Rock slope instability assessment using spatially distributed structural orientation data in Darjeeling Himalaya (India)

We discuss a geographic information system (GIS)‐based methodology for rock slope instability assessment based on geometrical relationships between topographic slopes and structural discontinuities in rocks. The methodology involves (a) regionalization of point observations of orientations (azimuth and dip) of structural discontinuities in rocks in order to generate a digital structural model (DStM), (b) testing the kinematical possibility of specific modes of rock slope failures by integrating DStMs and digital elevation model (DEM)‐derived slope and aspect data and (c) computation of stability scenarios with respect to identified rock slope failure modes. We tested the methodology in an area of 90 km² in Darjeeling Himalaya (India) and in a small portion (9 km²) within this area with higher density of field structural orientation data. The results of the study show better classification of rock slope instability in the smaller area with respect to known occurrences of deep‐seated rockslides than with respect to shallow translational rockslides, implying that structural control is more important for deep‐seated rockslides than for shallow translational rockslides. Results of scenario‐based analysis show that, in rock slopes classified to be unstable, stress‐induced rock slope instability tends to increase with increasing level of water saturation. The study demonstrates the usefulness of spatially distributed data of orientations of structural discontinuities in rocks for medium‐ to small‐scale classification of rock slope instability in mountainous terrains. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sedimentologic attributes of the Proterozoic siliciclastic packages of the Garhwal–Kumaun Lesser Himalaya,India: Implication for their relationship and palaeobasinal conditions

The present work addresses the long-standing issues on the characterization aspect of the Proterozoic siliciclastic successions exposed in the central part of the Lesser Himalaya, restricted between the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Central Thrust (MCT). Geologic, sedimentologic, and petrographic study divides the Lesser Himalaya in two zones- northern Palaeo- Mesoproterozoic Inner Lesser Himalayan (ILH) and southern Neoproterozoic Outer Lesser Himalayan (OLH) zones. The major lithofacies recognized from the zones are - (i) coarse grained siliciclastic (CGS), (ii) interbedded medium and fine-grained siliciclastic (IMFS), (iii) argillite (ARG), and (iv) siliciclastic–argillite rhythmites (SAR). Amongst all these facies, the nearshore IMFS facies shows consistent presence in both OLH and ILH zones. From the facies distribution pattern, a northwest–southeasterly trending palaeo- shoreline has been envisaged. The CGS facies in the ILH hints towards an alluvial fan setting during 1.8 Ga rifting phase associated with penecontemporaneous basic magmatism. Compositionally, the siliciclastics of both the zones (ILH and OLH) are arenite and wacke types with minimal variation in their detrital proportions, derived from the early Proterozoic (between 2.4-1.6Ga) Aravalli-Delhi Supergroup provenance. Nearly matching types and content of detrital modes and the lithofacies pattern of the ILH and OLH siliciclastics probably conclude the derivation from the rising (nearby) Aravalli-Delhi orogen and deposition in a foreland like situation.     

Earthquake hazard assessment through geospatial model and development of EaHaAsTo tool for visualization: an integrated geological and geoinformatics approach

An earthquake is a natural phenomenon which is very frequent in Himalayan region in India. In southern peninsula India, the spatial occurrence of earthquake is irregular, whereas the northeastern, the north and the northwestern Himalayan parts of India are subjected to regular occurrences of earthquakes as they mark the boundary of the Eurasian and the Indian Plate. Hence, it is important to study and develop spatial model and information tool to understand the seismic phenomenon. The geoinformatic technique plays a significant role in the analysis of geodatabase to study the natural disaster and hazard assessment. The main aim of the present study is to develop geospatial model based on earthquake hazard assessment tool (EaHaAsTo) through integrated geological and geoinformatic techniques to better understand the earthquake occurrences zones. The spatial and non-spatial data were collected and integrated in a GIS to prepare geospatial databases. The thematic and quantitative databases were generated, and analysis was carried out to understand the seismic characteristics of the study area. The geospatial model was developed by integrating thematic databases and geospatial analyzed using weighted linear combination method. Finally, the GIS based on customized EaHaAsTo was developed to visualize the output of the model in qualitative and quantitative forms.     

Darkness on the Edge of Town: Mapping Urban and Peri-Urban Australia Using Nighttime Satellite Imagery

This article explores the use of nighttime satellite imagery for mapping urban and peri-urban areas of Australia. A population-weighted measure of urban sprawl is used to characterize relative levels of sprawl for Australia's urban areas. In addition, the expansive areas of low light surrounding most major metropolitan areas are used to map the urban–bush interface of exurban land use. Our findings suggest that 82 percent of the Australian population lives in urban areas, 15 percent live in peri-urban or exurban areas, and 3 percent live in rural areas. This represents a significantly more concentrated human settlement pattern than presently exists in the United States.     

Remote sensing for analysis of ground water availability in an area with long unplanned mining history

Jharia coalfield, the chief storehouse of prime coking coal in India, has lost the original controls of ground water conditions. Here, ground water level is dependent mainly upon the presently existing topography, geomorphic features such as abandoned channels, confluence of channels, losing streams etc. and human-induced recharge conditions. These features are reflected by the soil moisture content and presence of vegetative cover. The ground water map of Jharia coalfield has been prepared from the aerial photographs using the grey tone and vegetation cover as the criteria. The observations are supported with field checks. The ground water map prepared will be very much useful to the society because some parts of the coalfield suffer from severe drought during summer.     

