Geophysical investigations over a segment of the Central Indian Ridge, Indian Ocean

 Swath bathymetric, gravity, and magnetic studies were carried out over a 55 km long segment of the Central Indian Ridge. The ridge is characterized by 12 to 15 km wide rift valley bounded by steep walls and prominent volcanic constructional ridges on either side of the central rift valley. A transform fault at 7°45′S displaces the ridge axis. A mantle Bouguer anomaly low of −14 mGals and shallowing of rift valley over the middle of the ridge segment indicate along axis crustal thickness variations. A poorly developed neovolcanic zone on the inner rift valley floor indicate dominance of tectonic extension. The off-axis volcanic ridgs suggest enhanced magmatic activity during the recent past. Received: 24 May 1996 / Rivision received: 13 January 1997     

Radioelement distribution in river,beach, and offshore areas and their significance to Chavara placer deposit,Southern Kerala Coast of India

The radioelement and heavy mineral distribution in river, beach and innershelf areas of the southern Kerala coast is related to placer mineral concentration on the beaches at Chavara. Southern Kerala rivers—Neyyar, Karamana and Vamanapuram—transport higher amounts of radioactive elements than the larger Kallada River due to higher radioactive minerals in the hinterland rocks. Coastal configurations and the seasonal longshore current pattern seems to control along-shore distribution of minerals. The proposed model for placer concentration suggests that the energy difference and seasonal current direction along this coast is important.     

Hydrothermal Hgbomite Associated with Vanadiferous-Titaniferous(V-Ti) Bearing Magnetite Bands in Bhakatarhalli Chromite Mine,Nuggihalli Greenstone Belt,Western Dharwar Craton,Karnataka, India

Hgbomite, a rare exotic mineral, is found to be associated with the vanadiferous–titaniferous(V-Ti) bearing magnetite bands at Bhakatarhalli, Nuggihalli greenstone belt, western Dharwar Craton, India. We report on a second occurrence of hgbomite from the Dharwar craton in Karnataka, which is the sixth documented occurrence of this mineral from India. We evaluate the chemical characteristics of hgbomite and associated Fe-Ti-minerals in an attempt to identify its formation as a primary hydrothermal mineral in a metamorphosed magnetite layer.We report here the presence of hgbomite as a complex oxide of Fe, Mg, Al and Ti with accessory of Zn, V and Sn. Petrographic studies suggest the(V–Ti) bearing magnetite(Mt) contain spinel, hgbomite, chlorite, martite, ilmenite(Il) and minor amounts of diaspore. The hgbomite displays euhedral to subhedral textures, and is up to 250 μm along the grain boundaries of magnetite and ilmenite. In the samples studied, hgbomite is prismatic, irregular and elongated in shape. The genesis of hgbomite in veins between magnetite and ilmenite implies its precipitation from fluids without involving complicated reactions. Several models were proposed for the formation of hgbomite; however, the subject is still debatable.     

Geobotany of red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) – a case study from the southeastern portion of Andhra Pradesh

 RedSanders in their natural distribution occur almost exclusively in quartzites and shales. This indicates the geobotanical response to these rock types in the semi-arid tract of the southeastern portion of Andhra Pradesh in the tropical dry deciduous forests of Chittoor, Cuddapah and Nellore districts. Thus Red Sanders are important from a commercial point of view and also a useful tool to demarcate stratigraphic formations. Received: 27 April 1998 · Accepted: 21 July 1998     

Evaluating a thermal image sharpening model over a mixed agricultural landscape in India

