New Delhi annexure-i format for inviting proposal for fresh induction under sap- (drs)

Soils of the Indo-Gangetic Plains: a pedogenic response to landscape stability, climatic variability and anthropogenic activity during the Holocene: Bound by the Himalaya in the north and the Craton in the south, the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is one of the largest fluvial plains of the world. The IGP is monotonously flatwith a spread of surface soils in hot arid conditions of Rajasthan in west to per-humid conditions in West Bengal. The soil-geomorphology of the IGP detailed during the last few decades is useful in determining the interrelationship among the pedogenesis, the climate, and the landscape evolution during the Holocene. These studies demonstrate that the IGP soils developed on five geomorphic surfaces with varying degree of development. Soils occurring on older geomorphic surfaces (N2.5 ka) are polygenetic with a distinct record of climatic changes and neotectonics. The present synthesis is based on recent developments in pedology achieved through macro- and micromorphology, clay mineralogy, pedogenic calcrete, and polygenetic pedogenic features of the IGP soils. A critical evaluation of the IGP soils has helped to comprehend the subtle nuances of the pedogenic processes that were also influenced by anthropogenic activities and cultivation over this vast agricultural tract during the Holocene. We provide state-of-the-art information on the pedology, polygenesis, and soil degradation (natural and anthropogenic) over the last 10 ka. The review has potential as a reference for critical assessment of the pedosphere for health and quality in different parts of theworld. In addition, it facilitates developing a suitable management practices for the food security in the 21st century.

A micromorphological record of contemporary and relict pedogenic processes in soils of the Indo-Gangetic Plains: implications for mineral weathering, provenance and climatic changes: Micromorphology has important application in earth surface process and landform studies particularly in alluvial settings such as the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) with different geomorphic surfaces to identify climatic changes and neotectonic events and their influence on pedogenesis. The soils of the IGP extending from arid upland in the west to per humid deltaic plains in the east developed on five geomorphic surfaces namely QIG1 to QIG5 originating during the last 13.5 ka. Four soil-geomorphic systems across the entire IGP are identified as: (i) the western Yamuna Plains/Uplands, (ii) the Yamuna-Ganga Interfluve, (iii) the Ganga-Ghaghara Interfluve, and (iv) the Deltaic Plains. Thin section analysis of the soils across the four soil-geomorphic systems provides a record of provenance, mineral weathering, pedogenic processes and polygenesis in IGP. The soils over major parts of the IGP dominantly contain muscovite and quartz and small fraction of highly altered feldspar derived from the Himalayas. However, soils in the western and eastern parts of the IGP contain large volumes of fresh to weakly altered plagioclase and smectitic clay derived from the Indian craton. The soils in western Yamuna Plains/Uplands dominated by QIG2–QIG3 geomorphic surfaces and pedogenic carbonate developed in semi-arid climate prior to 5 ka. However, soils of the central part of the IGP in the Yamuna-Ganga Interfluve and Ganga-Ghaghara Interfluve regions with dominance of QIG4–QIG5 surfaces are polygenetic due to climate change over the last 13.5 ka. The clay pedofeatures formed during earlier wet phase (13.5–11 ka) show degradation, loss of preferred orientation, speckled appearance in contrast with the later phase of wet climate (6.5–4 ka). The soils over the deltaic plains with dominance of vertic features along with clay pedofeatures suggest that illuviation of fine clay is an important pedogenic process even in soils with shrink-swell characteristics.

Mineral Formation in Soils and Sediments as Signatures of Climate Change: Soils and paleosols are one of the most important archives of the record of climate change. Identification of paleoclimatic signatures in paleosols forms the major challenge to the researchers. The soils/paleosols contain pedogenic minerals that formed as a result of environmental conditions and that are now altered. When environmental conditions and processes can be inferred using these pedogenic minerals, the story of climatic changes that led to the formation of these minerals can be interpreted with confidence. In this chapter, we describe the paleoclimatic potential of pedogenic minerals of soils and paleosols from different parts of India. The clay minerals of intermediate weathering stage have proved to be of great potential in parts of central India and the Gangetic Plains. For example interstratified smectite and kaolin (Sm/K) have showed the millennium scale climatic changes during the Holocene. In addition, clay minerals from western, southern, central and extra-Peninsular India indicate that pedogenic clay minerals like di- and trioctahedral smectites (DSm and TSm), smectite-kaolin interstratified minerals (Sm/K), hydroxy-interlayered Smectites (HIS), Vermiculites (HIV), pseudo-chlorite (PCh) of intermediate weathering stage and pedogenic carbonate (PC) and non-pedogenic carbonate (NPC) have helped to unravel the paleoclimatic record of the last 100 ka.

