A view of the geology of the Northern Rivers of New England, New South Wales. Includes thoughts on the formation of the regions volcanoes (Mount Warning, Ebor and others), groundwater, the Clarence Moreton Basin, recent sedimentation, gas (including coal seam gas), mineralization in the eastern part of the southern New England Orogen and more.
What is the geological influence in the Northern Rivers and New England areas of Australia that provide us with the beauty and diversity we see today?
Every year the Big Scrub Landcare group and many other supporters put together a very interesting day. There are many exhibitors for those interested in natural resource management and restoration, tours of various kinds and workshops. This year is a particularly big year with the Big Scrub day occurring in conjunction with the Rous Water open day. There will be many formal presentations starting off with a key note address by Robyn Williams from ABC's science show. There will also be a lot of emphasis on what is below the ground this year with a presentations including:
'geology of the big scrub';
'the big scrub - a ground water dependent ecosystem';
'future water strategy' (which involves groundwater as a key component); and
'ground water and CSG'
I think this year will be very interesting so if you are in the area on Sunday the 12th of October come out to Rocky Creek Dam and have a look around. Maybe I'll see you there (I am actually presenting a short lecture). The schedule for the day is provided above.
A post a little off topic again today. This post is motivated by several related stories in the media. The first is a follow up from an earlier blog post where I criticised the Australian ABC for reporting an eruption in Iceland that was not even confirmed. A day or two later a large eruption occurred in our closest neighbour Papua New Guinea. The eruption was very large and was not even reported by the ABC – though it was picked up by ABC America! It occurred at Tavurvur Volcano near the mostly abandoned city of Rabaul.
On the 11th of September it will be the 100 year anniversary of Australia’s first military engagement in World War 1. Australian soldiers and sailors attacked German positions in the then German Colony of New Guinea. This first engagement, in which both Australian, German and ‘native’ soldiers were killed occurred near Rabaul. The occupation by Australian Soldiers led to Australian administration over Papua New Guinea until 1975. A short account of the battle can be read on the Australian War Memorial Website.
Finally, on the weekend a tourist recorded the moment when Tavurvur volcano erupted again. Though not as large an eruption as the initial one, the power of the volcano is clearly visible. The Youtube video shows massive lava bombs (probably bigger than cars) falling after the eruption and spectacularly a shockwave travelling through the air and hitting the camera. It is worth watching.
Too often we, in Australia forget that we have neighbours. Our news seems to be from the USA, UK a few European countries and ‘home’. But we always seem to forget our near neighbours, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor and New Zealand. Let’s not forget the Solomon Islands and even France too (New Caledonia). I’ve previously posted on Indonesia and now I’ve mentioned in passing Papua New Guinea. These are important countries to know about and are so interesting in many ways, one of which is geology. It is beyond the scope of this blog to look in detail at these countries but we should as they affect us, even the geology of those places
Sometimes it is important to get your geological references in the right order. Here is a cartoon by Chris Slane illustrating just how important it is to get an accurate geological library.
