Annual Report 2005-2006

Scientific Research

Seismicity Programme

Seismicity programme is a research driven programme with a long prospective to provide a fillip to the science of seismology. The aim of the programme is to provide added thrust to the earthquake related studies by creating scientific infrastructure in the form of testing facilities, setting up of seismic monitoring stations, Permanent Global Positioning System (GPS) stations and other collateral geophysical systems for generating high quality data sets to facilitate advanced research and also to generate inputs to help earthquake Disaster mitigation effort through S&T intervention.

• During the year of report, 40 projects have been evolved and supported for monitoring of seismicity, crustal deformation studies, seismotectonic studies, geotechnical studies and vulnerability analysis in selected region.
• Provided continued support to the following field oriented facilities set up under the Seismicity Programme.

- 3 Telemetric Clusters at Koyana, Khandwa and Kumaon.

- 60 Broad Band seismic Observatories in North Western Himalaya, North Eastern Himalayan and Peninsular Shield region.

- More than 200 Strong motion accelerographs were deployed in Himalayan, Delhi and Gujarat region.

Based on the model developed for Jabalpur region, micozonation studies have been initiated for other urban centers including, Delhi, Guwahati and Bangalore. First order Microzonation map of Delhi at 1:50,000 is ready While, the microzonation work of Guwahati is in advance stage and different Geotechnical maps at the scale 1:50,000 have been prepared. Necessary efforts are being made to refine the Microzonation map of Delhi by taking into account the the Seismic motion at surface.

Brief achievements under the selected ongoing and completed projects are highlighted below:-

Ongoing Projects

• Quaternary tectonics and delineation of subsurface faults in Gujarat region

Under the above ongoing project, M.S. University, Baroda has reported that the detailed studies have been carried out along active fault zones in Gujarat region using the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The studies have revealed the precise location and near surface characteristics of the Katrol Hill Fault (KHF), Narmada Son Fault, Okha Rann Fault and associated faults. The main fault strand of the KHF shows variable near surface characteristics ranging from steeply dipping reverse fault to vertical normal fault indicating active movements under an overall compressive stress environment. Mapping of various geomorphic features suggest reactivation of the KHF in Quaternary times. Each segment is bound by transverse faults (NNW-SSE and NNE-SSW) and shows variable structural characteristics which are typical of large discontinuous faults.

The GPR successfully imaged the subsurface characteristics of the two large sand blow craters based on the contrasting lithologies of the host sediments and the sediments emplaced in the craters.The studies indicate that during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, these sand blows were produced due to liquefaction of sediments in the subsurface at >6.5 m depth and the clay-rich sediments of the Banni plain have behaved as the fine grained cap over it.

• Seismicity in Kachchh, Gujarat

A close digital network consisting of ten strong motion accelerographs and five seismographs installed by the NGRI, Hyderabad in the Kachchh region in August 2002 have recorded about 3000 aftershocks during August 2002 - September 2005 of which 1480 events were located. The epicentral locations of these earthquakes suggest an E-W trending aftershock zone covering an area of 70 x 40 km2. The focal depths were estimated to be varying from 3 to 57 km with 90 % of aftershocks occurring within 10 to 35 km depth range, suggesting that aftershock zone has become deeper over the passage of time since the main event in 2001. The hypocentral distribution of these aftershocks along a N-S section clearly indicates that three faults, the Kutch Mainland fault (KMF), North Wagad Fault, (NWF) that was responsible for the main shock on January 26, 2001 and the Island Belt Fault (IBF) to the north of it, control the seismicity in the region.

• Liquefaction studies of Bangalore city

Seismic hazard analysis, site specific & liquefaction studies were carried out by the IISc, Bangalore, with an ultimate aim towards preparation of Microzonation map of Bangalore. All possible sources of seismic activity were identified and their potential for generating future strong ground motion was evaluated for seismic hazard analysis. The factor of safety against liquefaction for each layer of soil of each borehole was also calculated which was later divided into 7 groups. On the basis of that, a liquefaction hazard map of Bangalore city has also been prepared for a hypothetical earthquake of magnitude 6 and 7 on Richter scale (Figure 2.10).

