Seismicity pattern in north Sumatra-Great Nicobar region: In search of precursor for the 26 December 2004 earthquake

We analyse the seismicity pattern including b-value in the north Sumatra-Great Nicobar region from 1976 to 2004. The analysis suggests that there were a number of significant, intermediate and short-term precursors before the magnitude 7.6 earthquake of 2 November 2002. However, they were not found to be so prominent prior to the magnitude 9.0 earthquake of 26 December 2004 though downward migration of activity and a 50-day short-term quiescence was observed before the event. The various precursors identified include post-seismic and intermediate-term quiescence of 13 and 10 years respectively, between the 1976 (magnitude 6.3) and 2002 earthquakes with two years (1990–1991) of increase in background seismicity; renewed seismicity, downward migration of seismic activity and foreshocks in 2002, just before the mainshock. Spatial variation in b-value with time indicates precursory changes in the form of high b-value zone near the epicenter preceding the mainshocks of 2004 and 2002 and temporal rise in b-value in the epicentral area before the 2002 earthquake.     

Relativistic and non-relativistic dust grains

Charged dust grains of radiia≃3×10⁻⁶∼3×10⁻⁵ cm could be a help in understanding high energy particles in extensive air showers (EAS). It is suggested that the dust grains in the intergalactic medium may attain relatistic energy (≥10²⁰ eV), and may be responsible for the apparent ‘bump’ in the energy spectrum. The relativistic and non-relativistic dust grains may help to understand the anomalies in the energy spectrum as regards the slope and intensity.     

Exact solution of transport equation in finite multiplying media

One speed neutron transport equation in a finite multiplying medium is exactly and uniquely solved following the first author's new technique (Das Gupta, 1978b) based on Laplace transformation and Wiener-Hopf technique, to obtain the angular neutron density at any depth. Criticality condition is derived.     

Release of protons with energy >1018 eV from intergalactic magnetic field into interstellar magnetic field

Drift instabilities arising when accelerated protons are trapped in the intergalactic medium are examined. If α, the ratio of total (plasma + energetic particles) pressure and magnetic field pressure is larger than some value α?0.1 to 0.3, the magnetic trap is destroyed and protons are released into interstellar medium. If α<α^*, the trapped protons exhibit gradient instability due to magnetic drift resonance. This ‘universal’ instability results in rapid development of strong Alfvén wave turbulence with small wavelengths transverse to the magnetic field. Particle diffusion due to the waves has a rather complicated character and appears to be weak as compared to quasilinear diffusion.     

Clustering of Earthquake Events in the Himalaya - Its Relevance to Regional Tectonic Set-up

The earthquake events of Himalaya of magnitude ≥5.0 from the time window 1905–2000 are statistically analysed. The inter-event time between earthquakes shows Hurst phenomena of temporal clustering which are spatially located in five distinct domains along the Himalayan fold-thrust belt. Out of these, two domains, one around Uttaranchal-Nepal border and the other around Nepal-Sikkim border reveal maximum number of temporal clusters and thus considered as seismically most potential zones of the Himalaya. Both these zones are located at the interface of the orthogonally disposed major tectonic discontinuities of the Peninsular Shield and Himalayan fold-thrust belt. Such zones are geologically most favourable locales for strain accumulation during later-tectonic movement. Statistical analysis points towards a probability of recurrence of seismic events in near future in these two zones. However, validity of such statistical results can be ascertained by detailed geological and geophysical modelling of the terrain.     

Contrasting parageneses in the manganese silicate-carbonate rocks from Parseoni,Sausar Group,India and their interpretation

Mn silicate-carbonate rocks at Parseoni occur as conformable lenses within metapelites and calc-silicate rocks of the Precambrian Sausar Group, India. The host rocks are estimated to have been metamorphosed at uppermost P-T conditions of 500–550°C and 3–4 kbar. The Mn-rich rocks contain appreciable Fe, reflected in the occurrence of magnetite₍₁₎ (MnO 1%), magnetite₍₂₎ (MnO 15%) and magnetite₍₃₎ (MnO 10%). Two contrasting associations of pyroxmangite, with and without tephroite, developed in the Mn silicate-carbonate rocks under isothermal-isobaric conditions. The former assemblage formed in relatively Fe-rich bulk compositions and equilibrated with a metamorphic fluid having a low X _{CO 2} (<0.2), and the latter equilibrated with a CO₂-rich fluid. Rhodochrosite+magnetite₍₁₎+quartz protoliths produced the observed mineral assemblages on metamorphism. Partitioning of major elements between coexisting phases is somewhat variable. Fe shows preference for tephroite over pyroxmangite at the ambient physical conditions of metamorphism. Oxygen fugacity during metamorphism was monitored at or near the QFM buffer in tephroite bearing domains, and the fluid composition was buffered by mineral reactions in respective domains. As compared to other metamorphosed Mn deposits of the Sausar Group, the Mn silicate-carbonate rocks at Parseoni were, therefore, metamorphosed at much lower f _{O 2} through complex mineral-fluid interactions.     

