OzGeographics

Just a quick post to draw attention to a great YouTuber... and to keep a post or two going to show that this blog is still active (just). The YouTube channel is OzGeographics and can be found here OzGeographics - YouTube. However, I need to draw attention to a really good video which outlines a lot of the geological history of the northeast of this state, this video I found really interesting because it also shows just how potentially devastating the volcanism in our region was. Super-volcano after super-volcano apparently formed much of the New England and Northern Tablelands areas.

The Chain of Super Volcanoes That Caused The Worst Mass Extinction on Earth - YouTube

Climate Change, Cloud-seeding, Floods, and Volcanic Mayhem

The Earth’s dynamics are complex and interrelated. For example, the chemical composition of magma below volcanoes in Indonesia has historically been linked to crop failures in Europe! This example from the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, where it is thought that temperatures caused the “the Year without a summer”. Meronen et al (2012) demonstrated that the gasses (such as sulphur dioxide) released from volcanic eruptions will have severe impacts on weather systems. These weather impacts include temperature but are also likely to cause other impacts either directly or indirectly, particularly precipitation resulting in major floods, particularly in Europe (Fagan 2000); though elsewhere there were flooding events that are apparently correlated. These floods often caused catastrophic damage.

Recently, of course, many many people have been affected in some way by, in some places, the worst floods recorded since, well, records have been documented in Australia. I've seen a few explanations of the "why" including the following three main ones:

• On social media I’ve seen the flooding attributed to the practice of “cloud seeding”, 

• I’ve also seen in the broader media the flooding attributed solely to anthropogenic climate change.

• The Bureau of Meterology lies the blame squarely on La Nina.

I’ll address all of the above and raise a hypothesis which is different, but in some way related to all of them.

Cloud seeding (introducing chemicals or particles into the atmosphere to encourage water droplets to form or increase in size) is sometimes recognised a as mechanism to increase the chance of rainfall. It is worth noting though, that statistically it is very difficult to prove that cloud seeding does much at all. The technique (if it can be called that), is applied mainly at dry times on the ground but when there is moderate atmospheric water content. Cloud seeding was tested in South East Queensland during the desperately bad drought from 2006 (Tessendorf et al 2012), though it was not possible to determine if clouds were formed due to the seeding material, or simply due to natural updrafts of air (one of the ways that clouds are formed naturally). I can find no record that cloud seeding took place in eastern Australia preceding the weather event, but it is worth noting that the volume/mass of seeding material needed would rule out seeding as causing the huge scale of rainfall.

The second reason I outlined above, is anthropogenic climate change. It is unfortunate that this has been attributed as a cause by many public figures and organisations, because it is impossible to attribute a single weather event to a climatic situation. Climate is a statistical representation of longer-term weather patterns and so one weather event does not demonstrate the climate, or a climate change. I will also note that if climate change was a factor in this weather event it is different from observed extreme weather events in Australia, where over the last several decades the incidence and frequency of storms and floods has decreased. Even models of storm frequency shows a decrease in frequency and a higher rate of break up of storms before impacting on the Australian landmass due to anthropogenic climate change (e.g. Abbs 2012). So, I have trouble pinning this flood event on anthropogenic climate change, or even natural climate change.

The third reason outlined seems to be the most likely of the three listed, and indeed I cannot argue with it much, except to potentially add a geological factor. Yes, you guessed it, volcanic eruptions. On the 15th of January this year, there was an extreme eruption of the Hunga Tonga –Hunga Ha'apai volcano. On facebook I re-posted a video, that demonstrated the scale of the eruption. The immediate particulates and aerosols (including sulphur dioxide) generated by the eruption past through the atmosphere across northern Queensland in the next several days. This material continued to circulate in various levels in the atmosphere over the subsequent weeks. So, a hypothesis is that if you combine the increased air moisture as a result of Coral Sea water temperature during this El Nina weather pattern we are in, combined with the blocking high pressure system in southern Australia (a common Australian summer climatic feature), with the natural effect of a huge volume of natural “cloud seeding” sourced from the volcanic eruption, this may have resulted in the extreme rainfall in eastern Australia. This would reflect the historical impacts on weather and floods resulting from volcanic events elsewhere in the world over recorded history, and reasonable enough that I think it worth considering.

