Heavy mineral studies on late quaternary red sediments of Bhimunipatnam,Andhra Pradesh,East coast of India

Thirty one sediment samples from different varieties viz. yellow, reddish brown, brick red and light yellow sands from red sediments of Bhimunipatnam, Andhra Pradesh were studied to understand the heavy mineral assemblage, their fractionwise distribution and concentration. The heavy mineral assemblage in red sediments is ilmenite, magnetite, sillimanite, garnet, zircon, rutile, kyanite, monazite etc. Total heavy minerals (THM) wt. % varies from 16.67 to 23.99% and their concentration is not uniform in all the sedimentary samples. The higher THM wt% in brick red sands (23.99%) followed by reddish brown sands (20.24%), light yellow sands (17.10%) and yellow sands (16.67%). The finer fractions have more concentration of THM wt% than coarse fraction. The vertical distribution of heavy minerals in each sedimentary unit indicates that these units are not formed in single phase of deposition. Less concentration of garnets in yellow and light yellow sedimentary units indicates that the garnets might be chemically altered into iron hydroxide–limonite which gives yellow colour to the sediments under slightly oxidizing environment. Low concentration of garnets in brick red and reddish brown sediments indicates that garnets might have been undergone chemical decomposition under acidic conditions leads to produce iron oxides (Hematite) causes for red colorization of these units. The heavy mineral assemblage in different sand units indicates that they are derived from Eastern Ghat Group of rocks (khondalites and charnockites).     

Identification of groundwater drought prone zones in Pedda vagu and Ookachetti vagu watersheds,tributaries of the Krishna River,India

The Pedda vagu and Ookachetti vagu watersheds located in the semi-arid regions of Mahabubnagar district are highly dependent on groundwater for irrigation owing to unreliable rainfall and over extraction of groundwater. The present study has been conducted to identify spatio-temporal groundwater droughts and drought-prone zones. Temporal groundwater droughts have been determined using a standardized water-level index along with spatial groundwater droughts using spline interpolation in Geographic Information Systems. The study shows that the groundwater droughts varied among the stations during the observation period, i.e. 1998–2011. However, the spatial assessment shows that the region as such experienced more mild groundwater droughts except during severe meteorological drought years (1998, 2002, 2004 and 2008); this indicates that the region has good scope for groundwater exploitation during dry spells and initial stages of droughts. Therefore, it is critical to have plans for the development of groundwater to cope with drought.     

Generation of granitic plutons during Crustal orogenesis: An example from the Eastern Ghats granulite belt

Stock-like granite plutons in the Eastern Ghats belt and their host granulites exhibit similar solid state fabric. Both mineralogically and chemically these plutons are peraluminous and granitic in composition with S-type granite affinities. The granite plutons are product of a variety of mica dehydration melting reactions, as evident from their (1) compositional plots in the (FeO + MgO) ?? Na₂O.Al₂O₃ ?? K₂O.Al₂O₃ (MNK) pseudoternary diagram and (2) trace element contents. Muscovite and/or biotite breakdown reaction with or without plagioclase are the characteristic melting reactions. Restitic signature is evident in the host metapelitic granulites, locally known as khondalites (Qtz-Kfs-Grt-Sil-Fe-Ti oxides-bearing gneisses). The compositional variability of the associated khondalites can be a result of (1) original compositional variation and (2) they represent different stages of restites. Trace element monitoring following restite separation model suggests that these granite plutons are largely saturated equilibrium melts. The granites are chemically discriminated as syn-collisional. The plutons could also be the product of segregation during the regional exhumation of the Eastern Ghats terrain.     

Treatment of vegetable oil mill effluent using crab shell chitosan as adsorbent

In this study, a naturally available crab shell chitosan of low molecular weight (20?kDa) has been used as adsorbent to evaluate the pollution load in vegetable oil mill effluent. A series of batch experiment was conducted by varying chitosan dosage (100?C400?mg), pH (2?C9), stirring time (15?C90)?min and agitation speed (25?C150?rpm) to study their effects on adsorption and flocculation processes. The parameters considered for adsorption study are chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, electrical conductivity and turbidity. The maximum reduction in chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, electrical conductivity and turbidity is 74, 70, 56 and 92?% , respectively. The observed experimental result showed that crab shell chitosan could able to reduce significantly the chemical oxygen demand, turbidity, electrical conductivity and suspended matter. The optimum conditions were estimated as 400?mg/l chitosan, pH 4 and 45?min of mixing time with mixing speed of 50?rpm. Chitosan showed very good pollution removal efficiency and can be used for the effective treatment of vegetable oil mill effluent.     

Middle to Late Holocene climate,vegetation and sea-level changes in NW Tripura,northeast India,based on palynological and mineral magnetic evidence

Journal of Paleolimnology - The sediment deposits of northwestern Tripura, northeast India, revealed the enhanced proximity to the marginal marine environments, forest cover variations and...     

Discovery of Gondwana plant fossils and palynomorphs of Late Asselian (Early Permian) age in the Karakoram Block

We report the discovery of Early Permian (late Asselian, ∼280–275 Ma) plant fossils and associated palynomorphs from a marine sedimentary sequence of the eastern Karakoram plate, in northern India. These specimens show affinities with those found in marine Lower Gondwana sediments of the Indian subcontinent. This supports the contention that during the Early Permian Period, the Karakoram plate was Peri-Gondwanan. It is suggested to have had an intermediate position between the Indian plate and the Qiangtang–Lhasa microcontinents, at a latitude of about 35° south.     

Sensitivity of the GCM driven summer monsoon simulations to cumulus parameterization schemes in nested RegCM3

The regional climate model (RegCM3) from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics has been used to simulate the Indian summer monsoon for three different monsoon seasons such as deficit (1987), excess (1988) and normal (1989). Sensitivity to various cumulus parameterization and closure schemes of RegCM3 driven by the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting global spectral model products has been tested. The model integration of the nested RegCM3 is conducted using 90 and 30-km horizontal resolutions for outer and inner domains, respectively. The India Meteorological Department gridded rainfall (1° × 1°) and National Centre for Environment Prediction (NCEP)–Department of Energy (DOE) reanalysis-2 of 2.5° × 2.5° horizontal resolution data has been used for verification. The RegCM3 forced by NCEP–DOE reanalysis-2 data simulates monsoon seasons of 1987 and 1988 reasonably well, but the monsoon season of 1989 is not represented well in the model simulations. The RegCM3 runs driven by the global model are able to bring out seasonal mean rainfall and circulations well with the use of the Grell and Anthes–Kuo cumulus scheme at 90-km resolution. While the rainfall intensity and distribution is brought out well with the Anthes–Kuo scheme, upper air circulation features are brought out better by the Grell scheme. The simulated rainfall distribution is better with RegCM3 using the MIT-Emanuel cumulus scheme for 30-km resolution. Several statistical analyses, such as correlation coefficient, root mean square error, equitable threat score, confirm that the performance of MIT-Emanuel scheme at 30-km resolution is better in simulating all-India summer monsoon rainfall. The RegCM3 simulated rainfall amount is more and closer to observations than that from the global model. The RegCM3 has corrected its driven GCM in terms of rainfall distribution and magnitude over some parts of India during extreme years. This study brings out several weaknesses of the RegCM model which are documented in this paper.