Genesis of cordierite-gedrite-cummingtonite rocks of the northern portion of the khetri Copper Belt,Rajasthan, India

The cordierite-gedrite-cummingtonite rocks occur in the zone of sulphide mineralization. Field and petrographic evidences suggest formation of these rocks from the $\text{chlorite}\text{±}\text{garnet}$ schists which are associated with them. Time relations between crystallization and deformation, as evident by textural relations, suggest that this transformation constitutes a progressive sequence in time during prograde metamorphism in the area. Bulk chemical compositions of the cordierite-gedrite-cummingtonite rocks plot in the compositional range of the chlorite schists in the AKF, ACF and AFM diagrams. The AFM diagram shows a discontinuity in the topology as revealed by the intersection of the coexisting garnet-chlorite join with the three-phase field of cordierite-gedrite-garnet, suggesting the reaction: $\text{Al-chlorite}\text{+}\text{quartz}\text{(±}\text{garnet}\text{) ?}\text{gedrite}\text{+}\text{cordierite}\text{+}\text{H}{}_2\text{O}$. The reaction took place under conditions of , brought about by dilution of pore fluid by B, Cl, F, S, etc., which reduce the activity of water.     

Geochemical characteristics and controlling factors of chemical composition of groundwater in a part of Guntur district,Andhra Pradesh,India

A survey on quality of groundwater was carried out for assessing the geochemical characteristics and controlling factors of chemical composition of groundwater in a part of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India, where the area is underlain by Peninsular Gneissic Complex. The results of the groundwater chemistry show a variation in pH, EC, TDS, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃ ^?, Cl^?, SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^? and F^?. The chemical composition of groundwater is mainly characterized by Na⁺?HCO₃ ^? facies. Hydrogeochemical type transits from Na⁺–Cl^?–HCO₃ ^? to Na⁺–HCO₃ ^?–Cl^? along the flow path. Graphical and binary diagrams, correlation coefficients and saturation indices clearly explain that the chemical composition of groundwater is mainly controlled by geogenic processes (rock weathering, mineral dissolution, ion exchange and evaporation) and anthropogenic sources (irrigation return flow, wastewater, agrochemicals and constructional activities). The principal component (PC) analysis transforms the chemical variables into four PCs, which account for 87% of the total variance of the groundwater chemistry. The PC I has high positive loadings of pH, HCO₃ ^?, NO₃ ^?, K⁺, Mg²⁺ and F^?, attributing to mineral weathering and dissolution, and agrochemicals (nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilizers). The PC II loadings are highly positive for Na⁺, TDS, Cl^? and F^?, representing the rock weathering, mineral dissolution, ion exchange, evaporation, irrigation return flow and phosphate fertilizers. The PC III shows high loading of Ca²⁺, which is caused by mineral weathering and dissolution, and constructional activities. The PC IV has high positive loading of Mg²⁺ and SO₄ ^2?, measuring the mineral weathering and dissolution, and soil amendments. The spatial distribution of PC scores explains that the geogenic processes are the primary contributors and man-made activities are the secondary factors responsible for modifications of groundwater chemistry. Further, geochemical modeling of groundwater also clearly confirms the water–rock interactions with respect to the phases of calcite, dolomite, fluorite, halite, gypsum, K-feldspar, albite and CO₂, which are the prime factors controlling the chemistry of groundwater, while the rate of reaction and intensity are influenced by climate and anthropogenic activities. The study helps as baseline information to assess the sources of factors controlling the chemical composition of groundwater and also in enhancing the groundwater quality management.     

Analysis of enhanced velocity signals observed during solar flares

Solar flares are known to release a large amount of energy. It is believed that the flares can excite velocity oscillations in active regions. We report here the changes in velocity signals in three active regions which have produced large X-class flares. The enhanced velocity signals appeared during the rise time of the GOES soft X-ray flux. These signals are located close to the vicinity of the hard X-ray source regions as observed with RHESSI. The power maps of the active region show enhancement in the frequency regime 5–6.5 mHz, while there is feeble or no enhancement of these signals in 2–4 mHz frequency band. High energy particles with sufficient momentum seem to be the cause for these observed enhanced velocity signals.     

