Name in full: Bhamidipati Lakshmidhara Kanakadri Somayajulu

Place and date of birth: Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India , 5th March 1937

Qualifications: B.Sc (Hons) Andhra University (1956)

Ph. D. Bombay University (1969)

Present position: Honorary Professor & CSIR Emeritus Scientist

Address:

Oceanography and Climate Studies Area,

Earth Sciences & Solar System Division

Office address: Physical Research Laboratory (PRL),

Ahmedabad 380 009, India

Phone : (079) 462129

Telex : 0121-6397

Fax : 91 079 6560502

E-mail: soma@prl.ernet.in

Home address: 3, New Aangan Apartments, Vastrapur,

Ahmedabad 380 015, India.

Awards:

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in

Earth Sciences (Oceanography) 1978.

Shri Hari Om Ashram Prerit Shri Chunilal

Vajeram Trust Award in Oceanology, 1981.

Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture of INSA for 1997.

Fellowships

Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore

Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi

National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad

Geological Society of India, Bangalore

Indian Geophysical Union,

Research interests:
Study of long and short term mixing processes in the ocean using radioisotopes, geochemistry,geochronology, river- ocean interactions,production and fallout of Cosmic Ray produced radioisotopes, paleoclimates/paleoceanography.

List of Selected  Publications of B.L.K. Somayajulu
 

• A. Blackman and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Pacific pleistocene cores : Faunal analyses and geochronology, Science, 156, 886-889, 1966.
• C.G.A. Harrison and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Behaviour of earth's magnetic field during a reversal, Nature, 212, 1193-1195, 1966.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, Beryllium-10 in a manganese nodule, Science, 156, 1219-1220, 1967.
• E.D. Goldberg, B.L.K. Somayajulu, J. Galloway, I.R. Kapalan and G. Faure, Differences between barite of marine and continental origins, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 33, 287-289, 1969.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, D. Lal and S. Kusumgar, Man-made carbon-14 in deep Pacific waters: transport by biological skeletal material, Science, 166, 1397-1399, 1969.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, G.R. Heath, T.C. Moore and D.S. Cronan, Rates of accumulation of some manganese nodules and associated sediment from the equatorial Pacific, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 35, 621-624, 1971.
• S. Krishnaswami, D. Lal, B.L.K. Somayajulu, F.S. Dixon, S.A. Stonecipher and H. Craig, Silicon, radium, thorium and lead in seawater : in-situ extraction by synthetic fibre, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 16, 84-90, 1972.
• H. Craig, S. Krishnaswami and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Pb-210/Ra-226 : Radioactive disequilibrium in the deep sea, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 17, 295-304, 1973.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, D. Lal and H. Craig, Silicon-32 profiles in the south Pacific, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 18, 181-188, 1973.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, T.J. Walsh and C. Radhakrishnamurty, Magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy of Pacific Pleistocene sediments, Nature, 253, 616-617, 1975.
• B.S. Amin, D. Lal and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Chronology of marine sediments using the Be-10 method: Intercomparison with other methods, Geochim.Cosmochim. Acta, 39, 1187-1192, 1975.
• D. Lal, V.N. Nijampurkar, B.L.K. Somayajulu, M. Koide and E.D. Goldberg, Silicon-32 specific activities in the coastal waters of the wold oceans, Limnol. Oceanogr. 21, 287-295, 1976.
• S.Krishnaswami, D. Lal, B.L.K. Somayajulu, R.F. Weiss and H. Craig, Large volume in-situ filtration of deep waters: Mineralogical and radioisotope investigations, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 32, 420-429, 1976.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, Analysis of causes for the beryllium-10 variations in deep-sea sediments, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 41, 909-913, 1977.
• D.V. Borole and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Radium and Pb-210 in marine barite, Mar. Chem. 5, 291-296, 1977.
• D. Lal, V.N. Nijampurkar, G. Rajagopalan and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Annual fall-out of Si-32, Pb-210, Na-22, S-35 and Be-7 in rains India, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. 88A, 29-40, 1979.
• T.M. Church, C.J. Lord III and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Uranium, thorium and lead nuclides in a Delaware salt marsh sediment, Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Sci. 13, 267-275, 1981.
• D.V. Borole, S. Krishnaswami and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Uranium isotopes in rivers, estuaries and adjacent coastal sediments of western India: Their weathering, transportation and oceanic budget, Geochim. Cosmochim. Aca, 46, 125-137, 1982.
• P. Sharma and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Beryllium-10 dating of large manganese nodules from world oceans, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 59, 235-244, 1982.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, P. Sharma and W.H. Berger,Be-10, C-14, U- h decay series nuclides and delta 0-18 in a box core from the Central North Atlantic, Mar. Geol. 54, 169-180,
• A.S. Naidu, T.C. Mowatt, B.L.K. Somayajulu and K.S. Rao, The characteristics of clay minerals in the bed loads of major rivers in India, In Proc. 3rd Intl. Workshop on 'Transport of carbon and minerals in major rivers' (Ed. E.T.Egens) Carcas, Venezuela, SCOPE/unep. Hamburg, V.58, 559-568, 1985.
• P. Sharma and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Composition, mineralogy and depositional history of ferromanganese nodules from world oceans, In 'contributions in Marine Sciences - Dr. S.Z. Qasim's 60th Birth Day Memorial Volume' (Eds. T.S.S. Rao, R. Natarajan, B.N. Desai, G.N. Swami and S.R. Bhat), Ujjvala Printers, Bombay, pp.355-390, 1987.
• R. Carpenter, T.M. Beasley, D. Zahnle and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Cycling of fallout (Am-241, Pu, Cs-137) and natural (U, Th, Pb-210) radionuclides in Washington continental slope sediments, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 51,1897-1921,1987.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, R. Rengarajan, D. Lal, R.F. Weiss and H. Craig, Atlantic silicon-32 profiles, Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 85, 329-342, 1987.
• D.V. Borole, G. Rajagopalan and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Radiometric ages of phosphorites from the West Coast of India, Mar. Geol. 78, 161-165, 1987.
• M. Baskaran, G. Rajagopalan and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Th-230/U-234 and C-14, dating of the Quaternary carbonate deposits of Saurashtra, India, Isotope Geosci. 79, 65-82, 1989.
• M.M. Sarin, S. Krishnaswami, B.L.K. Somayajulu and W.S. Moore, Chemistry of uranium, thorium and radium isotopes in the Ganga-Brahmaputra river system: Weathering processes and fluxes to the Bay of Bengal, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 54,1387-1396, 1990.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, P. Sharma, J. Klein, R.Middleton, D.F. Williams and W.S. Moore, Be-10/O-18 inverse correlation in the Orca basin sediments Possible causes, Chem. Geol. (Isot. Geosci. Section), 107, 253-258, 1991.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, R. Rengarajan, D. Lal and H. Craig, GEOSECS and Pacific and Indian ocean silicon-32 profiles, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 107, 197-216, 1991.
• Sheela Mishra, T.R.Venkatesan, S.N.Rajaguru and B.L.K.Somayajulu, Earliest Acheulian industry from peninsular India, Current Anthrapology,36, 847-851,1995.

