Groundwater arsenic contamination in Manipur,one of the seven North-Eastern Hill states of India: a future danger

Manipur State, with a population of 2.29 million, is one of the seven North-Eastern Hill states in India, and is severely affected by groundwater arsenic contamination. Manipur has nine districts out of which four are in Manipur Valley where 59% of the people live on 10% of the land. These four districts are all arsenic contaminated. We analysed water samples from 628 tubewells for arsenic out of an expected total 2,014 tubewells in the Manipur Valley. Analyzed samples, 63.3%, contained >10 μg/l of arsenic, 23.2% between 10 and 50 μg/l, and 40% >50 μg/l. The percentages of contaminated wells above 10 and 50 μg/l are higher than in other arsenic affected states and countries of the Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra (GMB) Plain. Unlike on the GMB plains, in Manipur there is no systematic relation between arsenic concentration and the depth of tubewells. The source of arsenic in GMB Plain is sediments derived from the Himalaya and surrounding mountains. North-Eastern Hill states were formed at late phase of Himalaya orogeny, and so it will be found in the future that groundwater arsenic contamination in the valleys of other North-Eastern Hill states. Arsenic contaminated aquifers in Manipur Valley are mainly located within the Newer Alluvium. In Manipur, the high rainfall and abundant surface water resources can be exploited to avoid repeating the mass arsenic poisoning that has occurred on the GMB plains.     

Unsteady hydromagnetic free convection flow past an accelerated infinite vertical porous plate

Unsteady laminar free convection flow of a viscous incompressible and electrically conducting fluid past an accelerated vertical infinite porous plate subjected to a suction velocity proportional to (time)^–1/2 is studied in presence of a uniform horizontal magnetic field. Results are discussed with the effects of the Grashof number Gr, and the magnetic field parameterM for Pr (the Prandtl number)=0.71 and 7.0 representing air and water respectively at 20 °C.Nomenclature a suction/injection parameter - C _p specific heat at constant pressure - B ₀ magnetic induction - g acceleration due to gravity - Gr Grashof number (vg(T'_w-T')/U ₀ ³ ) - K thermal conductivity - M magnetic field parameter (B ₀ ² _e ² /U ₀ ² ) - Pr Prandtl number (C _p/K) - T' temperature of the fluid near the plate - T' _w temperature of the plate - T' temperature of the fluid at infinity - t' time variable - t dimensionless time (t' U ₀ ² /v) - u non-dimensional velocity (u'/U ₀) - U' velocity of the plate - U dimensionless velocity of the plate (U'/U _o) - U ₀ reference velocity - v' ₀ suction velocity - v ₀ nondimensional suction velocity (v' ₀/U ₀)=at^–1/2 - v' normal velocity component - v dimensionless normal velocity - Ec Eckert number ((vU ₀)^2/3/C _p(T' _w -T' )) - T dimensionless temperature of the fluid near the plate ((T'-T' )/T' _w –T' )) - x',y' coordinates along and normal to the plate - y dimensionless ordinate (=y' U _o/v) - v kinematic viscosity - coefficient of volume expansion - electric conductivity of the fluid - similarity variable (y/2t) - _w density of the fluid at the plate - density of the fluid at infinity - ' skin-friction - dimensionless skin-friction - coefficient of viscosity - _e magnetic permeability     

Compositional variations,chemical weathering,and provenance of sands from the Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata beach areas,Bangladesh

The modal and chemical composition of sands from Cox’s Bazar beach (CBB) and Kuakata beach (KB) areas of Bangladesh has been investigated to infer their maturity, chemical weathering, and provenance signatures. The CBB and KB sands are typically high quartz, low feldspar, and lithic fragments, representing a recycled orogen source. Major element compositions of CBB sands are characterized by high SiO₂ (83.52–89.84 wt%) and low Al₂O₃ (4.39–6.39 wt%), whereas KB sands contained relatively low SiO₂ (63.28–79.14 wt%) and high Al₂O₃ (9.00–11.33 wt%) contents. The major, trace and rare earth element (REE) compositions of beach sands display comparable distribution patterns with enriched Th and SiO₂ for both sands relative to upper continental crust (UCC). Pb, Rb, Y, and Fe for KB sands are little higher than UCC and the rest of the elements are marked depleted for both suites reflecting destruction of plagioclase and K-feldspar during fluvial transportation. The CBB and KB sands are compositionally low mature to immature in nature subsequently classified as subarkose and litharenite, respectively. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns for CBB and KB sands show LREE enrichment and nearly flat HREE (La_N/Yb_N, 7.64–9.38 and 5.48–8.82, respectively) coupled with prominent Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*, 0.51–0.72 and 0.52–0.76, respectively), suggesting felsic source provenance. The provenance discrimination diagrams, immobile trace element ratios (Th/Sc, Zr/Sc, Ce/Sc, and Ti/Zr), and REE (∑LREE/HREE, Eu/Eu* and Gd_N/Yb_N) parameters indicate that CBB and KB sands were largely derived from felsic source rocks, with compositions close to average rhyolite, granodiorite, granite, and UCC.     

Liquefaction resistance evaluation of soils using artificial neural network for Dhaka City,Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - Soil liquefaction resistance evaluation is an important site investigation for seismically active areas. To minimize the loss of life and property, liquefaction hazard analysis is...     

Hydrogeochemical evaluation and statistical analysis of groundwater of Sylhet,north-eastern Bangladesh

To investigate the hydrogeochemical characteristics of groundwater 23 shallow, 30 intermediate and 38 deep wells samples were collected from Sylhet district of Bangladesh, and analyzed for temperature, pH, Eh, EC,DO, DOC, Na^+, K^+, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl^-, SO_4^2-, NO_3^-,HCO_3^-, SiO_2^-, Fe, Mn and As. Besides, 12 surface water samples from Surma and Kushiyara Rivers were also collected and analyzed to understand the influence into aquifers. Results revealed that, most of the groundwater samples are acidic in nature, and Na–HCO_3 is the dominant groundwater type. The mean value of temperature, EC,Na^+, K^+, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl^-, NO_3^- and SO_4^2- were found within the range of permissible limits, while most of the samples exceeds the allowable limits of Fe, Mn and As concentrations. However, relatively higher concentration of Fe and Mn were found in deep water samples and reverse trend was found in case of As. The mean concentrations of As in shallow, intermediate and deep wells were 39.3, 25.3and 21.4 lg/L respectively, which varied from 0.03 to148 lg/L. From spatial distribution, it was found that Fe,Mn and As concentrations are high but patchy in northern,north-western, and south-western part of Sylhet region. The most influential geochemical process in study area were identified as silicate weathering, characterized by active cation exchange process and carbonate weathering, which thereby can enhance the elemental concentrations in groundwater. Pearson's correlation matrix, principal component analysis and cluster analysis were also employed to evaluate the controlling factors, and it was found that, both natural and anthropogenic sources were influencing the groundwater chemistry of the aquifers. However, surface water has no significant role to contaminate the aquifers,rather geogenic factors affecting the trace elemental contamination. Thus it is expected that, outcomes of this study will provide useful insights for future groundwater monitoring and management of the study area.