A Miracle in a thirsty Tamilnadu village

It was Pongal with a difference for Ram Krishnan, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, who spent it in Vilathikulam, a village in Tamil Nadu.

Vilathikulam in Ramanathapuram district is one of the driest regions in the state. On an average, it receives only nine days of rainfall in a year.

But the parched village has seven million litres of water in three ponds today, thanks to Krishnan's efforts.

His involvement with Vilathikulam started four years ago. Today, the villagers are like his family. In fact, he had invited many of them to the Pan IIT conference in Chennai in December and also arranged rural visits for the alumni, hoping to motivate some of them into working for the betterment of poor Indian villages.

The villagers are like Krishnan's family

Krishnan, 62, migrated to the United States over 30 years ago and lives with his family in St Paul, Minnesota.
Like most IIT graduates, he opted for a well-paying job abroad after finishing his studies. But the severe water shortage in IIT-Madras forced him to realise the gravity of the problem. He was reminded of his childhood days when his mother had to wake up at 3 am everyday to collect the limited water supplied by the municipal corporation in Chennai.

Dr Sekhar Raghavan, a physics professor, started a door-to-door campaign in some residential areas in Chennai to popularise the concept of rainwater harvesting. He convinced over 500 homes, industries and charitable institutions to implement rainwater harvesting programmes.

The Gujarat earthquake changed his life

When Krishnan learnt of Dr Raghavan's efforts, he got in touch with the professor and the duo formed the Akash Ganga Trust, a citizens' action group comprising 10 persons who harvested rainwater in Chennai. Krishnan, the president of the North America IIT Alumni Association, became the overseas coordinator of the project.
He invested Rs 4 lakh (Rs 400,000) to set up a model house called the Akash Ganga Rain Centre to create awareness about rain water harvesting.

Krishnan admits that he didn't venture out to villages to spread awareness about rain water harvesting as there were no comfortable hotels for him to stay. But his attitude changed after he paid a visit to a village in Gujarat, which had been devastated by the January 26, 2001 earthquake. Krishnan and many of his friends raised money to rebuild the village.

'There is no Tamil Nadu in Chennai'

T"hat was my first visit to an Indian village," he recalls. "Those people had lost everything. There were 208 houses in the village, and 203 had collapsed. When we went there, we didn't know anything about what awaited us. I went there as a volunteer of Care International."
"As I was leaving the village, two old women told me, 'Till the earthquake happened, nobody came to help us. Nobody bothered about us'. That changed my attitude towards villages. I saw the terrible situation that villagers face in our country, and how we do nothing to improve their situation. I felt ashamed of myself," he added.

He then chose Vilathikulam in Tamil Nadu as his karmabhoomi.

Elaborating on his decision to work in a village instead of the state capital, Krishnan says, "There is no Tamil Nadu in Chennai. It's another big city. It has nothing to do with Tamil Nadu."

'Everybody warned me that nothing grows here'

Four years ago, Ram Krishnan, along with 17 of his friends from US, went on a five-day trip to the Tamil Nadu countryside. After travelling through many dry villages, they realised that Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi were the driest places in Tamil Nadu.
Ram Krishnan chose to start his work in Vilathikulam. "Everybody warned me that nothing grows in Vilathikulam. I was wasting my time there as it rains only nine days a year," he says.

Today, Vilathikulam has donned a new look. The villagers have collected 7 million litres of water in three ponds, which can be used for agricultural purposes, drinking as well as shared with three villages nearby.

Ram Krishnan plans to clean the water, collect in it 20 litre cans and ferry it to other villages in a bullock cart! Vilathikulam has sufficient water supply till the next monsoon.

'Villagers are not happy with plentiful harvest'

Ram Krishnan also plans to build a warehouse to store the grains produced by the farmers.
"On the day of the harvest, farmers don't get anything for themselves. The entire grain is under debt to the bank. So, a plentiful harvest is bad news for them because the price goes down. We city dwellers are happy with a plentiful harvest but they are not. They can store half of their harvest in the godowns, so that they can reap the benefits," he explained.

Ram Krishnan has also started a community centre -- the Bharatiyar Community Centre -- for the villagers, where farmers are taught various things including organising health camps, Self Help Groups, improving agricultural production etc. IIT engineer-turned-farmer R Madhavan is helping him in this endeavour. At the centre, farmers also try out the methods adopted by Madhavan for first-hand knowledge of new agricultural methods.

