Upper gondwana succession of the Rewa Basin,India: Understanding the interrelationship of lithologic and stratigraphic variables

The current work attempts to address a century old problem regarding the stratigraphic disposition of the Upper Gondwana succession of the Rewa basin based on geological mapping and litholog preparation along well exposed transects. The proposed Upper Gondwana stratigraphy of the Rewa basin comprises a continuous and thick package of Triassic sediments unconformably overlain by the Jurassic Parsora Formation. The Triassic succession consists of a basal Pali Formation, an intermediate and newly designated Karki Formation and the overlying mud-dominant Tiki Formation. These formations are well defined based on physical attributes such as lithology, textures and sedimentary structures, and are easily distinguishable in the field. Based on stratigraphic correlation and fossil content, a Lower-Middle Triassic age has been assigned for the Pali and Karki formations, while the Tiki Formation is Upper Triassic (Carnian) in age. Preliminary observations based on lithological characteristics, sand body geometry and sand: mud ratios suggest that within a fluvial setting there were considerable changes in environments of deposition through time, especially during Triassic to Jurassic transition.     

A New Blastability Index for Hard Roof Management in Blasting Gallery Method

The presence of hard and massive sandstone above the coal seam in underground coal mines often leads to delay in caving of overlying rock beds thereby causing excessive load on supports and posing danger to underground workings. The problem is more prominent in blasting gallery (BG) as well as longwall mining methods in Indian coal mines. Induced caving by blasting is a promising means for hard roof management in underground coal mines. Based on extensive studies and data collected from different mines in India, a Blastability Index (BI) has been developed which can be used for the classification of roof according to the degree of ease in caving by induced blasting. Different charge factors have also been suggested based on the Blastability Index. Due to wide change in the method of extractions, ??Cavability Index?? for longwall panel was found ineffective in case of BG method of working as well as bord and pillar working. For this reason, this proposed Blastability Index would be of immense help for caving of hard roof by induced blasting.     

Assessment of the spatio-temporal distribution of soil properties in East Kolkata wetland ecosystem (A Ramsar site: 1208)

The present investigation was made to characterize spatial and temporal variations in soil properties and to evaluate possible differences that could be dependent on the tannery effluent discharges, municipal sewage discharges, vegetation cover, soil settlement rate, crop rotation, etc. Soil total organic matter (TOM), cations like, Sodium (Na), Ammonium (NH₄), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) contents in the bank soils and bottom sediments were recorded from seven different characteristic sites in East Kolkata wetland ecosystem, a Ramsar site (Ramsar site No. 1208). The profile maps were constructed by geostatistical methods to describe the spatial distribution as well as temporal variations of all the factors to identify the influences of composite wastewaters. The work was initiated to identify causes and consequences of the waste dumping in the concerned region for the past hundred years and thereby to suggest necessary precautionary measures to prevent further loss of soil quality.     

Empirical Approaches for Design of Web Pillars in Highwall Mining: Review and Analysis

Pillar design is of paramount importance to any underground mine design. Oversized pillars may lead to loss of coal while undersized pillars may lead to instability. While underground pillars are mostly square and rectangular, highwall mining pillars are long and narrow, as they are formed after driving parallel entries in the seam from the highwall. These pillars are termed as web pillars. The overall stability of highwall depends upon these pillars as no other supports are provided in the entries. Web pillar differs from usual coal pillars in respect of w/h ratio being <3.0, with an exceptionally longer length compared to its width, to the tune of 50–500 m. Several empirical coal pillar strength equations developed for rectangular pillars are still being used with some modifications to adapt to web pillars. Review and analysis of these empirical approaches for determining web pillar strength along with a numerical approach for web pillar design are discussed in this paper. Their application to some Indian case studies is also discussed.     

Strain estimation from single forms of distorted fossils — A computer graphics and MATLAB approach

Most of the existing methods of strain analysis can estimate strain in a single form of distorted brachiopod, or trilobite provided independent evidence, such as the association of the fossil with cleavage and/or stretching lineation is available for inferring the direction of maximum principal strain. This article proposes a simple computer graphics based method and its MATLAB code that determine the minimum amount of strain in a single distorted fossil form even if data for inferring the maximum principal strain direction are lacking. Our method is a rapid computer-graphics alternative to some of the existing analytical methods. In a distorted fossil form of original bilateral symmetry, the relative senses of angular shears along the hinge line and the median line are mutually opposite to each other. It follows, therefore, that the maximum principal strain direction lies within the acute angle between the hinge and the median lines in the plane of the fossil. Using this principle, our method performs several simulations such that each simulation retrodeforms the distorted fossil by assuming a particular orientation, lying within the acute angle between the hinge line and the median line, as the potential direction of the maximum principal strain. Each simulation of retrodeformation yields a potential strain ratio. The distribution of all the potential strain ratios, obtained by assuming different orientations as the potential directions of the maximum strain, is typically a parabola-like curve with a distinct vertex that corresponds to the minimum amount of strain in the distorted fossil. An entirely computer graphical approach is somewhat time-intensive because it involves a large number of retrodeformational simulations. We, therefore, give a MATLAB code, namely, the Minstrain, that rapidly retrodeforms the fossil and determines the minimum strain with precision.     