Red ferruginous soils of tropical Indian environments: A review of the pedogenic processes and its implications for edaphology: Red ferruginous (RF) soils of tropical Indian environments belong to Entisols, Inceptisols, Alfisols, Mollisols and Ultisols soil orders. The occurrence of Ultisols alongside acidic Alfisols and Mollisols in both zeolitic and nonzeolitic parent materials in humid tropical (HT) climatic environments, indicates that the soil diversity in India is large. These soils are not confined to a single production systemand generally maintain a positive organic carbon (OC) balance without adding significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. This review presents a synthesis of literature on the recent developments on the pedology of RF soils, including their physical, chemical, biological, mineralogical and micro-morphological properties, and their degradation status. It also addresses the changes in soil properties in semi-arid tropical (SAT) areas, created by climate shift during the Holocene. This knowledge contributed to our understanding as to howthe parent material composition influences the formation of Alfisols, Mollisols and Ultisols inweathering environments of HT climate; and also as to howthe relict Alfisols of SAT areas are polygenetic. The state-of-the-art information developed through the extensivework on such soils has helped establish an organic link between pedogenetic processes and bulk soil properties, and has provided an insight of many pedological and edaphological issues related to Alfisols, Mollisols and Ultisols mainly of HT climate. The synthesis has helped us to understand as to why the formation of Oxisols from Ultisols is an improbable genetic pathway in tropical environment of India and elsewhere in the world. There is a strong need to modify the mineralogy class of highlyweathered RF soils. We hope this review will help to dispel some of the myths on the formation of tropical soils and their low fertility by putting in context their characteristics and capacity to be productive.

Highlights of the work done by Dr.S.K.Singh

With expertise in Engineering Geology, Environmental Geology, Hydrogeology has been working on environmental impact assessment of large hydroelectric projects of upper Ganges and Sutlej valley with special reference to siltation problems.

Highlights of the work done by Dr.Shashank Shekar

The resources of MoES funded project entitled “The structure and dynamics of groundwater system in north-western India under past present and future climates” was utilized to support CAS Research Fellow for field work, database development etc. The research was focussed on development of regional groundwater flow model in NW India. It involved setting up of steady state and transient groundwater flow models for the study area. The models were calibrated and validated for prediction of scenarios.

With help of logistics, experimentation set up etc. from M/S WAPCOS Ltd. CAS Research fellow was able to generate data for aquifer characterization and yield assessment of younger alluvium in Yamuna flood plain of Delhi.

Highlights of the work done by Dr.Vimal Singh

The Himalayan rivers have been focus of study in the past 5 years. The main outcome of the studies have been – a) A model for the evolution of valley-fill deposits in the Himalaya has been developed and it has been used to investigate the valley fill deposits of the Alaknanda valley, b) rate of erosion has been worked out from a terrace deposit of the Alaknanda River, c) For the first time it has been demonstrated that the Ganga River is not the axial river in its basin and it is the Yamuna River when considered from the origin of the Tons river forms the longest river in the basin; it also acts as the axial river to which Ganga River is a tributary, and d) a potential use of a geomorphic tool (chi analysis) has been demonstrated in predicting the flash flood hazard impact in a Himalayan river.

C - Basin Analysis, Palaeobioology and Palaeooceanography
Highlights of the work done by Prof.Devesh K. Sinha & Dr.Ashutosh K. Singh:

Our grouped is working on the detailed Biostratigraphy and Biochronology of Western and Eastern Pacific Ocean (WPO/EPO), South Atlantic Ocean (SAO) and Equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO). In last five year, our group has established the detail biochronology of EIO and WPO. We have established more than 30 numerical dates for both the Oceanic region. Along with this, our group has also developed the detailed biostratigraphy of the above said region which is useful for biostratigraphy correlation. We have also worked on the teleconnections between Western Pacific warm pool (WPWP), Indonesian through flow (ITF) and its effect on Indian monsoon.