'You don't need a Tata or Birla to help a village'

Ram Krishnan visits Vilathikulam four times in a year to check on the work done by villagers. "It is worth a million dollars to see a smile on the face of a child or an old woman. When they welcome you, a total stranger, like a part of their family, you feel so happy," he adds on an emotional note.
Recalls Ram Krishnan, "On December 22, after the PAN IIT conference, we took a group of people to many villages including Madhavan's village. Madhavan's efforts touched one IITian's heart so much that he wrote to me. He wanted to help a village."

He urges the youth to "reach out and understand Indian villages."

"It is simple. You don't need a Tata or Birla to help a village, even one person can do that. We need many, many people to change the face of Indian villages. Youngsters do not have to wait till their hair turns grey," he says.

Akash Ganga - RWH : Rain Centre

What is Akash Ganga Chennai?


Akash Ganga Chennai started in July 2001 with active participation by about ten citizen volunteers in Chennai. The group's objective is to promote Rain water harvesting in India. Since inception, the group has conducted several seminars, printed and distributed pamphlets, conducted training sessions for builders and masons. Today, there are over 100 people in the group and it is growing.

Early on, the group realized that their cause would be more effectively spread if they had a model installation that people can look at. We lacked a facility where we could take the citizen or homeowner and show the rain water harvesting system in action. This need was the birth of the rain centre. Today, after several months of effort, the rain centre is a reality. For information on what is available at the rain centre please browse this website. And please take a virtual tour of the rain centre.

The Rain Centre!
The rain centre is a model house with all forms of rain water harvesting (RWH) ideas relevant to Chennai. Chennai residents (and others) can take a tour of the facility to see the RWH systems in action. Seminars specific to builders, masons, companies, school children, and home owners alike will be offered.

The rain centre is located at No 4, Third Trust Link Street, Mandavelipakkam, Chennai 600 028. Work began on this centre in April 2001 and is expected to be ready by May 2002.

The rain centre is intended to be a museum and a laboratory rolled into one. As a museum, it is intended to showcase how an installed RWH system works. Interested people can take our tours, visit the various rooms in the house, see exhibitions on RWH, get pamphlets, and buy books on RWH. As a laboratory, it is intended, to demonstrate a working version of the RWH. We intend to collect and display statistics of how much rain water has been accumulated over time. We also intend to have a water testing facility on site wherein people can test the purity of water.

For a virtual tour of the house, start with Introduction to the rain centre.

Next time, as you are strolling along in the city, look for our telltale sign shown below.

What is Rain Water Harvesting (RWH)?

Rain water harvesting is simply the concept of collecting the rain water that falls over the roof over which you live to be reused for day-to-day water needs. For a more exhaustive description of rain water harvesting, please visit our sister site on the subject: Rain water harvesting - Akash Ganga Chennai

The concept is endorsed by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi. The CSE will provide exhibits and seminar materials to be displayed in the rain centre. The rain centre is Chennai will be the first Rain Centre in India. CSE has interest in duplicating this effort in other cities.

We are constantly seeking active volunteers in our quest to eradicate the water problem in India. There are several ways in which you could volunteer:

If you are in India...

If you are willing to donate your valuable time in providing tours to visitors of the rain centre, please Sekhar Raghavan (see below) with your availability. We can provide training for you to be a tour guide.
If you have installed a RWH system, are reaping the benefits of the lack of water scarcity, and are willing to talk to us about it, write to us and we will publish it on our website.
We are seeking donations for upgrade and maintenance of the rain centre.
We are also seeking donations to install RWH systems for orphanages and in villages. To make a tax-deductible donation in India, please write a check payable to - Akash Ganga Trust- and mail to D15 Bayview Apartments, Kalakshetra Colony, Besant Nagar - Chennai 600 090.
If you are an NRI outside India...

Sponsor the installation of an RWH system at your parent's house or any other orphanage or village of your choice.
In US, we have set up a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization, approved by the IRS, called "Akash Ganga RWH" to accept fully tax deductible donations. We will accept your donations in any amount towards this Rain Centre project. Names of people contributing more than $100 will be displayed in the Rain Centre. Write the Check to: Akash Ganga RWH and mail to: 1653 20th Avenue NW, St. Paul, Minnesota 55112. We will send a proper receipt for your tax records with our sincere thanks.
Please forward the link to this site to other who may wish to contribute. If you are interested in learning more about this project, please contact one of the volunteers listed below.

If you wish to learn more...

