Interaction Meet on Contribution to Earth Science Research Over the Last Fifty Years

Interaction Meet on Contribution to Earth Science Research over the Last Fifty Years –

Y. J. B

R

, CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad - 5

0

0 007 (Email: [email protected])

As part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of CSIR-NGRI, distinguished geoscientists from India and abroad delivered popular lectures on a wide range of themes. The lectures brought to fore the global challenges confronting human civilization, presented a glimpse of advanced research on some basic geoscience problems as well as the state-of-the-art in multi-disciplinary Earth science research today. About 700 students from schools and science colleges in Hyderabad and hundreds of geoscientists from various Earth science organizations and universities formed a lively audience. The following summarizes a brief synopsis of the lectures:

Mega Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the 21

_{Century: An Earth Science Challenge}

W

D. M

, USA

Prof. Mooney recalled that there have been over half a million casualties due to earthquakes and tsunamis during the last decade. With examples of devastation to property and life, he described major earthquakes and associated tsunami events, such as, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of December 26, 2004 (M 9.3), the Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2010 (M 7.0), the Chile earthquake of February 27, 2010 (M 8.8) and the Honshu, Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011 (M 9.0). Prof. Mooney stated that during the post Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, tsunami early warning systems were successfully developed in India and Indonesia, which enabled warnings to be issued within minutes after the occurrence of a major

earthquake. He showed examples of cities, where buildings with good engineering withstood the quake and complimented Japanese engineering and earthquake preparedness, where despite ground shaking for over 100 s, major facilities and public utilities became operational within a few days. He explained the destruction caused by tsunami waves in Fukushima and Sendai and emphasized on the importance of creating public awareness for proper response, as the general advise of ‘duck undercover’ may not be applicable every-where since the entire building may be pulled down. In general, he advocated on redefining land use policies along the coast line. On the subject of earthquake prediction, Prof. Mooney stated that

there are broadly two view points: (i) earth-quakes are caused by complex non-linear processes that are difficult to predict, ii) they can be viewed in terms of stress accumulation and release process driven by plate motions. Our current approaches mostly follow the second view and with the knowledge of past fault slip and distribution, seismic and aseismic slip is computed using basic physics and computer simulations supported by geodetic and geological data, leading progressively towards better earthquake forecasting. Prof. Mooney echoed the view of many Earth scientists in India for working towards better warning mechanisms for Himalayan earthquakes, which would impact large populations in the Gangetic plains.

Seismological Studies

H

K. G

, India

Sharing his vast experience and many exciting moments through his career as an Earth scientist spanning over 47 years, Prof. Gupta portrayed the enormous opportunities that a career in Earth science could offer alongside the joy of discovering the manifold facets of nature and serving the cause of science and society. He recalled the establishment of the first seismic observatory at the CSIR-NGRI in 1965, his first assignment at the institute as a young

researcher. His early studies on crustal structure of Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau region provided the first ever evidence for a 65-70 km thick crust beneath parts of Himalaya and Tibet. He described in detail his persistent studies on recurrent seismicity in the Koyna-Warna region following the December 10, 1967 Koyna earthquake (M 6.3) that destroyed the Koyna town and took a toll of 200 people. Continued studies on the Koyna-Warna

establishment of a permanent base in Antarctica in the summer of 1983 under his leadership. He described vividly the enormous risks undertaken in the loading and unloading of equipment on the ice shelf and the subtle modifications and improvisations that had to be made to the Helicopter in the process. He described the hostile climatic conditions, the frustrating Helicopter crash, his memorable conversation with the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, the comforting joy of hoisting the Indian tri-colour in 1984 and the very thought that India was the only nation to have established a permanent base in Antarctica just in one summer expedition. During his tenure as the Director, NGRI, he recalled the efforts of his team of scientists in understanding the M 6.2 Latur earthquake in 1993, the subsequent Bhuj earthquake and the enormous information about seismicity in the Stable Continental Regions thereof. On the problem of limited success in predicting earthquakes, Prof. Gupta stated two examples, where successful medium-range predictions were made through studies with his colleagues at the CSIR-NGRI: (i) the August 6, 1988 earthquake in north-eastern India was predicted in 1986 although the

