Water Quality Factors

Nitrates
Nitrate is an essential life nutrient for aquatic plants. It's a "limiting nutrient," meaning that when levels of nitrate are low plants use it up and stop producing and when levels are high they overproduce. Overproduction of algae in particular causes problems, as it lowers light levels in water, leading to the decay of plants which can no longer photosynthesize. In these circumstances the decay leads to an overproduction of bacteria which uses the dissolved oxygen in the water and can endanger aquatic animals.

pH
pH refers to the level of acidity in a substance. The scale runs from ) to 14--0 is most acidic, 14 is most basic. Pure water is exactly neutral, a 7, but chemical runoff from human activities as well as naturally occuring minerals can change the level. Fish can only live in a range of pH roughly from 6.5 to 8.5, and therefore shifting pH levels can be very dangerous to aquatic health.

Conductivity
Conductivity in water is determined by the level of dissolved solids in the water, because pure water does not conduct energy well. The level of dissolved solids is, in turn, a concern because of water cleanliness.

Turbidity
Turbidity refers to the degree to which a body of water is transparent, ie how much sediment is suspended in the water. This determines how much sunlight is let into the body of water and therefore how much plants photosynthesize, which in turn affects the water's DOC, or dissolved oxygen content. Sediment can also cause damage to bottom-feeding animals as it settles to the bottom of the stream if levels are too high.

Dissolved Oxygen
This refers to the amount of molecular oxygen which exists in the body of water. This oxygen enters the water through the mixing of water and air, as at rapids or waterfalls in the stream, and through the photosynthesis of underwater plants. It is necessary for fish to survive and most other elements of stream health are measured in terms of their ability to positively or negatively affect DOC levels.

Temperature
Stream temperature, like air temperature, is significant to the creatures who live in it. It influences the amount and diversity of aquatic life--certain animals and plants live only in warm or only in  cool waters, for example. Generally, a rise in water temperature raises nutrient and food levels for aquatic animals and plants, but when waters become too warm they often don't contain enough dissolved oxygen to support life as it evaporates from the body of water.

Alkalinity
Alkalinity refers to the ability of a stream to neutralize acids which enter it. Streams with high alkalinity are "well buffered" so that large amounts of acid can be added without changing the stream's pH, and this is considered to be a positive thing as it improves the water's chemical stability.

E. coli
E. coli is bacteria found in the digestive system of warm-blooded animals. While not itself damaging, it is an indicator of other bacteria which is both harder to measure and far more dangerous, particularly to humans who may use the body as a source of drinking water. E. coli poisoning can cause sever digestive problems, kidney damage, and death.

Surface Mining Techniques

In addition to the forms of underground mining previously described on this blog, there are also several forms of aboveground mining used in some areas because of the increased convenience.

Strip mining is a technique used when the seam of coal is very near the surface or when the "overburden," or earth above the seam, is too unstable to mine under. As mining progresses, the removed overburden fills in the coal cavity. Any increased safety afforded by strip mining is offset, however, by the damage done to the natural landscape. The land surrounding the coal seam must be destroyed, and recovery of the area is often not attempted.

Contour mining is functionally very similar to strip mining, with the same problems and advantages. The only difference is that it follows the contours of the mountains being mined, creating "terrace" levels on the mountainside.

Mountaintop removal is by far the most controversial form of surface mining, wherein the tops of hills are removed to access coal seams. The overburden from this is put into surrounding valleys. This technique is extremely damaging to forest ecosystems and to mountainous water sources, and it damages the landscape as well, because the original mountain shape is not restored. Though like all surface mining, mountaintop removal is financially effective for the companies and safer for the miners, many think the ecological destruction is not worth the coal gained.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining

Underground Mining Methods

There are several common methods of underground coal mining. Among these are drift mining, shaft mining, room & pillar mining, continuous mining, and longwall mining. Some of these are used in combination with each other--for example, shaft mining refers to the way coal is transported, while room & pillar refers to the way it is mined, so they may both be used together in the same seam of coal.

