Coals are best indicators of ancient climate

Coals are best indicators of ancient climate.

By

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Palaeoclimatology, the study of climates during the geological past, is one of the most topical areas of research in the geosciences at present. The threat of future climate change caused by higher levels of greenhouse gases, which would drastically alter many aspects of our environment, has prompted much research to try to understand how our complex climate system works. Only by understanding how climate has evolved over million of years can we identify important climate cycles with a frequency in excess of the short climate records we possess. These climate cycles have the potential to have a profound effect on our environment.

Understanding our climate history in the geological past is also important for climatologists trying to construct accurate numerical computer models of our present climate system to use for predicting future climate change.

Basic information about past climates comes from understanding how climate influences certain sedimentary systems, floras and faunas on earth today and extrapolating this information back to interpret geological evidence.
The formation of some rock types is directly influenced by aspects of climate. Some of the most useful are coals, evaporates, glacial deposits and carbonates. I am presenting only a brief resume of coal as a paleoclimatic indicators.

Coal- climatically sensitive rock:

The presence of coal, initially formed from the accumulation of plant material as peat, is generally taken to indicate warm and wet humid climates ideal for lush plant growth, and where the rainfall is higher than the rate of evaporation, such as in equatorial regions. However, rainfall is more important factor than temperatures, as are high water tables and waterlogged swamps (mires) which are required to preserve the peat.
Coal seams are composed of genetic coal types which are determined to a certain extent by the character of the particular type of vegetation. A careful analysis of all the available data on geochemical, palynological and petrological constituents of the coals reveals that there existed distinctive types of vegetation associated with different peat types. The character and relation between the miospore assemblage and petrographic type reflect particular environment, topography and climatic conditions.
Pollen and spores commonly retain their morphological characteristics through all stages of coal formation. They bear specific relationship to the original geological and botanical setting.

In the past, the most abundant coal deposits were formed during the Carboniferous when large subsiding continental areas were situated in low latitudes and experienced hot and humid climates. The great Carboniferous forests were composed of the pithy-stemmed clubmosses and lycopods, such as Lepidodnedron, Sigillaria and Calamites, which grew to giant sizes in the hot wet conditions and formed thick layers of peat as they collapsed into waterlogged swamps. The disappearance or decrease in size of these water- loving plants at the end of the Carboniferous marked the onset of much drier conditions in low latitude regions during the Permian. Extensive forests dominated by glossopterid plants lived on all southern continents and their remains form extensive and some economically important and coal deposits today.

A discussion on depositional environment of Permian peat swamp phases may well be preceded by the remarks that, based on different analysis and support from geological setup, Karharbari, Barakar, and Raniganj Stages of Lower Gondwanas of India were climatically controlled. The climate during the Karharbari period was rather cold as evidenced by flora and by possible effects of glaciation in Talchir Series. On the contrary, climate during Barakar and Raniganj commenced with cool and humid climate gradually becoming warmer and humid as evidenced by flora and coal composition. Humidity seems to have recurred in some part of Raniganj Stage also.
In the early period of the Permian, coal formation took place under the relatively cold, humid, shallow water deposition mainly from arborescent vegetation.

Chemistry of Coal-bed and paleoclimate:

The chemical arguments for the interpretation of paleoclimate from coal beds come principally from the work of different geologists. Their work was partly in response to studies purporting to show that high-sulfur coals were influenced by marine sedimentation. They argued that peat that forms economic coal cannot form in seawater because ash and sulfur enrichment is too great there. Thus they concluded that all economic coals were originally freshwater peats. They further concluded that, if all economic coal beds were derived from freshwater peats, ash content must be indicative of climate, and they proposed the following model, which predicts three types of peat:
1. anaerobic (permanently waterlogged) peat with pH less than 4.5, which would give rise to low-ash, low-sulfur, vitrinite-rich coals;
2. anaerobic with pH greater than 4.5, which would give rise to high-ash, high-sulfur, liptinite-rich coals; and
3. intermittently aerobic peat, which would give rise to low-sulfur, moderately high-ash, inertinite-rich coals.
Boron element in coal as a Paleosalinity Indicator:
The concentration of boron in Australian and Canadian coals was determined in order to assess the variation of boron in coal with respect to rank, age, geological setting and the degree of paleosalinity of the coal forming environment. The boron content of seams is sensitive to the environment of deposition and may show the variation in the same seam laterally due to changes to the environment of deposition and /or the enrichment of boron by secondary source.
It is proposed that the following ranges of values for boron in coal indicate the degree of marine influence during the early stages of coalification:
1. up to 50 ppm (parts per million) boron- coal formed in a freshwater environment.
2. 50 to 110 ppm boron – coal formed in a mildly brackish water environment.
3. greater than 110 ppm boron- coal formed in a brackish water environment.
Coal petrography and paleoclimate:
Vitrinite-rich coal beds are generally regarded to have been deposited in wet conditions, usually meaning high water tables, especially if the coal beds have clay partings and inclusions of syngenetic pyrite . Inertinite-rich coal beds are generally regarded to have been deposited in dry conditions, usually meaning relatively low or fluctuating water tables.