prediction stated that it would occur any time before 1990, (ii) there were 8 successful medium-short term predictions (a few weeks in advance) of earthquakes of M>4 in the Koyna region during the last three years. The mapping of up to 4 km thick sections of Mesozoic sediments concealed under 2 km thick sequences of Deccan lava flows in Saurashtra and Kachchh through integrated geophysical studies, was yet another landmark achievement of NGRI under his leadership. The study helped in narrowing down the target area for hydrocarbon exploration from 45000 to 4000 km2_{. He underscored the contributions}

of CSIR-NGRI to many initiatives of the Department of Ocean Development (presently the Ministry of Earth Sciences) during his tenure as its Secretary: a glaring example being the significant enhancement in the India’s claim for deep-sea rights through a systematic mapping of Legal Continental Shelf. A major task involved ensuring appropriate vessels for marine research, such as, Sagar Nidhi, Sagar

Manjusha, Sagar Paschim, Sagar Purbi,

which are operational even today. He described several other challenging tasks that excited him, such as, establishment of Indian Tsunami Warning Centre at INCOIS,

Hyderabad with ocean bottom pressure recorders and the success in the correct notification of the non-tsunamigenic nature of the August, 2007 and September 12, 2007 earthquakes. Other memorable contributions under his stewardship include: compilation of earthquake vulnerability maps for different population centres, the gas hydrate stability map of India, establishment of sea-water distil-lation systems, especially a 1,00,000 L desalination plant at Kavaratti island producing potable water at 10 paise/L thereby greatly improving the health of island community. He had the honour of organising the Indian National Science Congress-2007 as its Working President during the International Year of Planet Earth. While the editing of Encyclopaedia

of Solid Earth Geophysics, published by

Springer in 2011 stands as a major recent achievement, his ongoing efforts under a MoES-ICDP (International Continental Drilling Program) endeavour ably supported by colleagues from CSIR-NGRI to sink a 7.5 km bore-hole in Koyna earth-quake zone for a closer understanding of the processes that underpin RTE is attracting international participation.

Climate Change Past, Present and Future

D

C

, USA

Through his eloquent and captivating rendering, Prof. Chapman impressed that as educators of natural sciences, Earth scientists should play four major roles in service of society: detective - unravelling the past, observer - explaining the present,

forecaster - modelling the future and advocate - informing policy makers and

peers. Using the famed signature diagram of climate change depicting the temporal variation of the Earth’s surface temperature over the recent past, he reiterated the view that the last 100 years witnessed a temperature rise of about 1°C. He clarified that the rise is not monotonic, but with a fluctuation reflecting natural variation,

which has an amplitude of ~ 0.2°C and a decadal scale wave length. Further, he explained that global warming is spatially heterogeneous with a distinctly higher rate in the Arctic region. Sea levels also rose by about 20 cm over the last century and the CO₂ levels in the atmosphere increased from 320 ppm (parts per million) to 390 ppm since 1960. The areal extent of the Arctic sea ice decreased from 7.2 million km2 _in

1979 to ~5.25 million km2 _{in 2009. A}

climate change index incorporating these parameters shows a general rise over the last 30 years. He introduced the theory behind the sub-surface borehole temperature logging which provides a measure of

wavelength (µm) showing a conspicuous deficiency at ~15 µm that can be linked to CO₂. He illustrated the causes of radiative forcing pointing out that CO₂ forms the main anthropogenic cause for global warming. Prof. Chapman summarized that carbon dioxide has a residence time of ~200 years in the atmosphere. He discussed different scenarios considering population growth at the present rate, energy consumption, consequences of using fossil fuels and CO₂ rise and predicted that in about 100 years, the average temperature at the Earth’s

surface would rise by 1.5 to 4.0°C, but more significantly in the Arctic, causing very profound effects on sea-levels and other manifestations of global change. He pointed out that even with a conscious effort to reduce CO₂ emissions through green energy options, a significant rise in global temperatures during the next 100 years could be inevitable, especially due to the long residence time of carbon dioxide. He appealed that if we have to think of the next 100 years, we will have to begin our collective actions now. He urged the young

minds to not only appreciate the problems, but participate in organized collective actions, such as, keeping the population growth in check, adopting green energy options and planning for high-tech savvy lives at low-per capita energy consumption, which is a challenge for the younger generation. Prof. Chapman reminded that

problems, such as, reduction of lead in atmosphere and correction of the ozone hole were possible through collective legislative action and climate change would not be insurmountable.

