CLAST-LADEN MELT-ROCK FRAGMENT IN THE ADAMS COUNTY,COLORADO, H5 CHONDRITE

The Adams County, Colorado, H5 chondrite contains a lithic fragment, 1 cm in size, that is texturally and mineralogically quite different from the chondritic host. It is composed of: a groundmass of fine-grained euhedral to subhedral olivine (3–15 μm) and interstitial glass enclosing larger olivine and pyroxene grains (0.15-0.5 mm; about 15 vol %); an assemblage of enstatite grains (subfragment within) and an assemblage of olivine plus orthopyroxene (a second subfragment); and about 11 vol % grains of mixed troilite and nickel-iron metal. Analyses yielded these results: (i) olivine grains of the fragment groundmass have a compositional range (Fa_12–45) and most grains contain substantial CaO and Cr₂O₃ (～ 0.20 and 0.30 avg. wt%, respectively); interstitial glass has ～ 55 wt% SiO₂; (ii) larger olivine grains of the fragment are similarly high in CaO and Cr₂O₃ and also have a wide FeO/MgO range; one unusual pyroxene is an Mg-rich pigeonite; (iii) the metal is martensite in composition (11–14 wt% Ni); and (iv) major and trace element analyses by INAA indicate an H-group bulk composition for the entire 1 cm lithic fragment. On the basis of its texture and bulk and mineral compositions, the fragment is interpreted to represent unequilibrated H-group material that was partly melted by impact. The Ca- and Cr-enriched groundmass olivine and interstitial glass resulted from rapid crystallization of the chondritic melt. The Ca- and Cr-enriched larger silicate grains, including the enstatite sub-fragment and the pigeonite grain, are residual, unmelted clasts from the target material (this is supported by the presence of similar material in actual H3 chondrites). Further impact brecciation of the clast-laden melt material, and resultant impact-splashing accounts for the presence of the fragment in the H-group Adams County host and documents the coexistence of unequilibrated and equilibrated H-group material as surface regolith on one parent body.     

Textural studies on red sediments of Bhimunipatnam,Andhra Pradesh,east coast of India

The study presents the textural characteristics of late Quaternary red sediments of Bhimunipatnam to understand the process of formation of these sediments. The red sediments are classified into (a) yellow sediments (b) reddish brown sediments (c) brick red sediments and (d) light yellow sediments sequence in the vertical litho section. The yellow sediments, rests on the khondalite basement, comprises of medium grained, moderate to poorly sorted and positively skewed. The rounded pebble beds with trough cross bedding indicate high energy turbulent conditions of deposition. The fining upward sequences indicate sediments were deposited under decreasing energy conditions under fluvial regime.The iron bearing minerals like garnets and pyriboles have undergone chemical weathering under high oxidizing environment resulting in addition of silt and clay to the reddish brown and brick red sediments and concretions were formed by carbonate precipitation. These processes caused changes in the mean grain size and sorting nature of these sediments which are originally aeolian in origin. The light yellow sediments were medium to fine grained, well sorted and similar to modern dune sands in terms of textural parameters. These sediments were deposited under low oxidation environmental conditions and acquired yellow colour due to Fe hydroxides.     

Remote sensing and gis applications in the identification of aquaculture hotspots at village level

Interpretation of IRS LISS II and LISS III imagery has revealed the various landforms as well as land use/land cover features in a part of the Godavari delta coastal belt. A comparative analysis of geomorphological vs. land use/land cover maps suggested that the landforms exert a certain degree of control over human land use activities even in this monotonously plain area. Further, an analysis of the sequential imagery pertaining to 1992 and 2001 aimed at detecting the land use/land cover change has indicated that the aquaculture has phenomenally increased by 9,293.5 ha during the 9-year period. At the same time, the cropland which occupied about 29,104 ha in 1992 has been reduced to 19,153.9 ha by 2001 mainly due to the encroachment of aquaculture. Village level data on temporal variation in land use/land cover extracted through GIS analysis revealed that in 14 out of the total 39 villages in the area, the conversion of cropland into aquaculture ponds was more than 30% with the highest conversion rate of 89.8% in Gondi village. These fourteen villages, which are designated as ‘aquaculture hotspots’ are grouped into 4 priority classes based on the intensity of conversion.     