If you wish to learn more about rain water harvesting, Akash Ganga Chennai,
or have questions about RWH installation at your place, contact one or more
of our volunteers below:

Name	Location	Phone	Email
K. R. Gopinath	Anna Nagar, Chennai	91 44 625-0697	krgrainwaterharvesting@rediffmail.com
Sekhar Raghavan	Besant Nagar, Chennai		sekar1479@yahoo.co.in
Goutam Ghosh	Chennai		gou@vsnl.net
Chitra Vishwanath	Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore	91 80 364-1690	chitravishwanath@vsnl.com
Ram Krishnan	St. Paul, U.S.A.	(612)867-9425	rkrishnan46@yahoo.com
Kalyan Vaidyanathan	Boston, U.S.A.	(781)641-4875	kalyan_v@hotmail.com

An engineer from IIT, now a farmer

Yesterday i came across one interesting article in Rediff, "An engineer from IIT, now a farmer". I went through the article and found such an interesting one that i wanted to publish the same in my blog, so that any one visiting my blog will be privileged to read this interesting story of a legendary person alive today......

So here we go.......


Off-beat is in. The often beaten track, not so. One of the most interesting themes at this year's Pan-IIT event was the session on rural transformation. IITians who have chosen an offbeat career hogged the limelight at the event. In this series, we feature some of the IITians who preferred to be different, rather than get into a corporate rat race.

The star at the event was R Madhavan, an alumnus of IIT-Madras. This is Madhavan's success story as a farmer. . .

Passion for agriculture

I had a passion for agriculture even when I was young. I don't know how my love for agriculture started. I only know that I have always been a nature lover.

I used to have a garden even when I was a teenager. So, from a home garden, a kitchen garden, I gradually became a farmer! My mother used to be very happy with the vegetables I grew.

Studying at IIT-Madras


My family was against my ambition of becoming an agriculturist. So, I had to find a livelihood for myself.

I wrote IIT-JEE and got selected to study at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. I enjoyed studying mechanical engineering.

My intention was to transform what I study into what I love; mechanisation of farming. I felt the drudgery in farming is much more than in any other industry, and no one had looked into it.

Working for ONGC after IIT

I started my career at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). My father refused to give me any money to start farming. So I asked the officials to let me work at the offshore sites, on the rigs.

The advantage was that I could work on rigs for 14 days and then take 14 days off. I chose to work on the rigs for nine years, uninterrupted.


My first farm land


After 4 years, I saved enough money to buy six acres of land. I bought land at Chengelpet near Chennai.

I chose that land because the plot had access to road and water. Back in 1989, a man in a pair of trousers aroused curiosity among the farming community. That was not the image of a farmer!

Tough beginning as a farmer

I became a full fledged farmer in 1993. It was tough in the beginning. Nobody taught me how to farm. There was no guidance from the gram sevaks or the University of Agriculture.

I ran from pillar to post but couldn't find a single scientist who could help me. I burnt my fingers. My first crop was paddy and I produced 2 tonnes from the six acres of land, it was pathetic.

When I lost all my money, my father said I was stupid. I told him, it didn't matter as I was learning. It was trial and error for me for three years. Until 1997, I was only experimenting by mingling various systems.

Going to Israel to learn


In 1996, I visited Israel because I had heard that they are the best in water technology. Take the case of corn: they harvest 7 tonnes per acre whereas we produce less than a tonne.

They harvest up to 200 tonnes of tomatoes, whereas here it is 6 tonnes, in similar area of land. I stayed in one of the kibbutz, which is a co-operative farm for 15 days.

I understood what we do is quite primitive. It was an eye opener for me. They treat each plant as an industry. A plant producing one kilo of capsicum is an industry that has 1 kilo output.

I learnt from them that we abuse water. Drip irrigation is not only for saving water but it enhances your plant productivity. We commonly practice flood irrigation where they just pump water. As per the 2005 statistics, instead of 1 litre, we use 750 litres of water.

Dr Lakshmanan, my guru


Imet Dr Lakshmanan, a California-based NRI, who has been farming for the last 35 years on 50-60,000 acres of land.

He taught me farming over the last one decade. Whatever little I have learnt, it is thanks to him.

I knew a farm would give me much better returns in terms of money as well as happiness. Working for money and working for happiness are different. I work and get happiness. What more do you need?

No guidance in India

I said at one platform that we have to change the curriculum of the agricultural universities. What they teach the students is not how to farm, but how to draw loans from a bank!

What they learn cannot be transformed to reality or to the villages. The problem in the villages is not mentioned in the university. There is a wide gap and it is getting worse.

