QC Vol(2) No(1) April-2020
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PhD Theses Late Quaternary oceanographic and cli- of geophysical surveys, drilling and coring, and matic reconstructions based on foramini- optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating fera and sediment geochemical signatures of buried sands to establish the subsurface ex- from the northeastern Arabian Sea istence, chronostratigraphic framework and de- positional environments during the Late Quater- Submitted by: Syed Azharuddin nary period in NW India. Supervisor (s): Dr Pawan Govil, BSIP & Prof A. Dendroclimatology of the Liddar Valley D. Singh, Dept. of Geology, BHU and adjoining areas of the Kashmir Hi- malaya This research aims to understand the drivers of the paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic vari- Submitted by: Uttam Pandey ability in the northeastern Arabian Sea, from Supervisor (s): Prof. Munendra Singh, Dept. of where very few high-resolution records exist. The Geology, U.of Lucknow & Dr. Santosh K. Shah, study was conducted on two sediment gravity BSIP cores from offshore Saurashtra. The author ob- serves progressive strengthening of southwest This thesis develops tree-rings network of twenty monsoon throughout the Holocene and records chronologies from 1753 tree cores of four taxa short term centennial scale events. Abrupt cold for Liddar valley and adjoining areas in the events including YD, 8.2 ka and 4 ka events Himalaya to establish self-calibrated Palmer (corresponding to the weakened monsoons), a Drought Severity Index (scPDSI), winter temper- warm event of preboreal (corresponding to the ature and past river flow of the Shingo River of strengthened monsoons) and a new cold event the Indus Basin. The work constructs the scPDSI centering around 10.1 ka are reported. Fur- of summer, based on tree-ring chronologies of ther, spectral analyses of the high-resolution 18 A. pindrow, C. deodara and P. smithiana which δ OG:ruber time series records from the investi- demonstrates the reconstructions for years 1581- ∼ gated cores reveal the cyclicity of 256 years in 2012 CE are consistent with wet-dry episodes of the monsoons, which corresponds to Holocene regional and adjoining regions of Western Hi- deVries solar cycle. Two more periodicities of malaya, Karakorum and Tibetan Plateau, reflect- ∼296 years and ∼1609 years have also been 18 ing increase in pluvial condition since the 1970s recorded from the δ OG:ruber time series, which to present. Another reconstruction of the winter match with the 282 years cyclic event in the North temperature, based on P. wallichiana for 1855- Atlantic and the 1500 500 years Bond cycle re- 2012 CE, shows recent abrupt warming trends spectively. after the 1970s and reflected regional-scale tem- perature variability. Lastly, based on tree-ring Drainage reorganization and subsurface chronology of A. pindrow from Sindh valley, a stratigraphy of the paleo-Yamuna River in first of its kind river flow reconstruction for pe- Haryana plain, NW India and its linkage to riod (1760-2002 CE) of the Shingo River of Indus Harappan Civilization Basin is presented. Submitted by: Imran Khan Supervisor (s): Prof. Rajiv Sinha, IIT Kanpur The present doctoral thesis focuses on the east- ern tributary of the ancient Sarasvati River, the paleo-Yamuna, and uses an integrated approach Page 5 Vol. 2 No. 1 April 2020 [email protected] port of the Bay of Bengal moisture to parts of Indian mainland during the summer monsoon, attributable to monsoon intra-seasonal oscilla- tions. The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) for period 1.7-3.2 ka is also studied using geochem- ical analyses of stalagmite from peninsular In- dia (Kadapa Cave), producing the highest ever ∼1 year resolution dataset. A declining trend is ob- served in the ISM, that identifies an associated abrupt event at ∼2.8 ka. A further comparison with Chinese records and a synthesis of 26 stud- Isotopic studies of rainfall and its recon- ies from India. This results suggest synchronous struction using speleothems from the In- variations of the Indian and the East Asian Mon- dian subcontinent soon systems and elucidate influences of various major climatic events, such as LIA, MWP, and Submitted by: Nitesh Sinha RWP. Supervisor (s): Dr S. Chakraborty, IITM, Pune This thesis presents an extensive dataset of mod- ern daily rainfall isotopic composition from sites in the Indian subcontinent and Bay of Bengal during 2012 - 2017 to analyse changes in rain- fall amount and corresponding isotopic signa- tures. The Port Blair rainwater δ18O maintains a temporally dependent correlation with the aver- age rain variation over the Core Monsoon Zone (CMZ), though the rainfall over these two re- gions shoes none. Consequently, the correla- tion between rainfall over the CMZ and δ18O of Port Blair rain provides evidence of the