Modelling bivariate rainfall distribution and generating bivariate correlated rainfall data in neighbouring meteorological subdivisions using copula

The rainfall patterns of neighbouring meteorological subdivisions of India are similar because of similar climatological and geographical characteristics. Analysing the rainfall pattern separately for these meteorological subdivisions may not always capture the correlation and tail dependence. Furthermore, generating the multivariate rainfall data separately may not preserve the correlation. In this study, copula method is used to derive the bivariate distribution of monsoon rainfall in neighbouring meteorological subdivisions. Different Archimedean copulas are used for this purpose and the best copula is selected based on nonparametric test and tail dependence coefficient. The fitted copula is then applied to derive the bivariate distribution, joint return period and conditional distribution. Bivariate rainfall data is generated with the fitted copula and it is observed with the increase of sample size, the generated data is able to capture the correlation as well as tail dependence. The methodology is demonstrated with the case study of two neighbouring meteorological subdivisions of North‐East India: Assam and Meghalaya meteorological subdivision and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura meteorological subdivision. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CCD photometry inVRI bands of the galactic cluster NGC 2818

bdAbstract The open cluster NGC 2818 containing a planetary nebula has been observed inVRI bands using the CCD system at prime focus of the 2.3-metre Vainu Bappu Telescope. The study extending to starsV ∼ 21 magnitude establishes the distance modulus as(m-M) ₀ = 12.9 ±0.1 for the cluster. Based on the fitting of theoretical isochrones computed for solar metallicity, an age of 5(±1) × 10₈ years has been assigned to the cluster. Association of the planetary nebula with the cluster indicates that the progenitor mass of the planetary nebula on the main sequence is ≥2.5M_⊙ Based on observations obtained with the Vainu Bappu Telescope.     

Computation of the seismic stability of rock wedges

Summary Newmark's concept of computing the permanent displacement under seismic loads has been combined with the conventional limit equilibrium analysis to compute the displacements of a rock wedge. The rock wedge formed by the intersecting planes may or may not have a tension crack in the upper slope surface. As the static analysis of a rock wedge is available from the literature, only the seismic problem is treated theoretically in more details.A computer program has been developed to compute the displacements from the digitised input data of the acceleration-time-history. The program can take into account the water pressure on the intersecting planes and on the planes of the tension crack. The effect of rock anchors if present is also taken care of in addition to static surcharge loads. The program calculates the conventional static factor of safety, remaining resistance against sliding, the critical acceleration, exciting force, relative velocity with time and the cumulative displacements.Two model examples are presented: one with simple sinusoidal acceleration and the other one with actual earthquake data considering the different systems of forces acting on the wedge. The results are critically discussed with respect to the different parameters e. g. anchor forces, water pressure and cohesion influencing the magnitude of displacements under seismic loads. It is shown that the critical acceleration is a better index for the seismic stability than the conventional factor of safety.The critical acceleration presented in this paper serves as a very handy tool for a site engineer to get the first hand information about the stability of the wedge for a given acceleration-time-history without going into the details of dynamic analysis.Notations A, B Inclined intersecting planes - C, D Geometric points on the intersection ofA andB - a _cr Critical acceleration - a _h Horizontal acceleration - a _v Vertical acceleration - a _r Relative acceleration of the wedge - DF Driving force - DF _dyn Dynamic driving force - DF _st Static driving force - FS Factor of safety - g Acceleration due to gravity - m Mass of the wedge - RF Resisting force - RF _dyn Dynamic resisting force - RF _st Static resisting force - RS Remaining resisting force against sliding - RS _dyn Total seismic induced force - RS _st Remaining static resisting force against sliding - s _r Cumulative relative displacement of the wedge - TRS Total remaining resisting force against sliding - v _r Relative velocity of the wedge - W Weight of the wedge - W _A ,W _B Weight of the wedge in the planeA andB - Dip of line of intersection of the planesA andB - Average friction angle - _A , _B Friction angle of planeA andB - I, II, III, IV Points in the curve shown in Fig. 6     

Application of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for flood risk assessment: a case study in Malda district of West Bengal,India

A field experiment was conducted from 2 May 2010 to 1 May 2012 in the Gurbantunggut Desert, the second largest desert in China, to investigate saltation activity and its threshold velocity, and their relations with atmospheric and soil conditions. The results showed that saltation activity occurred more frequently during 08:00–20:00 Local Standard Time in spring and summer, with air temperatures between 20.0 and 29.0 °C, water vapor pressures between 0.6 and 0.9 kPa, soil temperatures between 25.0 and 30.0 °C, and a soil moisture lower than 0.04 m³/m³. At 2 m height, the saltation threshold velocity varied between 11.1 and 13.9 m/s, with a mean of 12.5 m/s. Threshold velocity showed clear seasonal variations in the following sequence: spring (11.7 m/s) < autumn (12.7 m/s) < summer (13.6 m/s). Affected by soil conditions, aeolian sand transport was weak, with an average annual aeolian sand that transported across a section (1.0 m × 2.0 m) of less than 6.0 kg.