High-speed solar wind streams of two different origins and cosmic-ray variations during 1980–1986

There are two types of high-speed solar wind streams classified in two categories:coronal-hole and solar-flare-generated streams. These two types are classified in two categories considering the bulk speed, proton density, temperature and magnetic field in the interplanetary medium. Their effects on cosmic ray intensity have been studied on a short-term basis during 1980–1986. Daily means of one middle and one low-latitude set of neutron monitor data have been taken for analysis using the Chree method of superposed epochs. The investigation indicates that the solar-flare-generated high-speed solar wind streams are more effective in producing cosmic ray decreases than are the coronal-hole generated streams.     

Petrology and geochemistry of the Grubergebirge anorthosite and marginal rocks,central Dronning Maud Land: Further characterization of the Late Neoproterozoic magmatic event in East Antarctica

The Grubergebirge anorthosite, a Late Neoproterozoic massif-type anorthosite, was emplaced into Late Mesoproterozoic-aged metamorphosed orthogneisses and supracrustal rocks in the Wohlthat Mountains. Mineralogically and chemically, the marginal rocks to the anorthosite massif classify as ferromonzodiorite and ferromonzonite. Variations in trace and rare earth element abundances and normalized patterns between the anorthosite and associated marginal ferromonzodiorite (and minor ferromonzonite) and distinct differences between the ferromonzodiorite and ferromonzonite have been observed. Whereas the magmas from which the anorthosite crystallized have been slightly contaminated by incorporating crustal material (now occurring as enclaves), the marginal ferromonzodiorite represent rocks that originated due to mixing (hybridization) of injected primitive ferrodiorite magma(s) with preexisting crustal material, resulting in the hybrid ferromonzodiorite.     

Moving Magnetic Features in and out of Penumbral Filaments

A time sequence of high-resolution SOHO/MDI magnetograms, Dopplergrams, and continuum images is used to study the moving magnetic features (MMFs) in and out of penumbral filaments. Precursors of MMFs have been observed inside the penumbral filaments. One hundred and fifteen out of 127 well-observed individual MMFs in the moat of two sunspots have been identified to have precursors at an average distance of 4″ inside the penumbral filaments. The velocity of these precursors is small inside the penumbral filaments and becomes large once the MMFs cross the outer penumbra. The paths followed by the MMFs exhibit large fluctuations in their magnetic field strength values, with an additional hike in the fluctuations near the outer penumbra. It is also observed that the path followed by the MMFs appear as a cluster of fibrils which could be traced back inside the penumbra. The appearance of MMFs and their azimuthal velocity is position and time dependent. Electronic Supplementary Material Electronic Supplementary Material is available for this article at     

Intra-event characteristics of extreme erosive rainfall on Mauritius

Mauritius is a volcanic island with a raised interior where extreme rainfall events dominate rainfall erosivity. Intra-event characteristics of the 120 highest erosive events at six selected locations between 2004 and 2008 were analyzed to provide the first detailed intra-storm data for a tropical island environment. On Mauritius, spatial variation is evident in the characteristics of extreme erosive rainfall recorded at the stations, with a noticeable increase in rainfall depth, duration, kinetic energy, and erosivity of extreme events with altitude. Extreme events in the raised interior (central plateau) show high variability of peak intensity over time as well as a higher percentage of events in which the greatest intensity occurs in the latter part of the event. Intra-event distribution of rainfall in the interior of the island shows that rainfall there has a higher potential to exceed infiltration rates as well as the ability to generate high peak runoff rates and cause substantial soil loss. The study suggests that even though within-event rainfall characteristics are complex, they have implications for soil erosion risk, and that, in tropical island environments, the within-storm distribution of rainfall should be incorporated in soil-loss modeling.     