Publications related to JGOFS

• D.N. Yadav, M.M. Sarin and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Western continental margins. Are they sink or source for trace elements in the Arabian Sea? Oceanography of the Indian Ocean (Ed. B.N. Desai). Oxford and IBH, New Delhi, India, pp.359-367, 1992.
• M.M. Sarin, S. Krishnaswami, R. Ramesh and B.L.K. Somayajulu, U-238 decay series nuclides in the north eastern Arabian sea scavenging rates and cycling processes, Continental Shelf Sci., 14, 251-265, 1994.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, D.N. Yadav and M.M. Sarin, Recent sedimentary records from the Arabian sea, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. 103, 315-327, 1994.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, M.M. Sarin and R. Ramesh, Denitrification in the eastern Arabian sea, role of the coastal regions, (Kullenberg Spl. issue) Deep Sea Res., 43, 111-117, 1996.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, Beryllium-10 meltwater spike in Orca basin sediments, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Mexico, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 105, 357-364, 1996.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, R. Agnihotri, M. Dixit, K. Dutta and C.Sharma, Arabian Sea sediments and paleoclimates, ISRO/DOS Publication, in press 1998.
• B.L.K. Somayajulu, IGBP and Oceans, Proc. of INSA Seminar on Present Trends and future Directions in ocean science, INSA Special Publication, ed. B.L.K. Somayajulu, 1998, in press.
• R. Bhushan, K. Dutta and B.L.K. Somayajulu, Burial fluxes of organic and inorganic carbon on eastern continental margins of the Arabian Sea during the past century, Being submitted to Mar. Geol. 1998.