The 51sl AGM of the Geological Society of India, scheduled at the ...

The 51 sl AGM of the Geological Society of India,
scheduled at the Department of Geology, University of
Kashmir, Srinagar, Kashmir on the 12 th of October, 2010
was shifted to Bangalore due to the recent unrest in Kashmir.
It was conducted on the same day at the National Institute
of Advanced Studies (NIAS), IISc Campus, Bangalore and
included the award ceremony, book release, address by
the Guest of Honour and the Chief Guest, special scientific
lectures by the awardees in the fore-noon followed by
Prof. R. Vaidyanadhan award lecture, besides the usual
AGM agenda in the afternoon. The function was attended
by a large number of Fellows of the Society, guests from
NIAS, GSI, CGWB, AMD, IBM, DGM, MML, HGML,
MSPL and faculty from the IISc and Bangalore and other
Universities besides spouses and children of the Society
Awardees - 2010.
Prof. K.S. Valdiya, INSA Golden Jubilee Research
Fellow, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Research, Bangalore was the chief guest and Prof. V.S.
Ramamurthy, former Secretary, Department of Science and
Technology (DST) and presently Director, NIAS was the
Geological Society of India
UangaJore
51" Annual General Meeting
Tuesda) .• 12- October 2010
sity, Hyderabad was awarded B. Rama Rao Birth
Centenary award, for his contribution in the field of
Precambrian Geology of India.
2. V. Balram, NGRI, Hyderabad and S. Ravi, GSI,
Hyderabad were given the S. Narayanaswamy award,
for their contribution
in Economic Geology.
3. Fareeduddin, GSI, Bangalore and Sisir Mondal,
Jadavpur University, Kolkata were awarded M.R.
Srinivasa Rao award, for their contributions
of Petrology.
in the field
4. Kalachand Sain, NGRI, Hyderabad was given N.N.
Chatterjee award for development and promotion of
energy resources in India.
5. Pradeep Srivastava, Wadia Institute of Himalayan
Geology, Dehradun was awarded the S.S. Merh award
for his contributions in Quaternary Geology.
6. M. Jayananda, T. Miyazaki, R.V. Gireesh,
N. Mahesha and T. Kano were awarded the JSGI
Radhakrishna prize for their article on Synplutonic
Mafic Dykes from late Archaean Granitoids in the
Eastern Dharwar Craton, southern India, which had been
adjudged as the best paper published in the Society's
Journal in 2009.
7. N.S.Krishnamurthy, V. Ananda Rao, Dewashish
Kumar. KKKSingh and Shakeel, NGRI, Hyderabad
were awarded H.S.Pareek award for their article on
Electrical Resistivity
Imaging Technique to Delineate.
Coal Seam Barrier Thickness and Demarcate Water
Filled Voids, which had been selected as the best paper
published in Coal Sciences in the Society's Journal in
2009.
guest of honour. The function began with the traditional
lighting of lamp and invocation, followed by a formal
welcome to the guests, dignitaries, fellows and the media
persons.
Society Awards - 2010
The Society Awards-201O function began with eulogies
of the awardees by the President Dr. Harsh Gupta, and
presentation of the awards by the Chief Guest and Guest
of Honour. The following awardees received the awards
and gave a formal reply.
1. Prof. C. Leelanandam, formerly of Osmania Univer-
.
Detailed eulogies of the awardees and their formal replies
distributed to all those who attended the programme, are
available in the Society's
Book Release
website.
The award ceremony was followed by the release of the
booklet 'Story of Volcanoes' by S.K. Bhushan. Prof.
Ramamurthy released the book and complimented the
author.

