River Indus

Indus River Pakistan Jemez River New Mexico, USA... 

Tariq, J., Ashraf, M., Jaffar, M. and Afzal, M. (1996) Pollution status of the Indus River, Pakistan, through heavy metal and macronutrient contents of fish, sediment and water. Water Research, 30(6), 1337-44. 

Asia. Large rivers of Asia are clearly the less well documented in terms of trace-element concentrations. This is mainly due to their low abundances of trace elements, probably related to their high pH character. A couple of studies have focused on the riverine input of metals to the Arctic and Pacihc oceans. Himalayan rivers have not been documented for REEs (except the Indus river), but have been analyzed for particular elements such as strontium, uranium, osmium, and radium. There is clearly a need for data on trace elements in the rivers of Asia, particularly in the highly turbid peri-Himalayan rivers. 

Karim A. and Veizer J. (2000) Weathering processes in the Indus River Basin implications from riverine carbon, sulfur, oxygen and strontium isotopes. Chem. Geol. 170, 153-177. 

Pande K., Sarin M. M., Trivedi J. R., Krishnaswami S., and Sharma K. K. (1994) The Indus River system (India-Pakistan) major-ion chemistry, uranium and strontium isotopes. Chem. Geol. 116, 245 -259. 

Singh S. K., Trivedi J. R., Pande K., Ramesh R., and Krishnaswami S. (1998) Chemical and strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotopic compositions of carbonates from the Lesser Himalaya impheations to the strontium isotope composition of the source waters of the Ganga, Ghaghara, and the Indus rivers. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 62(5), 743-755. 

Bano, N., Nisa, M.-U., Khan, N., Saleem, M., Harrison, P.J., Ahmed, S.I. and Azam, F. (1997) Significance of bacteria in the flux of organic matter in the tidal creeks of the mangrove ecosystem of the Indus River delta, Pakistan. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 157, 1-12. 

Persian emperor Darius makes the first recorded reference to sugar when he refers to the sugar cane growing on the hanks of the Indus River. 

Fed by melting snow from the Himalayas, the Indus River and its tributaries sustain life in central Pakistan. South Asia s first urbanized civilization developed in the Indus River valley in the period 2600-1900 B.c. An archaeologist posed the question, With whom were the residents of the Indus Civilization interacting when they acquired rock and mineral resources " Many archaeological rock and mineral artifacts were studied, but we will focus on silver ornaments found at Allahdino and Mohenjo-daro (Figure 20-19). 

Figure 20-20 Lead isotope ratios of silver ornaments compared with isotope ratios from known lead ore sources near the Indus River basin. Most isotope ratios from ornaments found near Allahdino match the ore composition from South Balochistan. Isotope ratios from ornaments found near Mohenjo-daro are similar to those from South Rajasthan and from one mine in Oman. [Adapted from R. W. Law and j. H. Burton, Am. Lab. News Ed., September 2008, p. 14 R. W. Law. Inter-Regional Interaction and Urbanism in the Ancient Indus Valley (Kyoto Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 2010).]... 

Archeologists have found that cooks in the ancient Indus River civilization over 4000 years ago used ginger and turmeric, but not chillis. Starch grains from human teeth, like residues inside a cooking pot, contained these spices. So spicy food yes, but curries no. 

The oldest textiles made from cotton originated around 5800 BC. Remains of cotton capsules and textiles were found in a cave near Tehuacan in Mexico. From excavation sites at the lower part of the Indus River in Pakistan, fragments of fabrics and laces were discovered, dated at 3000 BC (Koch, 1964). Recent excavations revealed cotton seeds more than 9000 years old. In Europe, cotton was not known until the Middle Ages. Around AD 1000, it was imported by Arabs via North Africa to Sicily and Spain and was cultivated there also. 

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