Water and Planet Earth

V.K. G

, India

Prof. Gaur stressed that the Earth is unique among planets in having liquid water and sustaining life. He summarized the basic chemistry of water, the nature of hydrogen bonding with oxygen and the polarity of H₂O molecule that forms the basis for all physical and chemical properties of water, such as, the PT conditions of stability of its different phases, heat capacity, volume changes and its phenomenal solubility. Prof. Gaur underlined the multifarious ways in which water has mediated not only the evolution of the planet, but life as well as our consciousness. He cited a recent finding that the DNA molecules are covered by a sheath of water that in turn determines the structure of DNA (Hassan Khesbak, HZDR, 2011). He explained the role of hydrological cycle in consort with the Earth’s internal processes involving thermal and mass transfer that ultimately affect the Earth’s surface and support our entire eco-system. In terms of an approach for identifying other

planets and celestial bodies that may have water, Prof. Gaur pointed out that the conditions on Earth are intriguingly coincident with the triple point of water (273°K and 10-2 _{bar) and also that Earth is}

fortuitously positioned at a certain distance from the Sun and has the right mass, which is congenial for the different phases of water to co-exist unlike on Mars, Venus and many other planets. With illustrations, he explained the distri-bution of volcanoes and earthquakes, for instance, the time honoured ‘Ring of Fire’ around the Pacific, scientific advancements in rationalizing geomagnetic polarity reversals, evolution of concepts leading to the establishment of Plate Tectonics theory and the continuous reorganization of the lithospheric plates through geologic history. He pictured the role of water in all these processes and explained the argu-ments for absence of Plate Tectonics on Mars, Venus and other planets. He drew the attention of students

to the fact that civilization grew on banks of rivers and around sources of water and thus the hydrological cycle governs evolution of civilization. He lamented that in India the sharing of river waters is bogged by states proprietary rather than hydrological environments and important data, such as, the base flow in rivers is often lacking. Citing data on average annual precipitation and water availability for agriculture and other human needs, he pointed out that the current consumption of 700 km3 _{is indeed very close to the actual}

availability of 800 km3_{. Gaur emphasized}

Man as Geological Agent

M

S

, Australia

Challenges of Computational Seismology: The Fourth Paradigm of Subsurface Imaging

M

K. S

, USA

Prof. Sandiford stated upfront that the title of his talk is identical to that of a book by R.L. Sherlock published in 1922 and its basic perspective is also evidenced in mythology of various cultures, such as, the portrayal of Hanuman carrying a mountain, which implicitly links man and geological activities. In defence of this perspective, his talk summarized statistical data indicating that in the near future, the total energy system being deployed by humans shall match the energetics of predominant Earth processes. Human energy consumption and that of plate tectonics are in the Terra watt (TW) scale (1012_{W). Big earthquakes release}

energy in the scale of quadrillion joules (QJ). The December 26, 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake released ~5000 QJ equivalent to the total energy consumption of USA for about six months. Assuming that such earthquakes occur once in about 40 years, he surmised that the mega earthquake system operates at about 10 Giga watts (GW), which is similar to the energy associated with the uplift and formation of huge mountain belts, such as, the Himalaya, taking into account that the latter process spanned ~50 Ma. On a global scale, the heat loss from Earth is in the range of 44 TW and this energy drives all the Plate Tectonic processes. The total human energy used on

the globe is about 12 TW. At the current rate of energy consumption, by 2060 the human energy system shall be comparable to the global energy system driving Plate Tectonics. In terms of the energy released during the Hiroshima nuclear bomb (1 hiro=60 TW), the current human energy system is equal to 0.25 hiro and the Plate Tectonic system is 0.75 hiro and by the end of the century, the human activity would be consuming energy at 1 hiro while Plate Tectonics at 0.75 hiro. The energy system associated with warming of oceans since 1990 is at an alarming 5 hiro, which is equivalent to about 300 million Hiroshima-like bombs each year. The estimated coal reserve of 900 billion tonnes would be mined out in about 100 years even assuming an unrealistically low mining growth rate of 1%. However, at the current increase in the rate of mining of about 2.5%, the reserves would be exhausted by 2060. Prof. Sandiford quoted a 1995 estimate that ~56 billion tonness of rock was moved during coal and iron ore mining and currently about 100 billion tonness of rock is being moved each year. He cited the example of one proposed mining project by BHP at the Olympic Dam, Australia, where over the next 40 years, an ~ 5 km x 2.5 km x 1 km excavation is proposed, resulting in the

