely useful technique in dating moraine ridge and recent glacier retreat in polar and alpine regions. The study relates the size of the lichen thallus to the minimum age of the exposure of the surface on which it grows which consequently helps in assessment of the age of the boulders. The Lichenometric studies are carried out in Kupup and Thangu area of eastern Himalaya in Sikkim and Thajiwas glacier in Ganderbal district of north western Himalaya of Jammu and Kashmir with the help of diameters of a common crustose lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum growing luxuriantly on exposed boulder. The Thajiwas glacier showed retreat of 200 m in 279 years while in Thangu and Kupup area of eastern Himalaya the retreat was estimated as 200 m in 100 and 91 years respectively. The rate of retreat was slightly more faster in eastern Himalayan (20 mm/century) than the north-western Himalaya region (18.5mm/century).     

Genetic implications of rare uraninite and pyrite in quartz-pebble conglomerates from Sundargarh district of Orissa,Eastern India

Petrographic and EPMA studies reveal the presence of discrete grains of uraninite and pyrite are being reported for the first time in quartz-pebble conglomerates from western margin of Bonai granite pluton, Sundargarh district, Orissa. Uraninite grains (2–3 μ in size) are subrounded to muffin shaped which show variation in UO₂ (63.86 to 71.73 wt %), ThO₂ (5.48 to 6.42 wt %) and RE₂O₃ (1.57 to 2.23 wt %). Pegmatitic source of uraninite is revealed by comparing UO₂, ThO₂, PbO, CaO content and ratios of UO₂/ThO₂ and CaO/ThO₂ in uraninites from pegmatite and other environments and areas. Subrounded to muffin shape of uraninite, their association with subrounded pyrite and heavies like zircon, tourmaline, chromite, monazite, magnetite and their comparable chemistry with well established quartzpebble conglomerates of India and world are indicative of their detrital origin. Pyrite, minor chalcopyrite and rare galena are observed as sulphide phases in conglomerate. Variable shapes of pyrite, their low Co (up to 0.16 wt %) and Ni contents (up to 0.09 wt %) and Co/Ni ratio less than 1.0 (mean= 0.63) favours sedimentary/diagenetic origin.     

Stone Columns with Vertical Circumferential Nails: Laboratory Model Study

This paper presents results from a series of laboratory plate load tests carried out in unit cell tanks to investigate the improvement in stiffness, load carrying capacity and resistance to bulging of stone columns installed in soft soils. A new method of reinforcing the stone columns with vertical nails installed along the circumference of the stone column is suggested for improving the performance of these columns. Tests were carried out with two types of loading (1) the entire area in the unit cell tank loaded, to estimate the stiffness of improved ground and (2) only the stone column loaded, to estimate the limiting axial capacity. It is found that stone columns reinforced with vertical nails along the circumference have much higher load carrying capacity and undergo lesser compression and lesser lateral bulging as compared to conventional stone columns. The benefit of vertical circumferential nails increases with increase in the diameter, number and depth of embedment of the nails. The improvement in the performance of stone column was found to be more significant, even with lower area ratio. It is found that reinforcing stone column with vertical circumferential nails at the top portion to a depth equal to three times the diameter of stone columns, will be adequate to prevent the column from excessive bulging and to improve its load carrying capacity substantially.     

Interactions Between Soils and Laboratory Simulated Electrolyte Solution

To study the impact of salt water intrusion on two types of soils from west coast region of India were investigated in the laboratory. The key characteristics evaluated included Atterberg limits, compaction characteristics, hydraulic conductivity and chemical characteristics of selected soils. The sea at this coast receives effluent from different points and hence the characteristics change with time and locality. Therefore, to maintain uniform composition, 0.5 N sodium chloride solution (NaCl) was prepared in the laboratory and batch tests were used to determine the immediate effect on soils. Soil specimens were prepared by mixing the soils with 0.5 N NaCl in the increments of 0, 5, 10 and 20% by weight to vary the degree of contamination. Experimental results of soils mixed with 0.5 N NaCl showed that the maximum dry density increases and the optimum moisture content (OMC) decreases with increasing sodium chloride concentration. The study also revealed that the hydraulic conductivity of the soils tested increases with increase in sodium chloride concentration. The Atterberg limits of contaminated specimens show a remarkable change when compared with uncontaminated specimens.     

Prediction of extreme rainfall event using weather pattern recognition and support vector machine classifier

A major component of flood alert broadcasting is the short-term prediction of extreme rainfall events, which remains a challenging task, even with the improvements of numerical weather prediction models. Such prediction is a high priority research challenge, specifically in highly urbanized areas like Mumbai, India, which is extremely prone to urban flooding. Here, we attempt to develop an algorithm based on a machine learning technique, support vector machine (SVM), to predict extreme rainfall with a lead time of 6–48 h in Mumbai, using mesoscale (20–200 km) and synoptic scale (200–2,000 km) weather patterns. The underlying hypothesis behind this algorithm is that the weather patterns before (6–48 h) extreme events are significantly different from those of normal weather days. The present algorithm attempts to identify those specific patterns for extreme events and applies SVM-based classifiers for extreme rainfall classification and prediction. Here, we develop the anomaly frequency method (AFM), where the predictors (and their patterns) for SVM are identified with the frequency of high anomaly values of weather variables at different pressure levels, which are present before extreme events, but absent for non-extreme conditions. We observe that weather patterns before the extreme rainfall events during nighttime (1800 to 0600Z) is different from those during daytime (0600 to 1800Z) and, accordingly, we develop a two-phase support vector classifier for extreme prediction. Though there are false alarms associated with this prediction method, the model predicts all the extreme events well in advance. The performance is compared with the state-of-the-art statistical technique fingerprinting approach and is observed to be better in terms of false alarm and prediction.     

Gold in the beach placer sands of Chavakkad-Ponnani,Kerala Coast,India

Although sporadic mining of placer gold from river beds is not uncommon in India, there is no documented literature on the occurrence of gold in the beach placer sand deposits of the country. While characterizing the heavy minerals of the Chavakkad-Ponnani (CP) beach placer sands along the North Kerala coast, the association of gold with the pyriboles in these sands has been observed. A native gold grain of about 25 μm was seen to occur as an inclusion within an amphibole of hornblendic composition. The pyriboles of the CP deposit are angular to sub-angular indicating a nearby provenance that may be in the upstream reaches of the Ponnani River in the districts of Malappuram and Palakkad or further north in the auriferous tracts of the Wynad-Nilambur or Attapadi regions. It is argued that the occurrence of native gold in CP deposit is not a freak occurrence and that it warrants thorough investigation of all the pyribole-ilmenite-rich placers to examine the possible presence of gold and its abundance in the beach placers of northern Kerala coast.