Thrivikramji’s Glauconite
story.
Glauconite is one of the
minerals that is essentially a product of marine environment and entirely an
authigenic mineral formed during diagenesis. The Glauconite I started on as a
piece of research, when I "rejoined" the Department of Geology as
Lecturer in the University of Kerala. I resigned my position as Asst. Geologist
in the Mining and Geology department to join the university as a teacher. Those
days the department was housed in the west wing of the first floor of the
Finance department of the university. In fact 18-3-1968 was my entry to the
Geology Department of the University of
Keraka.
The Glauconite is a
interesting mineral and it is a clay in respect of structure and purely of
marine authigenesis and hence of great repute in respect of correlating
unfossiliferous sedimentary formations. The work I did with pyrite framboids,
had in fact indicated the presence of green pellet all grains which were in the
fine to very fine sand grade. So it was easy for me to get to the samples, and
line up the laboratory to quickly launch the study.
I aggregated sufficient
quantity of Glauconite, needle picked for purity and about half a gram of the
stuff was safely forwarded to SV university, where then Prof. Chakrapani Naidu
was presiding in the geology department. A geochemist in the department had
agreed to do a chemical assay of the sample to verify whether it was Glauconite.
The answer was negative. The sample had no element potassium, a critical
chemical element for the sample to qualify as Glauconite.
When a portion was send to
USSR, to Rajendran Nair, he too did the examination and verification of the
stuff with help of a senior faculty there who too could not agree that my Glauconite
indeed is Glauconite. I was not disappointed or displeased. I went back to the
library and to the American Mineralogist, where one Burst had a paper or two on
Glauconite, where he suggested the chlorite may occur along with typical Glauconite
in the pellets which in fact are fecal pellets only. These pellets are created
by the filter feeding organisms in the sea, which cast the injected micro
grains of minerals into pellets. Among these the capsular pellets are
commonest.
Those days like in the early 80's
a review paper on Petrology of Glauconite authored by DM Triplehorn appeared in
the journal Earthscience Reviews. This paper was in fact a game changer as far
as the Glauconite of Quilon limestone was concerned. This researcher divided Glauconite
into four categories, of which one is mixed mineral Glauconite (it is exactly
like mine) which was a great "eureka" moment for me. Then time was
moving past and by the fall of 1972, I joined Syracuse University on a
Fulbright Fellowship. I continued my Glauconite studies after the conclusion of
my PhD and rejoining the department of geology at Kariavattom campus.
At Syracuse we were a trio in
the geology department. Swapan ghosh, Ghan srivastava and me in the department.
Swapan did geochemistry, Ghan computer applications and me in hydrodynamics.
Swapan joined the Shiraz Univ, Iran, Ghan joined CITGO and I rejoined U of K,
Kariavattom.
I then forwarded some samples
of Quilon limestone to Shiraz for Swapan to do some minor and trace element chemistry.
but when the results emerged Swapan was in trouble due to the revolution that
brought Khomeini to Iran to the presidency. When revolution peaked in 1980
Swapan wanted to know if I can help find job somewhere in India. I immediately
went and saw Prof. C . Karumnakarana, the founder Director, CESS, Trivandrum
and made a strong recommendation for the case Swapan. The Director then asked
me to get the biodata and in about two months Swapan's CV was given to
Director. In fact Swapan had SE job offer quickly and he joined like Dec.1980,
roughly six months after my joining CESS.
Swapan had the results of
analysis ready. We sat together in the late evening hours to put together a
joint paper on the "Pyrite-Glauconite assemblage in the Quilon Limestone
(Age: Burdigalian) from the type area etc.." It was forwarded to the
Geological Society of India, Bangalore, which was promptly published without
any revision in about six months from the date of submission.
I also read a paper on the Glauconite in the
Indian Sedimentologists Congress, at Banares Hindu University, in 1981.After
the presentation during lunch break Dr. R.A.K.Srivastava, came to me and said
it was an interesting presentation and he would like the full paper for
inclusion in a book he was planning on Glauconite. My paper appeared in the
book "Glauconite -form and function" that Srivastava edited and
published.
There was also a nasty
incident in regard to Glauconite. There was one Dr.Raha, PK in CESS and another
Dr. Sinha Roy, both were from the GSI. When the manuscript that I and Swapan made
was accepted for publication, this Raha-Roy team preempted our publication
through another short paper that reported Glauconte for the first time to
Bangalore Current Science. This happened in spite of the diligent Director's
office and Swapan more of a compatriot of Raha-Roy duo.
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