Highlights of the work done by Prof.G.V.R.Prasad

The recent discoveries of Late Cretaceous eutherian mammals from the Deccan Volcanic Province of India and rigorous phylogenetic analysis of these mammals demonstrated that these enigmatic mammals had given rise to adapisoriculids, a group of tree-dwelling mammals known from the Early Palaeocene rocks of Europe and Late Palaeocene of northwest Africa (Morocco). This demonstrated that India was a possible centre of origin for this group of mammals during its northward drift and these mammals had later dispersed to Africa and Europe. It further implies that the adapisoriculid mammals had survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (KTB) mass extinction event and lived for about 10 million years after the KTB biotic event. The latest findings raises the question as to how these mammals migrated from India to Africa and Europe across thousands of kilometers of open ocean as India was an island landmass in the Late Cretaceous. (published in Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americadoi:10.1073 /pnas.1108723108).
The extensive work on the Deccan intertrappean biota has shown that the initial volcanic activity has little effect on contemporary biota and the extinction of dinosaurs in the Indian subcontinent was independent of initiation of Deccan volcanism or bolide impact at least in the Indian context. (published in the Geological Society of America Special Publication, 2014).

Microvertebrate palaeontological studies on the Jurassic Kota Formation has unearthed many mammalian groups, such as symmetrodonts, morganucodontids, docodonts, multituberculates, and peramurids, previously documented only from the Jurassic rocks of Northern Hemisphere continents. Discovery of these rare mammals with South African, NW African and European affinities from the Jurassic of India has shown that Mesozoic mammals of India are much diversified than originally thought and close biogeographic links were maintained with Africa and Eurasia in the Jurassic. (published in Naturwissenschaften 100:515-523).

So far, the continental Upper Cretaceous vertebrate fauna is mainly known from the Deccan intertrappean beds of peninsular India. Our recent field work in the Cauvery basin in South India has revealed the presence of a few microvertebrate yielding sites in the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Kallamedu Formation exposed near the village Kallamedu, Ariyalur District, Tamil Nadu. Field prospecting of Kallamedu outcrops resulted in the recovery of abelisaurid dinosaur remains, sauropod post-cranial bones, crocodilian, turtle, amphibian and fish remains. The crocodilian remains belonging to the Gondwanan family Notosuchidae are remarkably similar to those of Simosuchus clarkiknown from the Upper Cretaceous (Masastrichtian) Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. Similarly, the dinosaur teeth from this formation are comparable to those of Cretaceous carnivorous abelisaurid dinosaurs of the former Gondwanaland such as Masjungasaurus crenatissimus of Madagascar. The common occurrence of simosuchid crocodile and abelisaurid dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of India and Madagascar implies that there was a biogeographic connection between India and Madagascar in the Late Cretaceous, at a time when these landmasses were separated by about 400 km wide marine body of water. Besides these finds, a troodontid theropod dinosaur tooth has also been recovered from the screen-washed residue. The troodontid dinosaur report is highly significant from the palaeobiogeographic point of view as this group of dinosaurs was restricted to the Laurasian landmasses (Published in (published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(6): 1260-1268). Nature Communications 4:1703DOI:10.1038/ncomms2716/ www.nature.com/ naturecommunications).

Highlights of the work done by Prof.J.P.Shrivastava
K/T boundary:

