The Upper Indus Basin, in Pakistan’s western Salt Range, is home to the Zaluch Gorge. The sedimentary rocks found in this Gorge, belonging to the Chhidru Formation, were studied in terms of sedimentology and stratigraphy, and provide new insights into the basin paleogeographic evolution from the Precambrian to the Jurassic period. Facies analysis in the Chhidru Formation deposits allowed the recognition of three lithofacies (the limestone facies—CF1, the limestone with clay interbeds facies—CF2, and the sandy limestone facies—CF3) with five microfacies types (mudstone biomicrite—MF-1, wackestone-biomicrite—MF-2, wackestone-biosparite—MF-3, pack-stone-biomicrite—MF-4, and packstone-biosparite—MF-5), as well as their depositional characteristics. The identified carbonate and siliciclastic formations display various facies in a shallow marine environment, with different lithologies, sedimentary features, and energy conditions. It is thought that the depositional characteristics of these microfacies are closer to those of the middle to outer shelf. Because of the progressively coarsening outcrop sequence, this formation seems to be at the very top of the high stand system tract (HST). A modified dynamic depositional model of the Chhidru Formation is further built using outcrop data, facies information, and stratigraphy. According to this concept, the formation was deposited in the middle to inner shelf area of the shallow marine environment, during the Late-Permian period. The Permo-Triassic Boundary (PTB), which is the end of the type-1 series, is marked by this formation’s top.

The study area is the Thriassion Plain, an important area, in antiquity, surrounding the famous ancient town of Eleusis, 20 km west of Athens. The modern town and port and the entire area were heavily industrialized (1965–1995) coupled with unregulated urban and agricultural development. The presence of two crude oil refineries and other oil-related industries have strongly impacted the entire environment, including soils, waters and sediments of the broader area. The purpose of this work is to better understand how a multi-layered groundwater system affects the potential underground spread of certain fuel volatile compounds, namely the BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and total xylenes) as well as their attenuation after their direct or indirect release into the aquifer system. The spatial distribution of BTEX in groundwaters show that they were concentrated mainly in four rather restricted locations. Three of them were spotted, as expected, in the close vicinity of known pollution sources (a military airfield and two crude oil refineries). The other one corresponds to an abandoned site with no outstanding pollution sources where wells exist, eventually used for illegal dumping of oily wastes. It is important that the concentrations decrease significantly from autumn to spring. This decline could be characterized as natural attenuation, related to natural dilution phenomena and a flushing out of pollutants discharging through underwater springs to the sea during the rainy period (October to April). This, in turn, could be associated to the specific geological conditions affecting the hydrology, such as the unconsolidated non-permeable deposits and the multi layered formations of the area’s aquifers.

The present field and petrographic investigations of the Tortonian to Gelasian Siwalik Group in the core of the Hazara-Kashmir Syntaxis have been carried out to comprehend the middle stage Himalayan orogeny that resulted from the collision of Indian and Asian plates. The Chinji, Nagri, Dhok Pathan, and Soan Formations of the Siwalik Group were deposited by river meandering flood plains, braided rivers, and alluvial fan systems, respectively. The Siwalik Group is classified into seven major facies and many minor facies based on sedimentological properties. According to the petrographic analysis, the Siwalik Group sandstone is classified as litharenite and feldspathic litharenite petrofacies. The sandstone of the Siwalik Group is texturally mature, but compositionally it is immature. The data shown on the tectonic discrimination diagrams point to a recycled orogen provenance field for the Siwalik sandstone. In addition to quartz and feldspar, the sandstone includes clasts of volcanic, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock types. The igneous and metamorphic rock clasts were derived from the Lesser and Higher Himalayas. The sedimentary lithic fragments, on the other hand, are derived from both the earlier molasse and pre-molasse rocks. The presence of lithic fragments of the earlier molasse sandstone in the Siwalik sandstone indicates that the Siwalik Group sandstones were deposited during the Middle Stage of the Himalayan orogeny. The paleoclimatic conditions were semi-arid to semi-humid during the Siwalik Group’s deposition. The presence of clay minerals in the shale reveals the intense chemical weathering processes that occurred during their deposition on the flood plains of the river meandering system.

This study focuses on the hydrogeological conditions in the coastal (Thriassion plain) and submarine (Eleusis Gulf) environment of West Attica, Greece. Up to now, the predominant aspect for the Thriassion plain groundwater—hosted within the Neogene-Quaternary sediments—was its direct hydraulic contact with the seawater. Due to that, the coastal plain groundwater is strongly believed to be of brackish quality irrespective of the local hydrodynamic conditions. Our major goal is to evaluate the actual mechanism controlling the groundwater flow, the origin and distribution of saline water, and the existence of fresh groundwater in the submarine environment. We summarize the following: (1) groundwater of the Thriassion plain is partly discharged as an upwards leakage from deeper aquifers, (2) modern direct seawater intrusion is not possible in the Neogene-Quaternary sediments, and (3) fresh groundwater possibly exists below the sea floor of the Eleusis Gulf. The results may serve as hint of further research in groundwater resources below the Mediterranean Sea floor, and, consequently, a new perspective on water resource management could emerge.

Paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies routinely rely on the usage of foraminiferal calcite through faunal, morphometric and physico-chemical proxies. The application of such proxies presupposes the extraction and cleaning of these biomineralized components from ocean sediments in the most efficient way, a process which is often labor intensive and time consuming. In this respect, in this study we performed a systematic experiment for planktonic foraminiferal specimen cleaning using different chemical treatments and evaluated the resulting data of a Late Quaternary gravity core sample from the Aegean Sea. All cleaning procedures adopted here were made on the basis of their minimum potential bias upon foraminiferal proxies, such as the faunal assemblages, degree of fragmentation, stable isotope composition (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) and/or Mg/Ca ratios that are frequently used as proxies for surface-ocean climate parameters (e.g., sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity). Six different protocols were tested, involving washing, sieving, and chemical treatment of the samples with hydrogen peroxide and/or sodium hexametaphosphate (Calgon^®). Single species foraminifera shell weighing was combined with high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and synchrotron X-ray microtomography (SμCT) of the material processed by each of the cleaning protocols, in order to assess the decontamination degree of specimen’s ultrastructure and interior. It appeared that a good compromise between time and cleaning efficiency is the simultaneous treatment of samples with a mixed hydrogen peroxide and Calgon solution, while the most effective way to almost completely decontaminate the calcareous components from undesirable sedimentary material is a two-step treatment—initially with hydrogen peroxide and subsequently with Calgon solutions.

The Thriassion Plain, the Saronikos Gulf and Eleusis Bay, Western Attica in Greece, receive pressures from the enormous industrial activity, as well as the Athens metropolitan area and the Piraeus port. Therefore, it is considered as brownfield in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The multi-component industrial activity has impacted the soil, the groundwater of Thriassion Plain and the coastal marine sediments of the adjacent Eleusis Bay, part of Saronikos Gulf as well as a brackish lagoon, Koumoundourou Lake. The industrial activity is expressed by high contents of metals, and oil products. This study presents the pollution record of selected published papers that indicate the temporal evolution of legislated polluting compounds, supporting researchers to provide solutions and policy makers to focus on the whole spectrum of potential policy alternatives.