Making profits


After burning my fingers for four years, from 1997 onwards, I started making profits.

Even though it took me four years, I did not lose hope. I knew this was my path ven though I didn't have any guidance from anyone.

In those days, communication was slow. Today, I can get guidance from Dr Lakshmanan on Skype or Google Talk, or through e-mail.

I send him the picture of my problem and ask his guidance. In those days, it took time to communicate. There was no Internet or connectivity.

That was why it took me four years to learn farming. Today, I would not have taken more than six months or even less to learn the trick!

The farming cycle


I started crop rotation after 1997. In August, I start with paddy and it is harvested in December.

I plant vegetables in December itself and get the crops in February. After that, it is oil seeds like sesame and groundnut, which are drought-resistant, till May.

During May, I go on trips to learn more about the craft. I come back in June-July and start preparations on the land to get ready for August. In 1999, I bought another four acres. My target is a net income of Rs 100,000 per annum per acre. I have achieved up to Rs 50,000.

Selling the products

I sell my produce on my own. I have a jeep and bring what I produce to my house and sell from there. People know that I sell at home. I don't go through any middle man.

I take paddy to the mill, hull it and sell it on my own. In the future, I have plans to have a mill too. These days, people tell me in advance that they need rice from me. I have no problem selling my produce.

Engineering helps in farming


More than any other education, engineering helps in farming because toiling in the soil is only 20 per cent of the work. About 80 per cent of farming needs engineering skills.

Science is a must for any farming. I have developed a number of simple, farmer-friendly tools for farming areas like seeding, weeding, etc. as we don't have any tools for small farmers.

If I have 200 acres of land, I can go for food processing, etc. My next project is to lease land from the small farmers for agriculture. The village will prosper with food processing industries coming there. My yield will also be more with more land.







Abdul Kalam visits the farm


Dr Abdul Kalam visited my farm when he was the President, after hearing about what I was doing. He spent around two hours on my farm.

During his visit, he said: "We need not one, but one million Madhavans!"

If I am able to inspire or create even one entrepreneur, I will be very happy, because that is what Dr Kalam wished me to do.

Experimental farming

Every acre of my land has ten cents of experimental farming. I have done this for the last 15 years.

This is a part of my research and development. Some of it may fail, but even if I succeed at one thing, that is enough for me.

Entrepreneurship in the village


I feel that the number of people engaged only in farming should come down. Instead of ten people, there should only be two people. I am not saying the eight should go jobless.

What we should do is, create employment in the villages based on other agro activities like value addition, processing, etc.

We can go for mechanisation in large areas so that the cost per acre goes down. In India, the cost per every meal is very high. So, my next concern is, how do you make it cheap.

In America, the unskilled working for one hour can earn three meals a day. Here, in the rural areas, even if they work for one day, they can't get one meal a day. How do you bring down the cost? By producing more food. So, my intention is to make more food.

Food insecurity in India


The United Nations says 65 per cent of the world population suffers from food deficiency, and India ranks first in the list.

About 49 per cent of our children are undernourished. This means our future generation will be affected.

If we are not going to give attention to this area, we are in for real trouble. Food insecurity is more threatening than an atom bomb!


Guys you can send an email to R Madhavan at madhur80@hotmail.com

Why is the Ocean Salty?

Yesterday i was watching comedy show which was being telecast ed in KTV (Kondatam TV). I strangely got one scene where our super comedy actor Mr. Senthil questions Mr. Gowdamani..... Kadal tanni mattum yen annae uppu karrikki (why does the ocean water is salty) for which Mr. Gowdamani doesn't have any answer at all, in fact many people are unaware of this information including myself ;-) . Although this was just a comedy show, but something was eating my bring internally, i really wanted to know why does the ocean water tastes salty. I searched the google and found few information and wanted to share among my respected blog readers.

so here we go......

Why is the Ocean Salty?


All water, even rain water, contains dissolved chemicals which scientists call "salts." But not all water tastes salty. Water is fresh or salty according to individual judgment, and in making this decision man is more convinced by his sense of taste than by a laboratory test. It is one's taste buds that accept one water and reject another.
A simple experiment illustrates this. Fill three glasses with water from the kitchen faucet. Drink from one and it tastes fresh even though some dissolved salts are naturally present. Add a pinch of table salt to the second, and the water may taste fresh or slightly salty depending on a personal taste threshold and on the amount of salt held in a "pinch." But add a teaspoon of salt to the third and your taste buds vehemently protest that this water is too salty to drink; this glass of water has about the same salt content as a glass of sea water.
Obviously, the ocean, in contrast to the water we use daily, contains unacceptable amounts of dissolved chemicals; it is too salty for human consumption.

