Geoscience Education in the Mountain State:
	CATS Earth Science Connections IV
	Environmental Geochemistry Telecourse

Weekly Course Notes: April 23, 2002 (Show 9)

Outline

Dr. Deb Hemler, Dr. John Renton, and Dr. Bob Behling

Dr. Deb and Dr. Bob

• The Research Paper
• The Field Trip and Quiz #3
• Coal Fires
• The Atmosphere and the Burning of Fossil Fuels
• News: PBS Series on the Hudson River; Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); Quake!

Break

Dr. Jack and Dr. Bob

• Wetlands: Plants and Chemistry
• Wetlands: Used to Ameliorate Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)
• Evaporites: The Origin of Rock Salt, Gypsum, Anhydrite, and Other Really Odd Salt Minerals!

• Preview of Show #10: The Last Show! April 30
  • Atmospheric Chemistry

Links of Interest

• Dive and Discover

Coal Fires

• Heat-sensing satellites: fires extend from Pennsylvania to Mongolia
• Triggers: fires (forest and grassland)
  • 1997 Borneo coal fires
  • Lightning
  • Spontaneous combustion
    • Pyrite and reactive material heat to build up enough to ignite coal
• Number of fires increase as mining exposes coal seams
  • Borneo: 700 fires
  • Australia: 2,000 year-old fire
  • India coal fire has burned since 1966; mine glows at night
  • Centralia, Pennsylvania: forty years ago, smoldering trash in a dump ignited a seam, and fire worked through mine tunnels
    • Population was 1,100 at the time but is now just 40
    • The fire is predicted to burn for another 100 years
  • China fires area is 3,000 miles long by 400 miles wide
• Stopping fires
  • Drilling holes and pumping inert gasses into mine
  • Foams pumped in to stifle flames
  • Dam surface streams to impound lakes over burning coal
  • Pick up and move away to let it run its course (as in Centralia, Pennsylvania)
  • Working around fires: In 1995 at the Jharia Mine, a wall collapsed, causing flooding and killing miners

Environmental Disaster (Local and Global)

• It is believed that coal fires put as much CO₂ annually in the atmosphere as cars and trucks
• Acid rain from NO and SO₂ in 88 Chinese cities
• High incidence of Arsenosis and Fluorosis linked to coal emissions
• China is losing $125 to 250 million in coal resources

Dr. Robert Behling (rbehling@wvu.edu)
Dr. Jack Renton (jrenton@wvu.edu)
Dr. Deb Hemler (dhemler@mail.fscwv.edu)

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Page last revised: April 30, 2002