Petrographical and geochemical signatures of Jurassic rocks of Chari Formation,Western India: implications for provenance and tectonic setting

The sandstones of the Ridge and Athleta members of Chari Formation (Callovian-Oxfordian) exposed at Jara have been analyzed for their petrographical and geochemical studies. Texturally, these sandstones are medium to coarse grained, poorly to well sorted, sub-angular to sub-rounded, and show low to medium sphericity. These sandstones were derived from a mixed provenance including granites, granite-gneisses, low and high-grade metamorphic, and some basic rocks of Aravalli range and Nagarparkar massif. The petrofacies analysis reveals that these sandstones belong to the continental block and recycled orogen tectonic regime. The studied sandstones are modified by paleoclimate, distance of transport, and diagenesis. Mineralogically and geochemically, sandstones are classified as quartzarenite, subarkose, arkose, sublithic arenite, and wacke, respectively. The A-CN-K ternary plot and CIA, CIW, PIA, and ICV values suggest that the similar source rocks suffered moderate to high chemical weathering under a hot-humid climate in an acidic environment with higher \({\text{P}}_{{{\text{CO}}_{ 2} }}\). Generally good to strong correlations between Al₂O₃ and other oxides in these sediments indicate clay mineral control. The K₂O/Na₂O versus SiO₂ diagram indicates that the studied samples occupy passive margin fields but the SiO₂/Al₂O₃ versus K₂O/Na₂O plot suggests that the Athleta Sandstone and Ridge Sandstone fall within the passive margin field, while Ridge Shale falls within the active continental margin field.     

Determination of aquifer geometry through geophysical methods: A case study from Quetta Valley, Pakistan

Due to increase in population and agricultural activities, the aquifer of Quetta Valley is under tremendous stress and the water table is declining at an increasing rate. This situation necessitates evaluation of the aquifer system, for which information about geometry of the aquifer is a prerequisite. However, there are no drilling-to-bedrock data available; therefore, electrical resistivity, seismic reflection and gravity methods were employed to determine geometry of the aquifer. Interpretation of vertical electrical soundings provided information about the depth-tobedrock at some specific points, whereas seismic reflection delineated bedrock topography along two lines. The depths to bedrock inferred from electrical resistivity and seismic reflection data were used as constraints in the modeling of gravity data. 2.75D gravity models were constructed along lines with a regular spacing. Map of depth-to-bedrock was prepared by contouring the depth given by the gravity models. Combination of these geophysical methods depicted the geometry of the aquifer. This example shows that in a similar geological setting proper integration of geophysical exploration methods can determine the aquifer geometry with an acceptable reliability and at an appropriate cost.     

A finite element method for modeling coupled flow and deformation in porous fractured media

Modeling the flow in highly fractured porous media by finite element method (FEM) has met two difficulties: mesh generation for fractured domains and a rigorous formulation of the flow problem accounting for fracture/matrix, fracture/fracture, and fracture/boundary fluid mass exchanges. Based on the recent theoretical progress for mass balance conditions in multifractured porous bodies, the governing equations for coupled flow and deformation in these bodies are first established in this paper. A weak formulation for this problem is then established allowing to build a FEM. Taking benefit from recent development of mesh‐generating tools for fractured media, this weak formulation has been implemented in a numerical code and applied to some typical problems of hydromechanical coupling in fractured porous media. It is shown that in this way, the FEM that has proved its efficiency to model hydromechanical phenomena in porous media is extended with all its performances (calculation time, couplings, and nonlinearities) to fractured porous media. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Use of four-electrode arrays in three-dimensional electrical resistivity imaging survey

The objective of this paper is to investigate the applicability of four-electrode arrays in 3D electrical resistivity imaging survey. A 3D resistivity imaging survey was carried out along fourteen parallel lines using dipole-dipole, Wenner-Schlumberger, and Wenner arrays with 2 m minimum electrode spacings. Roll-along measurements using a line spacing of 1 m were carried out covering a grid of 20 × 14 electrodes. The 3D least squares algorithm, based on the robust inversion method, was used in the inversion of the 3D apparent resistivity data sets. The results show that the 3D electrical resistivity imaging survey using the Wenner-Schlumberger and the dipole-dipole arrays, or the Wenner and the dipole-dipole arrays, in combination with an appropriate 3D inversion method, can be highly useful when the site conditions do not allow using the pole-pole or pole-dipole arrays.     

