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Coal-Fires Science: Ready To Ignite Around The World
Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 24, 2008 In spite of the human suffering and environmental dangers they cause around the world, naturally burning coal fires and coal fires ignited by human activities receive little attention from the media, compared to other environmental catastrophes. Unfortunately, few university geoscience curricula devote time to the study of these fires. A new volume published by the Geological Society of America may help change that. Geology of Coal Fires: Case Studies from Around the World, GSA Reviews in Engineering Geology Volume XVIII, offers a comprehensive overview of coal-fires science, an interdisciplinary area of research that is gaining international attention. According to volume editor Professor Glenn B. Stracher of the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics at East Georgia College in Swainsboro, Georgia, coal fires are responsible for coronary and respiratory diseases and arsenic, fluorine, and carbon monoxide poisoning in humans, often culminating in death. The heat energy, toxic fumes, and solid by-products associated with coal combustion, both at the surface and underground, destroy floral and faunal habitats while polluting the air, water, and soil. "In addition to addressing these pressing problems, coal-fires science may lead to an understanding of the role played by ancient and modern fires in global warming and Earth's carbon cycle. The affect of coal fires on the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere and life on our planet is unknown," said Stracher. "Coal-fires science is an exciting and critically important field of interdisciplinary research ripe for expansion." The volume is the first such GSA publication of its kind. It includes the recent research of the world's leading coal-fires scientists, grouped into five sections: - Spontaneous combustion and greenhouse gases - Mineralogy and petrology - Geophysics - modeling - Geophysics - remote sensing - Coal fires and public policy Areas of the world studied include China, Russia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Israel, and the United States. Related Links Geological Society of America Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology
Bushfire Impact On Water Yields
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Jan 23, 2008While forest fires can often result in an initial increase in water runoff from catchments, it's the forests and bush growing back that could cause future problems for water supplies by reducing stream flows. In the summer of 2002-03, bushfires burnt through 700,000 ha of forests in northeast Victoria. This region supplies 38 per cent of the water that flows into the Murray-Darling River, the main source of water supply for much of Australia's irrigated agriculture, the city of Adelaide and many towns along the river. |
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