Hydrogeochemical processes and quality assessment of groundwater in Dumka and Jamtara districts, Jharkhand, India

The hydrogeochemical study of groundwater in Dumka and Jamtara districts has been carried out to assess the major ion chemistry, hydrogeochemical processes and groundwater quality for domestic and irrigation uses. Thirty groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness, anions (F^?, Cl^?, NO₃ ^?, HCO₃ ^?, SO₄ ^2?) and cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺). The analytical results show the faintly alkaline nature of water and dominance of Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ in cationic and HCO₃ ^? and Cl^? in anionic abundance. The concentrations of alkaline earth metals (Ca²⁺?+?Mg²⁺) exceed the alkali metals (Na⁺?+?K⁺) and HCO₃ ^? dominates over SO₄ ^2??+?Cl^? concentrations in the majority of the groundwater samples. Ca?CMg?CHCO₃ is the dominant hydrogeochemical facies in 60?% of the groundwater samples, while 33?% samples occur as a mixed chemical character of Ca?CMg?CCl hydrogeochemical facies. The water chemistry is largely controlled by rock weathering and ion exchange processes with secondary contribution from anthropogenic sources. The inter-elemental correlations and factor and cluster analysis of hydro-geochemical database suggest combined influence of carbonate and silicate weathering on solute acquisition processes. For quality assessment, analyzed parameter values were compared with Indian and WHO water quality standards. In majority of the samples, the analyzed parameters are well within the desirable limits and water is potable for drinking purposes. Total hardness and concentrations of TDS, Cl^?, NO₃ ^? _, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ exceed the desirable limits at a few sites, however, except NO₃ ^? all these values were below the highest permissible limits. The calculated parameters such as sodium adsorption ratio, percent sodium (%Na) and residual sodium carbonate revealed excellent to good quality of groundwater for agricultural purposes, except at few sites where salinity and magnesium hazard (MH) values exceeds the prescribed limits and demands special management.     

Probabilistic Analysis and Design of a Strip Footing on Layered Soil Media

In the present paper, the analysis of a strip footing resting on a layered soil system has been carried out considering the elastic moduli of soil layers as random variables. Three layers of soil have been considered and the analysis employs Monte Carlo simulation. The modulus of elasticity has been considered as random variable having lognormal distribution. Factors of safety with respect to settlement of footing and the interfacial stresses have been determined and have been related to the associated risk factor and coefficient of variation of the random variable. A detailed parametric study revealed that for a given risk level, the factors of safety is strongly dependent on the coefficient of variation of elastic modulus and only mildly upon other parameters of the soil?Cfoundation system. This facilitated the development of closed form equations for the upper bounds on factors of safety only in terms of allowable risk of failure and the coefficient of variation of elastic modulus.     

Cylindrically symmetric inhomogeneous universe with electromagnetic field in string cosmology

Cylindrically symmetric inhomogeneous string cosmological model in presence of electromagnetic field is investigated. We have assumed that F ₂₃ is the only non-vanishing component of F _ij . To get the deterministic solution, it has been assumed that the expansion (θ) in the model is proportional to the eigen value σ ¹ ₁ of the shear tensor σ ⁱ _j . The physical and geometric aspects of the model are also discussed.      

Hydrography of the eastern Arabian Sea during summer monsoon 2002

Hydrographic observations in the eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) during summer monsoon 2002 (during the first phase of the Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (ARMEX)) include two approximately fortnight-long CTD time series. A barrier layer was observed occasionally during the two time series. These ephemeral barrier layers were caused byin situ rainfall, and by advection of low-salinity (high-salinity) waters at the surface (below the surface mixed layer). These barrier layers were advected away from the source region by the West India Coastal Current and had no discernible effect on the sea surface temperature. The three high-salinity water masses, the Arabian Sea High Salinity Water (ASHSW), Persian Gulf Water (PGW), and Red Sea Water (RSW), and the Arabian Sea Salinity Minimum also exhibited intermittency: they appeared and disappeared during the time series. The concentration of the ASHSW, PGW, and RSW decreased equatorward, and that of the RSW also decreased offshore. The observations suggest that the RSW is advected equatorward along the continental slope off the Indian west coast.     

