To commemorate 75 years of Indian Independence as “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsava” a series of lectures were organized as outreach programs for educational institutions for showcasing various achievements in the field of geoscience by GSI, Northern Region. On this occasion, lecture sessions were organized on an e-platform.
Dr. Ravi Kumar Umrao, Senior Geologist delivered a lecture on “Rare Earth Elements Exploration: An Introduction” where the post-Graduate students of the Department of Geology, Lucknow University, Lucknow participated through online mode. During his lecture, Dr. Umrao elaborated on the Rare Earth Elements (REEs), its characteristics, REE minerals of commercial importance. He also discussed the different industrial and strategic applications of REEs, the concept of classification, global REE deposits, and their occurrences. During the lecture, the strategic importance of REE in the Indian context, prospects of REE in India, REE resources from beach placers (monazite), and various geological domains of REE such as carbonatites, apatite magnetite veins, pegmatite veins, granites, laterites, coal ash, black shale and riverine placers with examples of REE occurrences from India were discussed. He further elucidated the strategy for REE exploration with a case study from Dudhi Granitoids of Uttar Pradesh, in targeting potential mineralized zones, delineating the surface mineralized zone for sub-surface exploration to augment the resource.
The students actively participated in the lecture, which would be beneficial for their future career prospects.
Another lecture session was organized by GSI SU:P, H&HP, Chandigarh on 'implications of macro-seismic studies' by Shri S.R. Mohapatra, Director to the faculty members, research scholars, and students of Central University of Punjab, Bhatinda. The lecture was followed by an interactive session. The audience appreciated the lecture very much.
Another lecture was delivered by Smt. Aparajita Bhattacharya, Director on 'natural, synthetic and imitation gem stones and their identification' to the faculty members, research scholars, and students of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. The lecture was very well appreciated by the audience. The queries by the students were also attended to at the end of the session.
e-Lectures were also organized by the Remote Sensing Division, Geological Survey of India, Northern Region, Lucknow. Two lectures on the virtual platforms were delivered by Ms. Ruchi Mehrotra, Sr Geologist, Remote Sensing Division, N.R on
1. Basics of Remote Sensing.
2. Landslide susceptibility mapping on GIS Platform - Case Study of Kedarnath disaster.
Around 60 students, research scholars, and faculty of the Geology Department, Lucknow University and The Institute of hydrocarbon, energy, and georesources, ONGC Centre of Advanced Studies, Lucknow, actively participated in the two-hour-long lecture session.
During the first e-lecture, participants were given an overview of the fundamentals of remote sensing and its application in various fields in general and geology in particular.
The second lecture dealt with how remote sensing tools can be effectively used for landslide studies. The focus was laid on the identification of landslides using multidate, multispectral satellite data followed by the demarcation of the same on the ARC GIS platform. The societal impact of landslides, as well as their mitigation measures, were also discussed. Geological Survey of India’s flagship program of national importance i.e National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping including the landmark studies carried out by GSI after the Kedarnath Disaster was also dealt with during the lecture session.
This was followed by an interactive session during which the doubts and queries of the participants were clarified to their satisfaction.