Mercury in sediments of Ulhas estuary

Hg levels in water, suspended particulate matter and sediment of the Ulhas estuary are under considerable environmental stress due to the indiscriminate release of effluents from a variety of industries including chlor-alkali plants. Concentration ranges of dissolved (0.04-0.61 micro gl(-1)) and particulate (1.13-6.43 micro gg(-1)) Hg reveal a definite enhancement of levels in the estuary. The Hg burden in sediment upstream of the weir that limits the tidal influence is low (0.08-0.19 micro gg(-1)) with low C(org) content (1.8-2.9%). The high Hg content of the sediment just below the weir varies seasonally (highest concentration recorded being 38.45 micro gg(-1)) due to incremental accretion of sediment as the fresh water flow over the weir progressively decreases. The 30 km segment of the estuary sustains markedly high levels of Hg in the sediment with an exponential decrease in the seaward direction from the weir. Higher concentrations than the expected background prevail in all the estuarine cores up to the bottom, though the overall concentration decreases from about 20 micro gg(-1) in core 7 (inner estuary) to 1 micro gg(-1) in core 31 (outer estuary). The Hg in sediment is associated with C(org), while its correlation with Al, Fe and Mn is poor. The Hg profiles in cores from the Arabian Sea (stations 34, 35 and 37) have a distinct horizon of enhanced concentration in the 5-60 cm segment. Based on 210Pb dating of core 37, the sediment at the bottom of this core is inferred to have been deposited in the year 1949, roughly two year prior to the establishment of the first chlor-alkali plant and represents the background (0.06-0.10 micro gg(-1)). The Hg profiles in the offshore cores indicate a marked increase in transfer of Hg to sediment subsequent to 1980, with a peak around 1990-1992. Based on the index of geoaccumulation it is considered that the estuarine segment between stations 4 and 23 is extremely polluted, while the sediment from the open coast is moderately polluted in the top 25-30 cm with respect to Hg. The enrichment factor of Hg in the sediment is 350-700 for core 4 and decreases to 0-7 for the open-shore cores.     

Deformational and crystallization history of the Precambrian rocks in north-central Aravalli Mountain,Rajasthan, India

Large-scale structures, textures and mineral assemblages in the Precambrian rocks of the Banded Gneissic Complex and the overlying Delhi Group in north-central Aravalli Mountain reveal a complex deformational-crystallization history. In the basement Gneissic Complex at least three deformational events, D₀, D₁ and D₂, and two separate episodes of metamorphism, M₁ and M₂, are recognized. The supracrustal Delhi Rocks display only two phases of deformation, D₁ and D₂, associated with a single protracted period of metamorphism, M₂.The first phase of deformation (D₁) of the Delhi orogeny (1650-900 m.y.) produced large isoclinal folds that are overturned towards the southeast and have gentle plunges in NE and SW directions. The second phase of deformation (D₂) gave rise to tight open folds on the limbs and axial-plane surfaces of the D₁ folds. These folds generally plunge towards the N and NNW at 30°–80°. In the Basement Complex one more deformation (D₀) of the Pre-Delhi orogeny (> 2000 m.y.) is recorded by the presence of reclined and recumbent folds with W to WNW trending fold axes. The D₀ folds were superimposed by D₁ and D₂ folds during the Delhi orogeny.The three deformational events have been correlated with the crystallization periods of minerals in the rocks and a setting in time is established for this part of the Aravalli range.     

Concurrent Use of OSCAT and AltiKa to Characterize Antarctic Ice Surface Features

Radar altimetry provides an important geophysical parameter, backscatter coefficient (σ₀), which is useful in studying target surface characteristics. Ku-band (Oceansat-2 scatterometer- OSCAT) and Ka-band (SARAL-AltiKa altimeter) data are concurrently used to characterize polar surface features over the Antarctic region. Maximum-likelihood classification has been employed to classify combined data set (AltiKa and OSCAT) for discrimination among sea ice, open water, and ice sheet (interior and exterior). The sea ice region obtained using the current approach has been compared with sea ice boundary derived from passive microwave data.     

Role of selected riparian herbs in reducing soil erosion and nutrient loss under simulated rainfall

The native riparian herbs such as Leonotis nepetaefolia (L.) R. Br., Cassia tora L., Ageratum conyzoides L., Parthenium hysterophorus L. and Sida acuta burm f., dominant on the bank of River Damodar in Eastern Jharia Area, Dhanbad (India), were selected to assess experimentally their quantitative role in conserving the soil and reducing water runoff and nutrient (N and P) losses. A total of 42.5 mm simulated rainfall were applied at 30 cm h⁻¹ rain intensity on both vegetated and bare plots. The collected runoff water and eroded soil from each plot were determined in terms of soil, water and nutrient conservation value (CV). Among the vegetated plots, soil CV ranged from 30 to 85% and water CV from 20 to 48%. Nutrient (N and P) CV varied from 22 to 65% for total-N, 48 to 80% for ammonia-N and 50 to 86% for nitrate-N. CV for total-P varied from 40 to 62%, inorganic-P from 42 to 60% and organic-P from 20 to 58%. In a stepwise multiple regression equation comprising four independent variables (canopy cover, litter mass, soil moisture and plant biomass), canopy cover explained 70–88% (P < 0.01) of variability in conserving soil, water and nutrient. The losses through runoff water and eroded soil from vegetated plots were found to be minimized to a great extent as compared to bare plots. The role of these species in maintaining the texture and fertility status of riparian soil is discussed.     

