Malnutrition and conflict in East Africa: the impacts of resource variability on human security

Changes in climate, along with anthropogenic pressures, impact vegetation productivity and related ecosystem services on which human security relies. The impacts of these climate changes on society will be experienced both through changes in mean conditions over long time periods and through increases in extreme events. Uncertainties remain on how short-term changes in ecosystems influence human security. Most studies analyzing the relationship between human security and climate are at the country level, ignoring fine-grained spatial heterogeneity in local climatic and socio-economic conditions. Here, we used detailed spatio-temporal information extracted from wide-swath satellite data (MODIS) to examine the impact of interannual variability in ecosystems on malnutrition and armed conflict in East Africa while controlling for other natural and socio-economic factors. The analysis was performed at a subnational and village scales. At the regional level, ecosystem variability was associated with malnutrition. This relationship was not statistically significant at the village level. At both levels of analysis, our results indicated that armed conflicts were more likely in regions with more vegetation. Results suggested that, in East Africa, increased levels of malnutrition were related to armed conflicts. They also showed the importance, in low-income countries, of local economic activity and accessibility to reduce the likelihood of malnutrition and insecurity.     

Determination of in-situ stress direction from cleat orientation mapping for coal bed methane exploration in south-eastern part of Jharia coalfield, India

Accurate prediction of in-situ stress directions plays a key role in any Coal Bed Methane (CBM) exploration and exploitation project in order to estimate the production potential of the CBM reservoirs. Permeability is one of the most important factors for determination of CBM productivity. The coal seams in Jharia coalfield generally show low permeability in the range of 0.5 md to 3 md. To estimate the in-situ stress direction in the study area, an attempt has been made to undertake the cleat orientation mapping of four regional coal seams of two underground coal mines located at south-eastern part of Jharia coalfield, India. Cleat orientation mapping is critical to determine the maximum principal compressive horizontal stress (S_H) direction for CBM exploration and exploitation, which in turn controls the direction of maximum gas or water flow though coal beds. From the field study it is found that the average face and butt cleat azimuths are towards N15°W and N75°E respectively. Average permeability of the four above-mentioned major coal seams has been calculated from well logs of nine CBM wells distributing over an area of 7.5 km², adjacent to the underground mines. The cleat orientations are congruous with the regional lineament pattern and fits well with the average permeability contour map of the study area to infer the orientation of in-situ maximum horizontal stress. Goodness of fit for the exponential regressions between vertical stress and permeability for individual coal seams varies between 0.6 and 0.84. The cleat orientation is further validated from the previous fracture analysis using FMI well log in Parbatpur area located southern part of the Jharia coalfield. The major coal seams under the study area exhibit directional permeability, with the maximum permeability, oriented parallel to the direction of face cleat orientation.     

Zircon evaporation ages and geochemistry of metamorphosed volcanic rocks from the Vinjamuru domain,Krishna Province: evidence for 1.78 Ga convergent tectonics along the southeastern margin of the Eastern Dharwar Craton

Palaeoproterozoic intermediate to potassic felsic volcanism in volcano‐sedimentary sequences could either have occurred in continental rift or at convergent magmatic arc tectonic settings. The Vinjamuru domain of the Krishna Province in Andhra Pradesh, SE India, contains such felsic and intermediate metavolcanic rocks, whose geochemistry constrains their probable tectonic setting and which were dated by the zircon Pb evaporation method in order to constrain their time of formation. These rocks consist of interlayered quartz–garnet–biotite schist, quartz–hematite–baryte–sericite schist as well as cherty quartzite, and represent a calc‐alkaline volcanic sequence of andesitic to rhyolitic rocks that underwent amphibolite‐facies metamorphism at ~1.61 Ga. Zircons from four felsic metavolcanic rock samples yielded youngest mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages between 1771 and 1791 Ma, whereas the youngest zircon age for a meta‐andesite is 1868 Ma. A ~2.43 Ga zircon xenocryst reflects incorporation of Neoarchaean basement gneisses. Their calc‐alkaline trends, higher LILE, enriched chondrite‐normalized LREE pattern and negative Nb and Ti anomalies on primitive mantle‐normalized diagrams, suggest formation in a continental magmatic arc tectonic setting. Whereas the intermediate rocks may have been derived from mantle‐source parental arc magmas by fractionation and crustal contamination, the rhyolitic rocks had crustal parental magmas. The Vinjamuru Palaeoproterozoic volcanic eruption implies an event of convergent tectonism at the southeastern margin of the Eastern Dharwar Craton at ~1.78 Ga forming one of the major crustal domains of the Krishna Province. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bifurcations of dust ion acoustic travelling waves in a magnetized quantum dusty plasma

