“Severe flooding affected multiple communities along Australia’s Queensland-New South Wales border in early February 2012. On February 5, 2012, the Australian Associated Press reported that several thousand residents were isolated from the outside world by an inland sea.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.
Researchers have discovered small amounts of tranquillityite, a mineral previously known only from lunar samples, at six locations in Western Australia.
Australia is the world’s leading exporter of coal but exports from Indonesia are growing rapidly. Both of these countries are positioned to serve the rising coal demands of China.
Plate “boundary segments that ring the Australia plate represent some of the most seismically active elements of the global plate boundary system, and some of the most rapidly evolving plate interactions. As a result, there are some very complex structures which host many large and great earthquakes.” Quoted from the USGS publication release.
Researchers debate the potential impact of a new volcano near Auckland, New Zealand. Where will it occur? How much warning? How big is the danger zone?
NASA’s Earth Observatory has satellite images of recent flooding along the Namoi River in New South Wales, Australia. The waters cut off numerous communities and swamped others.
A new geothermal map of Australia shows that the continent has an enormous geothermal potential. The map was supported by Google.org who also funded geothermal mapping in the United States.
Goldmining companies in Australia are having trouble finding enough people who are able to handle the demands of working in underground gold mines. This story on the Wall Street Journal website explains why new miners are making six digit salaries.
NASA’s Earth Observatory posts an interesting astronaut photo of Rowley Shoals a cluster of coral reef atolls in the southwestern Timor Sea, north of Australia.
The Energy Information Administration has published a new country analysis brief for Australia. The country is the largest exporter of coal and the fourth largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
“Air quality test undertaken during an Australian dust storm showed that large dust particles swept up the smaller, potentially fatal ultrafine particles caused by everyday vehicle emissions.” Quoted from the Queensland University of Technology news release.
“Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011.” Quoted from the NASA image release. The second image shows fires burning in Australia as the aurora australis vanish.
Chevron is developing the Wheatstone offshore natural gas field located off the coast of Western Australia. The first gas is expected to be produced in 2016 and prepared for international shipment as LNG.
An opportunity to attend a December-February field camp located on the Indian-Australian/Pacific plate boundary. The course provides training in basic through to more advanced field geological methods, with applications to geological problems in the varied structural and geomorphic settings of New Zealand. Many students from the USA have completed the course.
Researchers in Australia have found microscopic fossils of what are thought to be 3.4 billion-year-old anaerobic bacteria. Analysis of nearby pyrite grains show evidence of metabolism that implies that the microbes were processing sulfur.
“The Sea in many places is here cover’d with a kind of a brown scum, such as Sailors generally call spawn; upon our first seeing it, it alarm’d us, thinking we were among Shoals, but we found the same depth of Water were it was as in other places.” Sailing through the Coral Sea outside the Great Barrier Reef, Captain James Cook made those observations on August 28, 1770. His journals contain the first mention of the long brown filaments of cyanobacteria that are common along the Australian coast.
Climging Ayers Rock (Uluru), a large sandstone monolith in the Northern Territory, is one of Australia’s most popular tourist activities with over 100,000 visitors making the climb each year. However, popularity of the climb has been declining as Aboriginal people object to the activity and safety concerns increase. An article at CNN Global Experience explores this topic and features an Uluru photo gallery.
Australia currently has a claim to the Australian Antarctic Territory, covering 42% of Antarctica. However, an influential thinktank believes that their claim is in jeopardy because they have limited presence and capabilities there. At the same time Russia and China are increasing their Antarctic capabilities. The energy and mineral resource potential of the Australian Antarctic Territory is believed to be significant.
“Paleontologists have discovered a group of more than 20 polar dinosaur tracks on the coast of Victoria, Australia, offering a rare glimpse into animal behavior during the last period of pronounced global warming, about 105 million years ago.” Quoted from the Emory University news release.
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