Mapping rice-fallow cropland areas for short-season grain legumes intensification in South Asia using MODIS 250 m time-series data

The goal of this study was to map rainfed and irrigated rice-fallow cropland areas across South Asia, using MODIS 250?m time-series data and identify where the farming system may be intensified by the inclusion of a short-season crop during the fallow period. Rice-fallow cropland areas are those areas where rice is grown during the kharif growing season (June–October), followed by a fallow during the rabi season (November–February). These cropland areas are not suitable for growing rabi-season rice due to their high water needs, but are suitable for a short -season (≤3 months), low water-consuming grain legumes such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), black gram, green gram, and lentils. Intensification (double-cropping) in this manner can improve smallholder farmer’s incomes and soil health via rich nitrogen-fixation legume crops as well as address food security challenges of ballooning populations without having to expand croplands. Several grain legumes, primarily chickpea, are increasingly grown across Asia as a source of income for smallholder farmers and at the same time providing rich and cheap source of protein that can improve the nutritional quality of diets in the region. The suitability of rainfed and irrigated rice-fallow croplands for grain legume cultivation across South Asia were defined by these identifiers: (a) rice crop is grown during the primary (kharif) crop growing season or during the north-west monsoon season (June–October); (b) same croplands are left fallow during the second (rabi) season or during the south-east monsoon season (November–February); and (c) ability to support low water-consuming, short-growing season (≤3 months) grain legumes (chickpea, black gram, green gram, and lentils) during rabi season. Existing irrigated or rainfed crops such as rice or wheat that were grown during kharif were not considered suitable for growing during the rabi season, because the moisture/water demand of these crops is too high. The study established cropland classes based on the every 16-day 250?m normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series for one year (June 2010–May 2011) of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, using spectral matching techniques (SMTs), and extensive field knowledge. Map accuracy was evaluated based on independent ground survey data as well as compared with available sub-national level statistics. The producers’ and users’ accuracies of the cropland fallow classes were between 75% and 82%. The overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient estimated for rice classes were 82% and 0.79, respectively. The analysis estimated approximately 22.3?Mha of suitable rice-fallow areas in South Asia, with 88.3% in India, 0.5% in Pakistan, 1.1% in Sri Lanka, 8.7% in Bangladesh, 1.4% in Nepal, and 0.02% in Bhutan. Decision-makers can target these areas for sustainable intensification of short-duration grain legumes.     

Analysis of the Tsunami of December 26, 2004, on the Kerala Coast of India—Part II: Arrival Times

The Tsunami of December 26, 2004, in the Indian Ocean arrived on the coast of Kerala in southwest India some three hours after the tsunami was generated. The tsunami activity persisted throughout that day and, in some locations, even into the early morning of the next day. Based on interviews with eye witnesses, arrival times of tsunami waves are presented here followed by some preliminary analysis of the results.     

A computer-aided framework for subsurface identification of white shark pigment patterns

Subsurface video footage can be used as a successful identification tool for various marine organisms; however, processing of such information has proven challenging. This study tests the use of automated software to assist with photo-identification of the great white shark Carcharodon carcharias in the region of Gansbaai, on the south coast of South Africa. A subsurface photo catalogue was created from underwater video footage. Single individuals were identified by using pigmentation patterns. From this catalogue, two images of the head for each individual were inserted into automated contour-recognition software (Interactive Individual Identification System Beta Contour 3.0). One image was used to search the database, the other served as a reference image. Identification was made by means of a contour, assigned using the software to the irregular border of grey and white on the shark's head. In total, 90 different contours were processed. The output provided ranks, where the first match would be a direct identification of the individual. The method proved to be accurate, in particular for high-quality images where 88.24% and 94.12%, respectively, were identified by two independent analysts as first match, and with all individuals identified within the top 10 matches. The inclusion of metadata improved accuracy and precision, allowing identification of even low-quality images.     

Agricultural cropland extent and areas of South Asia derived using Landsat satellite 30-m time-series big-data using random forest machine learning algorithms on the Google Earth Engine cloud