HOW SALTY IS THE OCEAN?...
How salty the ocean is, however, defies ordinary comprehension. Some scientists estimate that the oceans contain as much as 50 quadrillion tons (50 million billion tons) of dissolved solids.

If the salt in the sea could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet thick, about the height of a 40-story office building. The saltiness of the ocean is more understandable when compared with the salt content of a fresh-water lake. For example, when 1 cubic foot of sea water evaporates it yields about 2.2 pounds of salt, but 1 cubic foot of fresh water from Lake Michigan contains only one one-hundredth (0.01) of a pound of salt, or about one sixth of an ounce. Thus, sea water is 220 times saltier than the fresh lake water. What arouses the scientist's curiosity is not so much why the ocean is salty, but why it isn't fresh like the rivers and streams that empty into it. Further, what is the origin of the sea and of its "salts"? And how does one explain ocean water's remarkably uniform chemical composition? To these and related questions, scientists seek answers with full awareness that little about the oceans is understood.


Illustration: Sources of salts in the ocean.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SEA...
In popular language, "ocean" and "sea" are used interchangeably. Today's seas are the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans and the Antarctic waters or seas.
Scientists believe that the seas are as much as 500 million years old because animals that lived then occur as fossils in rocks which once were under ancient seas. There are several theories about the origin of the seas, but no single theory explains all aspects of this puzzle. Many earth scientists agree with the hypothesis that both the atmosphere and the oceans have accumulated gradually through geologic time from some process of "degassing" of the Earth's interior. According to this theory, the ocean had its origin from the prolonged escape of water vapor and other gases from the molten igneous rocks of the Earth to the clouds surrounding the cooling Earth. After the Earth's surface had cooled to a temperature below the boiling point of water, rain began to fall and continued to fall for centuries. As the water drained into the great hollows in the Earth's surface, the primeval ocean came into existence. The forces of gravity prevented the water from leaving the planet.

SOURCES OF THE SALTS...
Sea water has been defined as a weak solution of almost everything. Ocean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, the wearing down of mountains, and the dissolving action of rains and streams which transported their mineral washings to the sea. Some of the ocean's salts have been dissolved from rocks and sediments below its floor. Other sources of salts include the solid and gaseous materials that escaped from the Earth's crust through volcanic vents or that originated in the atmosphere.

IF FRESH WATER FLOWS OUT TO THE SEA, WHY IS THE SEA STILL SALTY?...
The Mississippi, Amazon, and Yukon Rivers empty respectively into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, all of which are salty. Why aren't the oceans as fresh as the river waters that empty into them? Because the saltiness of the ocean is the result of several natural influences and processes, the salt load of the streams entering the ocean is just one of these factors.

In the beginning the primeval seas must have been only slightly salty. But ever since the first rains descended upon the young Earth hundreds of millions of years ago and ran over the land breaking up rocks and transporting their minerals to the seas, the ocean has become saltier. It is estimated that the rivers and streams flowing from the United States alone discharge 225 million tons of dissolved solids and 513 million tons of suspended sediment annually to the sea. Recent calculations show yields of dissolved solids from other land masses that range from about 6 tons per square mile for Australia to about 120 tons per square mile for Europe. Throughout the world, rivers carry an estimated 4 billion tons of dissolved salts to the ocean annually. About the same tonnage of salt from the ocean water probably is deposited as sediment on the ocean bottom, and thus, yearly gains may offset yearly losses. In other words, the oceans today probably have a balanced salt input and outgo.

Past accumulations of dissolved and suspended solids in the sea do not explain completely why the ocean is salty. Salts become concentrated in the sea because the Sun's heat distills or vaporizes almost pure water from the surface of the sea and leaves the salts behind. This process is part of the continual exchange of water between the Earth and the atmosphere that is called the hydrologic cycle. Water vapor rises from the ocean surface and is carried landward by the winds. When the vapor collides with a colder mass of air, it condenses (changes from a gas to a liquid) and falls to Earth as rain. The rain runs off into streams which in turn transport water to the ocean. Evaporation from both the land and the ocean again causes water to return to the atmosphere as vapor and the cycle starts anew. The ocean, then, is not fresh like river water because of the huge accumulation of salts by evaporation and the contribution of raw salts from the land. In fact, since the first rainfall, the seas have become saltier.