Of course, speculation as to the “why” does not help those who have been so adversely affected (even killed) during the floods, but having some idea as to “why” can help us plan for future weather events. As a former Lismore resident, my thoughts go out to those in Lismore as well as those further up and down the coastal strip who are still living through the damage of the floods.

For some old posts on how volcanic eruptions from the Tonga area can affect the beaches of our coastline click here: 

Pacific Islands on Holiday to the North Coast

Tonga Comes to Visit Again

References/bibliography:

*Abbs, D. (2012). The impact of climate change on the climatology of tropical cyclones in the Australia region. CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship Working paper No.11.

*Fagan, B (2000) The little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850, Basic Books, New York.

*Meronen, H. et al (2012) Climate effects of northern hemisphere volcanic eruptions in an Earth System Model, Atmospheric Research, pp107-118.

*Tessendorf, S.A. et al (2012) The Queensland Cloud Seeding Research Program, American Meteorological Society, vol 93: issue 1.

Appealing to Authority

I have previously provided some opinion posts (such as this one) which I take some digs at the state of scientific research at university level in the world today. However, only recently, and potentially ironically, I want to draw attention to a paper was published on 21 May in Science Advances by two researchers from the university of California (Serra-Garcia & Gneezy 2021). This paper is one which I think appears to prove through robust statistical methods that the process of science research dissemination is badly broken.

If I were to paraphrase Serra-Garcia & Gneezy (2021) it is that the most cited articles in the most ‘reputable’ journals turn out to be false. This seems to apply more to the most ‘reputable’ journals such as Nature, Science and the like as these journals tend to publish more ‘groundbreaking’ research articles. Alas, the research that ends up disproving these 'groundbreaking' research articles are boring, so they not published in the ‘reputable’ journals.


Even worse, Serra-Garcia & Gneezy (2021) have shown that between 40%-62% of studies published in the journals Nature and Science have never been successfully replicated.

The end result is that falsified work is more accessible and more cited than the paper that debunks the original research. Serra-Garcia & Gneezy (2021) show that even after research published in a prestigious journal are proved wrong, the level of citation that still gets positively referred to by other researches to back up their research incredibly frequently occurs 300 times more often than the debunking papers. Specifically, the article states shows that non-replicable publications are cited even more after the replication study is published, and persistence of the citation is not explained by negative citations.

In my mind this demonstrates that falsified science can become the accepted science and an enormous amount of further research is built upon this falsified science; or even that false papers are cited more often than good ones.

Universities measure success of their academics and their papers by the number of citations they have received and by the impact factor of the journal (Nature and Science have some of the biggest impact factors). Therefore, it is possible that this is creating a result that the worst researchers (often the most ‘progressive’) are cited and rewarded the most by their universities and funding bodies. Whereas, good science and good researches are relegated… I wonder if you still can judge a paper by the number of citations it has, but counter-intuitively, the more citations the more likely the paper is wrong!

In summary, keep on questioning. Don’t trust research just because an ‘expert in the field’ wrote it or because it is published in a ‘reputable’ or ‘prestigious’ journal. 

Note: I use the word reputable to actually mean headline-grabbing.

The paper is available in full here.

Bottled Tweed Shire Spring Water - The Biffo!

I’ve been meaning to address the ‘bottled spring water' discussions that have been going on for quite some time in the Northern Rivers. I guess better late than never is OK. The recent request by Tweed Shire Council for comment on their draft planning proposal made me think it was worth putting some ideas up now. This is not a very technical post, more of a bureaucratic process one. Note it does not include surface water issues which are legally very similar and tied up with groundwater, it also does not consider the other issues such as road damage from haulage of water, construction of water supply pipelines etc). To be very clear... this is also tagged as an opinion post. It contains my personal views and opinions on the matter - they can be very different from yours! Feel free to let me know what your opinion is in the comments section below.

Can't find a relevant photo... so this will do!

