Pakistan – Floods : History Repeats Itself
According to a Pakistani newspaper, though the most recent flooding is different in nature compared to the one in 2010 — the latter was a flash flood while the current is a riverine...
Category: Earth
Understanding Oxygen Concentrators
Everyone is talking about oxygen concentrators now. Most of us had not heard of them before. Many know about distillers which extract water from air, yet very few realised that even oxygen can be extracted from air. So what is an Oxygen Concentrator and how do you choose the right one?
Covid19 – Lessons Learnt From a Life Forgotten/ Neelam Jain
While we wait with bated breath for this Covid19 to pass, we can only forget the lessons it continues to teach us both at physical level and also at a deeper existential, philosophical level, at our own peril. In the latter half of this century when it is well behind us, and human race has the wisdom of hindsight, Covid19 may seem to be the one game-changer humankind desperately needed for course correction.
Case: 91m High Cavity- Result Of Lacking Geological Study & Support Design?
A Case Study of formation of a huge cavity of the size of a football field and of one third the height of Eiffel Tower through the crown of a cavern.
Series’ Next “Surprise” -The Unexplored Mega Shear in Punatsangchhu-II Dam
Occurrence of too many geological surprises, which were blamed for the big mishaps in the two mega Projects Punatsangchhu – I & II ,intrigues one to investigate if ‘ harping on the geological surprises’ was only a scapegoat for the lack of proper geological investigations done by the Consultants and inappropriate design of rock support measures done by the Designers, who were same for both the Projects.
Indus Water Treaty
Indus Water Treaty is considered to be one of the most successful water-sharing endeavours in the world today. For 56 years, both India and Pakistan have been peacefully sharing the water of Indus and its tributaries, thanks to The Indus Water Treaty (IWT). But since the ratification, there have been a number of issues raised by both countries over the ethical use of the treaty and the water itself.
A Case of ” To Be Or Not To Be A Fit Site For 300m Deep Dam Foundations”
The strata shows small scale, S- shape tight folds and broad warping of the beds at places, indicating that the rock strata has undergone the polyphase deformation in the past leading to development of numerous criss-cross structural discontinuities like joints, shears etc. of different orders. Five prominent and two random joint sets are recorded in the right bank. The foliation is very close to moderately spaced from 2cm to 60 cm and dips towards valley slightly in d/s direction; however rolling of dip is observed at places, there it dips into the hill due to folding and warping. The general topography and gentle natural slopes on the right bank of river are controlled by low and valley ward dipping foliation planes.
India’s Water Emergency
Prof. Manohar Khushalani was one of the panelists who appeared live on NDTV for a panel discussion on the water crisis faced in India. This video gives an insight into the problems faced by Indians when it comes to water as well as some expert opinions on this matter. Some of the other panelists are Raghav Chadha, VK Madhavan, Medha Patkar, Dr. Vaman Acharya, and Arunabha Ghosh.
Chain of Massive Surprises in Two Punatsangchhu Projects – Yoginder Sharma
The Punatsangchhu-II (PHEP-II), a 1020 MW project with scheduled date of commissioning of year 2017 at cost of Rs. 37778 millions, new approved project cost of Rs. 72900 millions ( US $ 1.04 billions), expects further escalationin its cost to Rs. 80000 millions ( US $ 1.14 billions), with already incurred cost of about Rs. 65880 millions, is delayed due to the huge rock mass failure in its underground Downstream Surge Gallery (DSSG), resulting in a huge cavity of about 91m height x 70m length and 45m width in the crown of the DSSG. The Dam foundations had encountered, a thus far unexplored, mega shear of maximum 30m width, cutting across the length all the 4 dam blocks diagonally. The shear zone with its about 35ᵒ to 45ᵒ dip, continued under the foundations to large depths.
The UFO Debate: Part I – Do Aliens Exist | Manohar Khushalani
Obviously these aerial objects were not following any known laws of Newtonian physics . This author‡
has always held that many new laws of dynamics are yet to be discovered or harnessed. One of them is Gravity.