ABSTRACT

The South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan) has a staggering 900 million people (~43% of the population) who face food insecurity or severe food insecurity as per United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). The existing coarse-resolution (≥250-m) cropland maps lack precision in geo-location of individual farms and have low map accuracies. This also results in uncertainties in cropland areas calculated from such products. Thereby, the overarching goal of this study was to develop a high spatial resolution (30-m or better) baseline cropland extent product of South Asia for the year 2015 using Landsat satellite time-series big-data and machine learning algorithms (MLAs) on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform. To eliminate the impact of clouds, 10 time-composited Landsat bands (blue, green, red, NIR, SWIR1, SWIR2, Thermal, EVI, NDVI, NDWI) were derived for each of the three time-periods over 12 months (monsoon: Days of the Year (DOY) 151–300; winter: DOY 301–365 plus 1–60; and summer: DOY 61–150), taking the every 8-day data from Landsat-8 and 7 for the years 2013–2015, for a total of 30-bands plus global digital elevation model (GDEM) derived slope band. This 31-band mega-file big data-cube was composed for each of the five agro-ecological zones (AEZ’s) of South Asia and formed a baseline data for image classification and analysis. Knowledge-base for the Random Forest (RF) MLAs were developed using spatially well spread-out reference training data (N = 2179) in five AEZs. The classification was performed on GEE for each of the five AEZs using well-established knowledge-base and RF MLAs on the cloud. Map accuracies were measured using independent validation data (N = 1185). The survey showed that the South Asia cropland product had a producer’s accuracy of 89.9% (errors of omissions of 10.1%), user’s accuracy of 95.3% (errors of commission of 4.7%) and an overall accuracy of 88.7%. The National and sub-national (districts) areas computed from this cropland extent product explained 80-96% variability when compared with the National statistics of the South Asian Countries. The full-resolution imagery can be viewed at full-resolution, by zooming-in to any location in South Asia or the world, at www.croplands.org and the cropland products of South Asia downloaded from The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS): https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/gfsad30saafgircev001/.     

A simple dynamic method for the evaluation of the piezoelectric activity of rock samples

Laboratory determination of the piezoelectric activity (PEA) of geological samples is a prerequisite for the piezoelectric method of geophysical prospecting in the search for mineral deposits associated with quartz. The more commonly used laboratory methods, both static and dynamic, are not convenient from several considerations. A simple method for PEA estimation of rocks which retains the advantages of both dynamic as well as static methods while dispensing with their drawbacks is described in this paper. It is well suited for large and representative geological samples, while the experimental conditions are comparable to those met with under field conditions.     

Genesis of the Angra dos Reis and other achondritic meteorites

Major, minor and trace element abundances were determined in seven Angra dos Reis samples including whole rocks, fassaite (clinopyroxene), olivine and whitlockite separates via sequential instrumental neutron activation analysis. The chondritic normalized rare earth element (REE) abundance pattern for the Angra dos Reis clinopyroxene separates shows a concave downward shape with a small negative Eu anomaly. The strong fractionation between the light and the heavy REE in olivine separates could be attributed to the presence of islands of kirschsteinite in the olivines. The large-ion lithophile trace elements were highly enriched in the whitlockite separate as expected (e.g. La ≈ 370 ppm). The lower Hf and Sc abundances in whitlockite compared to that in the equilibrium “magma” could be the result of favorable partitioning of Hf and Sc in baddeleyite, which may have crystallized prior to or with whitlockite in the interstitial liquid. Comparison of whole rock with mineral separate data shows the presence of ～3% olivine, ～2.6% spinel and small amounts of metallic Ni-Fe and troilite in the whole rock.The trace element abundances in the derivative magma from which the Angra dos Reis clinopyroxene crystallized were estimated from the clinopyroxene data and the clinopyroxene mineral-liquid partition coefficients. From the derivative magma, the trace element abundances in the possible parent magmas were calculated by assuming that these parent magmas have undergone different degrees of clinopyroxene fractional crystallization to yield the Angra dos Reis derivative magma. Using the trace element abundances in these possible parent magmas, a two-stage crystal-liquid fractionation model with source material containing olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene is presented for the genesis of Angra dos Reis. Possible combinations of the degree of equilibrium non-modal partial melting, the source mineral composition and the initial element abundances required to generate possible Angra dos Reis parent magmas are calculated by the multilinear regression analysis method. Favorable solutions for this two-stage crystal-liquid fractionation model could be that Angra dos Reis crystallized at ～70% fractional crystallization of clinopyroxene from magmas generated by reasonable degrees of equilibrium partial melting (～7–10%) of deep-seated primitive source materials (olivine ～54–30%, orthopyroxene ～33–53%, and clinopyroxene ～13–17%) with trace element (Ba, Sr, REE and Sc) abundances ～3.5–4.7 × chondrites. These calculated REE abundances in the Angra dos Reis parent body are very similar to those suggested for the primordial moon (～3–5 × chondrites).Possible genetic relationships between Angra dos Reis and other achondrites, especially cumulate eucrites and nakhlites, are studied. Apparently, the unique Angra dos Reis could not be related to those achondrites by crystal-liquid fractionation of the same parent body.