SEA WATER IS NOT SIMPLE...
Scientists have studied the ocean's water for more than a century, but they still do not have a complete understanding of its chemical composition. This is partly due to the lack of precise methods and procedures for measuring the constituents in sea water. Some of the problems confronting scientists stem from the enormous size of the oceans, which cover about 70 percent of the Earth's surface, and the complex chemical system inherent in a marine environment in which constituents of sea water have intermingled over vast periods of time. At least 72 chemical elements have been identified in sea water, most in extremely small amounts. Probably all the Earth's naturally occurring elements exist in the sea. Elements may combine in various ways and form insoluble products (or precipitates) that sink to the ocean floor. But even these precipitates are subject to chemical alteration because of the overlying sea water which continues to exert its environmental influence.

SALINITY AND ITS VARIABILITY...
Oceanographers report salinity (total salt content) and the concentrations of individual chemical constituents in sea water -- chloride, sodium, or magnesium for example -- in parts per thousand, for which the symbol o/oo is used. That is, a salinity of 35 o/oo means 35 pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of sea water. Similarly, a sodium concentration of 10 o/oo means 10 pounds of sodium per 1,000 pounds of water.

The salinity of ocean water varies. It is affected by such factors as melting of ice, inflow of river water, evaporation, rain, snowfall, wind, wave motion, and ocean currents that cause horizontal and vertical mixing of the saltwater.

THE SALTIEST WATER...
The saltiest water (40 o/oo ) occurs in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where rates of evaporation are very high. Of the major oceans, the North Atlantic is the saltiest; its salinity averages about 37.9 o/oo. Within the North Atlantic, the saltiest part is the Sargasso Sea, an area of about 2 million square miles, located about 2,000 miles west of the Canary Islands. The Sargasso Sea is set apart from the open ocean by floating brown seaweed "sargassum" from which the sea gets its name. The saltiness of this sea is due in part to the high water temperature (up to 83º F) causing a high rate of evaporation and in part to its remoteness from land; because it is so far from land, it receives no fresh-water inflow.

Low salinities occur in polar seas where the salt water is diluted by melting ice and continued precipitation. Partly landlocked seas or coastal inlets that receive substantial runoff from precipitation falling on the land also may have low salinities. The Baltic Sea ranges in salinity from about 5 to 15 o/oo. The salinity of the Black Sea is less than 20 o/oo. Water of the Puget Sound in the Tacoma, Wash., area ranges in salt content from 21 to about 27 o/oo. This area is drained by a number of fresh-water streams which discharge an average of about 4.1 billion gallons of water per day into Puget Sound. Salinity of sea water along the coastal areas of the conterminous United States varies with the month of the year as well as with geographic location. For example, the salinity of the ocean water off Miami Beach, Fla., varies from about 34.8 o/oo in October to 36.4 o/oo in May and June, while diagonally across the country, off the coast of Astoria, Oregon, the salinity of sea water varies from 0.3 o/oo in April and May to 2.6 o/oo in October. The water off the coast of Miami Beach has a high salt content because it is undiluted sea water. Off the coast of Astoria, however, the sea water is less saline because it is mixed with the fresh water of the mighty Columbia.

Sometimes river water travels far from shore before it mixes with sea water. This is shown by data gathered from a study of the Columbia River, which, in an average year, carries to the ocean enough water to cover an area of 1 million acres to a depth of 197 feet. Using a radio- active tracer, scientists at Oregon State University have followed the river's water from its mouth near Astoria to a point southwest of Coos Bay, 217 miles away.

The salt content of the open oceans, free from land influences, is rarely less than 33 o/oo and seldom more than 38 o/oo. Throughout the world, the salinity of sea water averages about 35 o/oo. This average salinity was obtained by William Dittmar in 1884 from chemical analyses of 77 sea water samples collected from many parts of the world during the scientific expedition of the British corvette, H.M.S. Challenger. The Challenger expedition, organized by the British Government at the suggestion of the Royal Society, set out to study the biology of the sea, examine the chemical and physical properties of the water, sample deposits on the ocean floor, and measure water temperatures. The voyage began in 1872 and ended almost 4 years later after covering 68,890 nautical miles. This expedition remains today the longest continuous scientific investigation of the ocean basins. Dittmar's 77 samples are still the only worldwide set of samples of sea water for which complete data (each principal constituent) on chemical composition are available. More recent data, reflecting improvements in analytical and sampling techniques, show slight deviations from Dittmar's results, but these changes do not affect the overall usefulness of his work. The average composition of the 77 samples is as shown on the following table.