Figure 2.10:Factor of safety against liquefaction for Bangalore city
for magnitude of 6 (Left) and 7 (Right)

• Seismic Zonation map for NE India

It has been reported by Kurukshetra University that 55 lineaments have been identified in the NE India and the magnitude of an earthquake generated by rupture along these lineaments were calculated. The tectonics of the region was studied from the map published by Kayal (1998). The rupture planes were modeled to prepare zonation map based on E_pga contour. The entire region was divided into 121 square grids of 50 kms and corner of each grid was used as observation point. By modeling each 55 lineaments, expected peak ground acceleration (E_pga) were calculated at 121 observation points. The value of E_pga at each observation point was later used for preparation of contour map dividing region into different E_pga. Following three different zones of E_pga were assumed for preparing the zonation map in this region:

Zone1 E_pga> 300 gals; Zone2 200 doE_pga< 300 gals; Zone3 E_pgado200gals

The map shows that area surrounding both sides of Brahamputra river fall in zone 1 indicating that Brahamputra valley is highly vulnerable to the seismic hazard (Figure 2.11). The places like Calcutta, Imphal, Chittagong and Dacca can experience peak ground acceleration more than 300 gals that is equivalent to the recorded peak ground acceleration during the Uttarkashi earthquake of 20th Oct. 1991.

Figure 2.11: Seismic zonation map of Brahamputra Valley.Zone1 stand for
E_pga> 300 gals, Zone2 for 200 doE_pgaa < 300 gals and Zone3 for E_pga< 200 gals.

• Microzonation of Sikkim region

A microzonation and hazard map of the Sikkim which is one of the seismically active regions, has been prepared by IIT, Kharagpur at a 1:50,000 scale. A variety of factors such as, geology, bedrock topography, sub-soil condition, geomorphology, earthquake ground motion amplification etc were incorporated in the present study and thus geomorphological and seismological thematic maps prepared were integrated through GIS (Figure 2.12). Six major hazard zones namely, very low, low, moderate, high, very high and severe have been identified. Based on this, the maximum risk has been identified in the Singtam and adjoining areas.

Figure 2.12: Seismic microzonation and hazard assessment of Sikkim Himalaya using
GIS at 2.5 Hz

• Dynamics of continental collision processes and rheology of lower crust based on GPS Studies in Indian Subcontinent

GPS data of the national network stations from 2001 to 2003 of Kodaikanal, Bangalore, Leh, Hanle, two months of data of each year of Pune, Dehradun, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Jabalpur, Bhubaneshwar and Almora, 2003-2004 data of newly established 8 permanent network sites in NE India by C-MMACS, and one permanent station at Bhopal has been processed in the ITRF 2000 reference frame using GAMIT/GLOBK to determine the time series of motion and deformation at these sites. The GPS derived velocities in ITRF 2000 of 20 permanent stations of DST national network obtained from the above data analysis have been obtained (Figure 2.13). Precipitable Water vapor content (PWV) in the atmosphere has been estimated using the GPS data at IISc, Kodaikanal, Shillong and Hanle for the years 2001 to 2003 (Figure 2.14). GPS derived IWV values are the first such determination over the Indian subcontinent. GPS derived Integrated water vapour estimation at four GPS sites geographically spread across the Indian subcontinent show the variability of water vapour across the sites with Bangalore having the highest value, Hanle the lowest, Shillong and Kodaikanal having intermediate values, each corresponding well with its geographical location.