Extenuating the parameters using HEC-HMS hydrological model for ungauged catchment in the central Omo-Gibe Basin of Ethiopia

Characteristics of ungauged catchments can be studied from the hydrological model parameters of gauged catchments. In this research, discharge prediction was carried out in ungauged catchments using HEC-HMS in the central Omo-Gibe basin. Linear regression, spatial proximity, area ratio, and sub-basin mean were amalgamated for regionalization. The regional model parameters of the gauged catchment and physical characteristics of ungauged catchments were collated together to develop the equations to predict discharge from ungauged catchments. From the sensitivity analysis, crop coefficient (CC), storage coefficient (R), constant rate (CR), and time of concentration (TC) are found to be more sensitive than others. The model efficiency was evaluated using Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (N_SE) which was greater than 0.75, varying between ?10% and +10% and the coefficient of determination (R²) was approximated to be 0.8 during the calibration and validation period. The model parameters in ungauged catchments were determined using the regional model (linear regression), sub-basin mean, area ratio, and spatial proximity methods, and the discharge was simulated using the HEC-HMS model. Linear regression was used in the prediction where p-value ≤ 0.1, determination coefficient (R²) = 0.91 for crop coefficient (CC) and 0.99 for maximum deficit (MD). Constant rate (CR), maximum storage (MS), initial storage (IS), storage coefficient (R), and time of concentration (TC) were obtained. The result is that an average of 30 m³/s and 15 m³/s as the maximum monthly simulated flow for ungauged sub-catchments, i.e. Denchiya and Mansa of the main river basin .     

Implications of climate change on streamflow of a snow-fed river system of the Northwest Himalaya

Air temperature and snow cover variability are sensitive indicators of climate change. This study was undertaken to forecast and quantify the potential streamflow response to climate change in the Jhelum River basin. The implications of air temperature trends (+0.11°C/decade) reported for the entire north-west Himalaya for past century and the regional warming (+0.7°C/decade) trends of three observatories analyzed between last two decades were used for future projection of snow cover depletion and stream flow. The streamflow was simulated and validated for the year 2007-2008 using snowmelt runoff model (SRM) based on in-situ temperature and precipitation with remotely sensed snow cover area. The simulation was repeated using higher values of temperature and modified snow cover depletion curves according to the assumed future climate. Early snow cover depletion was observed in the basin in response to warmer climate. The results show that with the increase in air temperature, streamflow pattern of Jhelum will be severely affected. Significant redistribution of streamflow was observed in both the scenarios. Higher discharge was observed during spring-summer months due to early snowmelt contribution with water deficit during monsoon months. Discharge increased by 5% 40% during the months of March to May in 2030 and 2050. The magnitude of impact of air temperature is higher in the scenario-2 based on regional warming. The inferences pertaining to change in future streamflow pattern can facilitate long term decisions and planning concerning hydro-power potential, waterresource management and flood hazard mapping in the region.     

Development of a three channel photometer for UPSO, Naini Tal

The design and performance of a portable three channel photometer installed at the Uttar Pradesh State Observatory (UPSO), Naini Tal is described. The photometer is modular and the whole unit can be disassembled as individual channels such that the system can also be used as a single channel or two channel photometer. The system also has provision to monitor a guide star. The instrument was put into operation since November 1999 on the 1m Sampurnanand telescope at UPSO, Naini Tal. Since then, it is used extensively for the ‘Survey of rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars in the northern sky’ from UPSO. Observational results using this new photometer in its initial phase of operation are discussed. The advantage of having continuous sky measurement is demonstrated.     

A class of well behaved charged analogues of Vaidya–Tikekar type super-dense star

In the present article a model of well behaved charged superdense star with surface density 2×10¹⁴ gm/cm³ is constructed by considering a static spherically symmetric metric with t=const hypersurfaces as hyperboloid. So far well behaved model described by such metric could not be obtained. Maximum mass of the star is found to be 0.343457M _⊙ and the corresponding radius is 9.57459 km. The red shift at the centre and on the surface are given as 0.068887 and 0.031726 respectively.