Simple statistical and mineralogical studies as petrogenetic indicator for neoproterozoic mylliem porphyritic granites of east Khasi Hills,Meghalaya, Northeastern India

The porphyritic granite body (∼ 600 Ma) around Mylliem (25°32′N: 91°52′E), east Khasi hills district, Meghalaya occurs as a distinct intrusive body into the host rock of low- grade meta-sediments belonging to Proterozoic Shillong Group. The porphyritic granite body manifests prominent lath- shaped feldspar phenocrysts giving rise to dominant porphyritic texture. Further, this porphyritic granite body is characterized by primary foliation (defined by parallely arranged feldspar laths), tongues and appophyses and xenoliths of older metamorphics. Petrographically, the Mylliem porphyritic granite is grey leucocratic, coarse grained, phanerocrystalline with modal variants ranging from granite to granodiorite tending to tonalite. Simple statistical studies based on correlation coefficient values involving modal variables of the Mylliem porphyritic granite bodies appear significant in majority of the cases indicating magmatic crystallization. Use of relevant thermometric method indicates temperature of equilibration of the body in the range of 369°C to 507°C. The crystallization of the Mylliem porphyritic granite pluton initiated at an average lithostatic pressure in the tune of ∼11 Kb followed by dominant P_H2O controlled milieu. Spatially projected mineralogical parameters suggest a general trend of the magmatic cooling of the body from margin inward with sudden influx of volatile matters that occasionally offsets mineralogical trends.     

Kinetics of cadmium adsorption on aluminum precipitation products formed under the influence of tannate

The impeding effects of organic substances on the crystallization of Al precipitation products have been studied for more than three decades. However, the impacts of organics-induced structural perturbation and the resultant surface alteration of Al transformation products on their kinetics and mechanisms of the adsorption of trace metals still remain to be uncovered. This paper describes the kinetics of Cd adsorption on the short-range-ordered (SRO) Al precipitation products formed under the influence of tannate. The kinetics of Cd adsorption on the SRO Al precipitation products formed in the presence of tannate at initial tannate/Al molar ratios (MRs) of 0, 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 was studied at an initial Cd concentration of 0.89 μM, pH 5.5, background electrolyte of 10⁻² M NaNO₃, and solid phase concentration of 0.08 g L⁻¹ at 278, 288, 298 and 313 K using the conventional batch method. The results show that, among the six empirical kinetic models tested, the second-order rate equation best described the kinetic data. Cadmium adsorption on SRO Al precipitation products was a multi-step process involving an initial fast reaction (0.083-0.75 h) followed by a slow reaction (0.75-4 h). The structural perturbation of Al precipitation products by tannate and the resultant development of their microporosity and alteration of surface and charge properties substantially enhanced the rate constants of both the fast and slow reaction processes of Cd adsorption. The heat of activation values for the fast reaction ranged from 27 to 41 kJ mol⁻¹, indicating that diffusion is the rate-limiting step in Cd adsorption. Except for the Al precipitation products formed at a tannate/Al MR of 0 and 0.001, the heat of activation was >47 kJ mol⁻¹ for the slow reaction, indicating that the rate-limiting step is a chemical process, which apparently involves bond breaking and formation on the surfaces of the SRO Al precipitation products. The pre-exponential factor, an index of the frequency of Cd collision with the surface of Al precipitation products, significantly increased with the increase of the initial tannate/Al MR, which is attributed to the development of microporosity and the increase in the specific surface area of the Al precipitation products formed under the influence of tannate ligands. The findings merit attention to the role of natural organics, which vary in the structure and functionality, in developing the microporous structure of Al precipitation products and the impact on the dynamics and mechanisms of Cd transformation and transport in natural environments.     

Non-circular beam correction to the CMB power spectrum

In the era of high precision CMB measurements, systematic effects are beginning to limit the ability to extract subtler cosmological information. The non-circularity of the experimental beam has become progressively important as CMB experiments strive to attain higher angular resolution and sensitivity. The effect of non-circular beam on the power spectrum is important at multipoles larger than the beam-width. For recent experiments with high angular resolution, optimal methods of power spectrum estimation are computationally prohibitive and sub-optimal approaches, such as the Pseudo-C_l method are used. We provide an analytic framework for correcting the power spectrum for the effect of beam non-circularity and non-uniform sky coverage (including incomplete/masked sky maps). The approach is perturbative in the distortion of the beam from non-circularity allowing for rapid computations when the beam is mildly non-circular. We advocate that when the non-circular beams are important, it is computationally advantageous to employ ‘soft’ azimuthally apodized masks whose spherical harmonic transforms die down fast with m.     