Pipes carrying radioactive wastes burst in Jadugoda in Jharkhand State of India.

Villagers fear of Radiation

By

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

The tailing pipes carrying the radioactive and toxic slurry from the mills of the Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) burst Saturday night(16/8/2008) in the Dungridih village under the Jadugoda police station of Potka block of East Singhbhum in Jharkhand State of India, spewing the village with uranium waste.

According to the information received from the local villagers, the slurry has flown for about 5-6 hours, till early hours of morning on Sunday. The pipe burst was first observed by the patrolling group in the morning and was rectified by evening.

It may be mentioned that it is the third such incident of tailing pipe burst. The first being on December 2006 followed by the second in February 2008. On December 24, 2006, one of the pipes carrying radioactive wastes from the uranium mill to a storage dam had burst, discharging highly toxic wastes into a nearby creek. The accident occurred in the same Dungridih a small village near Jadugoda inhabited largely by displaced families whose lands were acquired to construct two of the three storage dams, also known as tailings ponds. The tailings ponds store all the radioactive wastes generated by the milling of uranium ore in Jadugoda.

Owing to the record 338.1 mm rainfall on June 17, maximum in the past six decades, radioactive wastes from the tailing pond of Turamdih uranium mines on the outskirts of the Jamshedpur city has reportedly spilled over into the village ponds, wells and fields.
According to the sources, the spill over was obvious due to torrential rain as there is no way to divert the water flowing into the village.

According the UCIL it is a case of sabotage. How is that the incidents are being reported from the same village for the third time in a row? Said one of the authority.

It is troubling that UCIL did not have its own alarm mechanism to alert the company in cases of such a disaster.

A local NGO pointed out that the effluents flowing out of the pipes are under high pressure; hence when there is burst of the pipes, the flow does not take time to spread over large area.

The people in the Jadugoda area are affected not only by radiation from tailing dams but also by lack of safety at the mines. Fatigue, lack of appetite, respiratory ailments are wide spread. Increases in miscarriages, impotency, infant mortality, Down’s syndrome, skeletal deformities and different skin diseases, children with big heads, thalassemia have been reported. The incidence of tuberculosis among the miners is very high.One women of nearby Tilaitand village says that her husband deserted her because she could not get pregnant. Her villain: uranium mining. Other tribal women says her two children were born deformed at birth and were killed soon after. "The earth here is poisoned,'' she said.

Exposure to nuclear radiation is affecting the health of miners and villagers at Jadugoda in Singhbhum district in Jharkhand State located in Eastern India, which is India’s first uranium mining. Jadugoda, literally meaning "magic land", intrigues an outsider.

According to different N.G.Os working among the tribal peoples of Singhbhum said the radiation may not bring sudden dramatic illness but slowly undermines the health of the people living in the surrounding villages.

Jharkhand fossils of India on the verge of extinction.

This are some of the Plant fossils and other fossil of the Jharkhand which are on the verge of extinction due to mining and other man made operations.

By

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Mining and other operations destroying fossils of Jharkhand State of India.

Mining and other operations destroying fossils of Jharkhand State of India.

By
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Large scale mining and other operations in Jharkhand State of India are destroying the plant fossils of the Jurassic and Permian age. Lack of proper preservation arrangements, coupled with reckless mining works are ruining “a veritable storehouse of geological history”. Fossils of Jurassic age in Rajmahal area of Jharkhand state are being used to build up roads. Due to lack of knowledge, awareness and government ignorance these fossils are dangerously set on the path to destruction.
Plant fossils of Permian age which are spread over Damodar Valley coalfields are also being destroyed due to mine blasting or crushed under the huge tyres of trucks.

