There is a growing interest in deciphering the emplacement and environmental impact of flood basalt provinces such as the Deccan, India. Observations of active volcanism lead to meaningful interpretations of now-extinct volcanic systems. Here, I illustrate and discuss the morphology and emplacement of the modern and active lava flows of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, and based on them, interpret the compound pahoehoe lavas of the Deccan Traps. The latter are vastly larger (areally extensive and voluminous) than Kilauea flows, and yet, their internal architecture is the same as that of Kilauea flows, and even the sizes of individual flow units often identical. Many or most compound flows of the Deccan Traps were emplaced in a gentle, effusive, Kilauea-like fashion. Bulk eruption rates for the Deccan province are unknown, and were probably high, but the local eruption rates of the compound flows were no larger than Kilauea’s. Large (≥ 1000 km³) individual compound pahoehoe flows in the Deccan could have been emplaced at Kilauea-like local eruption rates (1 m³/sec per metre length of fissure) in a decade or less, given fissures of sufficient length (tens of kilometres), now exposed as dyke swarms in the province.

Field investigations of the Deccan Trap lava sequence along a 70 km traverse in the Narsingpur-Harrai-Amarwara area of central India indicate twenty lava flows comprising a total thickness of around 480 m. Primary volcanic structures like vesicles and cooling joints are conspicuous in this volcanic succession and are used to divide individual flows into three well-defined zones namely the lower colonnade zone, entablature zone, and the upper colonnade zone. The variable nature of these structural zones is used for identification and correlation of lava flows in the field. For twenty lava flows, the thicknesses of upper colonnade zones of eight flows are ∼5 m while those of eight other flows are ∼8 m each. The thicknesses of upper colonnade zones of remaining four flows could not be measured in the field. Using the thicknesses of these upper colonnade zones and standard temperature-flow thickness-cooling time profiles for lava pile, the total cooling time of these sixteen Deccan Trap lava flows has been estimated at 12 to 15 years.

In the Precambrian Singhbhum Craton of eastern India, newer dolerite dikes occur profusely with varying outcrop lengths. We have analysed the nature of their length-size and orientation distributions in relation to the theory of fractals. Two orientational sets of dikes (NW-SE and NE-SW) are present. Both the sets show strongly non-power-law size distributions, as reflected in non-linear variations in logarithmic space. We analyzed thousands of data, revealing that polynomial functions with a degree of 3 to 4 are the best representatives of the non-linear variations. Orientation analysis shows that the degree of dispersions from the mean trend tends to decrease with increasing dike length. The length-size distributions were studied by simulating fractures in physical models. Experimental fractures also show a non-power-law distribution, which grossly conforms to those of the dolerite dikes. This type of complex size distributions results from the combined effects of nucleation, propagation and coalescence of fractures.

This paper deals with landslide hazards and risk analysis of Penang Island, Malaysia using Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing data. Landslide locations in the study area were identified from interpretations of aerial photographs and field surveys. Topographical/geological data and satellite images were collected and processed using GIS and image processing tools. There are ten landslide inducing parameters which are considered for landslide hazard analysis. These parameters are topographic slope, aspect, curvature and distance from drainage, all derived from the topographic database; geology and distance from lineament, derived from the geologic database; landuse from Landsat satellite images; soil from the soil database; precipitation amount, derived from the rainfall database; and the vegetation index value from SPOT satellite images. Landslide susceptibility was analyzed using landslide-occurrence factors employing the probability-frequency ratio model. The results of the analysis were verified using the landslide location data and compared with the probabilistic model. The accuracy observed was 80.03%. The qualitative landslide hazard analysis was carried out using the frequency ratio model through the map overlay analysis in GIS environment. The accuracy of hazard map was 86.41%. Further, risk analysis was done by studying the landslide hazard map and damageable objects at risk. This information could be used to estimate the risk to population, property and existing infrastructure like transportation network.

Compressional and shear wave velocities and attenuation measurements have been carried out in some of the borehole samples of acidic, basic and intermediate granulites of Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India. The results have been obtained at ambient conditions using ‘time-of-flight’ pulse transmission technique at 1.0 MHz frequency. The results show linear relationships between velocity and density, and velocity and attenuation properties of the rocks. The acidic granulites show lower velocities and higher attenuation than the intermediate and basic granulites. The average values of the Poisson’s ratio of acidic, intermediate and basic granulites have been found to be 0.210, 0.241 and 0.279 respectively. The variations in velocities and attenuation in these low porosity crystalline rocks are found to be strongly influenced by their mineral composition. The laboratory velocity data (extrapolated to high pressure) of the present study and the published field velocity data from deep seismic sounding studies indicate that these granulite facies rocks may belong to mid-crustal depths only.

The Biot linearized quasi-static theory of fluid-infiltrated porous materials is used to formulate the problem of the two-dimensional plane strain deformation of a multi-layered poroelastic half-space by surface loads. The Fourier-Laplace transforms of the stresses, displacements, pore pressure and fluid flux in each homogeneous layer of the multi-layered half-space are expressed in terms of six arbitrary constants. Generalized Thomson-Haskell matrix method is used to obtain the deformation field. Simplified explicit expressions for the elements of the 6 × 6 propagator matrix for the poroelastic medium are obtained. As an example of the possible applications of the analytical formulation developed, formal solution is given for normal strip loading, normal line loading and shear line loading.

A gravity core collected from the upper slope of southwest of Quilon at a water depth of 776 m (Lat: 8°12′263″N, Long: 76°28′281″E) was analysed for texture (carbonate free), calcium carbonate and organic carbon. Variation in silicic fraction seems to be controlled by silt, i.e., enrichment from 15 ka BP to 10 ka BP and then constant in Holocene. Below 15 ka BP, the silicic fraction gets depleted compared to the Holocene section with a minimum around 21 ka BP. Clay content remains nearly constant except in the Holocene where it shows an enrichment. Carbonate content of less than 63 micron when computed by subtracting coarse fraction content from the total carbonate suggests that the total carbonates are mainly concentrated in the finer fraction. All these carbonate phases show an inverse relationship with silicic fraction except in Holocene. Below 15 ka BP, CaCO₃ dominates in sediments comprising more than 65%, such an increase is also seen in the coarse fraction. Coarse fraction from these sections contains abundant nodular type aggregates encrusting small forams. This period is marked by a high sedimentation rate comparable to Holocene. These parameters suggest that the productivity and precipitation have increased in the Holocene due to the intensification of the southwest monsoon. During the last glacial maximum and early deglacial period the high sedimentation rate indicates redeposition of the carbonates from the existing carbonate lithofacies situated between Quilon and Cape Comorin probably due to the slope instability.