Figure 2.13: GPS derived velocities of DST national network (2001-2004)	Figure 2.14: PWV estimated for 3 years (2001-2003) from GPS data at IISc site

Completed Projects

• Landslide Hazard zonation mapping in areas between Banderdewa-Gohpur of Arunachal Pradesh

Under the above completed project, it has been reported by CDAC, Pune and WIHG that a methodology has been developed using Geographical Information System (GIS) to derive various thematic layers from Remote Sensing Imageries. These layers were integrated by assigning weighted rank based on their intensive causative factors for landslide using Saaty's method and five categories of landslide hazard zone were identified. It was found that the area around Itanagar Urban conglomeration falls under very High Hazard zone. The study revealed that the landslides are occurring all along the roads in the Itanagar Capital Complex. Nearly 46 landslides have been registered and a detailed landslide inventory has been prepared. Risk due to landslide occurrences in Itanagar Capital Complex was assessed in terms of damage potential to life, land & property. The risk assessment indicates that most of the Itanagar Urban congomeration falls under the low to moderate risk category.

• Preliminary documentation of ground deformation and Tsunami effects at Andaman & Nicobar Islands and eastern coast of India

Under this project a detailed survey was carried out by RR Lalan College, Bhuj to document ground ruptures or coastal subsidence or uplifts that occurred during the recent earthquake of 26th December 2004 and also to document the tsunami destruction and its geological effects on the landscape. Based on all ground deformation and subsidence survey of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, revised maps of Nicobar group of islands have been prepared (Figure 2.15). The study reveals that the intensity of Tsunami was much higher in the Great Nicobar, Nancowrie group, Car Nicobar and Little Nicobar causing severe damage to coastal roads, fertile lands and coastal forest cover. On the eastern coast of India, the portion between Cuddalore to Velankkani was severely affected, while in Andhra Pradesh coast, Vishakapatnam and Machhlipatnam were moderately hit by Tsunami.

Figure 2.15: A revised map of Nicobar group of islands showing the coastal area under the submergence by red colour. (a) Great Nicobar (b) Southern part of Kamorta (c) Katchall (d) Trinket (e) Car Nicobar (f) Nancowrie (not to actual scale)

• GPS measurements and other studies in the Andaman-Nicobar after 26 December 2004, Sumatra earthquake

GPS data from nine permanent GPS sites surrounding the epicentre of December 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake was analysed to infer coseismic displacements at these sites. It has been reported by NGRI, Hyderabad that the GPS sites at SAMP, Medan in Sumatra Island, the nearest site from the epicentre, experienced a westward coseismic horizontal displacement of about 14 cm, while sites in southern India, namely HYDE and IISC experienced predominantly eastward coseismic horizontal displacement of about 6-11 mm. By analysing these coseismic displacements, an average reverse slip of about 11 m on the southern part of the rupture and an oblique slip of about 10 m on the northern part of the 1200×100-175 km2 rupture has been estimated. These results are also consistent with the nearfield GPS measured coseismic displacements in the region.

Campaign mode GPS measurements by Survey of India during March 2004 and January 2005 at twelve sites in the Andaman-Nicobar Islands provided the most comprehensive and reliable estimates of coseismic movements, slip on rupture and rupture characteristics of 26 December 2004 giant Sumatra earthquake. Coseismic horizontal ground displacement of 1.5-5.0 m in the SW to WSW direction in Andaman Islands, 4.0-6.5 m in SW direction in Nicobar Islands, coseismic uplift of 0.5-1.0 m in the North Andaman Island, subsidence of less than 1 m in Middle, South and Little Andaman Islands and subsidence of 1.1-2.8 m in Nicobar Islands occurred. These observations are consistent with a coseismic slip on rupture of 5.5-10 m under the Andaman Islands and about 10-17 m under the Nicobar Islands. The length of the rupture is estimated to be about 1400 km with a width varying from 120 km under the Middle Andaman Island to 180 km under the Great Nicobar Island (Figure 2.16).

