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Geology News
India Current Events

As a result of the global economic downturn the demand for cut diamonds is forcing the layoff of thousands of employees in Surat, India, where a large percentage of the world’s rough diamonds are cut into gems.

Earth Observatory has an interesting satellite image of portions of India, the Himalayas, Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. It shows a heavy haze hugging the southern face of the Himalayas. They interpret the haze to be a result of urban and industrial pollution.

A seven-part YouTube video series titled Under Shnongrim. “…a caving film about exploring underneath the Shnongrim ridge, in the Jiantia Hills, Meghalaya, India. The team consisted of 30 cavers from around the world and some local Meghalayian cavers.”

Go to the YouTube site to see the video full size and navigate to the other six parts.

“In October 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred in the Kashmir region of Asia, an area in the Himalaya Mountains of Pakistan and India….. By overlaying a post-quake image of the area on a pre-quake image and carefully aligning them, geologists were able to identify small changes in the appearance of the surface that allowed them to trace the location of the fault across the Earth

Imported steel being used by companies in France, Sweden and the Netherlands was found to be contaminated with trace amounts of Cobalt 60. The steel was produced in India from recycled metal.

India launched its first rocket to the moon. If successful it will join the United States, Russia, Japan, China and the European Space Agency as countries or organizations with successful moon missions. India has plans to orbit the moon, produce maps of the lunar surface and produce maps of structures below the lunar surface.

More on the launch with videos at BBC News.

Tropical Storm Two poured about 400 mm of rain on Orissa, India in mid-September. The storm, combined with monsoon rains, cause the Mahanadi River to flood into over 1800 villages, killing 29 people and temporarily displacing over four million.

Over 70 million people in eastern India and Bangladesh are thought to be exposed to harmful levels of arsenic in the water and rice that they consume daily. Researchers who believe that one in every hundred residents in this area is close to death from arsenic poisoning now might have a solution.

NASA’s Earth Observatory website has a before and after satellite image pair showing views of Brahmaputra River flooding. The satellite pair compares a scene from August 8
(dry-season level) with one from September 7th (near-high discharge). Their image shows the river as a blue color instead of the actual brown, sediment-laden color.

About 170 villages were flooded to waist-deep levels in northeastern India and Bangladesh as a result of the monsoon season flooding. The Kaziranga National Park was also about 50% flooded.

Before and after satellite images of flooding in Northeast India.

Quoted from Earth Observatory: “As of September 2, up to half a million people were still stranded in floods in Bihar, the Indian region shown in these images, reported BBC News. Most of the flooding in Bihar is along the Kosi River.”

“The water had burst barriers in Nepal and flowed into a long disused channel on August 18. Two weeks later, the flooded channel of the Kosi River (center) had spread in braided streams across kilometers of the Indian countryside.”

BBC News Article and Video

Severe flooding from monsoon rains in northern India has stranded many of the local people in water up to three feet deep. Much of this flooding came as a surprise to the local residents when a river changed course and flowed through an area with no flood protection.

Here is an article that presents a brief history of diamond mining in India. Placer deposits have been worked there since the 1500’s. The second half of the article includes stories about early diamond mines in the states of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh.

In the Rajmahal Hills of India, rare fossils are being crushed into bits for road construction. The “Rajmahal Flora” are plant fossils dating to 145 million years old. Local geologists want authorities to place the area under immediate protection from further destruction.

Indian Oil is losing about $76 million dollars per day because the government there sets a cap on the prices it can charge. As a result it is now selling below cost and loses money on every sale.

This parallels the problems experienced by PETROCHINA.

India is the world’s largest consumer of gold with most of that gold being used to make jewelry and ornamental items. Compared to jewelry consumed in the US, Indian jewelry is much heavier and contains more gold per piece. Gold imported into India has fallen by over 50% compared to similar periods last year.

Supply and demand is part of what drives oil prices. Representatives from the main oil consuming nations (United States, China, Japan, India and South Korea) urged oil producers to increase their rate of output.

With economic uncertainties almost everywhere else, Australia is looking forward to a strong growth in new jobs. Situated as a relatively close source of minerals for developing markets in India and China, the Australian mineral industries are going strong.

Geologist Career Page

Jim Jubak thinks that oil prices are being held at their current high levels in part by subsidized energy prices in India and China. Consumers there are not seeing the price increases because the government and regulated oil companies are absorbing the cost.