To give some background, groundwater in the Tweed Valley is derived from two main aquifer types, either deep fractured rocks of the (administratively called the New England Fold Belt Coast Groundwater Source), or shallow groundwater systems of the sediments of recent alluvium (Such as the Tweed Alluvium Water Source). I understand that most (or is it all?) of the groundwater that is extracted in the Tweed Valley that ends up in water bottles is from the deeper groundwater source.

 

Tweed Council is proposing to prohibit new water bottling facilities in rural zoned areas of the shire. One of the reasons overly simplistically outlined for this proposal by the Tweed Daily News is that “there is not enough data on groundwater resources to fully understand the environmental impacts of the industry”. The Planning proposal document also says “…there was a perception that water belongs to the community and should not be used for private profit”.

This raised my eyebrow. 

Access to groundwater in NSW is controlled by the state government. This is in two forms: 

1. 1. The actual well or borehole that is to extract water is licenced by the state. 

When and individual wants to install a bore a water supply works approval application must be made to WaterNSW. Staff experienced in groundwater (including hydrogeologists) assess the application against plans (Water Sharing Plans) that have been developed to protect the environment from badly extracted water, including too much extracted water over periods of time, the possible impact on neighbouring groundwater bores and groundwater dependent ecosystems.  

2. 2.Water is owned by people and companies. The water itself when not used for basic landholder rights (e.g. stock and domestic) is licenced by the state and capped based on the water source (Water Sharing Plans). There is no automatic community right to any water unless it is basic rights water – which the Water Sharing Plans prohibit from being adversely affected. 

If an individual wants to extract water that is not for basic landholder rights they must buy water from some other producer in the water source. This means that the amount of water extracted cannot be increased. The plans that are in place also place a limit on how much water for different uses can be extracted from a source. I think the category of water in the case of bottling water would be Industrial Use. The limits on water have been set by hydrogeologists and state planners and are outlined in the Water Sharing Plans.

Slight differences to the above process are where a development is classed as state significant development, these are assessed in an even more detailed way (and by another organisation – the new Natural Resources Access Regulator). However, even in this case the extraction rules in the Water Sharing Plans cannot be ignored. 

In addition, the NSW Chief Scientist is due to release its final report on the impact of the water bottling industry on the North Coast. Being a state government review conducted by hydrogeologists this review has the potential to be the most useful for decision making and can directly feed into modifying the Water Sharing Plans or other licencing processes if there is shown to be a deficiency.  

Given that water is managed by the state government I was surprised to see that there is an expectation by some that Tweed Council should seek to manage water using local planning instruments. It is interesting that if a bottling plant is proposed in a rural area in the Tweed it requires Council consent now, and concurrence from other environmental agencies. In fact local government is legally required to refer such matters on to the appropriate state government department for these matters.  

I’m not saying this is the wrong way to manage water it is just, in my view, a very novel and creative way given the state has ultimate authority over water resources. How can a local government place rules that stop new water bottling plants to be constructed, but cannot stop water that is legally owed by someone and allowed to be used for that purpose under state rules? I guess this is one way you can… but a very cumbersome and possibly unnecessary way? If there is an expectation that the community owns the water, should the community actually be buying the water? I don’t fully know, as always I have more questions than answers! 

Anyway, the draft proposal in on public exhibition until the 17th of September 2019. Go to www.yoursdaytweed.com.au/waterbottling for more information or to make a submission.

Cutting Through Mysterious Granite on a Country Highway

Australia is known for its remoteness. There are some quite remote areas in the Northern Rivers too. Along the escarpment there are rugged areas and visitors are rare. This means that sometimes rocks even though mapped broadly have geological units that have not been researched enough to relate them to surrounding units. It is a rare thing though, and rarely have rock units not been named, and categorised, even rarer is when a rock is found by the side of one of the national highways!

un-categorized granite on the New England Highway, Glencoe

The picture shows a granite that is currently mapped as "unassigned Permian intrusive - felsic". There may have been some investigations here in the past. I just can't believe some place so obvious like this one has not been investigated in detail.