Figure 2.16: GPS-derived co-seismic displacements in the Andaman-Nicobar Islands and estimated slip on the 2004 Sumatra earthquake rupture

• Mission Mode Project on Seismology

The Mission mode project is an attempt to provide value added products for earthquake disaster mitigation through technological interventions with the technical support of several Institutions. The project is distinct and specific in terms of its scope, content, time frame, participation and deliverables with respect to various ongoing schemes. Based on the activities identified by the Expert Committee, the following progress have been made in respect of each identified activities:-

• Multiparametric Geophysical Obeservatories
  • The first observatory at Ghuttu (Uttaranchal) is expected to be commissioned in the current Financial Year. The first observatory will consist of the following equipments:-
• Seismographs (BBS, bore hole and accelerometers)
• Strain measuring systems including GPS and borehole Instruments, etc.
• Absolute Gravimeter (observations need to be carried out at least once in 8-12 months)
• ULF & VLF equipment
• Digital magnetometers
• Ground water level measurements
• Gas emanometers (He, Ar and Ra)
• Resistivity meters
  • Sites for the remaining 2 have been identified at Portblair and Shillong and necessary arrangements are being made for getting the land allotted for Portblair observatory and site preparation for Shillong.
• Upgradation of the National Strong Motion Instrumentation

All the 300 equipments have been procured. IIT, Roorkee has obtained permission from Ministry of Home Affairs to use their communication network for transfer of data. In the first phase 100 equipments are expected to be deployed in the Current Financial Year.

• Library of Empirical Greens function for NCR region of Delhi

The project was sanctioned to NGRI, Hyderabad. NGRI is in the process of site identification.

• Preparation of seismotectonic Model of Uttaranchal

All the Broad Band seismometers have been deployed in the field, as on date all are operational in the field.

Initiatives after the Great Sumatra Earthquake of 26th December 2004

• Team of Scientific Experts were sent to study the submergence, tidal pattern and seismic patterns to help locate places for resettlement in A&N region under the Chairmanship of Director, CMAM, NIOT, Chennai. The Chairman has submitted the final report to DST.
• An Expert Committee was constituted to look into various datasets (Seismic, GPS and other collateral etc) and to bring out a Comprehensive Technical Report . The Technical Report has already been published by Geological Society of India.
• Brain Storming session to discuss issues related to Tsunami warning system was held held on 21-22 January 2005 at INSA, New Delhi. The proceedings of the Workshop are under publication.

Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRHPA)

IRHPA is a complementary programme to the SERC programme with activities consisting of setting up of units/ core groups around an eminent scientist and major National Research facilities to nucleate research activities in these areas. The scheme has contributed to augment general R&D capabilities at academic institutions and national laboratories in the areas of Crystal Structure, Robotics,
Laser Spectroscopy, Structural Biology, Surface Science & Technology, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Technical Acoustics, Geocentrifuge for Engineering applications etc.

The department has recently sanctioned an IRHPA proposal for strengthening existing National Single X-Ray Diffractometer facility at IIT Bombay by inducting a new CCD Diffractometer. The facility has been extensively used by scientists within the Institute but also from all parts of the country.

Another significant project on Bioseparation Technology was sanctioned at Vellore Institute of Technology. The Centre focuses on the development of S & T of Bioseparation with its multiple facets of application in medicine, biomedical technologies, pharmaceuticals, cosmoceuticals, agro food and enzyme industries. In addition, the Centre also offers training and educational programmes for young scientists in this emerging field.

In the area of NMR spectroscopy a facility for research using Solid State NMR was sanctioned at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The specific focus of this facility are NMR study of confined system, NMR methodologies for application to partially ordered systems, High Resolution NMR in Solids, NMR studies of peptides, proteins in solid states, cytochrome-b5 in Solid State NMR, Fast Ion Conductors etc.

A High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope facility for imaging functional molecular materials and nanomaterials to investigate their structure-property relationship was sanctioned at Regional Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram. Multidisciplinary research activities involving metallic, ceramics, minerals, chemical and biological samples and the future requirement for research in nanoscience and technology are envisaged around the facility.