The first among these, drift mining, refers to the way the seam of coal is entered. It is used when the coal seam intersects the earth's surface. The mining area follows the coal horizontally from the surface as it extends outward. This method is advantageous in situations where the coal seam is on the side of a hill and accessible by this method, but is obviously untenable in anything other than that specific situation.



Shaft mining is used with coal deposits which rest deep underground without intersecting the surface. Vertical shafts enter the seam of coal and elevators take miners down and coal up. These mines are commonly deeper than 1000 ft below the surface. One of their primary disadvantages is that the heavy coal must travel against gravity up the elevators to reach the surface; another is that the coal must be blown up underground to put it in pieces small enough to be transported, a potentially dangerous practice. However, it's commonly practiced as it is by far the easiest way to reach seams of coal which are far underground.

Room and pillar mining is a method combined with both drift and shaft mining, as it refers not to the way the mine is entered but to the way coal is extracted. In room and pillar mining, the roof of the mine area is supported by pillars of coal left in the mine. This is a wildly inefficient method, leaving nearly half the coal behind in the mine. It's also dangerous, because soft bituminous coal can compress under the weight of the roof, putting extra stress on other pillars and leading to roof falls. Even with bolting in the roof for support, it's a dangerous method. It is, however, the most convenient way to mine a seam of coal, being quick and easy if not very financially sound.

Continuous mining refers less to a technique of mining and more to the technology used with it: continuous mining machines are run and can mine up to 5 tons per minute. These machines have been in use various places since the 1940s and are generally used with conveyor systems to transport the coal. This is an extremely fast method of mining; however, the machines are expensive and difficult to upkeep.

The final form of mining discussed here today is longwall mining. It's extremely efficient: machines mine a seam while supporting its roof with hydraulics, and after the coal is extracted the seam is allowed to collapse behind the retreating machine. Because no support pillars are necessary, much more coal is extracted than in room and pillar mining. It also resolves the problem of filling in mines after they've been used up by causing a cave-in. However, it suffers from the same machine cost problem as continuous mining.




 Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift_mining http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/shaft.htm

The Formation of Coal

Coal is formed by a process of compression. Decaying plant matter in swamps is trapped without oxygen, slowing the decay process. This forms peat, a substance with relatively low carbon content which is burned in parts of Europe to heat homes. Peat is considered a "coal precursor," being the substance which eventually develops into coal.

Peat, when compressed, forms lignite, or brown coal. It's often found in Alaska and other Western states in the US. Its carbon content is higher than that of peat, but lower than other forms of coal, and its heat value corresponds to that carbon content as in all the substances discussed here today. It's often used not as a heat source but instead to generate electricity.

The next stage in coal's compression process is bituminous, or black, coal. This is the most common form of coal and almost the only form found in West Virginia. Its carbon content is highly variable, ranging from 45% to 85% concentration, and again, heat value changes accordingly. It is used as a heat source and is also processed into coke for the creation of steel.

A final type of naturally forming coal is anthracite, or hard coal. Unlike at all previous stages of compression, anthracite coal is not a sedimentary rock but a metamorphic one, produced from tremendous heat and pressure put on bituminous coal. It has the highest carbon content of all naturally occurring forms of coal and produces relatively little smoke, making it useful for heating homes.

Coke, as previously mentioned, is a coal product created from bituminous coal. It is heated without oxygen to remove water, tar, gas, and other non-carbon substances. This runoff is used for energy production, while the coke, now at 100% carbon content, is used to make steel.

Graph analysis

There is a clear correlation between surface temperature averages for any given day. Surfaces with a higher albedo are cooler, while those with a lower albedo are warmer; however, the line from day to day for each given location is of a similar shape, indicating that fluctuations in day-to-day temperatures affect each surface simililarly.

Additionally, there is a correlation between aerosol optical thickness and percent transmission: as AOT goes up, percent transmission goes down. This is because AOT measures the amount of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, and percent transmission measures the percentage of light not being blocked by aerosols. The two are directly connected.

