Recent Sea Level and Sea Surface Temperature Trends Along the Bangladesh Coast in Relation to the Frequency of Intense Cyclones

The French Transportable Laser Ranging System (FTLRS) was deployed in the calibration site of satellite radar altimeters in Corsica over the 2002 and 2005 campaigns. The paper describes the different steps of SLR data processing. The average arcs RMS obtained are about 1–2 cm for Lageos-1&;-2, Starlette and Stella satellites; it is shown that the best results of satellite orbits determination and geocentric positioning are obtained with Eigen-Grace03s gravity model. The difference of FTLRS absolute 3D positioning, between 2002 and 2005, of about 7.7 mm (i.e., 2.6 mm/yr) is less than residual errors of ITRF2005 velocities (of about 4.3 mm/yr).     

Gluon polarization at finite temperature and density

We calculate the gluon self-mass and the QCD coupling constant at finite temperature in the real-time formalism up to the first loop level. The expressions are derived in a form that is valid for all temperature ranges in QCD. Using these results the dynamically generated mass of gluons and the plasma screening length can be determined from their effective potential.     

Rainfall-induced landslide in the active frontal fold–thrust belt of Northwestern Himalaya,Jammu: dynamics inferred by geological evidences and Ground Penetrating Radar

Landslides are the most established geological hazards in the frontal fold–thrust belt of Northwestern Himalaya comprising of Siwaliks and Murree strata. The continuous rainfall from 2 to 6 September, 2014 caused a massive landslide at village Sadal in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir state. The landslide occurred in the early morning of September 6, 2014, destroying entire Sadal habitation comprising 45 houses, and killing 41 people and more than 500 domestic animals. Google earth images of pre and post-landslide events along with the field measurements show the kinematics of upper and lower parts of the slide. Horizontal and vertical components of displacement and mode of failure suggest the landslide as of complex nature. The shallow subsurface geophysical imaging through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey shows the failure plane composed of friable mudstone bed underlain by massive mudstone and overlain by cross-bedded sandstone. The depth of debris material above the failure plane ranges from 6 m at Site S1a-b to 10 m at Site-S2b and 20 m at Site S3a. The velocity analysis of Site-3 shows four thick layers represented from bottom to surface by L1—sandstone (V?=?0.16 m/ns, travel time?=?356.36 ns), L2—mudstone (V?=?0.17 m/ns, travel time?=?288.48 ns), L3—massive mudstone (V?=?0.19 m/ns, travel time 220.68 ns), and L4—cross-laminated sandstone (V?=?0.20 m/ns, travel time?=?77.58 ns) overlaying the failure plane. The study shows the landslide occur along the western limb of a fold identified during the present work. We mapped an old landslide on the same limb which shows 5–6 m-thick subsurface debris material with thick rock fragments involved in the landslide process. The detailed geological and geophysical investigations suggest that both the landslides were triggered by extreme rain fall events.     

Estimation of Anthropogenic Influences in Groundwater Quality of Shallow Aquifers of Moradabad City,Western Uttar Pradesh

The present work has been carried out in Moradabad, one of the important cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The main focus of the study is to estimate the extent of anthropogenic contamination in shallow groundwater of the area. For this purpose, total 188 groundwater samples collected from handpumps in pre- and post monsoon period of 2012 and 2013 (47 in each season) were analyzed for physico-chemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, major cations (Ca, Mg, Na, and K) and anions (Cl, HCO₃, SO₄, NO₃ and F). The results of the analysis suggested that groundwater is slightly alkaline, hard to very hard in nature, average TDS values were found to be more than 1000 mg/l, which gives a clear evidence of anthropogenic influences. To estimate the extent of contamination, the information on relatively unpolluted groundwater systems occurring in different terrains including Ganga plain where the groundwater was relatively unaffected by anthropogenic activities is used. The estimated pristine chemical composition of groundwater of different terrains used in the present study was compared with the groundwater of Moradabad city. This comparison showed that Moradabad city with the highest Na, K, Cl, SO₄ and NO₃ values being 440 mg/l, 96 mg/l, 537 mg/l, 537 mg/ l and 244 mg/l, respectively, is one of the most polluted urban centres within the Ganga plain. It may be suggested that values of > 50 mg/l for Na, > 10 mg/l for K, > 25 mg/l for Cl, > 50 mg/l for SO₄ and > 10 mg/l for NO₃ have their respective sources in anthropogenic activities such as agricultural in the peripheral region, human and animal wastes, leakages from drains and septic tanks, landfill leachates and industrial effluents.     

Comparative Analysis of Salt Structures in the Southern North Sea,Dutch Offshore,the Netherlands

Geotectonics - Comparative analysis of three randomly chosen salt structures (diapir A, diapir B and diapir C) of the Southern North Sea has been presented through the interpretation and...     

Monsoonal changes inferred from the Middle to Late Holocene sediments off Landfall Island,North Andaman

In this paper, sediment texture, clay mineral composition, and δ ¹⁸O data on Globigerinoides ruber of a sediment core collected from a water depth of 250 m near Landfall Island, Bay of Bengal, is presented to understand paleoenvironmental shifts during the Mid–Late Holocene period. From the sediment core, five organic carbon-rich samples were radiocarbon dated and the reservoir-corrected ages range from 6,078 to 1,658 years BP. The marine sediment core is represented dominantly by clayey silt with incursions of coarser components that occur around 6,000, 5,400, and 3,400 years BP. The sedimentation of the coarser detritus is due to strengthened southwest monsoon (SWM) since 6,500 to 5,400 years BP. Clay minerals are represented by smectite, illite, kaolinite, and chlorite in varying amounts. High kaolinite content and K/C ratio indicate intense SWM and strong bedrock weathering from the hinterland (~6,500–5,400 years BP). Incidence of smectite (48.82 to 25.09 %) and chlorite/illite (C/I) ratio (0.56 to 0.28) indicate an overall weakened southwest monsoon since 6,000 to 2,000 years BP with a brief incursion of extremely reduced SWM around 4,400 to 4,200 years BP. This is corroborated with the oxygen isotope on G. ruber that reveals a significant shift in the isotopic values ~4,300 years BP (?3.39?‰), indicating weakening in SWM. Subsequently, fluctuations in the intensity of SWM are observed since 2,000 years to present.     

Assessment of a data-driven evidential belief function model and GIS for groundwater potential mapping in the Koohrang Watershed,Iran

The objective of this study is to produce groundwater potential map (GPM) and its performance assessment using a data-driven evidential belief function (EBF) model. This study was carried out in the Koohrang Watershed, Chaharmahal-e-Bakhtiari Province, Iran. It’s conducted in three main stages such as data preparation, groundwater potential mapping using EBF and validation of constructed model using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. At first, 864 groundwater data were collected from spring locations; out of that, 605 (70%) locations were selected for training/model building and the remaining 259 (30%) cases were used for the model validation. In the next step, 12 effective factors such as altitude, slope aspect, slope degree, slopelength (LS), topographic wetness index (TWI), plan curvature, land use, lithology, distance from rivers, drainage density, distance from faults and fault density were extracted from the spatial database. Subsequently, GPM was prepared using EBF model in ArcGIS environment. Finally, the ROC curve and area under the curves (AUC) were drawn for verification purposes. The validation of results showed that the AUC for EBF model is 81.72%. In general, this result can be helpful for planners and engineers in water resource management and land-use planning.