Hydraulics of a partially penetrating well with skin zone in a confined aquifer

A steady/quasi-steady model is developed for predicting flow into a partially penetrating well with skin zone in a confined aquifer overlying an impervious layer. The model takes into account flow through the bottom of the wellbore, finite skin thickness and finite horizontal and vertical extent of the aquifer. Moreover, the solution can be easily extended to include the mixed-type boundary condition at the well face, where a Dirichlet in the form of a specified hydraulic head and a Neumann in the form of zero flux coexist at the same time at different portions of the well face. The validity of the proposed solution is tested by comparing a few results obtained from the developed model with corresponding results obtained by analytical and numerical means. The study shows that, among other factors remaining constant, both the horizontal and vertical extent of an artesian aquifer, thickness of the skin zone, bottom flow and conductivity contrast of the skin and formation zones, play an important part in deciding flow to a well dug in the aquifer, and hence these factors must be considered while analyzing the problem. The model proposed here can be used to estimate skin thickness as well as hydraulic conductivities of the skin and formation zones of a well with skin zone in an artesian aquifer underlain by an impervious layer by utilizing pumping test data falling in the steady or quasi-steady state of a typical pumping test. As the proposed solution is of a general nature in the sense that it can handle, apart from partial penetration and bottom flow, the finite size skin zone and finite horizontal and vertical extent of an artesian aquifer together with the mixed-type boundary condition at the well face, it is hoped that the predictions coming out of the model will be more realistic than those obtained using solutions developed with more stringent assumptions.     

Moment Magnitude (M W) and Local Magnitude (M L) Relationship for Earthquakes in Northeast India

An attempt has been made to examine an empirical relationship between moment magnitude (M _W) and local magnitude (M _L) for the earthquakes in the northeast Indian region. Some 364 earthquakes that were recorded during 1950–2009 are used in this study. Focal mechanism solutions of these earthquakes include 189 Harvard-CMT solutions (M _W?≥?4.0) for the period 1976–2009, 61 published solutions and 114 solutions obtained for the local earthquakes (2.0?≤?M _L?≤?5.0) recorded by a 27-station permanent broadband network during 2001–2009 in the region. The M _W–M _L relationships in seven selected zones of the region are determined by linear regression analysis. A significant variation in the M _W–M _L relationship and its zone specific dependence are reported here. It is found that M _W is equivalent to M _L with an average uncertainty of about 0.13 magnitude units. A single relationship is, however, not adequate to scale the entire northeast Indian region because of heterogeneous geologic and geotectonic environments where earthquakes occur due to collisions, subduction and complex intra-plate tectonics.     

Neotectonic study along mountain front of northeast Himalaya,Arunachal Pradesh,India

To study neotectonics, the structural and morphotectonic aspects are studied along a part of mountain front region of Northeast Himalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Unpaired river terraces are recognized near north of transverse Burai River exit, which is cut by an oblique fault. Across this fault, fluvial terraces are located at heights of 22.7 and 3 m, respectively, on the left and right banks. A water gap is formed along the river channel where the uplifted Middle Siwalik sandstone beds dipping 43° towards ENE direction, thrust over the Quaternary deposit consisting of boulders, cobbles, pebbles and sandy matrix. This river channel incised the bedrock across the intraformational Ramghat Thrust along which the rocks of the Middle Siwalik Formation thrust over the Upper Siwalik Formation. Recent reactivated fault activity is suggested north of the Himalayan Frontal Thrust that forms the youngest deforming front of the Himalaya. The uplifting along the stream channel is noticed extended for a distance of ~130 m and as a result the alluvial river channel became a bedrock river. The relative displacement of rocks is variable along the length of strike–slip faults developed later within the Ramghat Thrust zone. Longitudinal and Channel gradient profiles of Burai River exhibit knick points and increase in river gradient along the tapering ends of the profiles. The study suggests active out-of-sequence neotectonically active thrusting along the mountain front. Neotectonics combined with climatic factor during the Holocene times presents a virgin landscape environment for studying tectonic geomorphology.     

Geological appraisal of Ladakh and Tirit granitoids in the Indus- Shyok Suture Zones of northwest Himalaya,India

New field observations on granitoids and associated lithounits in some parts of Indus-Shyok Suture Zones have been documented in order to re-establish the geological relationships between various volcano-plutonic magmatic lithounits. Careful examination of outcrops and contact relationships between the various lithounits have pin-pointed the sequence of geological events. Field features of granitoids exposed along Leh-Saboo-Khardung_La suggest multiple pulses of mafic-felsic magma interactions (mingling to mixing) with almost 25% of the mafic to hybrid magma input in the evolution of the eastern part of Ladakh batholith. Along Khardung_La-Shyok-Diskit, thick sequence of volcanic lithounits is exposed, which dominantly consist of massive basaltic andesite, porphyritic andesite, dacite and rhyolite forming Khardung Formation. On the other hand Shyok Formation, dipping opposite to the Khardung Formation, composed predominantly of meta-sedimentary lithounits and subordinate amount of volcanic materials at present exposed level. Spectacular intrusive contacts of Ladakh granitoids with metavolcanics and meta-sedimentary country rocks of Shyok Formation near Diskit can be observed, which are manifested by ubiquitous xenoliths near the marginal parts. Although the nature of granitoid melt invasion into country-rocks was relatively winty, granitoid melt has produced leucogranite-pegmatite system because of devolatization and decompression effects. Frequent xenoliths of porphyritic andesite and dacite roof pendants are being reported in Tirit granitoids, which strongly suggest sub-volcanic emplacement of granitoid melt, extensive assimilation and roof collapse of overlying volcanic materials. It is more likely that the xenoliths hosted in Tirit granitoids belong to Shyok volcanics. It is suggested that multiple pulses of coeval mafic and felsic magmatism occurred extensively and emplaced at differential crustal levels.     