Blog Update #8

The Rocks of the Region page has been a big success and will continue to be expanded on. Unfortunately I've had very little time to do some actual blog posts recently. This is not for want of material (there is a huge range of topics and places just asking to be covered) but due to a change in my work commitments. I have taken up a new job with much longer days and therefore my free time is very limited. I have also relocated away from Lismore to Armidale and taken my family with me. We are still very much settling in.

Thank you to all the readers out there. I hope that I can continue to build a blog that is a good resource for the community to use. I guess there are people still reading this blog since there are more than 150 000 page views!

Coming up soon... what is going on with this rock?

Coming up

Science, Philosophy and Politics

It is popular these days to start with a narrative and make the data fit in. Rarely do we think about alternative hypotheses other than our own already established professional narrative. Because researchers today rely on their reputation they must defend their theories or apparently loose credibility. Ironically, the most credible scientists are those willing to admit they may be incorrect.

Scientists today often delve into the areas of political intrigue. When this happens the scientists pet narrative becomes a fortress that must be protected. No one can criticize it because the scientist will see it as a personal affront since his whole credibility has been placed on the line. This in turn turns peers off from suggesting alternative hypotheses because they know if they make such a suggestion the whole thing will become a fight. Even suggesting an alternative that is not as popular as the politically expedient one can result in aggression, ostracism and public ridicule. No wonder scientists often find hiding in their laboratories the most rewarding experience!

When scientific concepts are backed by politics you know that you are onto ground that is not necessarily scientific. So with that in mind, here is a diagram that covers all the issues today that arise during scientific inquiry. This includes the moral, philosophical and political reasons for undertaking scientific research.

 

As a geological example that was publicized a couple of years ago in Nature on the problems with the mantle plume hypothesis. Even though the article recognizes many problems with the theory it demeans a group of scientists who have proposed alternatives that fit a wider range of data. It gently denegrates an alternative hypothesis by suggesting only a small number and therefore fringe group have advanced the hypothesis:

"No matter what the Réunion study finds, its results are unlikely to convince the few critics of the plume hypothesis."

Essentially, it is the anti-scientific idea of "consensus science" that is beginning to pervade all areas of inquiry. Some of these scientists responded  here is a link to a letter to the journal Nature. Unfortunately for the general public even to view this correspondence requires $18 just to read it (such is the nature of journals these days).

Geology dance moves

I'm moving on from my job hoping for more opportunities in the future. I was disappointed with many aspects of my position, not in the least the resistance from bureaucratic processes to fit in with geological reality! This was particularly disappointing with the search for groundwater resources which I felt seemed encumbered by the processes rather than where water could actually be found. I guess that is government, but it is sad when you feel that the public money your organization is entrusted with is poorly spent. I could have paid for my salary many times over if my advice was taken in the first place. After two years they discovered that exactly what I had said was the case! several hundreds of thousands of dollars later my top two recommendations were identified by expert consultants as the best two recommendations and we hadn't even drilled yet! A lesson for all those people that think they can understand what the environment without actually going out from behind their desk.

So it is with relief that I move on to other things. Time will tell what will happen but in the mean time I might learn some dance moves courtesy of the Amoeba People .

'The Alluvial Fan' is my first starting move:

"We think you'll agree that few things are more dance-inspiring than cone-shaped deposits of sand, gravel and silt."

Blog Update #7

Just a quick post as a bit of a gap-filler. I just wanted to mention that this blog has reached a huge milestone with over discrete 150,000 page views.

I’ve noticed that CSG related topics seem to be the most popular topics, still. I heard the local ABC radio station this morning report on the baseline CSG monitoring. For some more details I had previously posted exactly the information discussed. I like it when I’m 6-7 weeks ahead of the news cycle!

But there is a high degree of interest in many other stories too. I’m pleased to see that posts on ‘ordinary’ rocks are not unpopular. These are the very rocks that lead to the soils under our feet and the plants that grow. They are the basis for our landforms from our beaches to the rugged ranges. It is the ‘ordinary’ rocks that are the most extra-ordinary in my view. I hope that interest continues.