The situation is a combination of factors including extensive mine blasting and natural weathering process whose ‘baleful impact upon the life of the plant fossils has not been minimized due to the indifference of the organization concerned.

“There is an urgent need to conserve the rich fossil site. It is essential to preserve the plant fossils in ancient conditions,”.

According to the recent report a Memorandum of Understanding was inked between the Jharkhand government, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany (BSIP), Lucknow, and the National Building Construction Corporation, (NBCC), under the umbrella of the Department of Science and Technology of Government of India to establish the park. The Lucknow-based BSIP, a premier research centre in the field of palaeobotany, will provide scientific inputs and consultancy services to the park. But what about the fossils of Damodar Valley Coalfields? Decision of making fossil park has come too late. Till today most of the fossils have been destroyed .

Major plant fossils of the Permian age in Jharkhand State are Glossopteris, Gangmopteris, Schizoneura, Vertebraria, Noeggerathiopsis etc. Jurassic fossils are Lycoxylon indicum, Cladophlebis lobata, Ptilophyllum aquitifolium etc.

An angiosperm fruit of uncertain affinity and a questionable flower are reported from the Rajmahal Formation (Early Cretaceous) at the locality of Sonajori, Rajmahal Basin. The remains of ferns, Pentoxylales and conifers have been described previously from this locality. The significant addition of angiosperm megafossil remains confirms that flowering plants were evolving during the Early Cretaceous Epoch in India. The Sonajori assemblage seems to be the youngest fossil assemblage recovered so far from the Rajmahal Basin. It is tentatively dated as Barremian–Aptian.

Mr. Birbal Sahni was the first botanist to study extensively the flora of Indian Gondwana. He also explored the Rajmahal hills which is a treasury of fossils of ancient plants. Here he discovered some new genus of plants. The important and interesting ones are Homoxylon rajmehalense, Rajamahalia paradora and Williamsonia sewardiana.

Stromatolites in Jharkhand:
Stromatolites have the distinction of being by far the oldest indicators of organized life on earth, ranging back over 3 billion years. They occur all on continents in rocks from middle Precambrian to Holocene age. Stromatolites are laminated limestone structure of simple to complex form commonly attributed to debris-binding and biochemical processes of benthonic blue-green, green, and possibly, red algae.
Iron ore groups (Archaean age) of Jharkhand and bordering Orissa need pointed reference as they have the potential to constrain concepts of early evolution of life and also the age of the Iron Ore Group. These relate to the occurrence of palaeobiological remains and the extensive development of carbon phyllites that may have an organic carbon source.
These are found in the chert, jasper, haematite and dolomite beds in the iron-ore formations of the Noamundi-Joda area of Orissa bordering Jharkhand State. Good exposures of stromatolytic dolomite are also found at the base of the iron and manganese formations at Kasia and Belkundi. The stromatolites may be of the stratiform, nodular and columnar types.
Stromatolites have also been recorded Bachra coalfield in North Karanpura coalfield of Jharkhand state. It has been found in Talchir Formation (Permo-Carboniferous). The rock types of Talchir formation in order of superposition comprise tilloides and boulder beds, green shales and varvites with stromatolites. Stromatolites have been recorded by CMPDIL organization for the first time in this area.
They were the dominant life form on Earth for over 2 billion years. Today they are nearly extinct, living a precarious existence in only a few localities.



The term fossil is defined as remains of plants and animals which have existed on the earth in prehistoric times and are found preserved within sedimentary rocks or superficial deposits of the earth, not only mostly as petrified structures of organisms but also whatever was directly connected with or produced by these organisms.


Fossils are recognized as important useful tools since prehistoric times. Prehistoric men and medicine men of certain primitive cultures have believed them as magic sticks with mysterious powers and have used them to treat the evil spirits. Students concerned with the past of the earth have used as guide to reconstruct the geologic history of the earth. Paleontologists have used them in reconstructing the story of the plants and animals and of the past. They have also obtained useful information about when, where, and how the fossil animals and plants lived. Economic geologists have used the fossils as chief indicators in oil exploration.

Most of our knowledge about the climatic conditions in the geologic past comes from the study of the fossils. The presence of a fossils of warmer region in colder parts indicate that the latter once enjoyed a warm climate. The fossil ferns and other plants are usually found associated with coal deposits, which suggest warm and swampy conditions.

