Tsunami Intensity Mapping Along the Coast of Tamilnadu (India) During the Deadliest Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004

This paper presents tsunami intensity mapping and damage patterns along the surveyed coast of Tamilnadu (India) of the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. The tsunami caused severe damage and claimed many victims in the coastal areas of eleven countries bordering the Indian Ocean. A twelve-stage tsunami intensity scale proposed by Papadopoulos and Imamura (2001) was followed to assign the intensity at the visited localities. Along the coast of the Indian mainland, tsunami damage sustained exclusively. Most severe damage was observed in Nagapattinam Beach, Nabiyarnagar, Vellaipalyam, and the Nagapattinam Port of Nagapattinum District on the east coast and Keelamanakudy village of Kanyakumari District on the western coast of Tamilnadu. The maximum assigned tsunami intensity was X+ at these localities. Minimum intensity V⁺ was received along the coast of Thanjavur, Puddukkotai and Ramnathpuram Districts in Palk Strait. The general observation reported by many people was that the first arrival was a tsunami crest. The largest tsunami waves were first arrivals on the eastern coast and the second arrivals on the western coast. Along the coast, people were unaware of the tsunami, and no anomalous behavior of ocean animals was reported. Good correlation was observed between the severity of damage and the presence of shadow zone of Sri Lanka, reflected waves from Sri Lanka and the Maldives Islands, variation in the width of the continental shelf, elevation of the coast and the presence of breakwaters. The presence of medu (naturally elevated landmass very close to the sea shore and elongated parallel to the coast) reduced the impact of the tsunami on the built environment.     

Serpentinization and the inorganic synthesis of H2 in planetary surfaces

The near-surface inorganic synthesis of molecular hydrogen (H₂) is a fundamental process relevant to the origins and to the sustenance of early life on Earth and potentially other planets. Hydrogen production through the decomposition of water is thought to be a principal reaction that occurs during hydrothermal alteration of olivine, an iron-magnesium silicate abundant near planetary surfaces. We demonstrate that copious amounts of H₂ are produced only when the olivine undergoing alteration (serpentinization) contains 1 to 50 mol% iron over a variety of planetary surface P-T conditions. This suggests that extrasolar Earth-like planets that are hosted by a star with iron contents up to two times the solar value could support life provided they are hydrothermally active and fall within the habitable zone around the star.     

Delineation and Characterization of Waterlogged Salt Affected Soils in IGNP Using Remote Sensing and GIS

The India Remote Sensing data on 1:50,000 scale revealed the occurrence of permanent waterlogging in low-lying flats and depressions of the Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojona (IGNP) command area. Such data also indicated seasonal dynamics of waterlogging and soil salinization (Salt efflorescence/crusting) in irrigated areas. Mixed spectral signatures of high moisture content and poor crop stand indicated the presence of shallow aquifers close to the main canal. Digital analysis facilitated some indicators for segregating such land uses, limited to optical range. Ground truth study found patchy crop stand, moist soil profile and subsurface soil salinization indicating the presence of high water table (<1.5 m). It also found fluctuating (1.5–6.0 m) water table with poor vegetative growth indicating areas sensitive to waterlogging These were classified as potential waterlogging. Moderate to high soil salinity was found at surface and at the control section (0.2–0.8 m) of soil profiles indicating initiation of secondary salinization. Coarse to medium soil texture facilitated capillary rise of salts with the advancing water table in irrigated zone. The presence of fine textured and impermeable calcium carbonate layers at a depth below the surface enhanced waterlogging and rise of water table. The preponderance of chlorides and sulfates of sodium, calcium and magnesium was found in the salinized areas. The quality of ponded water was extremely poor and unfit for its reuse. The ground water was saline in some areas but normally lies within the prescribed limit. The quality of drainage water was poor in saline depression and unsuitable for reuse. These were moderate in other areas suggesting its safe reuse if mixed with good quality water. Suitable soil and water management practices are necessary for sustainable crop production in the irrigated areas     

