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A number of studies have shown that the conservation and protection of significant geoheritage sites are crucial for scientific expeditions, education, and cultural viewpoint. Such geosites include places of geological, geomorphological, structural, palaeontological, stratigraphic, mineralogical, and/or archaeological significance. The values for bio-tourism, geotourism, and archaeo-tourism with distinguished geological features can be considered geoheritage in particular. The rocks of the Kumaun Himalaya (North India) ranging from the Proterozoic to Cenozoic periods are ideally preserved in various geographic domains and comprise a large number of geosites. These rock units have enormous potential to implement the concept of geopark and geotourism in the Kumaun Himalaya. In this paper, we have highlighted significant geosites of Kumaun Himalaya by describing their geology and related aspects along with their educational value. The conservation of proposed geosites is especially crucial to preserve them for posterity. Government agencies and educational institutes can promote the existing and potential sites of geotourism which will ultimately enhance the economy of the region and certainly help to develop and conserve important geosites in the rugged Himalaya terrain. Therefore, it is proposed that the geosites of Kumaun Himalaya, preserved in different geographical domains, should be conserved as national geoparks in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Himalaya is one of the youngest mountain systems with a fragile ecosystem due to continued collision tectonics. The endogenic and exogenic processes in the Himalaya have made landslide one of the critical surface processes continually sculpting the Himalaya. Constituting the hanging wall of the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), the south-facing slope of the Mussoorie Syncline is prone to various slope movements. Several old and active landslides are taking place along the Dehradun-Bhitarli Chhoti-Mussoorie road section. The main causative factors for landslides are tectonics, slopes, and human interference. The highly sheared bedrocks and high numbers of joint sets in the bedrocks are the signatures of the successive phases of tectonic uplift along the MBT imprinted on the bedrocks. The intersecting joint sets developed in the bedrocks have formed wedges, and these wedges have facilitated the recurrence of several landslides. Wedge failure, sliding (bedrock and debris), and toppling are the primary types of failure mechanisms, of which wedge failure-induced landslides accounts for the maximum. The south-facing slopes are very steep and are also one of the contributing factors to the instability of the hill slope. Anthropogenic activities have further aggravated slope stability as the roads are constructed across steep slopes and highly sheared rocks. The onslaught of rains easily destabilizes the weak rocks during monsoon, where the region receives a good amount of rainfall. The landslides occur primarily during or right after monsoon when the slope-forming materials become saturated with water. Recent tectonic activity along the MBT is evident from tectonic landforms such are uplifted terraces, linear fault traces along the MBT, and triangular facet cones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roads are the most critical means of connectivity in Himalayan villages. However, the terrain is inherently fragile with varied geological, geomorphological, ecological, and climate regimes, that result in frequent slope failure and disruption in connectivity. The risk is further to be increased by extreme events-generated hazards, which are expected to rise in frequency and magnitude with ongoing climate change. Critical scientific intervention, however, can improve the sustainability of road networks. The present study attempts to analyse and quantify the impacts of a major road widening project initiated in 2018 in the upper Ganga catchment, Uttarakhand Himalaya which has destabilised valley slopes along the widened segments. Also, a large quantity of excavated sediments is dumped down slopes, which is posing a threat to aquatic biodiversity. The estimates are based on Google Earth imagery of a few representative road segments recently widened in the upper Ganga catchment, which indicate a substantial increase in the landslide and unstable slope area following the road widening. The increase in unstable slope area is attributed to improper road widening approaches and poor slope management in seismically active Himalayan terrain. Further, the mean velocity plots of Persistent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) indicate that the segments undergoing road widening are coherent with areas of significant earth surface change. A broad correlation between the road width and sediment yield indicates that even a slight increase in road width can result in a large-scale mass removal from the toe of the hillslope, inflicting cascading impact on hillslopes. The study recommends a more flexible road construction approach based on the environmental and geological aspects of the terrain for sustainable road networks. Further, the impact of climate change is looming over the Himalayas, and the relation between climate change and its potential effects on the stability of slopes remains an open issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is one of the most basic entities, especially in semiarid regions where low precipitation and limited surface water resources bring more emphasis on the use of groundwater leading to endangering and overexploitation. Therefore, quantity with monitoring of groundwater quality at regular intervals becomes of utmost importance for understanding its suitability for drinking and irrigation. This study aims in understanding spatial variations and their trend in terms of quality over a decade (2010–2020) using different hydrochemical parameters in the vicinity of the coastal tracts of the Mundra block. Samples were analyzed for TDS, pH, EC, TH, major cations, and anions. Drinking suitability was identified by correlating parameters with WHO, BIS standards and by preparing WQI maps. Irrigational suitability was found by SAR, RSC, KI, Na %, MH, and PI. Reduced water level (RWL) values represented