The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) is a geoscientific research organization established in 1961 under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's largest Research and Development organization. It is supported by more than 200 scientists and other technical staff whose research activities are published in several journals of national and international interest.
Research areas covered by this institute include hydrocarbon and coal exploration, mineral exploration, deep seismic sounding studies, exploration and management of groundwater resources, earthquake hazard assessment, structure of Earth's interior and its evolution (theoretical studies), geophysical instrument development and geothermal exploration.
The major facilities available at NGRI include:
Laser Ablation Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (LA-MC-ICPMS) with clean chemistry laboratory facility.
Mineral Physics Laboratory with high-pressure Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC), ultra high resolution (0.02/cm) double monochorometer, and micro-Raman spectrometer.
High-pressure laboratory consisting of Keithly electrometer, strain-measuring sensors, universal testing machine (100 tons), and Bridgeman-Birch high-pressure apparatus.
In-situ stress measurement facility consisting of hydraulic equipment.
Rock magnetism laboratory consisting of astatic magnetometer, digital spinner magnetometer, alternating magnetic field and thermal demagnetizers, high-field and low-field hysteresis and susceptibility meter.
Geochemical laboratory consisting of fully automated X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF), Atomic Absorption Spectrometer, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICPMS), and Electron Probe Micro Analyzer (EPMA).
Geochronology and isotope geochemistry laboratory with facilities for Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, and Pb-Pb analyses.
EM, Resistivity, and IP Model Laboratories.
Continuous Flow Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer Laboratory (CFIRMS).
Helium Emanometry, Heatflow and Radiometry Laboratory.
Tritium and carbon dating laboratory for groundwater.
Centralized computing facilities: PC-LAN and an array of Sun Workstations.
Thermoluminescence (TR) Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating facility.
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a type of mass spectrometry that uses an inductively coupled plasma to ionize the sample. It atomizes the sample and creates atomic and small polyatomic ions, which are then detected. It is known and used for its ability to detect metals and several non-metals in liquid samples at very low concentrations. It can detect different isotopes of the same element, which makes it a versatile tool in isotopic labeling.
Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.
A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, one that measures the direction of an ambient magnetic field, in this case, the Earth's magnetic field. Other magnetometers measure the magnetic dipole moment of a magnetic material such as a ferromagnet, for example by recording the effect of this magnetic dipole on the induced current in a coil.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a mass spectrum, a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex mixtures.
Mars 96 was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage burn, the probe assembly re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, breaking up over a 320 km (200 mi) long portion of the Pacific Ocean, Chile, and Bolivia. The Mars 96 spacecraft was based on the Phobos probes launched to Mars in 1988. They were of a new design at the time and both ultimately failed. For the Mars 96 mission the designers believed they had corrected the flaws of the Phobos probes, but the value of their improvements was never demonstrated due to the destruction of the probe during the launch phase.
A sector instrument is a general term for a class of mass spectrometer that uses a static electric (E) or magnetic (B) sector or some combination of the two as a mass analyzer. Popular combinations of these sectors have been the EB, BE, three-sector BEB and four-sector EBEB (electric-magnetic-electric-magnetic) instruments. Most modern sector instruments are double-focusing instruments in that they focus the ion beams both in direction and velocity.
Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), also referred to as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), is an analytical technique used for the detection of chemical elements. It is a type of emission spectroscopy that uses the inductively coupled plasma to produce excited atoms and ions that emit electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths characteristic of a particular element. The plasma is a high temperature source of ionised source gas. The plasma is sustained and maintained by inductive coupling from electrical coils at megahertz frequencies. The source temperature is in the range from 6000 to 10,000 K. The intensity of the emissions from various wavelengths of light are proportional to the concentrations of the elements within the sample.
The Physical Research Laboratory is a National Research Institute for space and allied sciences, supported mainly by Department of Space, Government of India. This research laboratory has ongoing research programmes in astronomy and astrophysics, atmospheric sciences and aeronomy, planetary and geosciences, Earth sciences, Solar System studies and theoretical physics. It also manages the Udaipur Solar Observatory and Mount Abu InfraRed Observatory. The PRL is located in Ahmedabad.
Isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is a specialization of mass spectrometry, in which mass spectrometric methods are used to measure the relative abundance of isotopes in a given sample.
The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Geological Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Canadian Geospace Monitoring (CGSM) is a Canadian space science program that was initiated in 2005. CGSM is funded primarily by the Canadian Space Agency, and consists of networks of imagers, meridian scanning photometers, riometers, magnetometers, digital ionosondes, and High Frequency SuperDARN radars. The overarching objective of CGSM is to provide synoptic observations of the spatio-temporal evolution of the ionospheric thermodynamics and electrodynamics at auroral and polar latitudes over a large region of Canada.
The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission is a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation. The spacecraft were launched on 13 March 2015 at 02:44 UTC. The mission is designed to gather information about the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence — processes that occur in many astrophysical plasmas. As of March 2020, the MMS spacecraft have enough fuel to remain operational until 2040.
The Lviv Centre of Institute for Space Research, is a research institute at Lviv, Ukraine. It falls under the purview of the NASU and NSAU,.
Thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) is also known as surface ionization and is a highly sensitive isotope mass spectrometry characterization technique. The isotopic ratios of radionuclides are used to get an accurate measurement for the elemental analysis of a sample. Singly charged ions of the sample are formed by the thermal ionization effect. A chemically purified liquid sample is placed on a metal filament which is then heated to evaporate the solvent. The removal of an electron from the purified sample is consequently achieved by heating the filament enough to release an electron, which then ionizes the atoms of the sample. TIMS utilizes a magnetic sector mass analyzer to separate the ions based on their mass to charge ratio. The ions gain velocity by an electrical potential gradient and are focused into a beam by electrostatic lenses. The ion beam then passes through the magnetic field of the electromagnet where it is partitioned into separate ion beams based on the ion's mass/charge ratio. These mass-resolved beams are directed into a detector where it is converted into voltage. The voltage detected is then used to calculate the isotopic ratio.
Kliti Grice, is a chemist and geochemist known for her work in identifying geological and environmental causes for mass extinction events. Her research integrates geological information with data on molecular fossils and their stable carbon, hydrogen and sulfur isotopic compositions to reconstruct details of microbial, fungal and floral inhabitants of modern and ancient aquatic environments and biodiversity hot spots. This information expands our understanding of both the Earth's history and its current physical state, with implications ranging from energy and mineral resource exploration strategies to environmental sustainability encompassing climate dynamics and expected rates, durations and scale of our future planet's health. As one of the youngest women professors in Earth Sciences, she is the founding director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC) and is a Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.
Vijay Prasad Dimri is an Indian geophysical scientist, known for his contributions in opening up a new research area in Earth sciences by establishing a parallelism between deconvolution and inversion, the two vital geophysical signal processing tools deployed in minerals and oil and gas exploration. In 2010, the Government of India awarded him with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of science and technology.
Detrital zircon geochronology is the science of analyzing the age of zircons deposited within a specific sedimentary unit by examining their inherent radioisotopes, most commonly the uranium–lead ratio. Zircon is a common accessory or trace mineral constituent of most granite and felsic igneous rocks. Due to its hardness, durability and chemical inertness, zircon persists in sedimentary deposits and is a common constituent of most sands. Zircons contain trace amounts of uranium and thorium and can be dated using several modern analytical techniques.
Monazite geochronology is a dating technique to study geological history using the mineral monazite. It is a powerful tool in studying the complex history of metamorphic rocks particularly, as well as igneous, sedimentary and hydrothermal rocks. The dating uses the radioactive processes in monazite as a clock.
Kunchithapadam Gopalan is an Indian geochronologist and a former emeritus scientist at National Geophysical Research Institute. He is known for his studies on the chronologies of critical rock suites of the Indian subcontinent and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Geophysical Union and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences in 1982.
SCIEX is a manufacturer of mass spectrometry instrumentation used in biomedical and environmental applications. Originally started by scientists from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, it is now part of Danaher Corporation with the SCIEX R&D division still located in Toronto, Canada.
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