Yogendra Deva

  Day 1: The Pilgrimage Begins From a Chilled Dip to a Hot One – Yamunotri Dham Three more days to go! Having arrived from Greater Noida by road the previous evening, our Char Dham pilgrimage began the next morning with a dip. Where, you ask? Not a holy dip in the icy waters of a sacred Himalayan River. Not yet. Instead, it was a plunge into the chilled infinity pool of the Hyatt Regency Resort on the outskirts of Dehradun. Floating in crystal-clear water while gazing at the hazy Himalayan foothills stretching into the distance felt more like a relaxed holiday than the traditional start to a pilgrimage. An ideal mix, in my opinion. As I stepped into the pool, an attendant asked cheerfully, "Good morning, sir. Relaxing before a busy day?" "Not exactly," I replied. "We are heading for Char Dham." He looked momentarily puzzled. "By helicopter, I guess?" "Yes." He smiled. "Then this is probably the easiest part of t...

  Continuing the journey into the mysterious Earth For children and curious minds of all ages Yogendra Deva   “Aaba, will geology be on your mind when you’re doing the Char Dham pilgrimage?” Aaba looked up. “Not consciously,” he said. “But after fifty years in the field, the ground has developed a habit of poking its nose into my affairs.” Mihir smiled. “The temples will have competition, then.” “Not at all,” Aaba said. “The temples lead. The ground gets noticed… and waits its turn.” He paused. “Take Kedarnath, for instance,” he continued. “The moment I land there, the Mandakini will almost certainly remind me of 2013—when it dropped all inhibitions and came down the valley like Lord Shiva in Tandava.” Mihir blinked. “Tandava?” Aaba nodded. “Yes—the kind of dance one prefers to only hear about.” “Oh,” Mihir said. “You mean the infamous floods?” Aaba looked at him. “How do you remember that? You had barely arrived.” Mihir shrugged. “One doesn’t need ...

  3D Modelling of Discontinuity Sets for Varying Tunnel Orientations Engineering geologists need to upgrade standard stereographic projections of discontinuities to identify and analyse their influence on the engineering requirements during the design and construction of tunnels. This is where Xlog3D adds the third dimension. Consider a hydropower project comprising a 4 km long headrace tunnel with two bends, resulting in three tunnel orientations: Intake section: N070 Middle section: N100 Surge shaft section: N110 The project area contains three ruling discontinuity sets: J1 (Foliation): N035/65 J2: N220/35 J3: N110/80 In addition, significant shear zones are known to be aligned along sets J1 and J3 . The stereographic plot of these discontinuity sets given below provides the conventional structural framework. Using Xlog3D, schematic 3D discontinuity traces are generated for each tunnel orientation. The resulting ...