of the Indian Physicists Association and implored that
the Geological Society of India should bring out more
such popular series booklets on various topics in the Earth
System Science so as to create interest and curiosity
among students and others. He recapitulated as how
Shri K.R. Gupta had persevered in canvassing for AGM
seminars and such popular series booklets with DST
support. He further emphasized that the Society should
engage school students in numerous events and activities so
that they are made aware of the issues facing the planet
Earth including problems of global warming, pollution,
biodiversity and others. Prof. K.S. Valdiya, in an inspiring
and thought provoking
lecture titled 'Some questions that
tease me' with beautiful illustrations, implored that the Earth
science community to seek evidences such as geomorphic
and structural features that arise as sequel to the Indian
peninsular shield under-thrusting the Himalaya as at present,
somewhat akin to the pushing of a rigid wall by a human
being. The wall will not yield but the person will undergo
extreme strain resulting in sprained and broken back with
allied effects. An analogous situation exists in the Indian
shield according to Prof. Valdiya. The need to look critically
for evidences that support the postulated stress and
strain include blind folds, change in river courses, pounded
rivers and others. He further sought evidences and effects
from the signatures of Marian plume in the Indian plate such
as the St. Mary Islands rhyolites, Khambat-Sabarmathi
graben, Barmer graben and the Deccan lineaments, dykes,
stretching of lineaments and others. Lack of interest in
seeking such evidences by the geoscientists, VaIdiya alluded
to, is akin to a guitarist playing his tune in a supermarket
where a few notice but the majority are unmindful!
Appointment
of Tellers
After a short tea break, appointment of tellers (Shri
Chennappa from Department of Mines and Geology,
Karnataka and Shri Ramesh of GSI, BangaIore) for counting
ballots received in sealed covers earlier from eligible
Fellows for the new office bearers and the Council of the
Society was announced.
identification to addressing complex magma chamber
processes by geochemical
tracers; from tedious and tricky
methods of separation of minerals from host rocks and their
analysis by wet chemical methods to deft handling of
electron microprobe microanalysers of different makes and
models; from conventional geothermobarometry to
GEOCALC, THERMOCALC and QUiLE; from laborious
and painful (and yet skilful) classical chemical methods of
rock analysis to neat and elegant XRF techniques; andfrom
not so accurate spectrographic data of trace elements to
high-precision ICP-MS data of trace and rare earth
elements ... ". He provided a synoptic view of the models
that evolved in the Precambrian terrains pertaining to the
Kondapalle anorthosites, the Elchuru nepheline syenitecarbonatite
complex an~ the Kandra ophiolite complex "to
evaluate the evolution of the Eastern Ghats belt and its
lithospheric
Fareeduddin
roots".
in his lecture on 'The IOCG terrains of
Rajasthan' reviewed the mesothermal, Fe-oxide-Cu-Au-
REE-U mineralization, recognized as a new class of deposit
that occur in a variety of tectonic settings of Archaean
Holocene age. "The IOCG ores are enriched in a distinctive,
geochemically diverse suite of minor elements including
various combinations ofF, P, Co, Ni, As, Mn, Ag, Ba, LREE,
to
Special Lectures by the Awardees - 2010
The pre-lunch session comprised of lectures by the
awardees.
Prof. Leelanandam in his lecture on 'Reminiscences from
fifty years of research 1960-2010', recollected and
chronicled his 50 years of experience as teacher and
researcher in the field of mineralogy and petrology. His
quotes succinctly convey the five decades of progress. "1
traveled from simple microscopic studies for mineral

and U" and contain huge tonnage of ores as exemplified by
the Olympic Dam deposit in the Gowler craton of Australia.
Khetri-Akwali-Kho-Dariban and Bhagoni (Cu-Au) in the
North Delhi Fold belt and the Salumber-Ghatol
belts (Cu-
Au±Fe/U) in the Aravalli Supergroup have been interpreted
to belong to this group.
V.Balram spoke on the 'Geochemical exploration studies
for PGEs in India: Potential, complexities
He listed the complexes
and challenges'.
such as Sukinda, Baula-Nuasahi,
Sittampundi, Madawara and Hanumalapura where
anomalous PGE concentrations occur and further work will
help in identifying a deposit of economic value. He outlined
the PGE potential of sulphidecbearing black shales from
different parts of India and the ferromanganese
crusts from
the Afanasy-Nikitin Seamount. He pleaded for the
establishment
both mineralogical
of new centres with analytical facilities for
studies and chemical analysis for PGE
search in India.
S. Ravi in his lecture 'Diamond mining scenario in
India: Ancient to recent' chronicled India's past glory from
7 th century to 17 th century, peaking during 13 th to 17 th century
producing some of the world's most famous diamonds such
as the Koh-i-noor
(787 ct), Pit or Regent (410 ct), Orloff
(300 ct), Nizam (400 ct) and Hope (67ct) apparently derived
from the Krishna valley. Though less spectacular, locales in
the central and eastern India such as the Wain ganga valley,
Panna, Sambalpur-Hirakud have also produced diamonds.