Signature of atmospheric oscillations in GPS-measured tropospheric delay

Ground-based GPS finds potential applications in many atmospheric studies such as spatial distribution of columnar water vapor as well as the tidal oscillations in the atmosphere. The zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) derived from GPS data at two Indian IGS stations are used to establish its potential for studying the atmospheric tidal, intra-seasonal and planetary oscillations. The major tidal oscillations observed in ZTD data are diurnal, semi-diurnal and their harmonics. Prominent intra-seasonal oscillations observed in ZTD are reported for the first time in this context. These intra-seasonal oscillations are Madden–Julian Oscillation (30–70 days, 60–90 days, 100–120 days) and planetary waves (like 27, 16 and 5–10 days periodicities). Quantification of these periodicities will provide a useful handle to improve the empirical models employed in the estimation of tropospheric delay.     

Application of remote sensing to identify coalfires in the Raniganj Coalbelt,India

Raniganj and Jharia regions together have been for long the single largest coal supplier in India, now contributing about a quarter of the total output in the country. Numerous reasons such as improper mining techniques and policy, as well as unauthorized mining caused surface and subsurface coalfires in these areas. These coalfires burn millions of tonnes of valuable coal resources, creating severe environmental problems and posing enormous operational difficulties of mining. After first use of remote sensing as a tool to identify coalfires in 1960s, with the time, the efficiency of remote sensing to identify and monitoring coalfires has been well established by several researchers. With the knowledge of local geological setting and density sliced surface temperature image the spatial distribution of coalfires can be revealed. The present paper makes an attempt to identify temperature anomalies of the Raniganj coalbelt to locate the spatial distribution of coalfires. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) thermal band data was used to calculate surface temperature along with NDVI (normalized vegetation index) derived emissivity.     

REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION OF SHEAR WAVES IN MONOCLINIC MEDIA

This paper deals with the propagation, reflection and transmission of shear waves in monoclinic media. The dispersion equation for a monoclinic layer overlying a monoclinic half-space has been obtained and curves are plotted. The amplitude ratios for both the reflected and transmitted waves due to reflection of shear waves at the interface of two monoclinic half-spaces have also been computed and the numerical results are presented graphically. The results are compared with the isotropic case. It has been observed that, in monoclinic media, the amplitude ratios for reflected and transmitted wave increases approximately by 25 and 50 per cent respectively, in comparison to the isotropic case. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predation of the beetle Rhantus sikkimensis (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) on the larvae of Chironomus Meigen (Diptera: Chironomidae) of the Darjeeling Himalayas of India

The dytiscid beetle Rhantus sikkimensis, Regimbart, 1899 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), a member of the freshwater insect communities of the Darjeeling Himalayas, were noted to predate on the coexisting larvae of Chironomus sp. Meigen. Evaluation of predation by R. sikkimensis on Chironomus sp. larvae, in the laboratory, revealed that a single adult morph of R. sikkimensis could kill and consume on an average 10–90 and 10–78 numbers of small and large Chironomus sp. larvae, respectively, per day, depending on the prey density. The attack rate ranged between 520 and 537, and the handling time ranged between 4.3 and 8.6 depending on the size of the preys. The predation varied with respect to predator density also, with a maximum of 151 larvae killed by three predators per day. Two indices of predation, ingestion rate (IR) ranging between 13.33 and 74.15 larvae/day/predator and clearance rate (CR) ranging between 19.67 and 39.99 L prey/day/predator, varied with the prey size and predator density, significantly, when the predation was observed for 9 consecutive days, at two predator densities. It was also noted that R. sikkimensis predated on an average 9.8 larvae of Chironomus sp. and 1 larva of Culex sp., when the larvae of both the species are present together as preys, showing a preference for the Chironomus sp. larvae.