This project aims to provide a new insight of the complex and transient rheological phenomena, that facilitates the rheological-transition, and to recognize the critical geological factors that control the catastrophic rupture dynamics, fluid flow and resultant physical properties. The hypothesis to be tested is “the plate-interface slip-mechanisms are functions of several parameters, which are multiply-connected, naturally-tuned and operate in micro-scale.

This proposal is designed to explore and quantify the enhanced CH4 (Unconventional Energy Resource, UER) recovery from Indian coal-basins and gas-rich-shale and tight-sediment reservoirs by studying the stress induced micro-mechanisms to maximize the gas flow under complex Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical environment coupled with CO2 injection.

The Himalaya, being one of the most dynamic regions on the Earth, display several geological features including variety of faults. Most the faults in Himalaya, exposed at various sections along the strike of the orogeny, are predicted to be active and have potential in generating earthquakes M > 4 or represent signature of past earthquakes. This project with consider three sets of faults exposed in Himalaya, from west to east, with an aim to develop a data set for frictional sliding and explore the strain response to the release of stress in the context of rate-and-state friction laws.

This research proposal aims to study the mechanical and thermal evolution of the Indo-Burma ophiolite bearing suture zone, a geological feature that preserves the history of the colliding Indian plate with Eurasia. The ophiolites exposed in this region are transported as nappe over the Paleogene flyschoid sediments and represent a significant shear displacement. The study area will cover mostly Nagaland, Manipur and Andaman Islands. The key questions in this proposal are mostly related to the sequence of thermo-mechanical conditions during and after the collision with a special focus on grain scale localization processes.