Ravi also briefly reviewed the challenges and the diamond
discovery by Rio Tinto in Madhya Pradesh had been a
significant find and is currently on the road to production.
Kalachand Sain outlined on the 'Seismic methods for
the identification and quantification of gas-hydrates - A
major energy source of future' and the investigations that
were carried out by NGRI since 1996 on this energy source
of the future estimated
to be >1500 times the presently
known gas resources of India. A mere 1% recovery of this
resource is expected to cater to about 10 years of energy
requirements, Sain opined. Using the bottom simulating
reflector (BSR) data on seismic profiles, the base the gas
hydrate stability field is identified
of seismic attributes such as reflection
followed by evaluation
strength, blanking,
attenuation and instantaneous frequency which indicate and
characterize the gas bearing sediments. Seismic travel time
tomography, wave form inversion, amplitude versus offset
(AVO) modelling, developed indigenously are used to
quantify the gas-hydrates.
Such studies, according to Sain,
have enabled the identification of gas hydrate resources in
the Krishna-Godavari, Mahanadi, Andaman, Kerala-
Konkan, and Saurashtra regions of India.
exploration strategies adopted by the GSI since 1960s
especially post-1990s when it adopted state-of-the-art
techniques and approaches, such as seeking indicator
minerals through analysis by EPMA and SEM-EDX besides
remote sensing techniques and integration of geological
and geophysical data all of which led to new discoveries.
The liberalization in the mineral sector since 1993 brought
in private players to the field. The Bunder lamproite cluster
Pradeep Srivastava spoke on 'Himalayan rivers:
responses to past climates changes'. According to him, the
Himalaya experience a significant E-W rainfall gradient
(c.100 mmJannum in Spiti to c. 3000 mmJannum in the
Kameng-Brahmaputra valley) and variations in the surface
processes. Himalayan river systems have responded to both
the orogenic forces and global climate change in the last
70 ka. Three major climate excursions, namely the glacial
maxima (c. 63 ka), glaciation (c. 25-15 ka) and the present
interglacial
(15-0 ka BP) with a peak monsoon at c. 11 ka
have been identified in the Himalayan drainage. Due to
glacial retreat about 3000 km 2 were vacated in the Alaknanda
valley. Deglaciation resulted in higher sediment loads in

Prof. R. Vaidyanadhan
Award Lecture
river systems causing aggradations
while wetter conditions
in early Holocene led to increased stream power and
erosion.
M. Jayananda spoke on the 'Accretionary models for
the western and eastern Dharwar craton in Karnataka' .
N.S. Krishnamurthy and Dewashish Kumar spoke on the
'Use of various geological, structural features and formations
in different terrains'.
ERT according to them is a versatile
tool in shallow subsurface investigations for mineral and
groundwater
studies.
The post-lunch session began with Prof. R. Vaidyanadhan
award lecture. This award instituted from 20 I0 by his friends
and admirers to commemorate his enduring contributions
in the field of Geomorphology of India. Prof. Vaidyanadhan
was felicitated first by the Society. In his reply Vaidyanadhan
recalled his 1959-60 stint as a Fulbright Fellow at the Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio when his late Prof.
R.P. Goldthwaite
introduced him to the club of 'Friends of
Pleistocene' and how his interests grew in Quaternary
geology, geomorphology and photo-interpretation as well
as the allied fields of cartography, geodesy and
photogrammetry. He also recalled on how B.P. Radhakrishna
further motivated him in the fields of geomorphology of
southern India.
Prof. Vishwas Kale, Department of Geography,
University
of Pune received the first Prof. Vaidyanadhan
Award lecture for his contributions in the field of
geomorphology related to Indian monsoonal rivers. In his
award lecture Prof. Kale spoke on 'Flood morphology of
Indian rivers'. Floods in monsoonal rivers represent an
important hydrologic and geomorphic event and also
constitute the most devastating
among the natural hazards.
In order to understand the long term characteristics of
monsoon rainfall and floods in all major rivers of India and
their 'flood power and energy expenditure, Kale had used
the 'annual-maximum
flood series (AMS) data (constrained
by lack of long-term and gauge data) for large rivers such as
the upper Ganga, upper Yamuna, Narmada, Godavari,
Krishna, Indus and others for his studies. Analysis of all
India rainfall and flood data indicates that large floods do
not always coincide with periods of high rainfall and there
is significant variability in the rainfall data of the 20 th century.
