Plate Tectonics

The book I read to research this post was Plate Tectonics A Very Short Introduction by Peter Molnar which is a very good book that I bought from kindle. This book is around 150 pages so is a reasonable length. It is also part of a series where an expert writes a bit of an introduction to a subject and these are pretty informative and written to a high standard. The idea behind plate tectonics is the surface of the planet is quite literally plates floating on hot magma where in general it has cooled near the surface. In the case of the North Atlantic Ridge some of this magma still seeps resulting in earthquakes, and volcanoes and the distance from America to Europe gradually being extended. All this was discovered in the 60’s and in its own way was as exciting a discovery as the lunar landings. Also it has been shown the poles of the Earth swap over from time to time. If this did happen it would cause mayhem and many people would die from the weather extremities induced. We are roughly due for it to happen again. It does have a random element so it is difficult to predict exactly when it will happen. Even though in places the Earth is expanding it other places like in and around Chile it is shrinking and the size of the Earth overall is kept more or less constant. The Andes mountains were formed by the upheaval of these 2 tectonic plates colliding. Also where there are mountains the plates are often a lot thicker a lot more than we’d expect with a lot of this being below sealevel. Where there is ocean the plates are different and much thinner than that which makes up land. The author compares this to icebergs where over 90 % of the mass is often under water. I did very much enjoy reading this book and do recommend it.

The Aftermath Of Surface Coal Mining

The book I read to research this post was The Remediation Of Abandoned Surface Coal Mining Sites by Alena Mudroch et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book or rather ebook was very expensive and aimed at professionals in this field. I bought it because it looked like an interesting subject. Most surface mining is done in the former republic of East Germany and that along with an area in Poland & the Czech Republic is called the Black Triangle of Europe due to the mishandling of converting former surface coal mining back into something broadly of environmental use. In East Germany in particular huge amounts of coal called lignite have been mined so the best solution is to turn it into a lake. In parts of that country the water table has dropped by 30 metres due to the huge amount of mining. In parts they have seams 50 metres deep and subsequently industrial waste has been dumped there. Where coal is exposed to the water in these lakes there can be toxicity so they need a soil layer to cover it. Also studies have shown these lakes do best where there is a good variety of plant and animal life which have to be introduced. The water in these lakes has to be pumped in quite quickly to avoid it going toxic. Wheat has been found to be good for planting in these areas because it will grow in little soil. In Alberta, Canada where they had similiar surface coal mining and turned it into lakes they found the rainbow trout grew bigger and were healthier than in the natural lakes. They did have problems with there not being enough cover to protect them from predators but that has been resolved. This book is only around 150 pages but makes very interesting reading.

Lake Kariba

The book I read to research this post was A Wilderness Called Kariba by Dale Kenmuir which is an excellent book which I bought from a local secondhand bookstore. This book is about the wildlife on Lake Kariba and is written by someone who worked in maintaining the wildlife in that area for many years. Kariba was a man made lake on the border between Rhodesia & Zambia & was the largest man made lake in the world. It was formerly the River Zambezi and it used to go from one extreme to another in terms of flooding and becoming drought stricken. In 1974 there was an emergency when the river flooded and many land animals became trapped. This made the news and got the area well known so at the time it started to become a bit of a tourist destination. When the lake was built it stabilized the flooding and helped maintain fish stocks all year round. Some people thought the eels which populate the lake would become depleted due to them being unable to get past the 420 foot dam but they are thought to negotiate the network of rivers in this area so when they migrate to a point east of Madagascar to breed they can get back. The predominant fish in this area is tigerfish which are huge aggressive fish that eat their prey whole. There aren’t many small fish in this area due to the huge shoals of tigerfish and their voracious appetite. With the creation of the lake many trees have submerged and died but supply a habitat for the fish. This book is only short but I really enjoyed reading it and it’s the kind of place that would be difficult to visit with the current problems in Zimbabwe which is of course the current name for what was Rhodesia.

Weather

The book I read to research this post was Weather For Dummies by John D Cox which is an excellent book which I bought from kobo. This book tells you all the basics of weather forecasting as well as looking at weather systems in general around the world. A lot of it is focused on the weather in the USA and there isn’t all that much on the weather in Europe which could be because they have a fairly mild climate. Apparently in the North West Pacific is an area called Typhoon Alley which gets loads of hurricanes and the US protectorate of Guam is in this area. In the USA in an area by the Gulf of Mexico which includes Texas & Kansas is an area called Tornado Alley. Tornadoes are rare outside this area. A lot of hurricanes come into the USA from the Atlantic & Pacific. Thomas Jefferson was the 1st person to realise that hurricanes actually travel from 1 area to the next. He couldn’t understand why the hurricane didn’t travel in the direction it was blowing. We know now that there are strong winds in the upper atmosphere that direct the hurricane around. These winds or thermals often blow at 100 MPH & in times of storms can reach 210 MPH. They are caused by the change in temperature between the different parts of the atmosphere. It’s interesting that some of the biggest supercomputers in the world are used to predict the weather. They often have huge amounts to process involving things like temperature measurements around the world and some of these supercomputers can simulate the complete weather system around the world.

GIS

The book I read to research this post was GIS for Dummies by Michael N DeMers which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. GIS stands for geographic information system & is a form of software that represents various data in map form. GIS can be used by the emergency services, the military or by practically any kind of company although many individuals also use it. Almost anything that exists has a map somewhere that details its distribution. The software used in the examples in this book is mostly ArcGIS by ESRI & I looked on their website to see how much it is. The personal edition is $100 but also I noticed they have a cloud or online version which also gives you 2 GB of storage & is free for individuals to use. I haven’t signed up yet but I’m going to because I think that’s good value. The current version of ArcGIS is version 10. GIS software can show cancer hotspots, distribution of different types of buildings or population distribution to name just a few things. It isn’t just about GPS which is just one component there are also things like soil sensors, & drum scanners which can read whole maps as well as output devices like printers & plotters, which can plot large portions of a map. GIS software can also show the distance between 2 points & the shortest route. It can display images in either raster type which means it is made up of tiny dots or it can use vector type which means a solid line is calculated mathematically. Rasterized images load up quicker. In addition you can often view things in 3d which is good for taking elevations into account.