Spatial and temporal variations of physicochemical and heavy metal pollution in Ramganga River—a tributary of River Ganges,India

The River Ganges being the most sacred river and lifeline to millions of Indians in serving their water requirements is facing excessive threat of pollution. Under various river management and conservation strategies for its protection, the assessment of water quality of its main tributary Ramganga River is lacking. This study focuses on assessment of physicochemical and heavy metal pollution of the Ramganga River by application of multivariate statistical techniques. Sampling of Ramganga River at sixteen sampling sites was carried out in three seasons (summer, monsoon and winter) of 2014. The collected water samples were analyzed for physicochemical parameters and heavy metals. Results from cluster analysis (CA) of the data divided the whole stretch of the river into three clusters as elevation from 1304 to 259 m as less polluted, from 207 to 154 m as moderately polluted and from elevation 154 to 139 m as high-polluted stretches with anthropogenic as main sources of pollution in high-polluted stretch. Principal component analysis of the seasonal dataset resulted in three significant principal components (PC) in each season explaining 72–8% of total variance with strong loadings (>0.75) of PC1 on fluoride (F^?), chloride (Cl^?), sodium (Na⁺), calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), bicarbonate (HCO₃ ^?), total dissolved solids and electrical conductivity. Temporal variation by one-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) showed significant seasonal variation was in the pH, chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, turbidity, HCO₃ ^?, F^?, Zn, cadmium (Cd) and Mn (p < 0.05). Turbidity showed approximately a twofold increase in monsoon season due to rainfall in the catchment area and subsequent flow of runoff into the river. Concentration of HCO₃ ^?, F^? and pH also showed similar increase in monsoon. The concentration of Zn, Cd and Mn showed an increasing trend in summers compared to monsoon and winter season due to dilution effect in the monsoon season and its lasting effect in winters.     

Petrography,provenance, diaganesis and depositional environment of Murree Formation in Jhelum Valley,Sub Himalayas,Azad Jammu and Kashmir,Pakistan

The clastic sediments of the Murree Formation of Miocene age are exposed in Jhelum valley areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan. Field observations revealed the cyclic deposition in the Murree Formation. The sandstone, siltstone, and shale constitute a single cycle within the formation. This single unit is divided into five different lithofacies which constitute the Bouma sequence in the Murree Formation. The Murree Formation shows faulted contacts with Panjal Formation and Nagri Formation in the study area. The modal mineralogy data obtained from the petrography of sandstone indicates that sandstone is litharenite and lithic greywacke. The mineralogical and textural data suggests that sandstone is compositionally mature and poorly to moderately sorted. The dominantly angular to sub angular quartz grains show nearness of the source area. Fractured and sutured quartz grain reveals tectonodiagentic changes that occurred in Murree Formation. The sandstone experienced diagenetic changes. The pressure solution and cementation reduced the primary porosity of sandstone. However, alteration of feldspar and fractures in grains have produced secondary porosity. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the shale samples indicates that shale of the Murree Formation is argillaceous and dominated by illite clay mineral. The illite crystallinity values indicate very low grade metamorphism of Murree Formation in core of Hazara Kashmir Syntaxis. The petrographic data suggests that the provenance of sandstone is recycled orogen. Quartz is of igneous and metamorphic origin. Feldspar (albite and microcline) composition suggests its derivation from acidic igneous rocks. The rock fragments of volcanics, slate, phyllite, and schist suggest igneous and metamorphic provenance. The petrographic data suggests that at the time of deposition of Murree Formation, igneous and low grade metamorphic rocks were exposed. However, presence of some clasts of carbonates indicates that sedimentary rocks were also exposed in the source region. The quartz content and clay minerals in the shale revealed that source region was igneous and metamorphic rocks. Cyclic deposition, lithofacies, and various sedimentary structures like cross bedding, ripple marks, and calcite concretions suggest that deposition of Murree Formation occurred in fluviatile environment by meandering river system having decreasing turbidity current.     

