Assessment of potential groundwater recharge sites and sustainable water resource management in semi-arid crystalline rock terrain is a challenging task. Globally, analysis of remote sensing satellite imagery data for delineation of groundwater potential zones over sheared crystalline hard rock terrains has been fairly successful. But there is no existing study present at our disposal which discusses the factors controlling the inconsistent groundwater potentiality that exits along the shear zones. This study attempts to analyse the major geological factors controlling the irregular groundwater potentiality of shear zones within older crystalline rock terrain. Therefore, the study area selected for this analysis is the Purulia district of West Bengal, NE India, composed mostly of Precambrian metamorphic rocks i.e., quartzite, granite gneisses, porphyroclastic granite-gneiss, quartzo-feldspathic-granite-gneiss, mylonitic granites, quartz-biotite-granite gneiss, quartzites, carbonatites and phyllites. Satellite imagery study of IRS-P6 LISS IV standard FCC image reveals the presence of two bifurcating shear zones namely North Purulia Shear Zone (NPSZ) and South Purulia Shear Zone (SPSZ) over the study area. Careful analysis of rock structure, different lithotypes, soil thickness, electrical resistivity tomography data and water table data with an emphasis on high water table fluctuation, shows a strong spatial relation between the potentially good groundwater recharge zones and the branching/confluence sites of shear zones present in the study area. The study constructs an attempt to demonstrate the relationship between shear zone conjunctions and significant groundwater recharge sites in Precambrian crystalline fractured-rock aquifer system.

NASA demands the special laser transmitter for the lidar system to detect water-ice on the Moon and other planetary bodies. Based on the data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M-3) instrument, the water ice was on the Moon has been claimed, but such a claim was disputed because OH- and/or H2O-bearing materials share the absorption line at the wavelength range of 2.8-3 mu m. Lunar Flashlight, another mission to explore the surface of Moon (the launch date delays to this year), allows scientists map the minerals on dark side of the Moon, but it still has difficult to resolve the ambiguity mentioned above. The absorption line around 6.08 mu m uniquely associated with the bending resonance of H2O has not any comparable vibration in confounding OH-bearing materials. However, a 6.08 mu m laser in the gap between the atmospheric windows, middle-wave infrared (3-5 mu m) and long-wave infrared (8-12 mu m), has not been commercially available. Our approach is a Q-switched Ho:YLF laser pumped the orientation-pattern Gallium Arsenide optical parametric oscillator (OP-GaAs OPO) for generating high-energy laser pulses at the wavelength of 6.08 mu m. In the current design, a 1.94 mu m Tm:fiber is used as the pump source of Ho:YLF laser. In the compact design, a 1.94 mu m laser diode will replace the Tm:fiber laser as the pump source. The combination of proposed 6.08 mu m laser and the latest HgCdTe avalanche photodiode (APD) array allow us to design a lidar capable of unambiguously identifying water ice on the Moon and Mars from their respective orbits, enabling novel science and in-situ resource utilization. Our instrument is an enabling technology for the Artemis program and future missions.