Geochemistry of biotites and host granitoid plutons from the Proterozoic Mahakoshal Belt,central India tectonic zone: implication for nature and tectonic setting of magmatism

The northern part of the central India tectonic zone (CITZ) is occupied by the Proterozoic Mahakoshal Belt, which is mainly comprised of granitoids and volcano-sedimentary lithounits. The granitoids (ca. 1880–1710 Ma) are exposed as small circular to elliptical-shaped, stock-like intrusive bodies, such as Nerueadamar granitoids (NG), Tumiya granitoids (TG), Jhirgadandi granitoids (JG), Dudhi granite gneiss (DG), Raspahari granitoids (RG), Katoli granitoids (KG), and Harnakachar granitoids (HG), collectively forming the granite gneissic complex (GGC). The geochemistry of biotites, host granitoids, and enclaves from these plutons has been investigated in order to understand the redox condition and likely tectonic affinity of host granitoids. The Al₂O₃–MgO–FeO^t contents and operated elemental substitution in biotites strongly suggest the diverse nature of host magmas such as calc-alkaline, metaluminous (I-type), peraluminous (S-type), and transitional between I- and S-types, which appear to have formed in subduction zone and syn-collisional tectonic settings. The transitional (I-S)-type granitoids inferred based on biotite compositions, however, represent both metaluminous (HG) and peraluminous (DG and KG) granitoids in terms of whole-rock molar A/CNK (Al₂O₃/CaO + Na₂O + K₂O) ratios. Ages of granitoid magmatism and its field association with contemporaneous volcano-sedimentary lithounits clearly mark the post-collisional tectonic setting, which contradicts the subduction-related tectonic setting inferred from biotites of JG and microgranular enclave (JE) hosted in JG. Whole-rock major and trace elements broadly suggest the existence of collision tectonics during the formation of granitoid plutons. The JG, KG, and DG contain a bt-Kf-mag-qtz assemblage, and their parental magmas evolved under moderate oxidizing environments (?O₂ = ?12.03 to ?13.27 bars). On the other hand, RG (bt-gt-Kf-pl-qtz), NG (bt-ms-Kf-pl-qtz), and TG (bt-ms-Kf-pl-qtz) represent pure crustal-derived magmas evolved in strongly reducing conditions formed under a syn-collisional tectonic setting as evident from their mineral assemblages and biotite and whole-rock compositions. Granitoid plutons of the Mahakoshal Belt were most likely formed during amalgamation of the Columbian supercontinent.     

Freeze-thaw performance of chemically stabilized natural and recycled highway materials

This article provides an overview of several previous studies that investigated the stiffness and strength performance of chemically stabilized roadway materials under winter conditions (freeze-thaw cycling). The objective of this research was to understand the behavior of different materials stabilized with different type of binders when they were subjected to freeze-thaw cycling. Nine different materials including natural soils (organic soil, clay, silt, sand, and road surface gravel), reclaimed pavement material, and recycled asphalt pavement stabilized with nine different binders (five different fly ashes, lime, cement, lime kiln dust, cement kiln dust) were discussed. This article investigated how the volume, resilient modulus and unconfined compressive strength of soils/materials stabilized with different binders change in response to freeze-thaw cycling. Overall, the review results indicate that the stiffness and strength of all stabilized materials decrease somewhat with freeze-thaw cycling. However, the reduced strength and stiffness of stabilized materials after freeze-thaw cycling was still higher than that of unstabilized-unfrozen original soils and materials. In addition, materials stabilized with cement kiln dust provided the best performance against freeze-thaw cycling.     

Comparative evaluation of freeze and thaw effect on strength of BEICP-stabilized silty sands and cement- and fly ash-stabilized soils

Acta Geotechnica - This paper addresses a soil bio-stabilization technique using bacterial enzyme-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (BEICP) as an alternative to previous conventional methods...     

Scaling relations of moment magnitude,local magnitude,and duration magnitude for earthquakes originated in northeast India

In this study, we aim to improve the scaling between the moment magnitude (M _W), local magnitude (M _L), and the duration magnitude (M _D) for 162 earthquakes in Shillong-Mikir plateau and its adjoining region of northeast India by extending the M _W estimates to lower magnitude earthquakes using spectral analysis of P-waves from vertical component seismograms. The M _W-M _L and M _W-M _D relationships are determined by linear regression analysis. It is found that, M _W values can be considered consistent with M _L and M _D, within 0.1 and 0.2 magnitude units respectively, in 90 % of the cases. The scaling relationships investigated comply well with similar relationships in other regions in the world and in other seismogenic areas in the northeast India region.