Bifurcation behavior of nonlinear dust ion acoustic travelling waves in a magnetized quantum dusty plasma has been studied. Applying the reductive perturbation technique (RPT), we have derived a Kadomtsev-Petviashili (KP) equation for dust ion acoustic waves (DIAWs) in a magnetized quantum dusty plasma. By using the bifurcation theory of planar dynamical systems to the KP equation, we have proved that our model has solitary wave solutions and periodic travelling wave solutions. We have derived two exact explicit solutions of the above travelling waves depending on different parameters.     

Planar and nonplanar ion acoustic shock waves with nonthermal electrons and positrons

The nonlinear propagation of ion acoustic shock waves (IASWs) are studied in an unmagnetized plasma consisting of nonthermal electrons, nonthermal positrons, and singly charged adiabatically hot positive ions, whose dynamics is governed by the two dimensional nonplanar Kadomstev-Petviashvili-Burgers (KPB) equation. The shock solution of the KPB equations is obtained numerically. The effects of several parameters and ion kinematic viscosities on the properties of ion acoustic shock waves are discussed in planar and nonplanar geometry. It is shown that the ion acoustic shock wave propagating in cylindrical/spherical geometry with transverse perturbation will be deformed as time goes on. Also, it is seen that the strength and the steepness of the IASWs increases with increasing β, the nonthermal parameter.     

Superthermal effect of electrons on nonplanar dust-ion-acoustic solitary waves and double layers in a dusty plasma

The basic features of planar and nonplanar time-dependent dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) solitary waves (SWs) and double layers (DLs) have been studied in an unmagnetized dusty plasma system consisting of positively and negatively charged dust, Boltzmann distributed ions and superthermal electrons (represented by kappa distribution). Using the reductive perturbation technique (RPT) we have derived modified Gardner (MG) equation, which gives information beyond the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) limits (corresponding to the vanishing of nonlinear coefficient of the KdV equation). It is seen that the properties of nonplanar DIA SWs and DLs are significantly differs as the value of spectral index kappa (κ) changes. The present investigation may have relevance in the study of propagation of DIA waves in space and laboratory plasmas.     

Tidal rhythmites in offshore shale: A case study from the Palaeoproterozoic Chaibasa shale, eastern India and implications

Tidal rhythmites have been documented from modern continental shelves and distal offshore settings. In significant contrast to their modern counterparts, sedimentological studies of ancient tidal rhythmites formed in distal offshore settings and quantification of tidal rhythms encoded therein are, however, scarce. This paper presents sedimentological analysis of vertically accreted tidal rhythmites from the Palaeoproterozoic Chaibasa shale facies in India, and quantification of their tidal rhythms. The facies characteristics of the Chaibasa Shale coupled with harmonic analysis of the laminae thicknesses of the sandstone inter-layers corroborate a distal shelf palaeogeography for the generation of the vertically accreted tidal rhythmites. The latter are the distal counterparts of laterally accreted, tidal “bundle” deposits, well preserved within the shallow marine Chaibasa sandstones. The number of lunar days in a synodic month (∼23) estimated from the Chaibasa shale facies is, however, considerably lower than that estimated from the Chaibasa sandstone facies (∼32) suggesting that the tidal record encoded from the Chaibasa shale facies is incomplete.     

