Coal Mining Problems Add Up January 4, 2007
Posted by rharbour in Uncategorized.trackback
Not only does coal mining cause depletion of natural resources, health problems to workers, and high danger of mine accidents, but now studies say that coal mining in Australia was the cause of the 1989 earthquake in Australia that was the most damaging in the country’s history and caused 3.5 billion U.S. dollars woth of damage.
The earthquake, on December 28 ,1989, was “triggered by changes in tectonic forces caused by underground coal mining.” The magnitude of the quake was relatively average (5.6) but the damage was very large: 13 people were killed, 160 injured, and “the monetary damage done by the earthquake exceeded the total value of the coal extracted in the area.”
Not only was the actual mining a cause, but the groundwater extraction used to prevent flooding added to the situation. Christian D. Klose of Columbia University found in his study that “for each ton of coal produced, 4.3 times more water was extracted,” for this particular site, while other sites can require “as much as 150 tons of water to be removed for each ton of coal produced.”
This is not the first time that mining has caused earthquakes. Between 1976 and 1984 Uzbekistan experienced three massive earthquakes due to their natural gas mining field. The largest of the three quakes reached a magnitude of 7.3.
Klose and other researchers are looking into ways to solve these problems, the main one being the the large amount of water being extracted at each site.
Earthquakes add a whole new dimension to the need for alternative fuel options because of the long list of effects and earthquake can have on an area. Any type of mining, not just coal, can contribute to these earthquakes so it is definately time to solve these problems before an earthquake hits closer to home.
Damage done by an earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994.
(Photo Credit: AP – DOUGLAS C. PIZAC – 1994)
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