A unique, continuous shallow marine 10 m thick succession within the Langpar Formation in the Um Sohryngkew river section of Meghalaya, containing late Maastrichtian through early Danian planktonic foraminiferal zones e CF4, CF3, CF2, CF1, P0, Pa and P1a and the K/Pg boundary (between CF1 and P0) has been re-studied for clay mineralogy to understand the palaeoenvironmental conditions prevalent in the region and to assess the K/Pg transition. The relative abundances of the clay mineral phases permitted a threefold sub-division of the studied section with a illite, illite/ smectite dominated lower part, illite, kaolinite and abundance of montmorillonite dominated middle part and kaolinite/montmorillonite dominated upper part. Enriched HREEs in the lower part of the succession suggest variations in the pH of alteration solutions. Most of the samples show positive cerium (δCe) and europium (δEu) anomalies, the former reflecting oxidizing conditions at the time of clay formation. Illite dominated clays present a positive Eu anomaly, formed at relatively higher temperatures than the clays with less illite and without Eu anomalies, whereas clays occurring in the lower and upper parts exhibit a prominent negative Eu anomaly. Shifts in the redox condition found in this section are more or less similar to the foraminiferal changes and Au, Pt, Pd anomalies. Clay mineralogical attributes and REE patterns, comparable to those of the known K/Pg boundaries, appeared within the CF3 and CF2 zones in the Um Sohryngkew river section. The sample at the boundary between CF3 and CF2 is marked by a negative δCe anomaly, high La/Yb and TOC values, suggesting that sea level rise during the upper part of CF3 was caused by tectonism rather than warming. The similar characteristics of clay minerals and REE patterns, attributed to the initiation of tectonic events during the CF3 zone, indicate environmental changes that affected the shelf area and the provenance of these sediments.

Physils divide entire succession into lower, middle and upper sub-divisions and represent anomalous values of redox-sensitive elements (Ce, La/Yb and Gd/Yb) in biozone CF3.Organicmatter when analyzed show TOC and C spikes in biozone CF3. Illite thermometry also revealed sudden increase in the palaeo-temperature (>140 ◦C) for yellowish brown 1–2 mm thick organic rich clay layer in biozone CF3. Conspicuous increase in the short chain n-alkanes and fatty acids is observed in the biozone CF3, although, longc hain n-alkanes (C27–C33) derived from terrestrial plants show low abundance throughout the succession. High amount of combustion derived fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene PAH compounds found in the biozone CF3 are analogous to those reported from the K/T boundary sections of Stevns Klint, Gubbio,Woodside Creekand Arroyoel Mimbral. The pyrolitic signatures of these organicmacro-molecules reflect global fire, caused distress to biota(during the deposition of biozone CF3 layer) which is coincidental with the well documented Ce anomaly layer, but, preceded by planktonic foraminiferal change in biozone P0 and PGE anomaly bearing layer in the biozone CF2.These organic macro-molecules reflect global fire, induced by the heat supplied by the late Cretaceous Abor and/or Deccan extrusions perhaps linked with the K/T transition events as later initiated prior to the K/Pg boundary, however, the main episode of Deccan volcanic activity occurred∼300 ky earlier or at the K/Pg boundary itself. The deposition of 1–2mm thick, yellowish brown, smooth(with conchoidal fracture) pyrite nodules and micro-spherules bearing organic rich clay layer marked with the decrease in the carbonate content (2.43%) that lies at the contact between the silty mudstone and grey calcareous shale located in the biozone CF3 of this succession coincides with the first appearance of Pseudoguembelina hariaensis representing age of 66.83-65.45 Ma is also related to the India’s collision with the Eurasia and Burma and extrusion of Abor volcanic. These events also endorse succeeding events such as anomalous concentration of platinum group of elements and concentration of spherules during biozoneCF2, which are other end Cretaceous events before the advent of the K/Pg boundary.

Highlights of the Work done by Pramod Kumar

The Sandhan Formation represents the terminal Cenozoic formation in Cenozoic succession of Kutch. It witnessed the final withdrawal of marine condition from the basin. The siliciclastic dominated succession of the formation is deposited in the shallow marine environments followed by fluvial environment. The detailed filed based sedimentology and stratigraphic analysis has been carried out along two major river sections namely Kankawati (type section) and Kharod River reveals that marine part was deposited in tide affected shallow marine condition followed by wave dominated beach setting. This is followed by fluvial deposits of braided type. The detailed facies and architectural element analysis of fluvial system was carried out. The interpretation suggests the deposition was primarily controlled by siliciclastic supply vs. relative sea-level fluctuation along western margin. The data generated will be used to establish the sequence stratigraphic framework of the area and to correlate it with regional and global perspective.

