Geo-electric resistivity evidence for subsurface palaeochannel systems adjacent to Harappan sites in northwest India

Comment on “Geochemistry of buried river sediments from Ghaggar Plains, NW India: Multi-proxy records of variations in provenance, paleoclimate, and paleovegetation patterns in the late quaternary” by Ajit Singh, Debajyoti Paul, Rajiv Sinha, Kristina J. Thomsen, Sanjeev Gupta

“…These opposing trends either imply that the Ghaggar catchment has the opposite response to climate change to the neighboring Indus basin, which does extend into the High Himalaya, or that other processes are influencing the isotopic character at the two boreholes analyzed by Singh et al (2016). The suggestion that the sands analyzed by Singh et al (2016) may have been deposited by a more southward flowing Sutlej River (Sinha et al, 2013) (Fig. 2) would only make the contrast with the delta record more profound because the Sutlej does drain both Greater and Lesser Himalaya and might be expected to parallel the regional trend.…”

“…2), is only draining the Sub-Himalayas, not the Lesser or the Higher Himalaya, so its not clear how changes in the relative flux from these ranges would have actually impacted the drilled location. If we accept that the sediments are really deposited by the Sutlej, as suggested by Sinha et al (2013), then it is possible that the relatively negative ε Nd values prior to 17 ka could be Himalayan (Sutlej) derived, but such flow is known to be finished by 5.2-5.7 ka at the latest . The fact that the ε Nd values of the sands considered by Singh et al (2016) have been consistently more positive than known modern Sutlej compositions since ~17 ka (-17 to -19) (Alizai et al, 2011;Tripathi et al, 2004) also indicates that the drift to more positive ε Nd values was not caused by changes in the Sutlej basin, which is now more negative, but to mixing with another sediment source.…”

Use of Satellite SAR for Understanding Long-Term Human Occupation Dynamics in the Monsoonal Semi-Arid Plains of North Gujarat, India

“…The use of SAR in South Asia is likely to further increase after the completion of the RISAT constellation by the Indian Space Research Organization, with the first Indian-made C-band SAR instrument for civilian use [51]. SAR instruments have found some use in connection with archaeological research in NW South Asia for mapping Harappan settlements within the Indus and the dried-up Ghaggar-Hakra river basins and tributary palaeochannels ( [52][53][54][55] and references therein). The ASAR scenes were co-registered with respect to a selected master scene and the amplitude image was generated from each scene.…”

Recent Hydrogeological Research in India

“…Saha et al (2013) and Dwivedi and Singh (2015) studied the aquifer system and groundwater extraction in Patna urban area, located in the Middle Gangetic Plains. Sinha et al (2013) investigated paleo-channels, which often contain potential aquifers, through resistivity survey. Bawa et al (2014) established that excessive groundwater withdrawal in middle reaches of Yamuna basin has affected river flow.…”