Elastic, mechanical, and thermodynamical properties of superionic lithium oxide for high pressures

The elastic and thermodynamic properties of Li₂O for high pressures are presented. For cubic Li₂O, model effective interatomic interaction potential incorporating long-range Coulomb, charge transfer interactions, covalency effect, Hafemeister and Flygare type short-range overlap repulsion extended up to the second neighbor ions and van der Waals interactions is formulated. Both charge transfer interactions and covalency effect apart from long-range Coulomb are important in revealing high-pressure-induced associated volume collapse, elastic, and thermodynamical properties. The elastic constants, Debye temperature, and thermal expansion coefficient obtained are in good agreement with the available experimental data and other theoretical results. The Li₂O is mechanically stiffened, thermally softened, and brittle in nature as inferred from the pressure-dependent elastic constants behavior. To our knowledge, this is the first quantitative theoretical prediction of the pressure dependence of elastic, thermal, and thermodynamical properties of Li₂O and still awaits experimental confirmation.     

An integrated approach to assess the quality of groundwater in a coastal aquifer of Andhra Pradesh, India

The Narava basin in Visakhapatnam district situated on the east coast is a productive agricultural area, and is also one of the fastest growing urban areas in India. The agricultural and urban-industrialization activities have a lot of impact on this coastal aquifer water quality. The hydrochemistry of the groundwater was analyzed in the basin area with reference to drinking and agricultural purposes. The area is underlain by Precambrian rocks like khondalites, charnockites and migmatites. The water samples were collected from shallow wells for the year 2008. Physical and chemical parameters of groundwater such as pH, total alkalinity (TA), electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃ ^?, Cl^?, SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^?, F^? were determined. The analytical results revealed that the most of the groundwater found to be in polluted category. Geographical information system (GIS) was utilized to generate different spatial distribution maps of various chemical constituents in the study area. The analytical data were used to compute certain parameters such as salinity hazard, percent sodium (Na%), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), permeability index (PI), Kelley??s ratio (KR) and corrosivity ratio (CR) to determine the quality of water for agricultural purposes. The abundance of the major ions in the basin area was found to be in the following sequence: Na⁺?>?Ca²⁺?>?Mg²⁺?>?K⁺:Cl^??>?HCO₃ ^??>?SO₄ ^2??>?NO₃ ^??>?F^?. According to Gibbs?? diagram most of the samples fall under rock dominance. As per Wilcox and USSL classification most of the groundwater samples are suitable for irrigation except few samples which are unsuitable due to the presence of high salinity and high sodium hazard. From the obtained data, it can be concluded that the water quality profile was good and useful for normal irrigation agriculture.     

Use of geo-spatial information and technologies for analyzing morphological changes in the Greater Visakhapatnam coastal region,east coast of India

The objective of this study was to investigate the land use/land cover, landforms, shoreline and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) changes of Greater Visakhapatnam coastal region using Indian Remote Sensing-IRS P6 (Resourcesat-I) satellite data and collateral information. Prominent changes have been observed during the past 30 years through land use/land cover analyzes which clearly indicate that thecoastal regulatory zones have altered in respect of both natural and anthropogenic activities. Various geomorphic units were identified and confirmed with appropriate field work. Significant changes have been recognized in the shoreline map, which denote that the area of erosional shoreline is larger than the accretional and stable prone shoreline. The availability of high resolution data has helped to prepare large-scale maps for implementation of CRZ measures. The results were promising and suggest that the modern geo-spatial information and technological tools are extremely helpful for conducting coastal morphological studies.     

Integrating remote sensing and GIS for identification of groundwater prospective zones in the Narava basin, Visakhapatnam region, Andhra Pradesh

This paper mainly deals with the integrated approach of remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) to delineate groundwater prospective zones in Narava basin, Visakhapatnam region. The various thematic maps generated for delineating groundwater potential zones are geomorphology, geology, lineament density, drainage density, slope and land use/land cover (LULC). Weighted index overlay (WIO) technique is used to investigate a number of choice possibilities and evaluate suitability according to the associated weight of each unit. The integrated map of the area shows different zones of groundwater prospects, viz. very good (18.9% of the area), good (26.4% of the area), moderate (17.1% of the area) and poor (37.6% of the area). The categorization of groundwater potential was in good agreement with the available water column in the basin area.