Assessment of RegCM4 simulated inter-annual variability and daily-scale statistics of temperature and precipitation over Mexico

The skill of a regional climate model (RegCM4) in capturing the mean patterns, interannual variability and extreme statistics of daily-scale temperature and precipitation events over Mexico is assessed through a comparison of observations and a 27-year long simulation driven by reanalyses of observations covering the Central America CORDEX domain. The analysis also includes the simulation of tropical cyclones. It is found that RegCM4 reproduces adequately the mean spatial patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature, along with the associated interannual variability characteristics. The main model bias is an overestimation of precipitation in mountainous regions. The 5 and 95 percentiles of daily temperature, as well as the maximum dry spell length are realistically simulated. The simulated distribution of precipitation events as well as the 95 percentile of precipitation shows a wet bias in topographically complex regions. Based on a simple detection method, the model produces realistic tropical cyclone distributions even at its relatively coarse resolution (dx = 50 km), although the number of cyclone days is underestimated over the Pacific and somewhat overestimated over the Atlantic and Caribbean basins. Overall, it is assessed that the performance of RegCM4 over Mexico is of sufficient quality to study not only mean precipitation and temperature patterns, but also higher order climate statistics.     

Spectral element analysis to evaluate the stability of long and steep slopes

This paper evaluates the stability of long and steep slopes examining the effect of the critical length/depth ratio, L/H, and critical slope angle, β _cr, by comparing the results of infinite slope equation with the spectral element method. In addition, the influence of uphill and downhill boundaries on stability of long and steep slopes is also evaluated in theoretical domains. As an example, this paper presents a stability analysis of long and steep vegetated and barren slopes in saturated and seismic conditions, and also evaluates the effectiveness of the infinite slope equation for those slopes. In the vegetated slopes, the root zone may not extend to the whole depth of slope, which may lead to overestimating the factor of safety by infinite slope equation. This paper examines the applicability of the infinite slope equation for infinitely long, steep, and shallow slope model by comparing the results of the spectral element method.     

The state of the environment in Mexico

The present work evaluates the state of the environment in Mexico based on indicators of the present status of the country’s natural resource management, social and economical conditions and anthropogenic modifications. The Mexican environment is interpreted as a spatially open system having a historical character that is essentially determined by the continual interaction between nature, society and economy. The landscape approach is followed, considering as units of territorial analysis each one of the 145 biophysical environmental units included in the national physiographic regionalization. The assessment of 16 indicators for each biophysical environmental unit was made considering their regional environmental integrity problems, the degree of disarticulation of their structure and function, and the alteration of their territorial structure, all of which determine whether or not they accomplish their environmental functions and achieve environmental stability. The classification of the state of the environment included 5 categories in 8 combinations represented in the map of the state of the environment in Mexico for the year 2008. The map shows that nearly 47.10% of the country’s surface has an environmental status ranging between unstable and critical, the problematic areas being mostly concentrated in the southeast and center of the national territory.     

Soft sediments and damage pattern: a few case studies from large Indian earthquakes vis-a-vis seismic risk evaluation

India is prone to earthquake hazard; almost 65 % area falls in high to very high seismic zones, as per the seismic zoning map of the country. The Himalaya and the Indo-Gangetic plains are particularly vulnerable to high seismic hazard. Any major earthquake in Himalaya can cause severe destruction and multiple fatalities in urban centers located in the vicinity. Seismically induced ground motion amplification and soil liquefaction are the two main factors responsible for severe damage to the structures, especially, built on soft sedimentary environment. These are essentially governed by the size of earthquake, epicentral distance and geology of the area. Besides, lithology of the strata, i.e., sediment type, grain size and their distribution, thickness, lateral discontinuity and ground water depth, play an important role in determining the nature and degree of destruction. There has been significant advancement in our understanding and assessment of these two phenomena. However, data from past earthquakes provide valuable information which help in better estimation of ground motion amplification and soil liquefaction for evaluation of seismic risk in future and planning the mitigation strategies. In this paper, we present the case studies of past three large Indian earthquakes, i.e., 1803 Uttaranchal earthquake (Mw 7.5); 1934 Bihar–Nepal earthquake (Mw 8.1) and 2001 Bhuj earthquake (Mw 7.7) and discuss the role of soft sediments particularly, alluvial deposits in relation to the damage pattern due to amplified ground motions and soil liquefaction induced by the events. The results presented in the paper are mainly focused around the sites located on the river banks and experienced major destruction during these events. It is observed that the soft sedimentary sites located even far from earthquake epicenter, with low water saturation, experienced high ground motion amplification; while the sites with high saturation level have undergone soil liquefaction. We also discuss the need of intensifying studies related to ground motion amplification and soil liquefaction in India as these are the important inputs for detailed seismic hazard estimation.