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A team of three students from the Department of Geology affiliated to Hansraj College were crowned as winners at Protolith’17, a technical symposium on geology and geophysics organised by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB).

IIT Bombay organised the second edition of Protolith, a national-level technical symposium on geology and geophysics from 6th to 8th October 2017, in which 170 students belonging to 17 universities from all over the country took part. There were myriad events organised in which teams from various universities had to battle it out to emerge triumphant. The events were Quiz, Modelino, Poster Presentation, Pirates of Protolith, Geoclick, Encuesta, Game of Stones, Get the Mineral, Lithofill, and Geodrama. Apart from these competitions, there were several workshops and talks on various topics like XRD, micropaleontology, rock mechanics, etc.

A team of three students represented the Department of Geology affiliated to Hansraj College, University of Delhi, at Protolith 2017. The participants were Suryaa Bhatia, Saagar Bhatia, and Aakash Gupta who are fourth-year students of B.Sc. (H)-M.Sc. Geology Integrated. Together they managed to bag the first prize in Poster Presentation, Pirates of Protolith, and Modelino and the second prize in Quiz and Geoclick.

The quiz involved a screening round and then a final round where all the 17 universities participated. The five teams that answered the most questions correctly advanced to the final round. The questions were based on geology, geophysics, and oceanography. Hansraj College came second in the final round of Quiz.

The poster presented by Hansraj College was on the topic ‘Radon Anomaly as a Precursor to Earthquake’. The poster was evaluated by esteemed professors and dignitaries in the field of earth science who adjudged it as being worthy of the first position. Modelino was a model making competition, where participants had to demonstrate any phenomenon of earth science through models. Hansraj College’s winning model was on ‘Radon Anomaly as a Precursor to Earthquake’.  It explained how radon spikes can be used to predict an earthquake by calculating the magnitude, epicentral distance from the radon anomaly monitoring station, and the time between the radon spike and the earthquake occurrence.

Suryaa Bhatia’s picture that captured the beautiful stratigraphy of Kutch won the second position at Geoclick, a photography competition. The team also participated in Pirates of Protolith. In the prelims, they were asked several questions on structural geology revolving around discontinuity surface, faults, anticline, and syncline. The final round involved a puzzle that could be solved with the help of the Brunton compass and geological knowledge. The team was declared the winner in this event.

After securing positions in five out of ten competitions, Hansraj College was crowned victorious and was awarded with a winner’s trophy for the same.

 

Feature Image Credits: Suryaa Bhatia

Sandeep Samal
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