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Miscellaneous

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30 Apr

Posted at 10:28h in Miscellaneous by
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COARSE & FINE AGGREGATES DEAD END: A WAY FORWARD Nandakumar 1 & K. P. Thrivikramaji 2 Scientist, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram Professor Emeritus, Department of Geology, University of Kerala, Kariyavattom Campus, Thiruvananthapuram   INTRODUCTION Sand and gravel or aggregate mining is as old as the first building...

05 Dec

Posted at 04:27h in Miscellaneous by
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The plate tectonics revolution of the 20th century elegantly explained why most earthquakes occur where they do – at Earth's plate boundaries. It didn't explain, however, the occurrence of intraplate quakes and the deformation processes that give rise to them. As a result, geologists studying areas like the central U.S., western Europe, and Australia, don't know what causes these quakes, how often they will happen in the future, and how dangerous they are.”(2007 GSA Press release)

29 Nov

Posted at 08:47h in Geology Cafe, Miscellaneous by
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“The plate tectonics revolution of the 20th century elegantly explained why most earthquakes occur where they do – at Earth's plate boundaries. It didn't explain, however, the occurrence of intraplate quakes and the deformation processes that give rise to them. As a result, geologists studying areas like the central U.S., western Europe, and Australia, don't know what causes these quakes, how often they will happen in the future, and how dangerous they are.”(2007 GSA Press release)

17 Apr

Posted at 16:55h in Geology Cafe, Miscellaneous by
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Well diggers make good money every summer in Kerala by sinking shaft wells. Unfortunately these people have no scientific data to support them to put in place measure to prevent well wall caving in on them and leading to live burial and ultimately loss of life. If a modern scientific data base on the shallow lithology were available several scores lives could be saved.

17 Apr

Posted at 06:21h in Miscellaneous by
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ARE WELL CAVING DEATHS AVOIDABLE?

thrivikramji@gmail.com

By about noon today –this year’s Vishu day, April 15, 11- the sad disappearance of a well digger into a well due to wall collapse happened in the Moonnam Puthen Theruvu, Fort, Thrivandrum. The TV channels brought this incident to our living rooms along with the rescue efforts to save a human life caught under the debris. Unhesitatingly I will say that this and similar accidents are a shame on us, especially in this modern world and our society that undergoes modernizing on a fast track.

12 Feb

Posted at 17:37h in Miscellaneous by
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Dr.Thrivikramji.K.P.

Senior Advisor, Center for Environment and Development

Thiruvananthapuram, 695 016

thrivikramji@gmail.com

Introduction

Sanitation is a basic human right as well as an individual’s obligation to other members of the society. Among the 8 Millennium Development Goals proposed by the UN, at least 4 are concerned with sanitation, which is one of the keys to human wellness and development and in a broader sense a component of citizen’s right to life. Further, sanitation per se is the combined outcome of a set of practices such as safe disposal of human excreta, liquid and solid municipal waste management, safe handling of drinking water, home sanitation and food hygiene, personal hygiene and community environmental sanitation.

Contrary to the earlier philosophy and practice of recycling, with the steady growth of urban population and changing lifestyles, the profile of solid waste has been constantly evolving and its volume on a fast-track of growth, placing newer and rising demands on the local governments, in respect of handling and management. Now proper disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) is huge problem for the local governments of metropolises and large and small towns around the world in that they have been upgrading and implementing newer MSW management practices by adopting or implementing new technologies and practices developed by a large number of universities in the west. According to Hill (1998) anything that is useless or unwanted is waste, i.e., anything that is out of place. Once discarded either it is no problem or a nuisance. He also examined the causes, sources and rates of environmental pollution. In the US paper, tops the list wastes at 40.4% (71.6 million tons) while food scraps is only 7.4% (13.2 million tons) - a shade higher than glass 7.0% (US EPA, 2007).

12 Feb

Posted at 17:35h in Miscellaneous by
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With Dr. Nandakumar, V

Abstract

Although the state of Kerala is not endowed with vast reserves of major ore or industrial mineral deposits, right from the days of British Raj, mineral sands of Chavara-Kayamkulam belt was a world renowned natural resource native to India. But for nearly a century, the country was selling the mineral separates without any value addition. Ilmenite sand, the chief among the placer minerals, was partly exported and partly consumed by the indigenous paint industry. The sponge Titanium plant under construction in Chavara is certainly a departure from the tradition. Moreover, Kerala’s Kaolinite clay with a high international rating also attracted many international buyers as well as indigenous paper and paint makers.

But of late, other minor minerals like construction rock, coarse and fine aggregates (C&FA) have assumed stupendous importance as a result of new construction boom, in education, housing and commercial blocks. Traditional source of sand was the channels of 41 west flowing rivers. To the dismay of the aam aadmi the removed sand was only disproportionately replaced by the natural processes in the channels, pushing the society and the system into a double disadvantage. Firstly, lack replenishment on a one to one basis ruined the river ecology as well as the natural system. As the members of the society had to continue with the construction of basic necessities like houses, fine aggregate had to be imported from the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu at a large cost and unexpectedly long delays, and hence an overall cost escalation. Thus the construction sand and coarse aggregate are a vexing problem to the administration as well as the society at large.

Only glimmer of hope in the current situation is the introduction of crusher sand as a substitute for natural sand and introduction of hollow cement blocks in a massive scale. Though the obvious lapse is the PWD code or government policy not endorsing both of these new inputs spontaneously entering the construction sector on the principle of demand and supply of acceptable substitute.