Ordinary chondritic micrometeorites from the Indian Ocean

Extraterrestrial particulate materials on the Earth can originate in the form of collisional debris from the asteroid belt, cometary material, or as meteoroid ablation spherules. Signatures that link them to their parent bodies become obliterated if the frictional heating is severe during atmospheric entry. We investigated 481 micrometeorites isolated from ~300 kg of deep sea sediment, out of which 15 spherules appear to have retained signatures of their provenance, based on their textures, bulk chemical compositions, and relict grain compositions. Seven of these 15 spherules contain chromite grains whose compositions help in distinguishing subgroups within the ordinary chondrite sources. There are seven other spherules which comprise either entirely of dusty olivines or contain dusty olivines as relict grains. Two of these spherules appear to be chondrules from an unequilibrated ordinary chondrite. In addition, a porphyritic olivine pyroxene (POP) chondrule‐like spherule is also recovered. The bulk chemical composition of all the spherules, in combination with trace elements, the chromite composition, and presence of dusty olivines suggest an ordinary chondritic source. These micrometeorites have undergone minimal frictional heating during their passage through the atmosphere and have retained these features. These micrometeorites therefore also imply there is a significant contribution from ordinary chondritic sources to the micrometeorite flux on the Earth.     

Localization of Branchial Enzymes and their Significance in the Detection of Crude Oil Toxicity in Colisa fasciatus

The effect of crude oil on the histochemical localization of branchial enzymes CA, SDH, LDH, Alkpase and Acidpase was investigated in Colisa fasciatus. The activity of all the enzymes experimented here was found to have decreased when treated with the lethal solutions of crude oil except the LDH which showed an increasing trend throughout the experiment. A transitory increase in the CA and SDH was observed in the beginning but reached an almost normal level after 48 h in 1000 ppm. On the basis of sensitiveness towards crude oil toxicity, the enzymes have been arranged in the following order: LDH > SDH > CA > Alkpase > Acidpase. The results suggest that crude oil is capable of impairing the enzyme activity. The decreased or increased level of enzymes may be used as an indicator for assessing the toxicity of oil pollutants.     

The influence of Southern Hemispheric Equatorial Trough on rainfall during southwest monsoon

Summary Monsoon is a complex dynamical system. Interannual and intraseasonal fluctuations have been studied in the regional and global perspective. Southern Hemispheric Equatorial Trough and its activity during the northern summer appears inversely related to the rainfall activity over the Indian sub-continent in general and Central India in particular. During typical active SHET epochs the rainfall activity becomes deficient in the Central parts of the country. The activity of the SHET is fluctuating in nature. Its duration is prolonged and intensity is increased during the years of major failure.With 2 Figures     

Monsoon rainfall and southern oscillation responses in the pressures over the Northern Indian Ocean

The pressure variations over the North Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon season have been exam-ined using the monthly data from June to September for the period 1961 to 1968. It is found that these varia-tions can be described by two significant eigenvectors (EV1 and EV2) which together account for 53% of the total variance.The first eigenvector (EV1) represents in phase variation over both, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal with higher variations over the northern side of the area. The second eigenvector (EV2) depicts the out-of-phase variation between the pressure anomalies over the north and the south of 15°N latitude with two areas of pronounced variation, viz., the head Bay of Bengal and the equatorial region near 65°E longitude.The coefficients of EV1 show significant association with rainfall of West Coast and Central India for the concurrent months. These coefficients also show significant association with the pressure and temperature indices of the Southern Oscillation. The coefficients of EV2 show significant association with the monsoon rainfall of south peninsular India.     

Fluid-structure interaction effects for offshore structures

Comprehensive analyses are made of the differences in the responses of simple models of offshore structures computed by the standard and extended versions of Morison's equation for the hydrodynamic forces, and of the effects and relative importance of the numerous parameters involved. The responses also are evaluated by the equivalent linearization technique and Penzien's decoupling technique, and the interrelationship and accuracy of these approaches are elucidated. The results are displayed graphically in the form of response spectra for absolute maximum displacement employing dimensionless parameters that are easy to interpret and use. In addition, the decoupling technique is generalized to include consideration of a current of constant velocity, and a simple modification is proposed which improves the accuracy of this approach. A particularly simple approximation is included for the hydrodynamic modal damping values of multi-degree-of-freedom, stick-like systems.