<Emphasis Type="Italic">Nummulites solitarius — Nummulites burdigalensis</Emphasis> lineage in Kutch with remarks on the age of Naredi Formation

Three successive subspecies of Nummulites burdigalensis evolved from N. solitarius. These include N. burdigalensis keupperi, N. burdigalensis burdigalensis and N. burdigalensis cantabricus. The evolving lineage is traced in a borehole drilled through the Naredi Formation of Kutch. The associated taxa include N. solitarius and N. fraasi in the lower part and Assilina laxispira and A. spinosa in the upper part of the formation. The better stratigraphic resolution achieved by subspecies identification and the lately redefined Ilerdien Stage in the background of Early Eocene carbon isotope excursion marker, lead to constrain the age of Naredi Formation as Early Eocene, ranging from shallow-benthic zones SBZ6 to SBZ11.     

Instruments of RT-2 experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation III: Coded Aperture Mask and Fresnel Zone Plates in RT-2/CZT payload

Imaging in hard X-rays of any astrophysical source with high angular resolution is a challenging job. Shadow-casting technique is one of the most viable options for imaging in hard X-rays. We have used two different types of shadow-casters, namely, Coded Aperture Mask (CAM) and Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP) pair and two types of pixellated solid-state detectors, namely, CZT and CMOS in RT-2/CZT payload, the hard X-ray imaging instrument onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON satellite. In this paper, we present the results of simulations with different combinations of coders (CAM & FZP) and detectors that are employed in the RT-2/CZT payload. We discuss the possibility of detecting transient Solar flares with good angular resolution for various combinations. Simulated results are compared with laboratory experiments to verify the consistency of the designed configuration.     

Fractal study of seismicity in order to characterize the various tectonic blocks of North-east Himalaya,India

Three major projects initiated by the European Commission within its 7th Framework Programme that have studied the weather phenomena and their projections to the future in relation to their impacts and implications to the European transport systems have recently been concluded. All of the transport modes were covered, as well as all of the critical phenomena present within the European area. The three projects (that ran from 2009 and 2012) are as follows: (1) EWENT (Extreme Weather impacts on European Networks of Transport—www.ewent.vtt.fi); (2) ECCONET (Effects of climate change on the inland waterway networks—www.ecconet.eu); (3) WEATHER (Weather Extremes: Assessment of Impacts on Transport and Hazards for European Regions—www.weather-project.eu). In this Foreward to the Special Issue on “Vulnerability of Transportation to Extreme Weather and Climate Change,” the key results of the above three projects are addressed concisely, offering the reader a broader view of their findings; since some of these are enveloped in the research papers hosted in this volume, they will not be covered in detail. However, the rich output of these projects in the form of “Project Deliverables” and “Reports” is also an important source of information on the findings and results from these three projects which are publicly available on the projects’ Web sites. The purpose of this Foreward is to bring to the attention of the interested reader these sources and overview briefly some of the projects’ outcomes. Also, a short comparative discussion on selected findings is made, outlining agreements and disagreements between the projects.     

Commercial steel wool for reduction of hexavalent chromium in wastewater: batch kinetic studies and rate model

The present study aims at searching the potential of commercial grade steel wool in reducing hexavalent chromium in aqueous phase under batch mode. About 30 % of the initial hexavalent chromium was found to reduce within 2 h at a pH of 3. However, on testing the combined effects of different process parameters, namely the solution pH, wool loading, etc., the optimum batch parametric condition has been fixed. A moving boundary type kinetic model, which takes into account the effect of passivation along with the direct reduction mechanism to simulate the gross uptake profile of Cr(VI) from the bulk solution is proposed. The effective pore diffusivity of Cr(VI) in commercial steel wool was determined by a suitable global optimization technique. Additionally, the model is also capable to simulate the decline of active external surface area of the wool caused by passivation with time. A good match of the experimental data and model-simulated transient bulk concentration of Cr(VI) (under optimum parametric condition only) establishes the general validity of the proposed model.     