Biostratigraphy of Asmari Formation in Ghare Agha seyed of Farsan region,Chaharmahale Bakhtiari Province,Iran

The Asmari Formation consists of shallow marine sedimentary rocks deposited on ramp setting .Lar-ger benthic foraminifera collected from Asmri Formation are dominated by hyaline and porcelanouse forms , in-cluding Amphistegina, Nummulites, Archaias, Astrotrillina, Miogypsinella, Miogypsinoides, Lepidocyclina, Operculina, Spiroclypeous and Miliolids.The presence of Nummulites cf.vascus in the lower part of the forma-tion allows the age to be determined as Rupelian .The occurrence of Borelis pygmae is an index taxon of the Ru-pelian-Chattian and indicates Early Chattian of SBZ 21-22 in the study section .The first appearance of Mio-gypsinella akadagensis shows Late Chattian ( SBZ 23) and defines the upper boundary of the SBZ 21-22.The new data are the first evidences showing that the shallow marine Asmari Formation is attributed to Oligocene (Rupelian-Chattian) age for this region.     

Dynamic stress analysis of a class of geomechanics problems by the boundary element method

This paper presents the application of an advanced BEM for periodic and transient dynamic stress analyses of a class of geomechanics problems. For transient dynamic analysis, the problem is first solved in the Laplace transform space, which happens to be similar to the periodic dynamic analysis, and then the time domain solution is obtained by numerical inversion of transform domain solutions. The numerical implementation of the BEM used to present the results in this paper is complete and most general available to date. It is capable of treating very large, multi-layered problems by substructuring and satisfying the equilibrium and compatibilities at the interfaces. With the help of this substructuring, capability problems related to layered media and soil–structure interaction have been analysed. A number of examples are presented and through comparisons with available analytical and numerical results, the applicability and usefulness of the present analysis to real geomechanical problems are established.     

Glacial to Holoceneδ 13C variations in intermediate depth water masses of North Indian Ocean

The ¹⁸O and ¹³C compositions of glacial- to Holocene-aged benthic foraminifera in a core collected from the eastern Arabian sea (water depth 1230 m) were determined to investigate glacial—interglacial variations in the intermediate depth water chemistry of the North Indian Ocean. In addition, we determined the ¹³C composition of Holocene benthic foraminifera from seven cores for which the ¹⁸O and ¹³C of benthic foraminifera from last glacial maximum (LGM) were reported by Kallel et al. (1988). The ¹³C_DIC in the intermediate waters was generally depleted by 0.3–0.4 during the last glacial maximum compared to Holocene.     

Glacial-interglacial changes in the surface water characteristics of the Andaman Sea: Evidence from stable isotopic ratios of planktonic foraminifera

Stable carbon and oxygen isotopic analyses of the planktonic foraminifera (Globigerinoides ruber) from a deep sea sediment core (GC-1) in the Andaman Sea show high glacial-to-Holocene δ¹⁸O amplitude of 2.1%o which is consistent with previously published records from this marginal basin and suggest increased salinity and/or decreased temperature in the glacial surface waters of this region. A pulse of¹⁸O enrichment during the last deglaciation can be attributed to a Younger Dryas cooling event and/or to a sudden decrease of fresh water influx from the Irrawady and Salween rivers into the Andaman Sea. High δ¹³C values observed during the isotopic stages 2 and 4 are probably due to the enhanced productivity during glacial times in the Andaman Sea.     

Rockfall hazard assessment at Ajanta Cave,Aurangabad, Maharashtra,India

The Ajanta caves are situated in Deccan Trap basalt and declared as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The present study aims to investigate and understand the damage of caves and to protect the life of the visitors from the rockfall phenomenon at and around the caves. Information related to the detached rock mass/block was acquired by using Barton–Bandis model in Universal Distinct Element Code. Parameters for rockfall simulation were determined by rigorous field study and laboratory experiment and then calibrated some of the parameters by back analysis. RocFall 4.0 program has been used to calculate maximum bounce heights, total kinetic energies, and translational velocities of the falling blocks of different weights. The maximum bounce height varies from 14.0 to 19.0 m for the weight of the block size ranging from 500 to 2,000 kg, whereas the maximum velocity and maximum kinetic energy are 30.0 m/s and 917.66 kJ, respectively. Finally, the results of simulation have been used to find out the position of the barrier and its capacity to design the protection barrier. The barrier capacity was found to be 325 kJ for 2,000 kg of falling blocks at a height of 50.0 m.