Small-scale magnetic helicity losses from a mean-field dynamo

Using mean-field models with a dynamical quenching formalism, we show that in finite domains magnetic helicity fluxes associated with small-scale magnetic fields are able to alleviate catastrophic quenching. We consider fluxes that result from advection by a mean flow, the turbulent mixing down the gradient of mean small-scale magnetic helicity density or the explicit removal which may be associated with the effects of coronal mass ejections in the Sun. In the absence of shear, all the small-scale magnetic helicity fluxes are found to be equally strong for both large- and small-scale fields. In the presence of shear, there is also an additional magnetic helicity flux associated with the mean field, but this flux does not alleviate catastrophic quenching. Outside the dynamo-active region, there are neither sources nor sinks of magnetic helicity, so in a steady state this flux must be constant. It is shown that unphysical behaviour emerges if the small-scale magnetic helicity flux is forced to vanish within the computational domain.     

Dynamic groundwater resources of National Capital Territory,Delhi: assessment,development and management options

Groundwater is one of the important source of water supply to meet the requirements of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, India which is a fast developing urban conglomeration. An assessment of dynamic groundwater resources of NCT Delhi has been attempted based on the methodology known as Ground Water Resources Estimation Methodology—1997. The methodology includes assessment of annual replenishable groundwater resources using water level fluctuation approach and empirical norms, estimation of the annual quantity of groundwater withdrawal and categorization of the assessment units based on the status of groundwater utilization and water level trend. Annual replenishable groundwater resources of NCT Delhi is about 297 million cubic meter (mcm) while the annual groundwater draft is about 480 mcm. This is because of over-exploitation of replenishable resources in seven out of nine districts of the Capital Territory. Based on the assessment of dynamic groundwater resources, a broad groundwater management plan has been proposed in this paper. This include augmentation of groundwater resources through rain water harvesting schemes to be implemented on a large scale, regulation on groundwater withdrawal in vulnerable areas, development of Yamuna flood plain aquifer and declaration of Delhi ridge as groundwater sanctuary.     

Subaqueous early eruptive phase of the late Aptian Rajmahal volcanism,India: Evidence from volcaniclastic rocks,bentonite, black shales,and oolite

The late Aptian(118-115 Ma) continental flood basalts of the Rajmahal Volcanic Province(RVP) are part of the Kerguelen Large Igneous Province,and constitute the uppermost part of the Gondwana Supergroup on the eastern Indian shield margin.The lower one-third of the Rajmahal volcanic succession contains thin layers of plant fossil-rich inter-trappean sedimentary rocks with pyroclasts,bentonite,grey and black shale/mudstone and oolite,whereas the upper two-thirds consist of sub-aerial fine-grained aphyric basalts with no inter-trappean material.At the eastern margin and the north-central sector of the RVP,the volcanics in the lower part include rhyolites and dacites overlain by enstatite-bearing basalts and enstatite-andesites.The pyroclastic rocks are largely felsic in composition,and comprise ignimbrite as well as coarse-grained tuff with lithic clasts,and tuff breccia with bombs,lapilli and ash that indicate explosive eruption of viscous rhyolitic magma.The rhyolites/dacites(68 wt.%) are separated from the andesites( 60 wt.%) by a gap in silica content indicating their formation through upper crustal anatexis with only heat supplied by the basaltic magma.On the other hand,partially melted siltstone xenoliths in enstatite-bearing basalts suggest that the enstatite-andesites originated through mixing of the upper crust with basaltic magma,crystallizing orthopyroxene at a pressure-temperature of ~3 kb/1150℃.In contrast,the northwestern sector of the RVP is devoid of felsic-intermediate rocks,and the volcaniclastic rocks are predominantly mafic(basaltic) in composition.Here,the presence of fine-grained tuffs,tuff breccia containing sideromelane shards and quenched texture,welded tuff breccia,peperite,shale/mudstone and oolite substantiates a subaqueous environment.Based on these observations,we conclude that the early phase of Rajmahal volcanism occurred under predominantly subaqueous conditions.The presence of grey and black shale/mudstone in the lower one-third of the succession across the entire Rajmahal basin provides unequivocal evidence of a shallow-marine continental shelf-type environment.Alignment of the Rajmahal eruptive centers with a major N—S mid-Neoproterozoic lineament and the presence of a gravity high on the RVP suggest a tectonic control for the eruption of melts associated with the Kerguelen plume that was active in a post-Gondwana rift between India and Australia-Antarctica.