Analysis of high-latitude current systems during the BEAR experiment based on the IZMEM model

Based on the model of large-scale high-latitude current systems developed at IZMIRAN (IZMEM model), it has been indicated that auroral electrojets and current systems concentrated in the polar cap were the generators of long-period geomagnetic variations during the BEAR experiment on the electromagnetic field registration at the Scandinavian test site on June 1–July 15, 1998. Precisely circumpolar current systems, prevailing in the high-latitude ionosphere during the periods of a quiet magnetospheric state, which is characterized by the presence of the northern vertical (B _z >0) component of the IMF vector in the solar wind, are responsible for the magnetotelluric fields.     

Prediction of tropical cyclogenesis in North Indian Ocean using Oceansat-2 scatterometer (OSCAT) winds

India’s polar orbiting satellite Oceansat-2 was launched by Indian Space Research Organisation on 23 September 2009 for applications pertaining to ocean studies and meteorology. The wind scatterometer aboard the Oceansat-2 satellite (OSCAT) covers 90 % of the global ocean within a day. In the present study, the OSCAT-derived wind fields are used to predict the genesis of tropical cyclones over the North Indian Ocean using a new technique based on data mining. The technique is based on the premise that there is some degree of similarity in low-level wind circulation among developing systems, which can be utilized to distinguish them from non-developing systems. This similarity of wind patterns has been measured quantitatively by computing the “matching index” between the given wind pattern and the wind signatures of developing systems available from the past observations. The algorithm is used to predict the tropical cyclogenesis of cyclones formed during the period 2009–11 in the North Indian Ocean. All the tropical disturbances that developed into tropical storms during the above period (2009–11), viz. PHYAN, WARD, LAILA, BANDU, PHET, GIRI, JAL, KEILA, FOUR, FIVE and THANE were predicted using the proposed method. The mean prediction lead time of the technique was 63 h. Probability of detection of the technique was 100 %, while the false alarm ratio was 2 %.     

Assessing seasonal precipitation trends in India using parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques

This paper provides an insight into the long-term trends of the four seasonal and annual precipitations in various climatological regions and sub-regions in India. The trends were useful to investigate whether Indian seasonal rainfall is changing in terms of magnitude or location-wise. Trends were assessed over the period of 1954?C2003 using parametric ordinary least square fits and non-parametric Mann?CKendall technique. The trend significance was tested at the 95% confidence level. Apart from the trends for individual climatological regions in India and the average for the whole of India, trends were also specifically determined for the possible smaller geographical areas in order to understand how different the trends would be from the bigger spatial scales. The smaller geographical regions consist of the whole southwestern continental state of Kerala. It was shown that there are decreasing trends in the spring and monsoon rainfall and increasing trends in the autumn and winter rainfalls. These changes are not always homogeneous over various regions, even in the very short scales implying a careful regional analysis would be necessary for drawing conclusions regarding agro-ecological or other local projects requiring change in rainfall information. Furthermore, the differences between the trend magnitudes and directions from the two different methods are significantly small and fall well within the significance limit for all the cases investigated in Indian regions (except where noted).     

Trace elements geochemistry and petrogenesis of basalt from the southern part of the East Pacific Rise

Trace element geochemistry of basalt samples collected from 6°S-24°S of the southern EPR, representing a super-fast spreading axis is discussed. Trace element data classify these basalts into Normal and Transitional types of MORB, however, LREE enrichment is also observed in few of them. Chondrite normalized REE data plots show highly fractionated nature of these lavas, suggesting their derivation from the primitive mantle source. Petrogenetic modeling of the data suggests variation in the solidus pressure (14–20 kb.) and temperature (1316–1425°C), where 15 to 20% partial melting of the mantle is accountable for the generation of the melt. The pressure and temperature conditions at the beginning of the mantle melting were high along higher latitudes (24°S of EPR), but it gradually lowered down in the lower latitudinal areas (6°S of EPR), supporting for the presence of passively rising upper mantle beneath the Southern EPR.