movement of ~30 billion tonnes of rock at a peak rate of 400 million tonnes per year. Comparing this to the Earth processes, about 10-28 billion tonnes of material is being moved into the oceans each year. Thus, Prof. Sandiford emphasized that human intervention is contributing to much more drastic shaping of the Earth than the natural processes operating on a geological time-scale. Further, human activity perturbs the fluxes of elements much more than the geological processes, at least in the case of 54 out of 77 elements considered in the estimate. Based on such arguments, Prof. Sandiford emphasized that geosciences today is at a very crucial stage in Earth’s evolution, where we need to define a new metaphor for our relationship with the Earth and that it is time to begin thinking in terms of our crust and our mineral deposits as a ‘service provider’ similar to the notion of preservation of our eco-system as an important service for the survival of human society. He pointed out that ‘not mining’ and ‘not burning’ the coal and fossil fuels would keep the rate of climate change under check and contribute to the sustainability of our civilization and eco-system. Thus, the challenge of finding alternate energy sources forms a major challenge for the present young generation and those to follow.

Exploitation of all exposed ores and resources has necessitated exploration of deeper and relatively inaccessible domains of the Earth’s crust. Prof. Sen focused on state-of-the-art approaches, techniques and technologies for sub-surface geoexploration. He explained that geoscience research witnessed transitions from one paradigm to another with the emergence of revolutionary ideas as time progressed and this in essence marks the

general developmental pattern of natural sciences. Quoting an article from Harvard Business Reviews, he stated that maturity of science over the centuries followed a progression of four paradigms: experimentation, theory, computation and simulation, and data mining, where the Fourth Paradigm is data intensive and relies on the use of technology to do high impact science and discoveries thereof. With examples from seismology in terms of

10-50 km scale. On the other hand, data at ~10 m scale would be required for imaging depth sections of ~ 5 km from the surface, that are relevant to exploration of mineral resources. Further, closer examinations of materials would require data at scales down to microns. He explained current trends in active and passive seismic experimentation and data acquisition. He traced the science and technology behind hydrocarbon exploration from the days of ‘Black Magic’ in mid-1930s to modern methods that involve inversion of seismic and other geophysical well-logs to obtain pseudo logs, their validation with drill core, application of mathematical and statistical models including neural networks to constrain physical and chemical characteristics of the strata to infer the hydrocarbon potential. He outlined some complexities in the interpretation and the ongoing innovation in terms of continuous monitoring of oil wells based on multi-parametric data sets (seismic, electrical, compositional, etc),

time-lapse seismic techniques, computer modelling, simulation and 3-D visuali-zation, experimentation on different scales and the advantage of paradigm shift from simple ray theory to full wave form modelling. With examples from producing oil fields, he brought home the point that hydrocarbon exploration today encompasses the Fourth Paradigm. He cited examples of several large-scale experiments, such as, the US Array program, the SAFOD experiment to study active faulting at San Andreas, the GRiDMT experiment of Japan, the SinoProbe experiment of China and advocated the need for experimentation on such large-scales in India with both basic and applied research objectives. He emphasized that integrated oil field management and forecasting adopting the concept of ‘Intelligent Oil Field’ has assumed state-of-the-art significance, where continuous data are acquired from a large number of sensors placed within the oil field that are monitored and interpreted real-time

by teams of experts located in different parts of the world. He cited the example of Valhall Oil Field of British Petroleum discovered in 1975, where about 7 Tb of data acquired each time in six survey campaigns during the early one and half years of its development paid rich dividends, a grand example of the Fourth Paradigm approach. Highlighting some technical challenges in the arena of computer science and information theory, Prof. Sen concluded drawing an analogy between Earth science problems and Fermat’s Last Theorem (xn_+yn _{`” z}n_{, for n>2), which Andre}

Wiles struggled for 30 years to prove. Earth science problems although seemingly simple, involve physics, multi-disciplinary approaches and data on multiple scales, rigorous methods of data processing and interpretation and urged the students to learn different basic skills, not only Earth Science and mathematics but also computer programming.