The salinity of water in the open sea is not fixed at 35 o/oo even in areas distant from land; that figure is only an average. On a worldwide basis, a maximum salinity of 36 o/oo occurs at about latitudes 20º N. and 20º S. The average salinity of sea water, 35 o/oo , occurs at the Equator. A minimum salinity of 31 o/oo corresponds approximately with latitude 60º N., whereas lowest salinities of 33 o/oo in the Southern Hemisphere occur at latitude 60º S. At the Equator, where salinity is 35 o/oo, the dilution of sea water by rain is offset by the loss of water by evaporation. But in the latitudes bordering the Equator the opposite condition prevails -- evaporation exceeds rainfall because high temperatures plus increased winds accelerate evaporation losses.


HOW SEA LIFE AFFECTS SEA WATER'S COMPOSITION...
Inasmuch as the oceans receive most of their water from the rivers, the ratios (as distinguished from the total amounts) of different chemical constituents should be about the same in both regardless of total salt content. But this is not so. Comparisons of Dittmar's data on ocean water with the average salt concentrations in river waters of the world is as shown on the preceding table (above).


Sea water and river water obviously are very different from each other:
(1) Sodium and chloride (the components of common table salt) constitute a little more than 85 percent of the dissolved solids in ocean water and give to the water its characteristic salty taste, but they represent less than 16 percent of the salt content of river water.

(2) Rivers carry to the sea more calcium than chloride, but the oceans nevertheless contain about 46 times more chloride than calcium.

(3) Silica is a significant constituent of river water but not of sea water.

(4) Calcium and bicarbonate account for nearly 50 percent of the dissolved solids in river water yet constitute less than 2 percent of the dissolved solids in ocean water. These variations seem contrary to what one would expect.

Part of the explanation is the role played by marine life -- animals and plants -- in ocean water's composition. Sea water is not simply a solution of salts and dissolved gases unaffected by living organisms in the sea. Mollusks (oysters, clams, and mussels, for example) extract calcium from the sea to build their shells and skeletons. Foraminifers (very small one-celled sea animals) and crustaceans (such as crabs, shrimp, lobsters, and barnacles) likewise take out large amounts of calcium salts to build their bodies. Coral reefs, common in warm tropical seas, consist mostly of limestone (calcium carbonate) formed over millions of years from the skeletons of billions of small corals and other sea animals. Plankton (tiny floating animal and plant life) also exerts control on the composition of sea water. Diatoms, members of the plankton community, require silica to form their shells and they draw heavily on the ocean's silica for this purpose.

Some marine organisms concentrate or secrete chemical elements that are present in such minute amounts in sea water as to be almost undetectable: Lobsters concentrate copper and cobalt; snails secrete lead; the sea cucumber extracts vanadium; and sponges and certain seaweeds remove iodine from the sea.

Sea life has a strong influence on the composition of sea water. However, some elements in sea water are not affected to any apparent extent by plant or animal life. For example, no known biological process removes the element sodium from the sea.

In addition to biological influences, the factors of solubility and physical-chemical reaction rates also help to explain the composition of sea water. The solubility of a constituent may limit its concentration in sea water. Excess calcium (more calcium than the water can hold) may be precipitated out of the water and deposited on the sea floor as calcium carbonate. Presumably as a result of physical-chemical reactions not well understood, the metal manganese occurs as nodules in many places on the ocean floor. Similarly, phosphorite (phosphate rock) is found in large amounts on the sea bottom off southern California and in lesser amounts in several other places.

NEAR-CONSTANT RATIOS OF MAJOR CONSTITUENTS...
Although the composition of sea water differs from that of river water, the proportions of the major constituents of sea water are almost constant throughout the world. Dittmar's 77 samples showed no significant global differences in relative composition, and his average concentrations are used today to represent the ratios of major constituents in sea water. The analyses, which Dittmar made over a period of 9 years, further showed that chloride, sodium, magnesium, sulfate, calcium, and potassium make up 99 percent of the dissolved solids in sea water. Dittmar's findings may be expressed in another way: although the salinity or total salt content may vary from place to place, the ratio of any one major constituent of sea water (chloride as an example) to the total content is nearly constant. However, the ratios of the less abundant elements (aluminum, copper, tin, and bismuth, for example) to total salt content are not constant nor are those of dissolved gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. But establishment of the near constancy of the ratios of major constituents of sea water is important because it enables scientists to measure one principal element and then, by projection of ratios and correction for temperature and pressure, to calculate the other components in the water, thereby determining its salinity.