Thank you too for the help received for my daughter. We are about 1/3 of the way to getting to Adelaide for her treatment. Here is a link to a Today-Tonight Story that featured in Adelaide last week:

http://www.todaytonightadelaide.com.au/stories/eleanor-holland

Don't you hate it when...

Don't you just hate it when you have information to share but you are not permitted by contracts and commercial in confidence so share it? Our society is more and more being constrained by bureaucratic regulations set up by people who are career managers but have very little understanding of the real world. Little understanding that science and engineering knowledge benefit all people and that some perceived public image issue is more important than the wider good. This means that innovation can be stifled... at least in my personal opinion. The perceived public perception of scientific discoveries hinders the development of knowledge from Climate Change to Panadol!


By way of one a specific local example, I was helping an environmental centre have a ground water bore installed. The Department of Education which runs the environmental centre put absurd restrictions on access to the groundwater. One such limitation was that school children had to wear gloves when touching the groundwater in case it was contaminated. After running some tests it is apparent that the groundwater is actually better quality than the filtered tank water that they are currently drinking... but still the safety controls need to be in place! I'm happy to drink the water but the children must still wear gloves... go figure!


Another example is a cutting edge research project in the Woodburn-Evans area. The information gained from this research is very important for most coastal sand groundwater systems in eastern Australia. Alas, the words from a senior manager in a NSW government department are that no scientific information gained from the research is to be released to the public in the short term. What a shame. I understand that people are risk adverse today especially with regards to perceived public opinion but I don't think scientific knowledge should be hidden away.


On a slightly different note I have received a copy of an in-press paper on Coal Seam Gas monitoring in the Northern Rivers area. I provided some minor assistance in the paper and so an author kindly showed me before it was published. It is expected to be released in a few weeks and is likely to be in the newspapers too. Keep an eye out for those three letters C, S & G.
Sorry for the rant... just had to get that off my chest... hopefully a less opinionated post coming up shortly!

Northern Rivers Geology Immortalized by the National Library of Australia!

People will have noticed that I have been very quiet of late. Unfortunately there are many family matters which are taking all my spare time and therefore this blog is suffering in the short term. The local newspaper ran a story about my family that may help to illustrate where my efforts are presently focused. A big thanks to Lismore City Lions Club, the congregation at Cross Roads Presbyterian Church and many anonymous donors who have helped our family recently.

http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/confidence-boost-for-eleanor/2702047/

However, even though I've been unable to post further stories on this blog I was chuffed to be contacted by the National Library of Australia seeking permission to be added to their web archive called PANDORA. The National Library describes PANDORA thusly:

The National Library's PANDORA web archive has been building a collection of Australian websites since 1996. Many of the significant sites preserved by PANDORA, such as the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games website are no longer available on the web.

So, wow! A big honour to be asked and one that I will accept. I was wondering what would happen to all my posts if blogger hit the wall. 

Jesus’ Easter: a geological tour

Limestone is not common in the Northern Rivers but there are several
small locations where it does occur (This picture is from near Tabulam).

Since this is the first day of Easter where Christians remember the death and resurrection of Jesus at Jerusalem, I thought I’d give some background by way of the geology of the city. Like all landscapes the landform that makes up the hills and valleys around the Holy City can be seen in the geology.

At the festival of Passover Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem from the western side from Bethany. Passing into the Kidron Valley and then up to the city. At Bethany the rock types are dominated by Cretaceous aged chert and chalk of the Mishash formation of the Mount Scopus Group. These rocks are typically marine deposited sediments made from the build-up of microscopic creatures called diatoms. Descending into the Kidron Valley the chert which caps the hills to the east of the city gives way to chalk and claystone which is much more erodible. This chalk and claystone is the Menusha Formation which is the earliest formation in the Mount Scopus Group.

Stratigraphy of the Jerusalem area
Image courtesy of  Dov Frimerman

Ascending into Jerusalem the geology changes to limestone of the Nezer and Shivta formations of the Judea Group. The limestones of the Judea Group dip at an angle of around 10-15 degrees. This means that any ground water travelling though the limestone flows to the west to the sacred springs along the top of the Kidron valley. The garden of Gethsemane where Jesus spent his last night praying is in the area of these springs.