Fine spatial resolution (e.g., <300 m) thermal data are needed regularly to characterise the temporal pattern of surface moisture status, water stress, and to forecast agriculture drought and famine. However, current optical sensors do not provide frequent thermal data at a fine spatial resolution. The TsHARP model provides a possibility to generate fine spatial resolution thermal data from coarse spatial resolution (≥1 km) data on the basis of an anticipated inverse linear relationship between the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) at fine spatial resolution and land surface temperature at coarse spatial resolution. The current study utilised the TsHARP model over a mixed agricultural landscape in the northern part of India. Five variants of the model were analysed, including the original model, for their efficiency. Those five variants were the global model (original); the resolution-adjusted global model; the piecewise regression model; the stratified model; and the local model. The models were first evaluated using Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) thermal data (90 m) aggregated to the following spatial resolutions: 180 m, 270 m, 450 m, 630 m, 810 m and 990 m. Although sharpening was undertaken for spatial resolutions from 990 m to 90 m, root mean square error (RMSE) of <2 K could, on average, be achieved only for 990–270 m in the ASTER data. The RMSE of the sharpened images at 270 m, using ASTER data, from the global, resolution-adjusted global, piecewise regression, stratification and local models were 1.91, 1.89, 1.96, 1.91, 1.70 K, respectively. The global model, resolution-adjusted global model and local model yielded higher accuracy, and were applied to sharpen MODIS thermal data (1 km) to the target spatial resolutions. Aggregated ASTER thermal data were considered as a reference at the respective target spatial resolutions to assess the prediction results from MODIS data. The RMSE of the predicted sharpened image from MODIS using the global, resolution-adjusted global and local models at 250 m were 3.08, 2.92 and 1.98 K, respectively. The local model consistently led to more accurate sharpened predictions by comparison to other variants.     

Textural and compositional relationships of rutile and chromite in Sittampundi anorthosite complex, Tamil Nadu

The anorthosite complexes and related rock types of the Indian Precambrian shield are primarily associated with either cratons or mobile belts. They were metamorphosed under amphibolites to granulite facies conditions. The major rock types are chromite-bearing meta-anorthosites, amphibolites, basic granulites, pink granites and gneisses. This study was carried out on chromitite bearing samples from Sittampundi layered anorthosite complex, Tamil Nadu, to evaluate the textural and compositional relationships of rutile and chromite. The pristine composition of the chromites is still preserved inspite of intense metamorphic and tectonic process. The rutiles are differentiated into isolated, clustered and exsolved rutile grains.     

First results from ground-based daytime optical investigation of the development of the equatorial ionization anomaly

A meridional scanning OI 630.0-nm dayglow photometer was operated from Ahmedabad (17.2^°N dip lat.) scanning a region towards the south in the upper atmosphere extending over \sim5^° in latitude from 10.2^°N to 15.2^°N dip latitude. From the spatial and temporal variabilities of the dayglow intensity in the scanning region we show for the first time, evidence for the passage of the crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) in the daytime by means of a ground-based optical technique. The relationship between the daytime eastward electric field over the dip equator in the same longitude zone as inferred from the equatorial electrojet strength and the evolutionary pattern of EIA is clearly demonstrated. The latter as inferred from the dayglow measurements is shown to be consistent with our present understanding of the electrodynamical processes in the equatorial region. The present results reveal the potential of this ground-based optical technique for the investigation of ionospheric/thermospheric phenomena with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.     

Controls on organic carbon distribution in sediments from the eastern Arabian Sea Margin

 Sediment cores from the upper continental slope of the eastern Arabian Sea have high organic carbon (OC), CaCO₃, and sand content at the top. The values decrease with increasing depth in the Holocene and Upper Pleistocene. Topographic highs show highest OC and lower CaCO₃ in the Holocene clayey sediments and vice versa in the Pleistocene sandy sediments. The OC is immature and marine or a mixture of both marine and terrestrial in the Holocene sediments and is mostly terrestrial and/or reworked marine in the Pleistocene sediments. Productivity is the main controlling factor for the organic carbon enrichment. Texture and reworking also influence the organic carbon variations. Received: 29 May 1996/Revision received: 10 January 1997     

Detection of ionospheric scintillation effects using LMD–DFA

The performance and measurement accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers is greatly affected by ionospheric scintillations. Rapid amplitude and phase variations in the received GPS signal, known as ionospheric scintillation, affects the tracking of signals by GNSS receivers. Hence, there is a need to investigate the monitoring of various activities of the ionosphere and to develop a novel approach for mitigation of ionospheric scintillation effects. A method based on Local Mean Decomposition (LMD)–Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) has been proposed. The GNSS data recorded at Koneru Lakshmaiah (K L) University, Guntur, India were considered for analysis. The carrier to noise ratio (C/N₀) of GNSS satellite vehicles were decomposed into several product functions (PF) using LMD to extract the intrinsic features in the signal. Scintillation noise was removed by the DFA algorithm by selecting a suitable threshold. It was observed that the performance of the proposed LMD–DFA was better than that of empirical mode decomposition (EMD)–DFA.