This weekend I have been up to Northumberland to witness the illumination of Hadrian’s Wall. This is the view eastwards from Vercovicium or Housesteads Roman Fort. A beacon was lit about every 250m along its length across Britain.
The geology angle is, of course, that the Roman’s used the geology as part of the defences, with Hadrian’s Wall running along the top of the escarpment produced by the outcrop of the Great Whin Sill. Below is Housesteads from Google Earth.
Some tragic news from China via Mineweb, that I’ve not come across elsewhere, on the rescue mission for 31 trapped coal miners in the Luotuoshan Coal Mine being called off.
The mine in Inner Mongolia was flooded on the morning of March 1st. There were 77 people underground at the time. One miner was killed, and 45 rescued, leaving 31 trapped in the flood waters. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, himself a geologist, had ordered the rescue effort to proceed as quickly as possible, but the efforts were called off yesterday after two weeks when it was decided that there was no remaining chance of the trapped miners remaining alive.
In January and February of this year there were 115 accidents in Chinese coal mines, but this was down almost 20% on 2009. Fatalities in Chinese coal mines dropped from 3,215 in 2008 to 2,631 in 2009 – but is STILL A STAGGERING 7.2 FATALITIES EVERY DAY.
That is the real price of coal.