The concerned organizations should wake up to the bitter fact of gradual elimination of plant fossils from this region before it is too late.

“This is not to say that mining operations or other construction works in these regions should be stopped but they should be done more judiciously apart from setting up a chain of geological parks in Jharkhand to preserve plant fossils which are indisputably a treasure trove of information about the chronological history of the rocks.

Land splitting creates panic in Uttar Pradesh State of India- Groundwater depletion is not the only cause.

Jharkhand and Bihar may face such phenomenon.

by

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Several wide cracks on the earth has developed in different parts of Uttar Pradesh state of India. Areas covered are Hamirpur, Jalaun, Orai, Rai Barelly, Allahabad, and Kanpur. Reports are also coming from the neighbouring states where people are scared of this phenomenon.

This year on April 16 small quantities of molten rock erupted near a habitation at Sandhwa near Indore city of Madhya Pradesh state, leaving neighbours awestruck. Locals said that the eruption began with a small explosion causing two-feet wide gap in the soil.

With incidents of land splitting reported from various parts of North India, many people are asking : is doomsday at hand?

According to a saying in Hindu religion “land splitting is not a good sign. Incidents of land splitting are accompanied with deaths, mayhem and pogroms”.

Releasing a fear psychosis is building up among the villagers where incidents of land splitting have been reported in the recent past, the state government is now on an over drive to dispel the fear by giving a scientific angle to the whole process.
According to the experts, the cracks developed due to steep fall in the groundwater level. Decline in the groundwater level meant the space under the surface was now occupied by gases, which often could support the weight of the layers above. Different layers of the earth tend to move as a result, leading to cracks on the surface. Geologists say that due to the groundwater scarcity, soil was not able to bind the water molecules. As a result, the earth’s crust in various districts was developing cracks.

Land subsidence is a natural geological occurrence; however, it has been greatly accelerated by humans through excessive groundwater pumping. Generally speaking, land subsidence occurs at accelerated rates when water is pumped from an aquifer faster than it is replenished; it can also occur due to oil pumping and mining operations.

When a fissure reaches the surface, it is generally as a hairline crack, often less than an inch wide. It is after a rainstorm that the real problems emerge: As surface water flows into a fissure, it quickly expands into a giant crevasse, which could grow large enough to swallow a house. It is a process that can happen quite rapidly.

With continued groundwater depletion, we will continue to see new fissures forming," "and we cannot be sure exactly where they will form. Furthermore, it is unclear how many fissures may have already formed that have yet to surface. Even if we were able to recharge the aquifers, it could take decades, perhaps longer, before we stopped seeing new fissures."

Such fissures are called blind fissures, because they are not visible until they surface.
If we believe that groundwater depletion is the only phenomenon behind land subsidence then the states like Jharkhand, Bihar etc. should now be on high alert where the groundwater pumping is high.

But seeing the cases of land splitting in big scale in Uttar Pradesh and its adjoining States, only groundwater depletion is behind such phenomenon doesn’t seems true. Groundwater depletion may play important role, but it is not the only cause behind the splitting of lands. Fissures often make their first appearance as a narrow crack in the surface which was not reported from these places earlier.

If it has been true then most parts of the states of North India especially Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh etc. must have developed cracks on the earth, which fortunately is not here, neither it was reported earlier in the past.

Jharkhand State which faces acute groundwater shortage during summer season never faced such phenomenon of land splitting.

The scientists also pointed out that the areas where cracks in the earth’s crust have appeared were closer to the rivers and have sandy soil. Rampant mining of sand could also be a reason for the cracks. This theory also doesn’t satisfy because if rampant mining is one of the cause then cracks would have covered almost all parts of the India where river sand mining for construction purpose is very common.

There are difference in opinion. According to US based geologist, land breaches reported in the Indo-Gangetic belt could be due to the motion of a massive granite body underneath. Other geologists say there are two massive underground rock mountains for many kilometers along the banks of the Ganga river which are striking against each other and which might prove dangerous.

From last two years the most stable zone of Jharkhand is experiencing mild tremors in frequent interval which is not normal. We just can not jump into any conclusion by only experiencing such tremors but it is also true that something unusual is happening beneath the earth crust.

Does this fissures is something to do with movements of Indian subcontinent towards Eurasia?

What ever may be the causes but it is clear that in future we are going to see more of such types of land depletion.