Mass Extinctions and Massive Volcanism

V

C

, France

Contributions of Earth science to society are not only through applied science, but also fundamental research and culture and indeed the division between fundamental and applied science is vague and artificial. In contrast to governments that require quick results, societies need long ranging views and policies, which basic research and cultural attitudes provide. The talk was intentionally technical and focused on research outcomes of Indo-French teams over the last 25 years. With a diagram showing the evolution of biodiversity since the beginning of the Cambrian (~600 Ma before present (b.p.), he pointed out that the popular view describes the evolution of life in terms of an exponential curve. He disagreed with this model and favoured that the evolution of life followed a complex non-linear pattern. He also disagreed with the popular view of demographers on the growth rate of Earth’s population and

stressed that demographic predictions have been generally unreliable beyond 10 years. Each asymptotic segment of the life-evolution curve is expected to have a plateau, which may not happen always. Randomly, there are periods of inflexion in the curve on short time-scales associated with mass extinction of life forms, such as, the ones at the boundary between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic, the Permo-Triassic extinction (250 Ma b.p.), the Triassic-Jurassic extinction (200 Ma b.p.), and the one between Mesozoic and Cenozoic (Cretaceous-Tertiary, 65 Ma b.p., the K-T boundary), which is well known for extinction of dinosaurs, the main theme of his lecture. Prof. Courtillot stated that during the last 30 years there was a convergence on two theories for the K-T extinction: (i) impact of a ~10 km diameter meteorite that hit the Earth as proposed by Alwarez (1980), and (ii) volcanism and the

but no convincing evidence of meteoritic impacts were recorded except for the Kachchh example. The Permo-Triassic boundary is associated with two global sea-level regressions and contrary to an older view that extinctions occurred in an interval of 10 Ma toward end of Permian, detailed studies revealed two short extinction events, each < 1 Ma, at 94 Ma and 121 Ma. Interestingly, the identification of Meshang flood volcanism of south China (Zhou et al. 2001) corresponding to Guadalupian extinction supports the volcanism hypothesis. Citing the example of Laki eruption, he emphasized that not only CO₂ and aerosols released by volcanoes, but also SO₂ causes climate change. SO₂ emissions are manifest as acid rain following volcanic eruptions. Prof. Courtillot summarized that by integrating paleomagnetism, geo-chronology of volcanic flows in a large part of Deccan Province including its distant geographic outliers, such as, the Rajahmundry traps, it was established that volumes of lava flows >1000 km3 _were

emplaced on a century/decadal scale and there are very few (~5) layers of red boles within major volcanic volumes. At some periods during Deccan volcanic eruption, the volume of lava erupted was about four

times larger than the contemporary eruptions at plate boundaries along the 40,000 km long network of mid-ocean ridges. Accounting approximately for the time intervals between successive flow complexes represented by a few red or green bole horizons, which may not represent >50,000 years, he surmised that the Deccan volcanism overall spanned about 3 Ma, but erupted in three short phases each of which may not have spanned more than a few centuries. The earliest phase preserved at Nasik was frozen-in between C31R and C20N chrons and the base is dated at 67.5 Ma. The second phase erupted after about 2 Ma just before the paleontological and asteroid K-T boundary during which India had drifted by about 300 km to the north and the center of gravity of lava flows shifted to the south. The lavas accumulated at the southern edge of the older pile, which explains the regionally consistent 1° southward slope of the lavas. A few thousand years later, the third major eruption occurred subsequent to the K-T extinctions, which straddled a magnetic reversal from C29R to C29N, the only reversal record in the Mahabaleswar section. Prof. Courtillot explained that a single meteoritic impact would not have caused

the extinctions as the amount of SO₂ released would not be substantial. He stated that the eruption of Deccan lavas is by mantle plumes originated at the core-mantle boundary ~2900 km deep (D"-layer). He also pointed that major volcanic eruptions follow super chrons, which represent long periods, tens of millions of years, with no geomagnetic reversals. This observation is related to the time required for plumes to travel from the D" layer to the surface. He also pointed out that three mantle plumes each mark the opening of Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, each of which being associated with continental flood basalts and extinctions. Summarizing, Prof. Courtillot argued for a profound link between: Core dynamics and magnetic field reversals; Plumes and instabilities from the deep mantle; Traps (flood basalts); Phases of continental breakup; Large mass extinctions, which are also occasions for rejuvenation and expanded biodiversity. He concluded that plumes provide a fundamental link between the history of the Earth and the evolution of life. In terms of the debate on climate change, explaining the alterative views to the policy makers and public, is also a part of service that geosciences could render to the society.