Montana State University researchers have identified numerous types of pollution in the Ganges River of India. Their work has been reported to the Indian Supreme Court in support of renewed efforts to clean up the river.

Tropical Storm Nargis formed into a cyclone on April 27th in the Bay of Bengal. It is now moving towards Myanmar (Burma) where it is expected to make landfall between May 2nd and May 3rd. Cyclone season in the North Indian Ocean runs from April through December. There are an average of five named storms per year with only two becoming full tropical cyclones.

“At the end of March, India

India

In 2007, worldwide losses from natural disasters was about $82 billion. The pattern of future damage is expected to disproportionately hit developing countries such as India.

Over 100 critically endangered gharials have washed up on the riverbanks of India. Researchers believe that their food supply has been contaminated with industrial pollutants.

GEOTIMES has a feature article that spotlights oil exploration and production in five settings:

Norway Looks North for Oil and Gas
Oil and Politics in Iraq
Squabbles over the South China Sea
Putting India on the World

Tropical Cyclone Sidr is in the north Indian Ocean and is moving towards India and Bangladesh. It is a Category 4 storm thought to be capable of producing a 22 foot high storm surge. Bangladesh and parts of the Indian coast are very flat and a 22 foot surge would cause flooding inland for many miles. Compounding this is the heavy rain expected inland of the surge and that flood runoff could combine with the surge to produce a very serious problem.

Ladakh means “Land of High Passes”. It is a part of India between the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges. There you can see spectacular geology and the unique cultures of these high mountains. This article provides a brief exploration of trekking in Ladakh.

NASA Image

India is developing a country-specific GPS system that will provide locational and timing services. It will consist of seven satellites and should be ready about 2012.

USGS Image

About 60 meters of railroad track was buried by tons of mud and debris after a landslide occurred near Nagarcem in Canacona, India. The slide was triggered by recent heavy rains.

“The flooding, described as the heaviest to hit the region in decades, has affected more than 25 million people and killed nearly 1,500 others in India, Bangladesh and Nepal since monsoon rains began pouring down in June.”

India Map

Companies like to use the news to broadcast information about their new discoveries. These can boost the price of their stock and attract investors. The Indian government is getting a tighter grip on these. All companies must inform the Directorate of General Hydrocarbons in advance of any announcement and a proper appraisal must be done.

USGS Image

Not geology but interesting are the *New* Seven Wonders of the World. They are… The Great Wall of China; Petra, Jordan; Christ Redeemer, Brazil; Machu Picchu, Peru; Chich

Sandia Image

Tool fragments found above and below a Toba Tuff ash document that modern humans lived in India over 74,000 years ago and survived the eruption.

Australia Map

Record prices for metals and other mineral commodities has produced a huge increase in exploration activity in South Australia - a nearby source of supply for mineral hungry populations in China and India. This is an economic bonanza for property owners and businesses but the large number of prospectors and miners who arrive there is placing heavy demand on housing, schools, community infrastructure and water supplies.

Sandia.gov Image

India imports about 80% of Africa’s diamonds. The cities of Gujarat and Maharashtra are diamond trade centers where hundreds of thousands of workers convert the rough stones into finished gems. South Africa, Botswana, Congo and Angola want to bring these value added products and enormous employment into their own economy. So, they plan to impose a heavy duty on the export of rough diamonds. Some Indian companies are already moving some of their gem processing to cities in Africa.

Brahmaputra - NASA Image

China is preparing to build a dam on the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) that is expected to have twice the hydroelectric output as the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtse. However this dam would be built upstream from populations who depend on the Brahmaputra watershed. One use of the water will be irrigation in the Xinjiang and Gansu portions of the Gobi Desert over 400 miles away. This withdraw along with managing the dam could lead to seasonal or permanent water supply problems for people in India and Bangladesh, who depend heavily on the Brahmaputra waters.

India

Predicted sea level increases will cause serious problems for the city of Mumbai, India. Low-lying areas, poor drainage, subsidence and important transportation and other facilities in flood-prone parts of the city are some of the special concerns for this financial capital. The city is particularly vulnerable to storm surge and other events that could produce high water levels.

A cave system over 22.2 km in length was discovered in Meghalaya, a small state in northeast India. This is the largest cave system ever found in the Indian subcontinent. The new system is a linkage of the Krem um im-Liat Prah cave with Krem labbit. This surpasses the previous record of 21.5 km held by the Kotsati Unlawam cave system.