A major project was funded to strengthen the Darjeeling Centre of Bose Institute, Kolkata and develop it as a high-altitude laboratory to search for cosmic strangelets and carry out climate studies.

A major project on "Evolution and Genetics" was sanctioned and another one to study biological rhythm is at advanced level of peer review. An IRHPA proposal to study neurobiology of sleep is under development.

In a project at IISc, the structures and carbohydrate specificities of two ?-prism I fold lectins, jacalin and artocarpin from jackfruit seeds, have been earlier thoroughly characterised in this laboratory. Jacalin is galactose specific and artocarpin is mannose specific at the monosaccharide level. Both are tetrameric. The structure of a mannose-specific dimeric lectin from banana in complex with methyl- ?-mannose has now been determined. Mannosespecific ?-prism I fold lectins have all essentially the same tertiary structure. However, they exhibit a wide variety of quaternary structures. The banana lectin has two primary binding sites, unlike the other lectins with ?-prism I fold which essentially consists of three Greek key motifs. It has been suggested that the fold evolved through successive gene duplication and fusion of an ancestral Greek key motif. In other lectins, all from dicots, the primary binding site exists on one of the three motifs in the three-fold symmetric molecule. Banana is a monocot, and the three motifs have not diverged enough to obliterate sequence similarity among them. Two Greek key motifs in it carry one primary binding site each. Structure based modelling readily leads to a bound branched mannopentose with the nonreducing ends of the two branches anchored at the two primary binding sites (Figure 2.17), providing a structural explanation for the lectins's specificity for branched ?-mannans.

Figure 2.17: Primary binding sites: Banana Lectin

• A National Facility for Texture and Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) has been jointly set up by DST, DRDO and IIT, Mumbai at IIT, Mumbai under IRPHA Scheme at a estimated project cost of Rs. 2.50 crores.
• The SEM-OIM, and XRD with texture goniometer, which was successfully commisioned last year are now fully showing results.

Figure 2.18a: Green Tape prepared from Nano BST Powder by tape-casting method	Figure 2.18b: A prototype BST ML Actuator

• Large number of Institutes including academic Institutes, national Labs and private industries besides IIT Bombay are using this facilites for detail texture studies. Total 931 samples with total measurement time of 1480 hours were analized for X-ray texture and residual stress. Similarly, 572 samples were analized for SEM-OIM with total measurement time of 3747 hours till September 2005.
• A "Center for Soft Computing Research" has been established at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata with a aim to strengthen theoretical and applied research on Soft Computing in the country. The research output of the center will also help in catering to the need of industries such as BHEL, ERDC, NRSA, TISCO, TELCO, ISRO, CMC.
• A National Facility for femtosecond upconversion has been set-up at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata (Figure 2.19). Fluorescence lifetime as short as 300 femtoseconds can be measured in set-up using a non-linear optical technique. The primary steps of many ultrafast processes e.g. hydrogen bonding dynamics, internal conversion between different electronic states and salvation dynamics have been studied using this set-up.

Figure 2.19: Femtosecond upconversion facility at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science

Some other new programmes sanctioned during the year are:

• Development of prototype Full Color Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays
• Studies of exotic nuclei under extreme conditions using Indian National Gamma Detector Array facilities
• Unit on Evolution and Genetics
• Quaternary sedimentary records of Baroda Window, mainland Gujarat multidisciplinary approach
• Chemical contamination of the Vadose Zone of the Nandesari/Ranoli Industrial belt of Baroda Window, Gujarat

The CERN-India Collaborative Projects

DST (along with DAE) continued its funding for participation of Indian groups in CMS and ALICE experiments at the up-coming Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva. These projects were monitored by a high-level Committee comprising of Secretary, DAE and DST. Significant progress was reported in both the projects.