trans- Workshops/Conferences Organized: concept, applications and operation of modern instru- mental methods for chemical analysis applied in the field of Earth & Environmental Sciences. Equal em- Advanced Training Program on Analytical Geochem- phasis was given on theoretical aspects and practical istry (A CSIR-Integrated Skill Initiative) sessions for high-quality data processing through var- ious software applications. About 60 eminent scien- The 3rd advanced training program on “Analytical tists, research scholars, and technical personnel from Geochemistry (A CSIR- Integrated Skill Initiative)” different parts of the country participated in the pro- was organized at the CSIR- National Geophysical gram. Hands-on training sessions were provided on Research Institute (CSIR-NGRI), Hyderabad, during different types of sample preparation, sample reduc- February 10-19, 2020. The main theme of the work- tion, thin sectioning, and mineral separation tech- shop was to develop skilled human resources in the niques, along with a strong emphasis on contamina- field of Analytical Geochemistry. The ten-day work- tion control at various stages of the analytical proce- shop was designed and conducted to introduce the Page 6 Vol. 2 No. 1 April 2020 [email protected] dure. Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) Argha Banerjee, IISER Pune; Prof. A K Singhvi, PRL, methods, which are the most important aspect used in Ahmedabad; Prof. R. N. Singh and Prof. Vikrant the field of analytical geochemistry, were also taken Jain, IITGN; Prof. S. K Tandon, IISER Bhopal). The into consideration and discussed. The spectroscopic workshop also befitted by evening talks delivered by technique, such as X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and In- young faculties and researchers at IITGN to high- ductively Coupled Plasma- Mass Spectrometry (ICP- light the emerging research areas in geomorphology. MS) for the major, trace and REE elements, mineral The workshop encouraged the young generation of re- characterization by XRD, SEM-EDS, EPMA and LA- searchers to pose research questions, pursue methods HR-ICP-MS and high precision mineral geochronol- of quantitative analysis and evolve important multi- ogy (Pb-Pb Baddeleyite) by using TE-TIMS were also disciplinary paradigm of geomorphology. addressed. Prof. Vikrant Jain, IIT-Gandhinagar Hidayatullah Khan, BSIP Upcoming Events: National Workshop on Quantitative Geomorphology (7-21 Feb, 2020) Number of Scientific meetings have been cancelled/ postponed or rescheduled due to the onset of NOVEL Quantitative analysis in geomorphology (or Earth CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19). The present status of Surface Processes) has recently emerged as an im- the meeting is indicated as per available details on portant discipline of geosciences due to its applica- their website (links given in blue are click-able in pdf). tions in sustainable management of natural resources and effective management of natural hazards. Fu- ture of various landforms namely rivers, wetlands, Meetings Postponed glaciers, hillslopes, desert, coastal region in the chal- lenging Anthropocene time will depend on the in- 36th International Geological Congress; New Delhi, depth quantitative process understanding with the India. Postponed to 9-14 November 2020. Contact: appreciation of nonlinear dynamics of present-day [email protected] Web: 36igc geomorphic processes(s). The Earth Sciences Disci- The PAGES Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time pline at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhi- (C-PEAT) workshop ”Tropical peatland processes and nagar (IITGN) organized ‘Quantitative Geomorphol- ecosystem services” C: [email protected] W: ogy’workshop that focus upon a wider application of pastglobalchanges peat-carbon state-of-art quantitative techniques in geoscientific studies. The workshop was funded by Oil India Lim- TRACE 2020 – Tree Rings in Archaeology, ited and was supported by the Indian National Sci- Climatology and Ecology; Lund, Sweden C: ence Academy (INSA). It was coordinated by Profes- [email protected] W: trace2020 sor Vikrant Jain, Earth Sciences, IITGN. The main ob- 3rd International Workshop on Stratospheric Sulfur jective of the workshop was to expose the young re- and its Role in Climate (SSiRC); University of Leeds, searchers with modern quantitative approaches and UK C: [email protected] W: SSiRC methods, which could be applied by them in their research problems. A total of 30 participants from 5th International Meeting of Early-stage Researchers 60 applicants were selected, which included senior in Palaeontology (IMERP); Naujoji Akmenė, Lithua- PhD students, postdoc fellows and Assistant Profes- nia. C: [email protected] W: imerp2020 sors from 18 different institutions across India. The 35th International Meeting of Sedimentology; participants