India on EARTH Magazine

India's urban areas punch city-shaped holes in fog

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 16:20:14 -0400

Widespread fog blankets northern India in this image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite on Dec. 7, 2016. Fog holes over several major cities are visible. Credit: NASA.

Air pollution boosts fog formation in some places, creating whiteouts that can affect air and ground transportation, air quality, and public health. In northern and eastern India, persistent fog often hovers over the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a vast region dotted with several densely populated cities, including Delhi, home to 19 million people. Over some of these cities, however, satellite imagery is revealing large holes in the fog.

Geoscience on Film: Roadcuts and rockfalls in mountainous Mizoram

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 13:15:11 -0400

Aizawl, the capital of the Indian state of Mizoram, is draped over a mountain ridge. An example of the typical construction style in Aizawl — a multi-story home supported by concrete stilts atop the steep hillside — can be seen at right in the foreground. The remnant of a damaging landslide can be seen in the center of the photograph. Credit: Martin Prose

Doug Prose, formerly a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has co-produced documentaries showcasing Earth and the geosciences with his partner and wife, Diane LaMacchia, through their nonprofit Earth Images Foundation since 1992. Recent films include “Earth: The Inside Story” and “Italy’s Mystery Mountains,” both released in 2014. Their latest documentary, “The Himalaya Connection,” began airing on PBS stations in April. Prose has previously written and blogged for EARTH about the pair’s experience shooting and preparing “Connection,” which involved six separate trips to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Mongolia and Nepal from 2011 to 2016. They recently traveled back to the region for their next project. Prose wrote about the trip while there, and filed the following series of posts upon returning home. Read posts in this series, as well as from prior trips, here.

Tiny bones pull India into the story of early primate evolution

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 18:31:36 -0500

Fossilized femur bones from early primates found in a coal mine in Gujarat, India. Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine .

Bones of an ancient rat-sized, tree-dwelling primate have recently been discovered in a coal mine in Gujarat, India, and may represent the most primitive known remnants of the divergence between the two great primate clades.

Down to Earth With: Paleobiologist Nigel Hughes

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 10:53:48 -0500

Nigel Hughes in Bengal. Credit: Nigel Hughes.

I first met Nigel Hughes, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), in 2010. He took me on a brisk walk through the UCR Botanical Gardens, where the trees kept us cool in the hot Southern California sun while he told me all about trilobites.

Geoscience on Film: A parting ode to an awe-inspiring land

Thu, 09 Apr 2015 15:22:09 -0400

The colorful Indian city of Varanasi is considered sacred in Hindu religion and culture. Locals and pilgrims alike visit the famed ghats, or steps, along the banks of the Ganges in the city to partake of the river's revered waters. Credit: Diane LaMacchia

Doug Prose, formerly a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and his wife, Diane LaMacchia, have produced documentaries showcasing Earth and the geosciences through their nonprofit Earth Images Foundation since 1992. Recent films have included “Earth: The Inside Story” and “Italy’s Mystery Mountains," both released in 2014 and aired on PBS. Currently at work on their next project, Prose is blogging for EARTH about the filmmaking process, as well as the work of the scientists they’re covering, while on location in India. Read other posts in this series here.

Geoscience on Film: Of tides and tigers in the world's largest river delta

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 13:00:36 -0400

Doug Prose lays low at the prow of a small rowboat as he and his group navigate the dense mangrove forest of the Indian Sundarbans. Credit: Diane LaMacchia

Doug Prose, formerly a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and his wife, Diane LaMacchia, have produced documentaries showcasing Earth and the geosciences through their nonprofit Earth Images Foundation since 1992. Recent films have included “Earth: The Inside Story” and “Italy’s Mystery Mountains,” both released in 2014 and aired on PBS. Currently at work on their next project, Prose is blogging for EARTH about the filmmaking process, as well as the work of the scientists they’re covering, while on location in India. Read other posts in this series here.

Geoscience on Film: Traversing the contours and culture of an ancient delta

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 10:13:26 -0400

Geoscience on Film: Setting the scene amid extreme tectonic and sedimentary processes

Thu, 26 Mar 2015 09:38:35 -0400

Aizawl, capital of the northeast Indian state of Mizoram, lines a steep ridgetop in the northern part of the tectonically active Burma Arc. Credit: courtesy of Doug Prose

Doug Prose, formerly a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and his wife, Diane LaMacchia, have produced documentaries showcasing Earth and the geosciences through their nonprofit Earth Images Foundation since 1992. Recent films have included “Earth: The Inside Story” and “Italy’s Mystery Mountains," both released in 2014 and aired on PBS. Currently at work on their next project, Prose is blogging for EARTH about the filmmaking process, as well as the work of the scientists they’re covering, while on location in India. Read other posts in this series here.

Early horse history written in Indian coal mine

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 12:56:29 -0500

The first relatives of horses evolved during the Early Eocene in India, possibly while it was still an isolated island. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

Modern horses, rhinos and tapirs — all ungulates with an odd number of toes — belong to a group of animals called Perissodactyla. The oldest Perissodactyla fossils date from the Early Eocene Epoch about 56 million years ago, but the animals’ earlier evolution remains a mystery. Now, a discovery in India suggests that the group likely originated on the Indian subcontinent when it was still an island on a collision course with Asia.

The subcontinent's sturdy mammals

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:40:11 -0400

The spotted deer, or chital (Axis axis), has inhabited parts of India for most of the last 200,000 years. Credit: ©Yathin S. Krishnappa, CC BY-SA 3.0.

India is home to some hardy mammals, according to a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers reported that 20 of 21 mammalian taxa identified from fossils found in southern India have survived on the subcontinent over at least the last 100,000 years, with some lineages stretching back twice that long.

Modern humans arrived in South Asia 25,000 years later than previously thought?

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:59:14 -0400

Stone tools and artifacts dated to 40,000 to 50,000 years ago from South Asia (shown) resemble slightly older finds in South and East Africa. Illustrations by Dora Kemp, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University

Figuring out when modern humans left Africa and migrated throughout the world is a complicated task. For example, some evidence suggests modern humans may have migrated out of Africa and into Asia as early as 120,000 years ago. Further evidence puts modern humans in India and other parts of South Asia prior to the super-eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra, which took place 74,000 years ago. However, new research suggests that modern humans may not have reached South Asia until well after the Toba eruption.

Benchmarks: December 3, 1984: Bhopal gas leak kills thousands

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

On Dec. 3, 1984, Aziza Sultan woke to the sound of coughing. When she opened her eyes, she could see that the room was filled with a white haze. She heard people shouting “Run, run.” Then she too began to cough. Each breath burned her lungs.