Enhanced reservoir-induced earthquakes in Koyna region, India, during 1993–95

Reservoir induced earthquakes began to occur in the vicinity of Shivajisagar Lake formed by Koyna Dam in Maharashtra state, western India, soon after its filling started in 1962. Induced earthquakes have continued to occur for the past 34 years in the vicinity of this reservoir, and so far a total of 10 earthquakes of M 5.0, over 100 of M 4 and about 100,000 of M 0.0 have occurred. Every year, following the rainy season, the water level in the reservoir rises and induced earthquakes occur. Seismic activity during 1967–68 was most intense when globally, the largest reservoir induced earthquake occurred on 10 December, 1967. Other years of intense seismic activity are 1973 and 1980. During 1986 another reservoir, Warna, some 20 km south of Koyna, began to be filled. The recent burst of seismic activity in Koyna-Warna region began in August, 1993, and was monitored with a close network of digital and analog seismographs. During August, 1993–December, 1995, 1,272 shocks of magnitude 2 were located, including two earthquakes of M 5.0 and M 5.4 on 8 December, 1993 and 1 February, 1994, respectively. Two parallel epicentral trends in NNE-SSW direction, one passing through Koyna and the other through Warna reservoir are delineated. The 1993 increase in seismicity has followed a loading of 44.15 m in Warna reservoir during 11 June 11, 1993 through August 4, 1993, with a maximum rate of filling being 16 m/week. The larger shocks have been found to be preceded by a precursory nucleation process.     

Production of Bauxite Certified Reference Material (BARC-B1201) for Nine Property Values (Al2O3, Fe2O3, SiO2, TiO2, V2O5, MnO,Cr2O3, MgO and LOI) Traceable to SI Units

The National Centre for Compositional Characterisation of Materials (NCCCM) / Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), India have produced an Indian origin bauxite certified reference material (CRM), referred to as BARC-B1201, certified for major (Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, SiO₂, TiO₂, loss on ignition - LOI) and trace contents (V₂O₅, MnO, Cr₂O₃, MgO). Characterisation was undertaken by strict adherence to ISO Guides. A method previously developed and validated in our laboratory, using single step bauxite dissolution and subsequent quantitation (of Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, SiO₂, TiO₂, V₂O_5, MnO, Cr₂O₃ and MgO) by ICP-AES (SSBD ICP-AES) was used for homogeneity studies and an inter-laboratory comparison exercise (ILCE) of the candidate CRM. LOI was determined by thermo-gravimetric analysis. Property values were assigned after an ILCE with participation from seventeen reputed government and private sector laboratories in India. The CRM was certified for nine property values: Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, SiO₂, TiO₂, V₂O_5, MnO, Cr₂O₃, MgO and LOI, which are traceable to SI units.     

Investigations of June 7, 1988 earthquake of magnitude 4.5 near Idukki Dam in Southern India

A mildly damaging earthquake of magnitude 4.5 and intensity VI occurred 20 km east of the Idukki reservoir, Kerala in southern India. With a network of 5 seismic stations, the aftershocks which continued for 3 1/2 months were monitored. The hypocentral parameters, b value,M ₁/M ₀ ratio indicate that this earthquake sequence does not qualify to be categorized as induced. The trend of the aftershocks, composite fault plane solution and local tectonics point towards reactivation of a NW-SE fault along the Kallar river. The existence of such a fault is also supported by gravity studies.     

Morphological aspects of a new type of counter electrojet event

The study describes the time and space morphologies of a rather new type of counter electrojet event on the basis of data from the excellent chain of magnetic and ionospheric observatories along the Indo-Russian longitude sector. Abnormally large westward currents are observed during almost the whole of the daytime hours on a series of days. These events do not form any vortices in the current system and do not apparently seem to be associated with tidal effects or any solar magnetosphere events or geomagnetic disturbances. The existence of a westward electric field over the equatorial ionosphere has been confirmed by the absence of an equatorial type of sporadic E in the ionograms at Thumba precisely during the periods when H at Trivandrum minus H at Alibag is negative. The equatorial F region anomaly was also absent on the counter electrojet day. Such counter electrojet events during the northern winter months of low solar activity years are suggested to be the result of the modified wind system in the ionosphere associated with stratospheric warming events.     

EM2INV — A finite difference based algorithm for two-dimensional inversion of geoelectromagnetic data

The paper presents an efficient finite difference based 2D-inversion algorithm, EM2INV, for geoelectromagnetic data. The special features of the algorithm are

Magnitude estimation of Koyna-Warna earthquakes, India

The paper presents the current state of magnitude estimation for Koyna earthquakes exceeding magnitude 3.0. We estimate coda duration magnitude from analogue seismograms recorded on the short period vertical (SPZ) seismometer at Hyderabad seismic observatory HYB and determine moment magnitude using very broad-band (VBB) data from the Geoscope station (HYB)and short period digital data from the local seismic network of NationalGeophysical Research Institute (NGRI) around the Koyna and Warna reservoirs.Firstly, the seismograms of 97 Koyna earthquakes exceeding magnitude 4.0 havebeen used to establish a new empirical coda duration magnitude scale which includes the higher order terms of log₁₀, where is the coda length in seconds. Four background noise levels (1, 2, 6 and 10 mm) areconsidered to estimate the coda duration. We found that the duration magnitudes for 1 mm background level are more stable than those for 2, 6 and 10 mm. The new coda duration magnitude (M_dnew) scale, for 1 mmlevel, is:M_dnew = –0.594 + 2.04 log₁₀ – 0.0435 (log₁₀)²The estimated M_dnew are compatible with the reported M_S values of the NGRI observatory and the m_b values of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). These magnitudes can be obtained within the standard deviation of ± 0.26 units of M_S (NGRI). A new relatively homogeneous catalog for Koyna earthquakes of M_dnew 4.0 is obtained. The momentmagnitudes for 34 Koyna-Warna events of M_dnew ranging from 3.0 to 5.4 have been estimated using two techniques. The first utilizes amplitudes of band-pass filtered (between 15 and 30 sec) velocity traces of moderate Koyna-Warna earthquakes of M_W} 4.4 to 5.4, we abbreviate the magnitude using M_A. The second is based on the S-wave spectrum of short period seismograms of local earthquakes (M_W < 3.8). Moment magnitudes estimated by spectral analysis mainly depend on the estimation of event's long-period spectral level and appears to saturate for moderate Koyna-Warnaearthquakes (M_W > 3.8). We recommend the use of both techniques whenever possible. The estimated moment magnitudes and M_dnew show an almost linear relationship with a standard deviation of ± 0.05.     

Scintillations ofvhf radio beacons from two satellites

Analysis of scintillations ofvhf beacons from two very closely spaced geostationary satellites shows that the drift of irregularities is generally westward at the initial stages and changes to eastward during the later part of the night when the irregularities are fully developed or decaying.