Prof. Claude Allegre, who was to deliver a talk, but could not make it for health reasons, had sent a message

(in French) through Prof. Vincent Courtillot, who translated into English and presented.

In his message, Prof. Allegre mentioned that he holds CSIR-NGRI and many friends there in high esteem. He recalled the Indo-French Centre for hydrological research at CSIR-NGRI, which was established in his tenure as a Minister in the French Government. He had planned to present his perspectives on many geoscience problems confronting us today, some of which were highlighted in his short message: After a

period with abundant energy and replacement of raw-materials by products engineered by chemical industry, the development of emerging countries-India, China, Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, etc. is changing the world energy and resource scenario. Energy needs are growing as oil

and uranium reserves dwindle. Traditional metals such as iron and copper become rare and one looks for new deposits. Moreover, rare chemical elements are becoming essential for the development of new technologies (rare earths, Indium, Platinum, Cadmium, Tellurium, etc.). Yet, these metals are minor elements in the Earth’s crust and rarely form minerals. How can one look for them and exploit them? Clean, non polluted water remains an essential problem. It is a central question for you in India with, on one hand arsenic pollution and on the other hand the oscillatory regime of monsoons. Modern techniques do allow the making of artificial aquifers. And then of course we have all

Future Research Directions

On October 12, 2011, a detailed discussion was organized where many NGRI scientists and the distinguished guests participated. This discussion was useful in reviewing recent developments in many areas of Earth Science and highlighting some lessons learnt as well as possible future directions, a brief overview of which is summarized below:

In the context of earthquake hazard, it was felt that with the availability of region specific information, it is now possible to arrive at appropriate building codes and thus minimize earthquake damage. While earthquake preparedness and awareness of dos and don’ts during an earthquake among the masses is essential, there could be no universal guidelines. Region specific guidelines would be required in consort with the nature of earthquakes expected. For instance, the general recommendation ‘ducking under cover’ in Indonesia and Caribbean could be fatal as an entire building may collapse. There was considerable discussion on the need for a focus on Himalayan earthquakes as they would affect large population in the Indo-Gangetic regions, especially the National Capital Region of India. It was proposed that there is a need to revisit the concept of ‘slip deficit’ in view of the advancements with regard to ‘silent earthquakes’. It was felt that effective earthquake warning systems appropriate for magnitude 8 earthquakes at least and measures for rapid evacuation of people from the buildings shall be paramount. Apart from the focus

on earthquakes along active plate margins, the need for detailed studies on Stable Continental Region (SCR) earthquakes was considered important to countries like India and USA. However, there was no consensus on the genetic models of SCR earthquakes. Since different views, such as, effect of plume-crust interaction, thinner lithospheres, rapid plate motion, localization along the peripheries of ancient crustal segments with thick continental roots prevail, a comprehensive global study focusing on the mechanism of SCR earthquakes was recommended. It was surmised that earthquakes and tsunamis would greatly influence national energy policies and hence it would be important to tread carefully on decisions, such as, abandoning nuclear power, which would in turn enhance global warming in view of dependence on fossil fuels. Detailed discussions centred on major tsunami events led to a general view that rather than abandoning nuclear power, it is more important to review land use policies and adhere to practices such as, sparing at least 500 m of the vulnerable coast line from major engineering projects.

Based on experience from social sciences, where demographic projections beyond 10 years were found unrealistic, Prof. Courtillot cautioned against over emphasis on the projections of global warming and climate change that profoundly impact research priorities and funding policies. He felt that although carbon dioxide emissions could be an important factor, there could be other factors, such as, cosmic radiation. As

information on such causes is becoming increasingly apparent, there is a need for careful analysis of the causes of global warming through further focused research. On a general note, he opined that the time honoured abilities for basic observations and experimentation are now being shadowed by an over emphasis on numerical simulations and there is a need for encouraging primary observation skills and practices.

In terms of the daunting requirements of energy and other mineral resources, it was felt that techniques for deep-exploration have to be developed, where it would be required to significantly upgrade our data acquisition, processing and modelling skills and technologies. Some specific directions include: high resolution imaging of potential Mesozoic basins covered by Deccan volcanic flows, deep-water exploration, technology development for gas hydrate exploitation, coal bed methane, tight gas sands and shale gas, a closer study of Earth’s thermal regimes with regard to Earth’s processes such as mountain building, uplift, sedimentary basin development, maturation of hydrocarbons and long term implications to climate change.