No abstract

The hydrological budget of the three major Asian rivers, namely the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, is controlled by the Indian monsoon and Westerlies but their contribution in these basins are highly variable. Widely varying average annual precipitation has been reported within these basins. A poor network of in situ rain gauges, particularly in mountainous regions, inaccessible terrain, high variations in altitude and the significantly large size of basins forces adaption of satellite-based average annual precipitation. We investigate precipitation patterns for these three basins by using satellite-based Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM-3B42) data and compare and validate it with Asian Precipitation Highly Resolved Data Integration Towards Evaluation (APHRODITE) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) interpolated gridded precipitation data. The entire basins as well as basinal areas within the geographic limits of India have been considered. Our study shows that the precipitation broadly follows an east–west and north–south gradient control. The easternmost Brahmaputra Basin has the highest amount of precipitation followed by the Ganga Basin, and the westernmost Indus Basin has the least precipitation; precipitation is highest on the higher elevations than compared to lower elevations of the basins. A seasonal- and elevation-based approach is adapted to estimate snow precipitation and is discussed in terms of overall precipitation.

No abstract

The Quaternary sediments and landscapes of the plains of north-western Haryana and the ancient settlement mounds distributed across them have great potential to reveal the history of the evolution and disappearance of palaeorivers and their relationship to the Indus Civilization and Early Historic periods in northwest India. There are numerous palaeochannels in Haryana, and their distribution and burial in the subsurface creates difficulties for accessing the archives and proxies necessary for developing insight into the timing of river flow and shift, and its relationship to settled populations. This paper investigates the deep and shallow subsurface sedimentary lithology of an area around Sirsa that is close to the course of the modern Ghagghar River. The paper presents additional age constraints provided by dates from the site of Rakhigarhi and examines a sedimentary substrate of a new archeological mound situated on the palaeochannel identified at a mound near Dhir village. New AMS radiocarbon dates of drifted charcoal from natural and cultural strata suggest human activity and/or natural burning in this region as early as 10405 to 10190 cal BP (8455 to 8240 cal BC). The substrate sediments recorded at Dhir mound indicate flooding events after the urban phase of the Indus Civilization.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5604984

No abstract