We employed X-ray diffraction methods to quantify clay mineral assemblages in the Indus Delta and flood plains since ~ 14 ka, spanning a period of strong climatic change. Assemblages are dominated by smectite and illite, with minor chlorite and kaolinite. Delta sediments integrate clays from across the basin and show increasing smectite input between 13 and 7.5 ka, indicating stronger chemical weathering as the summer monsoon intensified. Changes

The Harappan Culture, one of the oldest known urban civilizations, thrived on the northwest edge of the Thar Desert (India and Pakistan) between 3200 and 1900 BCE. Its demise has been linked to rapid weakening of the summer monsoon at this time, yet reorganization of rivers may also have played a role. We sampled subsurface channel sand bodies predating ca. 4.0 ka and used U-Pb dating of zircon sand grains to constrain their provenance through comparison

Spanning a latitudinal range typical for deserts, the Indian peninsula is fertile instead and sustains over a billion people through monsoonal rains. Despite the strong link between climate and society, our knowledge of the long-term monsoon variability is incomplete over the Indian subcontinent. Here we reconstruct the Holocene paleoclimate in the core monsoon zone (CMZ) of the Indian peninsula using a sediment core recovered offshore from the mouth

O intrebare pentru ministrul educatiei (si tineretului ???): cine are grija de studentii nostri performanti? Exista vreo solutie pentru folosirea fondurilor structurale spre beneficiul si nu bataia de joc al acestora? Detalii pe blog: http://blog.ad-astra.ro/2012/01/bataie-de-joc/

Climate change and human activities in Europe have altered erosion and riverine sediment transport for thousands of years. The Danube River basin, the second largest watershed in Europe, provides a unique study area to examine these impacts on fluvial discharge through available reconstructed climate data during the ‘Little Ice Age’ cold interval, as well as documented timing of deforestation and large dam emplacement. Suspended sediment flux

The western Himalaya, Karakoram and Tibet are known to be heterogeneous with regard to Pb isotope compositions in K-feldspars, which allows this system to be used as a sediment provenance tool. We used secondary ion mass spectrometry to measure the isotopic character of silt and sand-sized grains from the modern Sutlej and Chenab Rivers, together with Thar Desert sands, in order to constrain their origin. The rivers show a clear Himalayan provenance,

We present a multiproxy geochemical analysis of two cores recovered from the Indus Shelf spanning the Early Holocene to Recent (

The Romanian Academy has awarded the "Traian Vuia" prize to Mr. Florentin Smarandache for his work on "The neutrosophic logic and the fusion of information in technical sciences". Traian Vuia was a renowned Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer who lived most of his active life in France. He was involved in establishing the "National Committee of Romanians from Transylvania" in 1918 and was active in the French Resistance during World War II. The

http://www.romaniacurata.ro/de-ce-n-are-ursul-coada-1948.htm sau http://blog.ad-astra.ro/2011/10/de-ce-n-are-ursul-coada/

Wave-influenced deltas, with large-scale arcuate shapes and demarcated beach ridge complexes, often display an asymmetrical form about their river channel. Here, we use a numerical model to demonstrate that the angles from which waves approach a delta can have a first-order influence upon its plan-view morphologic evolution and sedimentary architecture. The directional spread of incoming waves plays a dominant role over fluvial sediment discharge