The limestone is the rock that underlies all of the places where Jesus spent his last days. Jesus drove people from the Temple claiming that they were stopping people from reaching God. The foundations of the Temple are built on this limestone. Jesus was placed on trials for treason at the Roman governor Pontius Pilate’s palace and also at King Herod’s Palace around Mount Zion. Again, these places were built on the same Limestone.

The exact place of Jesus’ execution and burial is the subject of some debate. There appears to be a couple of alternative sites but all of which are in areas were limestone is dominant. This is particularly evident with the description of Jesus being crucified ‘near’ the city and the description of Jesus being buried in a cave. The old city of Jerusalem was built entirely on the Judea Group and limestone landscapes are very well known for having many cave systems. Caves are well known in the area around Jerusalem.

In the Northern Rivers of New South Wales there is a mountain called Mt Jerusalem which is part of the world heritage system of National Parks around the Tweed Valley. But the geology of Mount Jerusalem, NSW is a post for another day.

Want to see more? Here is the Israeli geological survey’s 1:25 000 scale maps of the country or here is a good website describing the geology of Israel in more detail. To find out more about Jesus during his last days the accounts of his apostles in the Bible is the most detailed description that remains. There are other references from other sources such as Josephus and Tacitus but nothing as comprehensive as the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible.

Eidsvold Earthquake 2015

I woke this morning to the news that a town to the west of Bundaberg had experienced a substantial earthquake. Well, substantial by Australian standards anyway. Geoscience Australia gives the intensity of 5.2 on the Richter scale. The quake occurred at about 2am local time (3am for those of us in the other eastern states coping with daylight saving).

The preliminary report from Geoscience Australia can be found here.

Seismograph from Eidsvold Station

It is in an interesting area because the area of the earthquake is in the northern part of the New England Orogen. This belt of squashed rocks extends from the Bundaberg area in a big arc all the way to Port Macquarie in the South. There are many faults in this area and some are still active, although they are generally small. An earthquake between Gunnedah and Tamworth in 2013 springs to mind.

The scale of the earthquake is quite large for Australia. Indeed the Newcastle earthquake was measured at 5.6. I've not done the maths but the new Eidsvold quake of 5.2 is about half the size of the Newcastle one (The Richter Scale is NOT linear).

Historically, the area is prone to small to medium sized earthquakes with Bundaberg being hit by a size 6.0 in 1918. This is nearly ten times more powerful than the most recent one though the 1918 quake occurred just off the coast.


Oh... and humour starts quickly:


https://twitter.com/iampatwilliams/status/567040767172952065/photo/1

Don't Panic!

Don't Panic! I've been very quiet on the blogging front for the last few months. But don't worry! A new post will go live 1st of January. It will be followed shortly after by a guest post on the wonders of our coast line and its beaches.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. 2014 years is a blink of the geological eye but still a long time in human experience. It is nice to know that the message of Christmas is still nice and clear even after so many years of human dispute. In the account of Matthew in the Bible, Jesus was presented with three gifts at his birth. Two of the gifts were from plants and the third from the earth. The mineral is still sought after today just as it was many thousands of years ago. This is much like the sadness of human relations and the whole story of Jesus's subsequent life and death... we don't really change do we!

See you again in 2015.

What do people think I do

What do people think that geologists do? Well, here is one answer from the Geosphere Blog.

Sorry all for the delay in posting. Once I get my act together I will post again more regularly.

Blog Update #6

Over 100 000 page views for this blog, 3 years and over 130 blog posts. I honestly did not think that there would be so much interest in the geology of the Northern Rivers. This milestone was topped off by heaps of interest during a short presentation on the weekend at the Big Scrub Rainforest Day.

I was a little worried about my presentation since it directly followed Robyn Williams from the ABC Science Show. His whole professional life revolves around talking to an audience. I on the other hand am not used to public speaking. I wish my talk was more structured and I did not try and condense so much into it. But I think it was received surprisingly well all the same! The questions were excellent and I wish I had more time to answer them. There were still a lot of hands up when I had to hand over to A/Prof Isaac Santos from SCU for his talk.