a further increase in the reversal flow of groundwater in a decade leading to an increment in salinity and seawater intrusion. The study area in most of the analysis is possessing much higher values above safer limits when compared to 2010 and 2020, making the water very much unacceptable for drinking and irrigation. The major cause in the area is overexploitation and unconditional deeper drilling, resulting in an increase in coastal salinity and seawater intrusion. The use of such water tends to harm agriculture, soil condition as well as human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work pertains to the stratigraphic evidences found during paleoseismic investigations on the trench walls opened across the Kachchh Mainland Fault (KMF). High-resolution satellite (CARTOSAT-1 DEM) data is used for mapping fault traces and carried out paleoseismic studies to identify paleo-earthquakes. We undertook geomorphological and paleoseismological investigations along the central segment of the KMF zone with the aim of estimating long-term slip rate and recurrence interval of strong earthquakes. Two N-S trenches were excavated across the E-W striking branches of the KMF, named as KMF-1 and KMF-2, revealing that the KMF is dipping towards the north. Detailed studies of the trench walls and optical dating of event horizons have confirmed four earthquakes occurred in the KMF zone between 5600 and 1000 years. The earthquake event I occurred between 5000 and 5500 years; event II occurred between 4000 and 4600 years. The event III occurred between 2000 and 2900 years, and the event IV occurred between 1023 and 1259 AD and 02 BC to 427 AD. Our studies further indicate that the central KMF zone is probably undergoing a quiescent period of ~ 1000 years accumulating the stress in the system to generate a large earthquake. The uplifted and truncated fluvial strath terrace deposits resulting from the Holocene displacements are preserved along the hanging wall block of the KMF. Dividing the elevation of the bedrock strath by their ages yields estimates of the vertical uplift rate of 0.37 to 1.48 mm/year of the hanging wall block of central KMF. With the help of displaced sedimentary units and optical ages, we estimated an average slip rate of 0.28 mm/year and uplift rate of 0.13 mm/year along KMF-1 over an interval of 1800–4000 years. However, the estimated slip rate along KMF-2 is 0.30 mm/year and the observed uplift rate is 0.17 mm/year. The results obtained from the trench investigations along the KMF not only help in understanding the dynamics of KMF but also aid seismic hazard evaluation in the Western Peninsular India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we assess seismic hazard potential and surface deformation pattern along and across the strike of major active faults in the intra-plate Kachchh Rift Basin (KRB). Towards this, we adopted river Gradient Length Anomaly (GLA) technique, which detects recent tectonic deformation along a river profile on local and regional scales. The major deviations along the river profile can be correlated with exogenic (erosion/sedimentation/anthropogenic) and endogenic (active tectonic movement) processes. We analysed 130 river profiles for GL anomalies, over an area of ~26,700 km2 in the KRB to identify possible locations that have undergone active tectonic deformation associated with the fault movement. The acquired results show that the higher magnitude negative GL anomalies (uplift) are observed proximal to the fault zones. Our estimates reveal that, around 13% of the study area falls under high tectonically active zone, around 27% of the area falls under moderately active zone, while 60% of the area shows very low or negligible tectonic activity. The estimated results of the GL anomalies are compared with the existing double-difference tomograms, to understand the role of subsurface fault dynamics on the GL anomalies. Furthermore, the results of GLA are correlated with the existing results of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) values of the basin, in order to obtain the precise information regarding surface deformation and site-specific ground acceleration for accurate assessment of seismic hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sabarmati River basin, Gujarat State, western India is one of the major river basins of Gujarat State, playing host to major cities such as Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, both of which are important economic and political capitals of Gujarat State. In the study reported here, we collected available information on the Sabarmati River basin, Gujarat State in terms of geology, tectonics, seismicity, and shear-wave velocity and assimilated and integrated this information into a geographical information system (GIS) platform to generate a rapid first-order seismic hazard map of the area. The integration of different criteria, such as peak ground acceleration, amplification factor, geology and geomorphology, liquefaction, and seismotectonics critical to seismic hazard, was performed following pair-wise comparison using the analytical hierarchy process, wherein each thematic map was assigned a weight on a 1 to 5 scale depending on its contribution to the seismic hazard. Seismic hazard was evaluated using a numerical rating scheme with the help of the GIS. Analysis of the generated map revealed that the seismic hazard is highest in the southeastern part of the area, moderate in the central part, and lowest in the northeastern part comprising the Aravalli Range. The seismic hazard map also shows that almost 40% of the study area, namely that comprising basins of the Sabarmati River and its tributaries, is prone to high seismic hazard. Our results show that it is possible to generate a macro-level seismic hazard map by integrating available information and that this map is a useful tool for urban planners and helps in zeroing in on the areas where seismic microzonation or site-specific studies are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphotectonic elements of the Baijnath Klippe (BK) have been examined to understand the kinematics of the Inner Kumaun Lesser Himalaya from Tertiary to Late Quaternary. The BK is bounded by two thrusts: the Askot Thrust (AT), to the north and the Baijnath Thrust (BjT), to the south. The older (20 Ma) hanging wall rocks (mylonites and phyllites) are underlain and surrounded by quartzites (equivalent to Nagthat Formation of Outer Lesser Himalaya). The kinematics study and strain analysis along Dewal–Narayanbagarh transect provides the varied intensity of deformation (D1, D2, and D3) within the zone of BK. The D1 event is characterized by isoclinal tight folds in phyllite and mylonite; the D2 phase is characterized by open folding in mylonite. However, the youngest event D3 phase is observed as a regional synclinal folding of BK and associated rocks. The presence of 1–3-km-thick mylonite zone parallel to the thrust planes is related to the compressional event of Miocene age. The geomorphic pattern and chronologically constraints (OSL ages) with spatial variability in the incision/uplift rate suggests that the terrain is undergoing differential crustal deformation during Late Quaternary. Kinematic indicators such as streaky foliations, S–C foliation, mantled porphyroclasts, micro-shears with bookshelf gliding, and mica fish found in mylonites (macroscopic as well as microscopic) indicate ductile deformation in the area. We used Flinn plot (Rf/ϕ) and Fry (Tectonophysics 60:89–105, 1979) analysis to delineate the finite strain pattern in 21 oriented samples collected across the BK bound thrusts (BjT and AT). The strain analysis revealed an increasing trend of strained quartz grains, which presents triaxialoblate strain geometry (flattening i.e., 0 < k < 1) towards the structural discontinuity. The textural (chessboard, myrmekite, undulose extinction and fracturing in quartz and feldspar) and mineralogical properties (non-flaky) of quartz and feldspar indicate the temperature of deformation and mylonitization ranging 300–500 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetotelluric (MT) data have been acquired at 40 locations in Tuwa and its surrounding region (200 km east of Ahmedabad and 15 km north-northwest of Godhra) in the Mainland Gujarat with an average station spacing of 1.5 km. MT impedance tensors have been estimated in the period range of 0.001-100 s. The data have been modeled using non-linear conjugate gradient scheme taking both apparent resistivity and phase into account. From the 2D models of the MT data, the weathered granite with Quaternary sediments (with resistivity of < 700 Ω m) have been inferred up to a depth of 500 m followed by Godhra granite (having resistivity up to 105 Ω m) with a thickness 6.5 km. The Aravalli supergroup has been inferred below Godhra granite. The Lunavada group of rocks have been inferred in the eastern part of the study area (having resistivity value ranging from 103 to 104 Ω m) separated from the Godhra granite by a contact zone. The comparatively very low-resistivity rocks (< 400 Ω m) of Udaipur formation followed by Paleoproterozoic carbonate rocks with fluid have been inferred below 8-10 km depth. The percolation of water from the surface through the contact zone of Lunavada and Champaner groups has been suggested. The presence of hot water springs in 10 km SW from the center of the study area (at the contact zone of Godhra granite and basalt) might be due to the western trending lithostratigraphic slope, hydrostatic pressure generated due to heat produced from interaction of water with the carbonate rocks at deeper depth and high subsurface temperature due to high geothermal gradient. The segmented nature of Himmatnagar Fault (HnF) is identified in the central portion of the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present geodetically estimated crustal strain rates in Uttarakhand Himalaya, a region which has long been considered as a part of seismic gap. We processed and analyzed the GPS data, acquired from the sites enveloping all the litho-tectonic units from the Sub Himalaya in the south to the Tethys Himalaya in the north together with the major Himalayan thrust/fault systems. On the basis of the obtained dataset, we conclude that the maximum amount of crustal shortening takes place towards the hinterland in the vicinity of Main Central Thrust and Inner Lesser Himalaya which is also in agreement with high seismic activity in these sectors. The GPS velocities of the sites (Indian reference frame) show significant variation from the sub-Himalaya to the Tethys Himalaya. The Sub and Inner Lesser Himalayan parts exhibit low deformation rate in contrast to the maximum amount of deformation in the Inner Lesser and Higher Himalayan segments. The strain analysis reveals lateral variation with high strain zones (HSZ) and moderate strain zones (MSZ) within the compressional regime in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. The strain rate of 0.45 and 0.25 micro-strain/year is observed in the HSZ and MSZ respectively. By comparing the strain rate with the seismicity pattern for the past five decades, we suggest that the earthquakes in the HSZ are related with ramp structure of the MHT, whereas, part of accumulated strain in the MSZ is being released in form of the present day seismic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Churachandpur-Mao Fault (CMF), trending NNE-SSW, is morphogenic in nature and can be traced for ~ 300 km. It is defined by straight valleys; most prominent being between Kangpokpi and Maram. The fault takes a north-easterly trend from Maram where the fault zone is characterized by active landslides during the monsoon. At Puni Pfosemai, which represents the hanging wall of the fault, extensional tectonics of local extent is observed. This is designated the Puni Pfosemai Fault that trends NNE-SSW and is about 2.5 km in length. The downthrown block is characterized by single-order streams with steep gradients. In the downstream, the fault scarp facing SE developed in the footwall block is more than 100 m in height. The upper portion of the Barak River is tectonically controlled. The SW flowing Barak River takes an almost 360° turn at Karong to flow NNE, before changing course again towards the northwest near Maram. The immediate hanging wall of the CMF is characterized by a narrow valley with relatively high stream-gradient index and steepness index values. A strath terrace of 11 m height is observed on the hanging wall block of the CMF. The straight river valley and concavity (θ) of 0.64 for the Barak River are indicative of active tectonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]