Geology and tectonic implications of tourmaline bearing leucogranite of Bastipadu,Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh,India

Tourmaline bearing leucogranite occurs as a pluton with pegmatitic veins intruding the Archaean granodiorite in the Bastipadu area, Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. We present field and petrographic relations, mineral chemistry and geochemical data for the leucogranite. It is essentially a two-mica granite, composed of quartz, perthite, microcline, albite, tourmaline and muscovite along with minor biotite and titanite. The euhedral tourmalines are regularly distributed in the rock. The geochemical studies show that the leucogranite is calc-alkaline, peraluminous to metaluminous which formed in a syn-collisional to volcanic arc-related setting. It displays strong ‘S’ type signatures with high K/Na ratios, moderately fractionated light rare earth elements, relatively flat heavy rare earth elements with \(\hbox {[Ce/Yb]}_\mathrm{N} \le 27.8\) and a strong negative Eu anomaly. The geochemical characteristics indicate that the leucogranite melt might have been generated from partial melting of metasediments. Electron probe microanalyser data show the presence of alkali group tourmaline in leucogranite represented by schorl and dravite. Tourmaline compositions plot in the Li-poor granitoids and associated pegmatites and aplites and metapelites/metasammites fields. Partial melting of boron-enriched source rocks is linked with the development of tourmalines in the leucogranite.     

Hydromorphogeological studies around Pinjaur-Morni-Kala Amb area,Ambala district (Haryana), and Sirmur district (Himachal Pradesh)

Parts of Indogangetic alluvial plain and southern part of Simla-Himalayas were studied to evaluate the ground water potential zones through hydromorphogeological mapping using various remotely sensed data. Black and white panchromatic aerial photographs were mainly used to differentiate different lithounits whereas MSS and TM FCC were used to delineate the major trends of lineaments. IRS LISS-II CCT was used for digitally generating enhanced False Colour Composite, Principal Component and Filtered products for better correlative studies. Different rocks of Subathu and Siwalik groups form the structural hills of high to low relief which are mainly runoff zones. The alluvial fan forming piedmont zone has been further subdivided into upper and lower piedmont zones. In order to ascertain ground water movement and occurrence, the infiltration and discharge zones were established. Other local potential discharge zones were also considered. Ground water occurs under semi-confined to confined conditions and good prospects of potable water are present in the area.     

Some aspects of coupled FEBEM analysis of underground openings

The finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM) are two well established numerical methods used for the analysis of underground openings. The advantages of both the methods are utilized by adopting FEBEM in which finite elements are coupled with boundary elements. A coupling procedure is presented in this paper. In using FEBEM, the effect of the location of interface boundary between finite element and boundary element regions, effect of Poisson's ratio and effect of stress ratio are discussed. It is shown that Poisson's ratio and stress ratio have significant effect on the accuracy of the results. Different discretization schemes are discussed to study their effect on accuracy and computation time. The use of different material properties in the FE region is presented. A comparative study is made with FEM for all the cases. It is shown that use of FEBEM is more advantageous than FEM.     

Stresses and displacements in an elastic mass due to distributed loading by discretization technique

Numerical solutions have been obtained for stresses and displacements in a linear elastic half space due to distributed loads of circular, rectangular and elliptical shapes. The technique primarily involves use of a multi-dimensional numerical integration technique to integrate point load solutions over the distributed loading after discretizing the area into a finite number of elements. Both uniform vertical and shear loads have been considered as well as vertical conical loads and inward shear loads. The technique evolved facilitates the determination of stresses and displacements by the use of mini-computers and is neither as tedious and cumbersome as the use of tables and charts nor as costly as FEM solutions. A detailed comparison has been presented between the results obtained by the numerical solutions and those of the existing analytical solutions wherever they are available. It is found that the agreement between the two is within one per cent for displacements at all depths for the different cases studied. The matching is also good in the case of stresses, except at shallow depths.