Waveshapes of continuing currents and properties of M-components in natural positive cloud-to-ground lightning

This work analyses the waveshapes of continuing currents and parameters of M-components in positive cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes through high-speed GPS synchronized videos. The dataset is composed of only long continuing currents (with duration longer than 40 ms) and was selected from more than 800 flashes recorded in São José dos Campos (45.864°W, 23.215°S) and Uruguaiana (29.806°W, 57.005°S) in Southeast and South of Brazil, respectively, during 2003 to 2007 summers. The videos are compared with data obtained by the Brazilian Lightning Location System (BrasilDAT) in order to determine the polarity of each flash and select only positive cases. There are only two studies of waveshapes of continuing currents in the literature. One is based on direct current measurements of triggered lightning, in which four different types of waveshapes were observed; and the other is based on measurements of luminosity variations in high-speed videos of CG negative lightning, in which besides the four types above mentioned two additional types were observed. The present work is an extension of the latter, using the same method but now applied to obtain the waveshapes of positive CG lightning. As far as the authors know, this is the first report on M-components in positive continuing currents. We also have used the luminosity-versus-time graphs to observe their occurrence and measure some parameters (duration, elapsed time and time between two successive M-components), whose statistics are presented and compared in detail to the data for negative flashes. We have plotted a histogram of the M-components elapsed time over the total duration of the continuing current for positive flashes, which presented an exponential decay (correlation coefficient: 0.83), similar to what has been observed for negative flashes.     

Potentiality of open burnt clay as an adsorbent for the removal of Congo red from aqueous solution

Open burnt clay was studied as a potential adsorbent for the adsorption of Congo red (a reactive dye) from aqueous solution. The effect of contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage and temperature were studied. It was observed that the amount of Congo red retained increase with decreasing pH and increasing initial concentration. Removal percentage at pH 2 and 3 are almost same. The adsorption capacity of regenerated burnt clay was showed more than 98 % recovery of the adsorption efficiency of initial virgin adsorbent. The equilibrium data were described well by both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm model. The adsorption capacity of some natural adsorbents, namely rice husk, wood charcoal, tea waste etc. were also investigated and compared with that of open burnt clay.     

Mineralogical and geochemical study of bentonite deposits of Garhi Chandan area,District Nowshera,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan

The Pliocene-Pleistocene Ghari Chandan Formation consists of lacustrine-fluvio-deltaic deposits exposed in the Attock-Cherat Range. Three beds of bentonite deposits occur in the upper part of the formation. An average thickness of each layer ranges from 0.4 to 1 m with a total strike length of ~5 Km. Montmorillonite and saponite clay minerals with admixtures of quartz, feldspar, muscovite, biotite, and hornblende were identified in these samples. Compositionally these beds are similar and comprised of dioctahedral smectite. The differential thermal analyses of bentonite reveals high thermal stability of the deposits. Detailed mineralogical and geochemical investigations suggest that the Garhi Chandan deposit is a mixture of calcic and sodic bentonite derived from andesitic and trachyandesitic source rock. Heavy metal concentration reduces the overall adsorbing capacity of the deposit.     

湖泊碎屑岩沙坝成因机制及构型表征研究进展*

湖泊碎屑岩沙坝因波浪和沿岸流的反复冲刷,成熟度较高,显示出巨大的油气勘探潜力,已成为隐蔽油气藏勘探的重点。作者在大量文献调研的基础上,总结了近年来前人在滩坝定义、沉积特征、主控因素、成因机制及内部构型研究中的重要进展,在此基础上提出了沙坝演化阶段及沉积构型的新认识。结果表明,沙坝完整的演化历程主要包括4个阶段,分别是弱波浪作用阶段、动荡水流—冲洗回流阶段、风成阶段及沼泽化阶段。影响沙坝发育的控制因素多样,其中物源和风场是沙坝发育的根本因素,两者分别影响了沙坝发育的物质来源和能量供给;而风场所决定的水动力是影响沙坝储集体发育的最直接因素;构造运动和层序演化则控制沙坝的分布位置及保存程度;各因素综合作用决定了坝的形态、发育规模及保存状况。依据前人构型理论,将沙坝构型按照正序方案依次划分为6级,对构型表征方法和沙坝3~5级构型定量表征进行了初步探索,以期为滩坝砂体勘探开发提供理论和实践支持。