Aerosol effects

According to the NASA article provided to our class, it seems that the only well-defined and understood effects of aerosols involve global cooling and not global warming, whether from directly reflecting the sun or from increasing cloud coverage and therefore indirectly reflecting of the sun. However, there are several factors which complicate the effects of aerosols, making this simple prescription of effects far from accurate. For example, aerosols  have the potential to decrease rainfall, and many aerosols trap reemitted heat as well as they reflect entering sunlight, adding to the greenhouse effect and contributing to heating as much as to cooling.

Another major twist in the plot, so to speak, involves the nature of specific aerosols. Though overall, the presence of these aerosols may block solar radiation from entering the atmosphere, this measurement does not account for the difference between man-made and natural aerosols or the chemical makeup and specific effects of different aerosols. As such, the climate effects created specifically by human aerosols, and therefore the ones which are variable and likely increasing, have not been well-studied in isolation. Dust in the air may create longer-lasting clouds, but there has always been dust in the air, and as such it is not particularly relevant to the discussion of climate change. What is relevant, however, are the aerosols created by industrial plants or increased by human behaviors like sulfates and black carbon.

It's still not fully clear how aerosols will affect climate. Based on the articles provided, I predict that the net effect will likely be global cooling, potentially a positive in the wake of other factors leading to global warming. However, because there is the possibility of decreased rainfall as well as damage to human health from harsher chemical aerosols, the situation is not all positive, and even global cooling caused by aerosols could have unforseen effects.

Summary of notes

Solar radiation from the sun controls weather on earth in a variety of ways. Solar radiation, for example, provides 100% of earth's energy budget. This energy given by the sun then is absorbed and heats the planet, or is reflected back into space. A surface's absorption depends on how well it does the first, its albedo on how well it does the second. Some examples of surfaces with a high absorption rate are asphalt, concrete, and other dark, dry materials, which causes a heat island effect in large cities made primarily of those surfaces wherein more heat than usual is absorbed and the areas are especially hot compared to greener places nearby.

When the sun heats the earth, however, it does so unevenly, causing pockets of warm and cool air. Because warm air rises and cool air sinks, this creates uneven pressure within the atmosphere. Wind is the horizontal travel of air from high pressure areas into low pressure areas, as the atmosphere attempts to even out its own pressure. 

The earth's temperature is also affected by greenhouse gases. Though the earth's atmosphere is made of about 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen, the last 1% contains gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and more. These gases trap reemitted solar radiation into the atmosphere and prevent it from returning to space, warming the earth. Levels of some of these gases within the atmosphere has been on the rise in recent years, caused mostly by the burning of fossil fuels in human society. 

Another important factor in atmospheric behavior is the prevalence of aerosols in the atmosphere. Aerosols are small solid or liquid particles suspended in a gas, and they can block solar radiation from either entering or leaving earth's atmosphere. They are caused by many processes and events, both human and natural, and can be important or extremely damaging. Some examples of the less pleasant, polluting ones would be sulfur, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons. Clouds are also aerosols.

There are three main groups of clouds: Cirro, or high altitude, Alto, or middle altitude, and nimbus, low altitude clouds carrying precipitation. These main types are further divided into cumulus, or puffy, stratus, or layered, and cirrus, or wispy clouds.

Humidity is a related concept to aerosols, referring to the amount of water molecules in the air. Air can hold different amounts of water molecules at different temperatures, however, so humidity is usually measured as a percentage of the air's water content versus the air's possible water content, with 100% being completely saturated.

Yet another thing which affects earth's climate is the gravity which creates our atmosphere by pushing air molecules toward the earth, effectively pressurizing the atmosphere. This pressure is defined as the force air exerts over an area. Air density, a related concept, deals with the amount of air molecules in a given space.This density decreases rapidly as one travels higher into the atmosphere. Air temperature decreases similarly, with the rate of decrease being called the lapse rate. Earth's atmosphere is divided into several sections based on trends in temperature for each layer. These are, in order from the bottom up, the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, and the exosphere.