The Disang and Barail Group of Manipur and Nagaland are clastic sequence and flysch deposits. The basic analysis of Disang and Barail Groups were carried out to understand the stratigraphy and depositional environments. The Barail Group typically shows the thick alternations of sand and shale units with progressive decreases of shale percentage from Lisong to Ranji Formation and indicates slow and steady shallowing of the basin. The detailed sedimentological and stratigraphic analysis is requisite to suggest the depositional environments and paleobathymetric conditions.

Highlights of the work done by Prof.P.P.Chakraborty

The understanding of coupling between near-surface processes as represented by the development of sedimentary basins and related deeper crustal processes e.g. orogenic events, superplume generation etc. in the Precambrian era is problematic mostly because of lack of geochronological data related to the shallow near-surface processes. In the period under review the sedimentology lab of Department remained involved in establishinglinkage between age of near-surface processes in Precambrian continental blocks of India and correlating them with local/global well-established events and processes operative in the deeper continental crust/ its underlying mantle in the Proterozoic time. As one of the oldest continental blocks, Precambrian India poses unique opportunity to study all these processes in tandem. The Bastar craton in eastern India hosts several large to small sedimentary basins viz. Chhattisgarh basin, Ampani basin, Khariar basin and Singhora basin those share margin with one of the most long-standing Proterozoic mobile belt of India i.e the Eastern Ghat Mobile Belt (EGMB). New geochronological data are generated from bedded porcellinitic tuff layers occurring in Ampani, Khariar and Singhora basins and compared them with previous data of similar tuffaceous beds from two more northern basins. From generated data base it is inferred that a major felsic volcanic event occurred during ~1450 Ma in the eastern margin of the Indian craton. Detailed geochemical data of all these siliceous tuff units of geographically separated basins allowed correlation of these basins on regional scale and also to trace the erstwhile tectonic setting of the region. The geochronological and geochemical data of all these tuffaceous units allowed us to search for the contemporaneous events occurring at different levels of the Indian continental crust and its erstwhile neighbors in Precambrian supercontinents of “Columbia” and “Rodinia”.

A compartmentalized sedimentation model is proposed for the Mesoproterozoic Chhattisgarh basin including both in its early and very late depositional history; while initial sedimentation is registered only in the east in the form of the Singhora Group, the Kharsiya Group represents the final stage with varying depositional character between the east (transgressive) and west (regressive and desiccative) of the basin. Besides, i) a wide variety of MISS structures described for the first time from the Chhattisgarh sediment successions ii) A detail sequence stratigraphic appraisal was carried out for the Chhattisgarh sediment package, iii) a model for glauconitisation, which is atypical for Precambrian time, is given from the Bhalukona Formation of the Chhattisgarh Supergroup.

Further, in the time period under review studies was also extended to the largest Proterozoic basin of India i.e the Vindhyan basin. Aim was to understand the Mesoproterozoic hydrosphere condition, which may be atypical in the entire earth history. All argillaceous intervals of the Vindhyan Supergroup were studied in terms of field sedimentology, geochemistry and evaluation of their hydrocarbon potential. From low concentration of molybdenum (Mo) and Mo/TOC ratios in Vindhyan shales, it is inferred that the Vindhyan was a stratified sea with sulphidic, reduced deep water and oxygenated surface water as recorded globally from marine successions of concerned time period. That the basin became uniformly circulated during the Sirbu time including oxygenation of its deep water is evident from ~3‰ enrichment in ¹³δC_org value in organic matter from the Sirbu Shale.

Detail shale Formation- specific Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analyses revealed high (>2 % up to 8 %) values within Arangi and Bijaygarh Shales. Other shale units record values <1% except some samples from the Rewa Shale those record values >1%. Further, C-H-S analysis and Rock-Eval pyrolysis were carried out on organic matters from different shale units to assess their potential as hydrocarbon source. Results suggest Vindhyan organic matters as Type-III (humic) in character with high carbon (C) and very low to negligible hydrogen (H) contents and hence, gas-prone and mostly under- or over-matured, except for the Arangi and Bijaygarh Shales those besides yielding high TOC values also show 'matured' stage of organic matter.