According to Kale, 'the amount of energy generated during
large floods in Narmada, Tapi and Godavari in terms of
peak unit stream power and total energy expended during
extraordinary floods is in the range of 290-325 W/mm 2 and
65-160 million joules or mega joules respectively' and large
floods have about 20-60% of share in the total monsoon
energy, i.e. during one flood event. Thus the role of floods
in the evolution of landscape is very profound.
The AGM began with a formal welcome of the Fellows
by the Secretary R.H. Sawkar. After the approval of minutes
of AGM-2008-09 by the house, Sawkar presented the
Annual Report for 2009-10, circulated earlier to all Fellows,
and highlighted the activities of the Society such as the

publication
activities including the popular science series
books, motivation of young Earth scientists for participation
in International scientific forums, training programmes,
organizing Seminars on societal issues especially water and
other resources, involvement of school children in the International
Earth Science Olympiad, Earth Day celebrations
and others carried out with the cooperation of all fellows
and concerned national and international
agencies.
S. Jithendra Kumar, Treasurer, presented the audited
statement of accounts and dealt with salient aspects of the
cost of publications, sale of publications, funds received
and the financial status of the Society. Fellows appreciated
the efforts taken to strengthen the Society in terms of both
robust activities and secured finances by the Council and
office bearers during 2008-2010. This was followed by the
appointment of Auditors for the year 2010-2011.
Invitation
to hold the 52 nd AGM at Banaras
The formal invitation from Prof. H.B. Srivastava,
Department of Geology, BHU to host the 2011 AGM at the
Department was accepted. Prof. Srivastava briefly outlined
the proposed National Seminar on 'Crustal Evolution and
Metallogeny' during the AGM.
Election of New Office Bearers and Council for the
Triennium 2011-2013 and Address by the President
The Tellers announced the results of new Office bearers
and the new Council forthe triennium 2011-2013. President
Harsh Gupta, thanked the former Council Members for their
contributions and looked forward to their continued support
Geological Society of India
Bangalore
Sf l
Annual General Meeting
Tuesday, 12'k October 2010
in which both paper and poster presentation will be covered.
There will be a short (5 minutes) presentation for those
putting up the posters and thus everyone can be heard. He
further elaborated
on two themes, namely where does the
Society stand today in terms national and international status
and what kind of road map we need to have to reach the
new objectives based on our standing. He also shared some
of his own active areas of research in the area of 'Reservoir
induced seismicity' that are being pursued. The reservoir
induced earthquakes identified at Lake Mead in US and other
places including Koyna in India now total over 100. The
reservoirs cover an area of 10 k.m 2 or more with earthquake
foci depth of about 4-6 km and an intensity of over 6 M. He
outlined the proposed deep drilling of a 7 k.m borehole at
Koyna under ICDP and the opportunities such studies
provide for geoscientists.
Harsh Gupta informed about the
planned joint meetings of AOGS and AGU in 2012 in
Singapore and the AGU-EU meeting in 2015 and appealed
that we should also plan such events and sought that
Earth science should get its proper share and representation
in "planet earth' endeavors. He also welcomed suggestions
from the audience on the various issues that were deliberated
during the day. In response, a number suggestions and
opinions were expressed. These included the following:
(a) Inviting school children in every AGM to participate in
Earth-science related awareness and sensitizing. (b) Society
proactively provides guidance to groundwater harvesting
schemes in Bangalore and other places and supplements the
Government activities. (c) Additional resource generation
for the Society through advertisements
in the Journal and
other publications. (d) Larger and intensive interactions
with schools to popularize Earth science in schools.
(e) Supply of Episodes to Fellows of the Society with
concessions. (f) More representations in the Council (not
more than 3 as at present) from Bangalore.
The President
informed that these aspects will be looked into by the new
Council.
Dr. S. M. Naqvi Award
The President also announced the newly instituted
award of the Society to commemorate Dr. S.M. Naqvi's
contributions to Indian Geology. The award will be presented
once in two years to anyone below the age of 60 years in
any field of geology of India.
and cooperation. He also welcomed the new Council and
Office bearers and sought their vision for the coming three
years. He implored that the Council should deal with both
national and global issues and proposed a National Seminar
on "Earth Sciences" for 3-4 days without parallel sessions
The meeting ended with a formal vote of thanks by
S.Y. Srikantia, Vice-President of the Society.
Geological Society of India
Bangalore