Long Term Variations in Chromospheric Features from Ca-K Images at Kodaikanal

There is a collection of about 100 years of Ca-K line spectroheliograms at the Kodaikanal Observatory (KKL) obtained on daily basis with a single instrument that can be used to study long term variations of various chromospheric features. All the Ca-K images have been digitized using specially developed digitizers with uniform and highly stable light source, high quality lens and 4k×4k format CCD camera. The digitization has been carried out in a room with controlled temperature and humidity. The digitized data are in 16-bit format with pixel resolution of 0.86 arcsec. The digitized images have been calibrated by a process that includes flat-fielding, density to intensity conversion, centering the image, and rotation of the image to make the solar north pole in the fixed direction. Then we applied correction for the limb darkening effect and also made the background in the image uniform. The image background was normalized to unity that enabled us to use the intensity contrast to identify different features, such as plages, enhanced (EN), active (AN), and quite network on images and classified them by using different image contrast and area threshold values. After several experiments with different threshold values for different features and careful analysis of a large number of images, we could fix the threshold values of intensity contrast larger than 1.35 and area larger than 1 arcmin² for plages, larger than 1.35 but area less than 1 arcmin² for EN, and between 1.25?–?1.35 for AN. We compared the quarterly averaged and half yearly averaged plage areas obtained from KKL with the Mount Wilson (MWO) data and sunspot number. We find that the plage area extracted from the KKL is highly correlated with the MWO plage area, though there is a slight difference between the two data set in cycle 19. The plage area of KKL is also highly correlated with the sunspot number. The areas of EN and AN are also found to have smaller quasi-periodic variations apart from the solar cycle variations.     

Role of debris cover to control specific ablation of adjoining Batal and Sutri Dhaka glaciers in Chandra Basin (Himachal Pradesh) during peak ablation season

As part of the on-going annual mass balance measurements on Batal and Sutri Dhaka glaciers, observations were made during peak ablation (August–September) season in 2013 to understand the response of debris covered and clean-ice (debris free) glacier surface to melting processes. Though, both the Batal and Sutri Dhaka glaciers have almost similar geographical disposition, Batal shows extensive debris cover (90% of the ablation area), while the latter is free from debris (only 5% of the ablation area). The thickness of debris in Batal glacier is inversely proportional to altitude, whereas Sutri Dhaka mostly experienced debris-free zone except snout area. Observation revealed that the vertical gradient of ablation rate in ablation area is contrastingly opposite in these two glaciers, reflecting significant control of debris thickness and their distribution over glacier surface on the ablation rates. While different thickness (2–100 cm) of debris have attenuated melting rates up to 70% of total melting, debris cover of <2 cm thickness has accelerated melting up to 10% of the total melting. Estimated melt ratio reveals that about 90% of the ablation area has experienced inhibited melting in Batal glacier, whereas only less than 5% ablation area of Sutri Dhaka has undergone inhibited melting. Comparison of topographical maps of 1962 with successive satellite images of the area demonstrates a terminus retreat of 373 ± 33.5 m and 579 ± 33.5 m for Batal and Sutri Dhaka glaciers for the period 1962–2013, respectively.     

Simplified SMA-inspired 1-parameter SCS-CN model for runoff estimation

This study proposes a simplified 1-parameter SCS-CN model (M5) based on Mishra-Singh (2002) model and soil moisture accounting (SMA) procedure for surface runoff estimation and compares its performance with the existing SCS-CN method (SCS, 1956) (M1), Michel 1-P model (Water Resour Res 41:1-6, 2005) (M2), Sahu 1-P model (Hydrol Process 21:2872-2881, 2007) (M3), and Ajmal et al. model (J Hydrol 530:623-633, 2015) (M4) using large rainfall–runoff dataset of 48,763 events from123 USDA-ARS watersheds. The performance of models was evaluated using three statistical error indices such as Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), root mean square error (RMSE), percentage bias (PBIAS), and rank and grading system (RGS). Based on the results obtained, the models can be ranked as follows: M5?>?M4?>?M3?>?M1?>?M2, i.e., model M5 outperformed all the remaining four models M1–M4 and hence is recommended for field applications.