SUMMARY...
The ocean is salty because of the gradual concentration of dissolved chemicals eroded from the Earth's crust and washed into the sea. Solid and gaseous ejections from volcanoes, suspended particles swept to the ocean from the land by onshore winds, and materials dissolved from sediments deposited on the ocean floor have also contributed. Salinity is increased by evaporation or by freezing of sea ice and it is decreased as a result of rainfall, runoff, or the melting of ice. The average salinity of sea water is 35 o/oo, but concentrations as high as 40 o/oo are observed in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Salinities are much less than average in coastal waters, in the polar seas, and near the mouths of large rivers.

Sea water not only is much saltier than river water but it also differs in the proportion of the various salts. Sodium and chloride constitute 85 percent of the dissolved solids in sea water and account for the characteristic salty taste. Certain constituents in sea water, such as calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, and silica, are partly taken out of solution by biological organisms, chemical precipitation, or physical-chemical reactions. In open water the chemical composition of sea water is nearly constant. Because of the stable ratios of the principal constituents to total salt content, the determination of one major constituent can be used to calculate sea water salinity. For minor constituents and dissolved gases the composition is variable and therefore ratios cannot be used to calculate salt Circulation and mixing, density and ocean currents, wind action, water temperature, solubility, and biochemical reactions are some of the factors that explain why the composition of water in the open sea is almost constant from place to place.

DID I MARRY THE RIGHT PERSON

For all Married and Going-to be married persons…J

DID I MARRY THE RIGHT PERSON?

During one of our seminars, a woman asked a common question. She said, How do I know if I married the right person?'
I noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so I said, 'It Depends. Is that your husband?'
In all seriousness, she answered 'How do you know?'
Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it's Weighing on your mind.

Here's the answer:
EVERY relationship has a cycle. In the beginning, you fell in love with Your spouse. You anticipated their call, wanted their touch, and liked
Their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love with your spouse wasn't hard. In fact, it was a Completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn't have to DO anything. That's why it's called 'falling' in love... Because it's happening TO YOU.

People in love sometimes say, 'I was swept of my feet.' Think about the Imagery of that expression. It implies that you were just standing There;
Doing nothing, and then something came along and happened TO YOU.
Falling in love is easy. It's a passive and spontaneous experience.

But after a few years of marriage, the euphoria of love fades. It's the Natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls Become
A bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive
You nuts.

The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship, but if you Think about your marriage, you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage. At this point, you and/or your spouse might start
Asking, 'Did I marry The right person?' And as you and your spouse reflect on the euphoria of The love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when marriages breakdown. People blame their spouse for their Unhappiness and look outside their marriage for fulfillment.

Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is The most obvious. But sometimes people turn to work, church, a hobby, a
Friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your marriage. It lies within it. I'm not
Saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You Could. And TEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few years later. Because (listen carefully to this):
THE KEY TO SUCCEEDING IN MARRIAGE IS NOT FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON; IT'S LEARNING TO LOVE THE PERSON YOU FOUND.

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. It'll NEVER just happen to you. You can't 'find' LASTING love. You have to 'make' it day in and day out. That's why we have the expression 'the labor of love.' Because it takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it Takes WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make your marriage work. Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific Things you can do (with or without your spouse) to succeed with your marriage. Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), There are also laws for relationships. Just as the right diet and exercise Program makes you physically stronger, certain habits in your Relationship WILL make your marriage stronger. It's a direct cause and effect. If you know and apply the laws, the results are predictable... You can 'make' love.
Love in Marriage is indeed a 'Decision'... Not just a Feeling.

'We forget that forgiveness is greater than revenge. People make mistakes. We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage will haunt us forever. Pause and ponder. Think before you act.

Be Patient. Forgive & Forget. Love One and All.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them'. -- Mother Teresa

Never take some one for granted . Hold every person Close to your Heart because you might wake up one day and realise that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones.' Remember this always in life.

"LIFE is not a problem to be solved, but a GIFT to be enjoyed!"

My First Step

This is my first BLOG entry. Frankly I didnt have the time. I now realize that there is so much information that I come across that is truly useful and I dont always have time to write an article. In many cases the ideas dont require an entire article anyway. Blogging seems to make a lot of sense as an actual time saver for me. Thanks for reading and I hope all my time and effort helps (or at least entertains) you on many levels.

Sincerely,
Vimaldev