Here is the Nicobar Islands earthquake of June 12, 2010 as recorded at Keele, UK
And here superimposed on the travel time curves …
We have now put our seismometer ‘semi-live’ on the web. The last 24 hour data trace can be found at http://geophysics.esci.keele.ac.uk/quakes/ updated every five minutes.
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.
The price of gold (green) against copper (red) over the last two years from Infomine.com.
I’ve always been intrigued by gold as metal. It’s not much use for industry except that due to it not tarnishing or corroding it is used in electrical contacts. Apart from that, a minor use as a lubricant on space missions and gold fillings, that’s about it. Unlike a genuinely useful metal like copper, its main ‘uses’ are bullion and shiny things. So as the world goes into recession and demand for useful metals plummets so does their price. Unlike gold. Gold price is currently governed by the weakness of the dollar due to quantitative easing (printing money to the likes of you and me). Although, whisper it quietly, we might be seeing the first green shoots of recovery in the price of copper, gold is now touching $1000/oz and some analysis think that it could rise to $1400 once the psychological barrier is breached.
But this rise in the price of gold has lead to some tragic consequences in South Africa because the returns have made illegal gold mining much more lucrative. 76 illegal miners were killed this week in the Eland Shaft in South Africa’s Free State. The owners, Harmony Gold, have brought 294 illegal miners to the surface. The fatalities are believed to have been caused by poisonous fumes from an underground fire they are believed to have started themselves which blazed for days.
Harmony states that it has suspended 77 employees and 45 contractors since January for assisting illegal miners, most either for allowing them access to the mines or buy providing supplies. Some of the illegal miners are believed to spend many months underground at a time.
So the next time you want to buy something shiny you might want to consider the real price of gold.
Full coverage from Mineweb.com here, here, here and here
P.S. does anyone else find Mineweb’s strapline oxymoronic – “Uncompromising Independence … in association with InfoMine”.
P.P.S. Looks like it is a bad week for miners – Dave Petley is reporting on his Landslide Blog that 27 iron ore miners are trapped underground in China with a massive rockfall covering the two mine entrances. Getting them out doesn’t look like it is going to be easy.
Here is a quick geological conundrum. I’ve been scanning a few old photographs and came across this structure. How is it related to the underlying geology and how does it work?
Suggestions in the comments.
[clue: it is sort of related to a recent post]
Update: The solution is here
From an Ipsos / MORI poll of UK primary and secondary school teachers …
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “Creationism is completely unsupportable as a theory, and the only reason to mention creationism in schools is to enable teachers to demonstrate why the idea is scientific nonsense and has no basis in evidence or rational thought”?
Agree 26%, Disagree 54% (67% who cite humanities as their subject specialism).
37% of teachers thought that creationism should be “taught” (as opposed to “discussed”) alongside evolution “in science classes”, including 29% of teachers who identified themselves as science teachers.
Geoblogosphere
