Impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami along the Tamil Nadu coastline: field survey review and numerical simulations

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami had a significant impact on the Tamil Nadu coast in India. In this paper, a range of field survey data collected by different survey teams available in literature have been analyzed and compiled to serve as a basis for validation of numerical tsunami simulations. The individual field surveys reveal a significant scatter in the run-up data between the different teams, which point out that the uncertainty in these data must be taken into account when using them for validation. The inundation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is simulated for the coastlines of Chennai and Nagapattinam based on high-resolution topography. Different spatially uniform Manning friction as well as heterogeneous friction maps is used. Overall, the simulation results showed a good agreement with the field observations, but there are also some observed spatial variability in the goodness of the fit between the data and simulations. In some areas, clear discrepancies are found. The results obtained using detailed land use maps including spatially variable friction are not significantly more accurate than those employing spatially constant values. For most areas, parameters indicating relatively low friction provided best match with the observations. This may also suggest that the inundation is often strongly governed by local variations in topography.     

Wave motion due to impulsive twist on the surface

Summary Wave motion due to two kinds of impulsive twist on the surface has been discussed. The discontinuous nature of solution has been obtained. A function-theoretic approach has been made for solving the problem.     

Coagulant proteins identified in Mustard: a potential water treatment agent

The use of natural coagulant protein in drinking water treatment has been discussed for a long time, though the method is still not in practice, probably due to limited knowledge and availability of material. In the present work, different Mustard varieties were tested for the presence of coagulant protein compared with Moringa seed extract and their potential application in water treatment. The coagulation activity of the protein extract was measured using synthetic clay solution as well as water from pond. The protein content was determined by Bradford method, molecular mass determined by Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and peptide sequence was analyzed by Mass spectrometry. Extract of Mustard (large) and Moringa seed showed coagulation activity of ?70 and ?85 % after 90 min, respectively. Interestingly, seed extracts from other Mustard varieties had coagulation activity after heat activation at 95 °C for 5 h. However, the coagulation activity of Mustard seed extract against turbid pond water was higher (?60 %) compared to Moringa seed extract (?50 %). The peptide sequence analysis of 6.5 and 9 kDa proteins was found to be homologous to Moringa coagulant protein and napin3, respectively. To our knowledge, this could be the first report on Mustard seed having coagulant protein. The coagulation activity of Mustard (large) against highly turbid pond water suggested that it could be a potential natural coagulant for water treatment.     

Automated extraction of watershed boundary and drainage network from SRTM and comparison with Survey of India toposheet

The recent development of digital representation has stimulated the development of automatic extraction of topographic and hydrologic information from digital elevation model input, using geographic information system (GIS) and hydrologic models that integrate multiple databases within a minimal time. The objective of this investigation is to compare the drainage extracted from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data with the drainage digitized from topographic data (1:50,000) and also to draw attention to the functions of an add-on tool in ArcGIS 9.2 (Arc Hydro v.2) of Kuttiyadi River basin. The analysis reveals that the watershed extracted from the SRTM digital elevation model (DEM) (90 m resolution) is having an area of 668 km² and that from toposheet is 676 km². The river mouth in the drainage network from the SRTM DEM is found to be shifted to the northern side from where it actually exists. The drainage network from SRTM DEM at stream threshold 15 (0.0002 % of maximum flow accumulation) is delivering best results than the other threshold value in comparison with the drainage pattern derived from toposheets. The study reveals the importance, reliability, and quaintness of drainage network and watershed derived from the SRTM using the Arc Hydro Tool, an extension for Environmental Systems Research Institute ArcGIS. The advantage of the Arc Hydro Tool is that it would help a novice with little GIS knowledge to run the model to obtain watershed and drainage network.     

River sinuosity in a humid tropical river basin,south west coast of India

The variability in ground water potential at different regions of the Meenachil River basin and the remarkable distribution of palaeodeposit of sand at its middle to lower reaches have led to interpret the sinuosity indexes of the main channel as well as the tributaries of the River for elucidating the relationship between mathematical expressions and filed observations. The measurement of digital elevation model-derived river sinuosity was carried out for 846 km² of the basin area of Meenachil River. The drainage networks of 10 major sub-watersheds and four mini-watersheds were delineated using remote sensing data—geocoded false colour composite of Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS)-1D (LISS III) data with a spatial resolution of 23.5 m—coupled with the Survey of India toposheets (1:50,000). The calculation of the sinuosity indexes were carried out using Arc GIS (8.3 version) software. Hydraulic sinuosity indexes, topographic sinuosity index and standard sinuosity index were calculated. The study depicts the remarkable correlation between theoretical data sets with field observations and the influence of tectonic control on river planforms. Three structurally controlled regions of Meenachil River basin were established using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System.     

Displacement due to impulsive loadings on the surface of elastic half-space

Summary The displacement due to vertical impulsive load has been obtained by function theoretic method. Graphs have been drawn for horizontal as well as for vertical displacement. It has been shown thatPekeris's [12]²) method is easier to apply than that ofCagniard [2] for the same purpose.     

On uniqueness of dispersion curve of surface love-waves

Summary Possibility of non-uniqueness of dispersion curve for various distributions of physical properties has been discussed. It has been concluded that number of layers in a model should be moderate in order to give a representative picture.