Following the talk the 100 information sheets disappeared and many people were asking if there was more. So thanks everyone for your interest and sorry that I didn’t have more copies. The information sheets are the short articles I have recently done for a couple of the Big Scrub Rainforest Newsletter. The specific articles can be downloaded from the links below. The full newsletters can be obtained by contacting the Big Scrub Rainforest Landcare Group. http://www.bigscrubrainforest.org.au/

January 2013 – Mt Warning and Reading the Rocks

September 2014 – The Importance of Basalt in the Big Scrub and One CSG Related Anomaly

Regular visitors to my blog may have noticed the slightly declining number of posts over the months. This is nothing to do with a lack of subject matter. I am finding the time a little hard to find at the moment. As such, I am happy to open up this blog to guest bloggers from time to time. If you have a story about Earth Science that has even the slightest New England/Northern Rivers/ North Coast bent, please feel free to contribute to this blog. I can be contacted on the email address listed on the page “about this blog”.

Big Scrub Day - October 2014

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.

Volcanic shockwave

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

Geological libraries

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.

ABC reporters cause a volcano to erupt

"Bararbunga Erupts" was the headline on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Television Bulletins on Saturday night. I've been following events in Iceland so I was interested when the ABC said that it had erupted. At first I was impressed the ABC was able to report an eruption on the other side of the world so quickly (much quicker than any sources I'd seen)... but sadly there was very little detail in the report that actually confirmed an eruption. Yesterday ABC online reported "Lava erupting from a massive volcano under an Icelandic glacier has prompted authorities to issue a red alert to the aviation industry amid fears of significant ash emissions." Sadly, science related reporting by the ABC has been on the decline for years. At the time of writing this post 24 hours after the above ABC news story there has been no definite evidence of an eruption.

VolcanoCafe summarises the current situation:

"...there are so far no other signs of volcanic activity. There is no gas measurements (if they are taken) indicating an eruption being close, neither are there gas or particles in the glacial run off indicating melting ice from an eruption."

VolcanoCafe goes on to say that one outcome may be: 

"the seismic activity decreases and the intrusion lose momentum and no eruption happens at this time. For every day this scenario becomes less likely."

How can the ABC report an eruption has occurred when there is little evidence to suggest it has? Is this a symptom of the ABC losing its ability to report on scientific matters and instead focusing on exciting or political headlines? Even the ABCs flagship science program Catalyst now dismisses research that is carried out by certain groups as evidence that the results are wrong. Catalyst seems to fail to explain why research is flawed in a scientific way. This is a big concern for me because I feel it is degrading science. So much so it is degrading science into politics. Scientific outcomes are questioned on the basis of who did it rather than how it was done.

Now we have the ABC not even knowing when a volcano erupts. It is now more important than ever to question popular science reports.

Update: Another day passes (four days since the ABC report). Still no confirmed evidence an eruption at Bardarbunga had occurred and the Iceland Met Office had reduced its flight path warning a day after the ABC news... Yet no more news on the ABC. Apparently the lack of bad news from Iceland is not news at all. Closer to home - According to the Smithsonian Institute a large explosive eruption occurred at Tarvurvur crater, Rabaul, Papua New Guinea,  on 28th August 2014. Ash emissions reached an altitude of 60,000 ft.

Update: The Iceland Met Office reported that a surveillance flight on the night of the 27th "discovered a row of 10-15 m deep cauldrons south of the Bárðarbunga caldera. They form a 6-4 km long line. The cauldrons have been formed as a result of melting, possibly a sub-glacial eruption, uncertain when."

Update: almost a week after the story of the "eruption" Bardarbunga finally erupts! Iceland Met Office aviation code still Orange. VolcanoCafe has the details.

References/bibliography:

*ABC Newsonline, Iceland volcanic Eruption Closes Airspace, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-24/iceland-volcanic-eruption-closes-air-space/5692296 accessed 2014-08-25

*VolcanoCafé, Bárðarbunga – Nature of the beast, http://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/bardarbunga-nature-of-the-beast/ accessed 2014-08-25.