Intergalactic suprathermal grains

The physical conditions under which suprathermal grains may loose energy and the processes involving the grains (a3×10^–6 cm) destruction are investigated. It is found that the dust grain once attaining the velocityU (10⁵ cm s^–1) may attain suprathermal energy (v _g3×10⁸ cm s^–1) and subsequently may also attain relativistic energy are almost indestructible in the accelerating phase.     

The geometry of the Burmese-Andaman subducting lithosphere

The gross seismotectonic features for the Burmese-Andaman arc system which defines the northeast margin of the Indian plate are rather well known but variations in the subduction zone geometry along and across the arc and fault pattern within the subducting Indian plate have not been studied. Present workaims to study these by using seismicity data whose results are presented in the form of: (a) Lithospheric across-the-arc sections at about every 100–120 km (approximately one degree latitude apart) covering the 3500 km longBurmese-Andaman arc system, (b) a structure contour map showing the depth tothe top surface of the seismically active lithosphere and (c) interpretationof focal mechanism solutions for 148 Benioff zone earthquakes. Both penetrationdepth and the dip of the Benioff zone vary considerably along the arc in correspondence to the curvature of the fold-thrust belt which varies from concave to convex in different sectors of the arc. Several extensive `Hinge faults' that abut at high angles to the arc orientation, are inferred from aninterpretation of the structure contour map. Active nature of the hinge faultsis established in several areas by their association with earthquakes andcorroborated through fault plane solutions. At shallow level of the Benioffzone along these faults, focal mechanism solutions display left lateral strikeslip movement while at deeper levels reverse fault solutions are common.     

Cosmic gamma-ray burst from intergalactic relativistic dust grains

Charged dust grains of radiia3×10^–63×10^–5 cm may acquire relativistic energy (>10¹⁸ eV) in the intergalactic medium. In order to attain relativistic energy, dust grains have to move in and out (scattering) of the magnetic field of the medium. A relativistic grain of radiusa10^–5 cm with Lorentz factor 10³ approaching the Earth will break up either due to electrostatic charge or due to sputtering about 150100 km, and may scatter solar photons via a fluorescence process. Dust grains may also melt into droplets in the solar vicinity and may contribute towards observed gamma-ray bursts.     

Examining the Effect of Ancillary and Derived Geographical Data on Improvement of Per-Pixel Classification Accuracy of Different Landscapes

Effective conservation and management of natural resources requires up-to-date information of the land cover (LC) types and their dynamics. Multi-resolution remote sensing (RS) data coupled with additional ancillary topographical layers (both remotely acquired or derived from ground measurements) with appropriate classification strategies would be more effective in capturing LC dynamics and changes associated with the natural resources. Ancillary information would make the decision boundaries between the LC classes more widely separable, enabling classification with higher accuracy compared to conventional methods of RS data classification. In this work, we ascertain the possibility of improvement in classification accuracy of RS data with the addition of ancillary and derived geographical layers such as vegetation indices, temperature, digital elevation model, aspect, slope and texture, implemented in three different terrains of varying topography—urbanised landscape (Greater Bangalore), forested landscape (Western Ghats) and rugged terrain (Western Himalaya). The study showed that use of additional spatial ancillary and derived information significantly improved the classification accuracy compared to the classification of only original spectral bands. The analysis revealed that in a highly urbanised area with less vegetation cover and contrasting features, inclusion of elevation and texture increased the overall accuracy of IKONOS data classification to 88.72% (3.5% improvement), and inclusion of temperature, NDVI, EVI, elevation, slope, aspect, Panchromatic band along with texture measures, significantly increased the overall accuracy of Landsat ETM+ data classification to 83.15% (7.6% improvement). In a forested landscape with moderate elevation, temperature was useful in improving the overall accuracy by 6.7 to 88.26%, and in a rugged terrain with temperate climate, temperature, EVI, elevation, slope, aspect and Panchromatic band significantly improved the classification accuracy to 89.97% (10.84% improvement) compared to the classification of only original spectral bands, suggesting selection of appropriate ancillary data depending on the terrain.