Frontiers of Geosciences: Atmospheric Science and Climate

Venkatachalam Ramaswamy

Princeton University, USA

The emissions of greenhouse gases due to human influences has caused perturbations in the Earth system, initiating major changes in the greenhouse effect, atmospheric circulation and leading to global warming. Other factors such as atmospheric aerosols and land-use change also due to human activity, along with changes in solar radiation and volcanic eruptions causing aerosol increases, have also affected the planetary heat balance. In this presentation, we discuss how each of the natural and anthropogenic factors has contributed to alteration of the Earth system from global to continental to regional scales. We also discuss feedbacks due to the atmosphere and ocean in climate variations and change. The climate variables of particular interest for societal impacts are temperature, precipitation and weather extremes. We use state-of-the-art numerical models of the climate system, together with observations drawn from multiple platforms (surface, satellite and aircraft). We analyze the key drivers over the 20^th century, the impacts they have generated and the unresolved issues. We then explore the impacts that are expected in the 21^st century. In the context of both the 20^th and 21^st centuries, we discuss the impacts expected due to global warming and the significance of the resulting atmospheric and climate change for extremes in weather e.g., heat waves, tropical storms, sea-level rise, forest fires, droughts, excess rainfall. This brings to the fore the connection between the scientific understandings of global warming based on rigor and the manner in which climate change impacts society, including that arising due to the nonstationary behavior of the changes.

Biography:
Dr. Ramaswamy is Director of NOAAʼs Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and Professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University. His research interests are the mathematical modeling of the global climate system and advancing the understanding of the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere. He directs one of the worldʼs premier climate research and modeling centers, developing advanced numerical models for understanding and predicting weather and climate. Ram has been a lead author on the major scientific assessments and was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that was a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Features of Distribution of Ore Deposits in the Western Part of the Altai-Sayan Folded Area and the Role of Granitoid Magmatism

Alexandr I Chernykh

TsNIGRI, Russia

The Altay-Sayan folded area (ASFA) is composed mainly of the Vendian-Cambrian volcanogenic-sedimentary rocks of oceanic and island-arc complexes and magmatic rocks different age and composition. In the eastern part of the ASFA magmatic complexes of Cambrian and Ordovician age, mainly composed by diorite, granodiorite, granite, break through volcanogenic-sedimentary sequences. Formation of these granitoids happened in island-arc and collisional environment. At the western part of the territory granite complexes of the Devonian age are widespread. Mesozoic granitoids which formed in the intraplate conditions are also presented in the region.

Metallogenic analysis of the ASFA in general indicates that gold mineralization and partly iron, copper and molybdenum is confined to the areas of granitoid magmatism of different ages. In the western part gold mineralization is confined to granitoid complexes of the Devonian age. Gold mineralization of northern and eastern parts is related to the Cambrian and Ordovician granitoids. In the south-western and southern parts of the region, gold is minor ore component associated with iron, lead, zinc and silver. In the eastern and northern parts, gold is main industrial commodity and associates with copper, molybdenum, iron, lead, zinc. The uneven distribution of the massifs of granitoids determines the patchy gold mineralization with the allocation of ore districts and clusters. There is direct correlation between the volume of granitoid magmatism and the number and size of the gold ore deposits. The main stages of the granitoid magmatism of ASFA determine the main stages of the formation of gold mineralization.

Biography:
Dr. Alexandr I Chernykh is the Director General of the FSBI “TsNIGRI” - the leading enterprise of the State Geological Service of the Russian Federation in the field of geology and metallogeny of diamonds, non-ferrous and noble metals. He holds PhD degree in geology and mineralogy. Dr. Chernykh is a member of the editorial board of leading Russian geological journals, the author and co-author of more than 100 publications. A.I. Chernykh is an expert in the metallogeny and in the mineral exploration and prospecting methods for solid mineral deposits.

Earth Science Research in India - An Analysis of Projects Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India

Manoranjan Mohanty^1* and S Sinha-Roy²

¹Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, India
²Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur

Earth Science research in India evolved over the years in tune with the trends in the global scenario from studying the geologic attributes and assessing the natural resources to addressing issues related to fundamental processes involving, for example, crustal evolution, geodynamics and other aspects of contemporary Earth Science problems. Apart from various Earth Science institutions the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, has been sponsoring Earth Science research projects in the country and thus playing a catalytic role by providing extra-mural funding. Although the DST started funding Earth Science projects since 1985, the extent of such support increased in the 1990s and thereafter with sponsoring of a number of specialized thematic Earth Science programmes. As a result of these initiatives a prodigious amount of data has been generated that are contained in the Project Completion Reports (PCR). An analysis of the database prepared from 440 Project Completion Reports for the period 1993-2015 indicated that the projects dealing mainly with 17 themes increased almost steadily in number from 1993 to 2012 with a slight decreasing trend till 2015. A similar trend is exhibited by the yearly total project funding and the average cost per project. In addition to the above, various laboratory facilities like Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), Stable Isotope Geochemistry, Laser Ablation Magnetic Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometery (LAM-MC-ICP), Ar-Ar Geo-Thermochronology, Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometery (TIMS), Accelerated Mass Spectrometery (AMS), High Temperature-High Pressure Experimental facility, Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (IRMS), Palaeo-magnetic Laboratory, Fission track dating Laboratory etc., have been supported to different Universities/ Institutions to facilitate the earth science research in the country.

Biography:
Dr. Manoranjan Mohanty has completed his M Sc Tech degree in Applied Geology from Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad in 1996. He was also recipient of the Post Graduate Diploma Certificate in Seismology and Earthquake Engineering from International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Tsukuba, Japan. He has also been awarded PhD degree in Seismology from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra during 2011. Dr. Mohanty has been working in Department of Science and Technology as Scientist for the last two decades. He was looking after various earth science research related programme of the Government of India. He has also supported various National Facilities for carrying out research in Earth Sciences under Science and Engineering Research Board, a statutory body under DST, Government of India and New Delhi. Dr. Mohanty is currently working as Director in DST and looking after 26 Autonomous Organizations of DST.