Oxygen isotope analysis of bone and tooth enamel phosphate from paleogene sediments: Experimental techniques and initial results

Oxygen isotope composition (δ¹⁸O) of fossil bone and tooth enamel phosphate (bioapatite) is an important tool for estimating the isotopic composition of past environmental water. Lack of analytical facility was a hindrance for studying such bioapatites in spite of large number of fossil materials reported from various geological ages in India. We have established in our laboratory, based on available methods, the chemical procedure for extraction of very small amount (<1000 μg) PO₄ ⁻³ from bioapatite and on-line mass spectrometric measurement of its δ¹⁸O composition by high temperature (∼1450°C) pyrolysis. The achieved precision is ∼± 0.3 ‰ similar to obtained elsewhere, with interlaboratory calibration showing excellent agreement of standard phosphates. Inferred δ¹⁸O values of environmental water, based on the analysis of teeth and bones of sharks, fish and terrestrial mammals from the Paleogene successions of the northwest sub-Himalayan and the Peninsular India show strong correspondence with animal habitats. The freshwater δ¹⁸O values are much depleted having range similar to modern monsoon precipitation. However, owing to our small dataset it is not possible at this stage to infer about the existence of monsoon over the Indian sub-continent during the Eocene-Oligocene time.     

Seismic signatures of a proterozoic thermal plume below southwestern part of the Cuddapah Basin,Dharwar craton

Origin and evolutionary history of the Cuddapah Basin in SE India has remained a subject of considerable speculation whether it was evolved through vertical tectonic movements, extentional stretching or even cometary impact. Based on detailed seismic and other geophysical studies (Gravity, magnetotelluric and heat flow), we have delineated signatures of a possible deep seated mantle plume below southwestern part of the Cuddapah Basin, which may have been responsible for the 1.1 Ga kimberlitic magmatism in the eastern part of the Dharwar craton (EDC). The thermal anomaly associated with this mantle plume appears to have resulted into 15–20 km thick magmatic underplating (Vp: 7.10–7.30 km/s; density 3.07–3.16 g/cm³) below the Parnapalle region of the southwestern Cuddapah Basin, which also coincides with the high gravity and high conductivity anomaly. The massive underplating led to thickening of the crust to about 40–44 km below southwestern part of the Cuddapah Basin, compared to about 34± 2 km in the surrounding regions of EDC, indicating thermal restructuring of the crust / mantle boundary. This plume, which was apparently active in an area of about 500 km radius, may have also affected the Closepet granitic region, which is ∼100 km west of Cuddapah Basin.     

Holographic dark energy with linearly varying deceleration parameter and escaping big rip singularity of the Bianchi type-V universe

The present work deals with the accretion of two minimally interacting fluids: dark matter and a hypothetical isotropic fluid as the holographic dark energy components onto black hole and wormhole in a spatially homogeneous and anisotropic Bianchi type-V universe. To obtain an exact solution of the Einstein’s field equations, we use the assumption of linearly varying deceleration parameter. Solution describes effectively the actual acceleration and indicates a big rip type future singularity of the universe. We have studied the evolution of the mass of black hole and the wormhole embedded in this anisotropic universe in order to reproduce a stable universe protected against future-time singularity. It is observed that the accretion of these dark components leads to a gradual decrease and increase of black hole and wormhole mass respectively. Finally, we have found that contrary to our previous case (Sarkar in Astrophys. Space. Sci. 341:651, 2014a), the big rip singularity of the universe with a divergent Hubble parameter of this dark energy model may be avoided by a big trip.     

Possible precursory accelerated Benioff strain in the region of Sistan Suture Zone of Eastern Iran

We investigated whether accelerated seismic strain release precedes large earthquakes occurring in and around the Sistan Suture Zone, Eastern Iran. Online catalogs of teleseismic events occurring post-1960 within the region 27.0°–37.0°N, 55.0°–65.0°E, report five M _w > 7.0 earthquakes, namely, 1968 Dasht-e-Bayaz, 1978 Tabas, 1979 Khuli-Buniabad, 1981 Sirch and 1997 Zirkuh-e-Q’aenat events. We defined four earthquake test episodes, 1968–1978, 1978–1981, 1979–1981, and 1981–1997, with all catalogued intermediate events having magnitudes within 2.0 units that of the final large event. Using the 1968 event as the starting point, we investigated possible increased moderate earthquake activity patterns prior to the large events of 1978, 1981 and 1997 by examining if the cumulative Benioff strain released from such preceding events followed a power law time-to-failure. Our investigation seem to suggest that the 1978, 1981 and 1997 events (i) followed a period of accelerated moderate earthquake activity and (ii) the radius of their optimal critical region, R, scaled with their magnitude, M, according to the scaling law log R ∝ 0.36 M. Our suggestions conform to those proposed by similar investigations in varied seismotectonic regimes.