Judgment of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Raghubir Singh Garia Vs State of Uttarakhand & Others dated 22/04/2025. The matter related to illegal mining of soap stone in village Papon, District Bageshwar, Uttarakhand. The complainant, a resident of the village said that illegal mining of soap stone …
THE oceanic crust of the earth is in perpetual motion. The numerous plates forming the crust are either moving towards each other or away from each other. Where they diverge, the gap is filled up by freshly formed igneous rocks and where they converge, one plate moves under the other …
DIAMONDS are formed in more ways than one. While it was believed earlier that the beautiful crystals were retrieved from deep mines of igneous or metamorphic rocks of the mantle formed under conditions of high temperature and pressure, new research reveals that there are other ways by which they are …
IT WAS 250 million years ago that life took its first beating - the worst ever - when mass extinctions marked the end of the Permian period. A group of American palaeontologists say that they have evidence to prove that the extinctions in the Permian period, which devoured 90 per …
Meandering water channels always follow a gently winding path. Why this happens has been explained with the help of a model developed by physicists Taniemola Liverpool and Sam Edwards, University of Cambridge, US. The two main components of the model include 'pinching of a part of the flow to form …
Japan is setting up a US $40 million laser-based monitoring station - Keystone - to help predict earthquakes. It will he set up around the Tokyo Bay area which lies at the junction of three giant tectonic plates on the earth's crust. Laser beams are bounced off from satellite reflectors …
In a startling revelation, US geoscientist Ian Norton of the Exxon Exploration Company in Houston, Texas has claimed that the hot spot in the deep mantle under the Pacific plates has moved relative to the earth's lower mantle. It was thought earlier that hot spots are anchored in one place, …
VOLCANOES could have played a central role in the series of extinction events throughout geologic history, conclude researchers. The study, coauthored by several American geologists, claims that a volcanic eruption that lasted a million years and flooded Siberia with a mile-deep lava may have killed 80 per sent of the …
WITH the fossil fuels depleting fast, hot dry rock (HDR) found several kin under the earth's surface promises an ecofriendly, economically viable and virtually inexhaustible energy source. The Australian Geological Survey Corporation (AGs()) predicts that one cubic km of rock at 25(Y'C can produce the energy equivalent of 40 million …
IN THE days when "information superhighway" is the buzzword, one may find it hard to believe that fungus may have already been leading the communication network of life on land, some 400 million years ago. Mark A S McMenamin, professor of geology at Mount Holyoke College and Dianna L S …
A British geologist has found the first living proof of the idea that life on earth may have begun in hot subterranean crucibles. Five hundred metres below the Sea of Japan, John Parkes of Bristol University has discovered bacteria feasting on a 10 million-year-old compost. And in extremely hostile conditions …
The discovery of a dormant volcano in an undersea ridge flanking the Barren Islands in the Andamans has galvanised the forest and wildlife officials into preparing plans to study the impact on the archipelago's flora and fauna in case the volcano erupts. The existence of the volcano came to light …
The "greatest scientific fraud of the century", attributed to an Indian geologist, was in the spotlight once again recently in an article published in the scientific journal, Nature. The findings of Vishwa Jit Gupta of the department of geology at Punjab University in Chandigarh, which contributed to the scientific database …
IT DID not happen in Latur alone. Earthquakes can and do occur in what geologists generally consider peaceful regions of the earth. The 1819 Kutch earthquake and the 1886 Charleston earthquake in South Carolina, USA, are two famous examples of such rare errant behaviour of the earth. Both quakes were …
SCIENTISTS at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad have recently developed a model to explain the presence of a vast stretch of volcanic rocks -- the Deccan flood basalts -- in the western part of the country. And, they say their model might even explain how dinosaurs became …
HUGE DEPOSITS of iron found in different parts of the world has puzzled geologists because oxygen, which is an important constituent of iron ore, was scarce when they were formed about 3.5 to 1.8 billion years ago. Now, F Widell and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Marine …
ALL PLANETS are believed to possess hot interiors that periodic volcanic activity helps to cool. But now American geophysicists have found Venus to be the odd one out (Science, Vol 259, No 5100). Quite unlike its namesake -- the goddess Venus who was known for her profligacy -- the planet, …
GEOLOGISTS have found traces of a river that flowed between 5,000 and 11,000 years ago in the desert expanse of the Arabian peninsula. Some stretches of the river may have been as wide as 5 km wide, says Farouk El-Baz, director of Boston University's remote sensing centre (New Scientist, April …
A RECENT find of fossils may help geologists break through the ice obscuring Antarctica's past. David Harwood of the University of Nebraska and his colleagues have collected fossils of marine molluscs, microscopic organisms and leaves and twigs, all from the Eocene period of 35 to 55 million years ago (Science, …
Argues that excessive fluorides in groundwater are a serious water quality problem in some parts of Sri Lanka. The incidence of dental fluorosis shows a high correlation with the presence of groundwater in certain areas. Tube wells constructed in various rock types have shown different fluoride concentrations, possibly due to …
ALMOST all the rivers that originate near the Arabian Sea flow eastward into the Bay of Bengal because of the peninsular tilt. One river that deviates from the norm is the Cauvery, which suddenly turns southwards before-heading east again. Geologists believe the Cauvery is actually two rivers that were joined …
